Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in a recent press briefing said that for the year 2018, his department’s task is to fight against the crimes conducted against women and children. He also raised his voice in succumb Human Trafficking. While speaking to the press Piyush Goyal said, “We will take 2018 as a year where we collectively fight against atrocities against women and children, especially human trafficking. We will do this across all the railways.” Piyush Goyal said this at a day-long conclave, ‘Sampark, Samanvay evam Samvad’ (connection, coordination and conversation) in Delhi on December 16. The conclave is attended by more than 250 members from Indian Railways. The railway minister also talked about the security in the railways. He said that the department is in works to develop internet connectivity and even bring CCTVs on trains. He said, “As far as security is concerned, we are all thoughtful about it. We are thinking of providing internet connectivity and CCTV on trains. Discussions are on to provide CCTV on all trains across India.”
Earlier in September, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had said that his ministry is exploring ways to speed up the electrification process so as to cut down about Rs 16,000 crore expense on diesel. “We are giving a relook to the ways of speeding up the electrification process” of rail lines across the country. The ministry is consulting all the people who are involved in the electrification process,” Goyal had said.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that there is a need to build up the infrastructure in railways. He said this at FICCI’s AGM, “Railways is one area where we need to hurry up with the level of infrastructure expenditure. Our expenditure on railway stations, quality of trains, superfast trains, bullet trains are areas which need to be strengthened.” The railways are also in works to explore the possibilities for a Rajdhani Express train to make a round trip within 24 hours with half-an-hour gaps for inspection at either end, to maximise utilisation of such rakes.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government is committed to connecting the state capitals of North East region via rail. Speaking in Aizwal, the prime minister said, “The Government of India is executing 15 New Rail Line projects of 1385 kilometres length, at a cost of over Rs.47,000 crore.”
