The recent Railway Ministry of India has set new benchmarks as far as passenger facilities are concerned. They are introducing new facilities on a regular basis for the comfort the Indian Railway Passengers, may it be assistance and help from Twitter, Bullet Trains, quality food for the passengers, etc. The aim of Railway minister Suresh Prabhu is to provide comfortable journeys, better lodging and waiting for services and more to the passengers in the best possible way. We present you with the three recent service changes introduced by Suresh Prabhu and Railway Ministry for an unforgettable and convenient travel experience for travelers:
- Booking services in retiring rooms per hour:
The demand for lodging facilities are increasing at the Railway stations as people need more space on stations. Thus, the railway minister Suresh Prabhu has announced that now the passengers can book the retirement facilities on the stations on per hour basis. They can book the retiring rooms on an hourly basis instead of the usual system of booking them for the usual 12 or 24-hour slots. It is planned that through this facility, the passengers can book the retiring rooms for a minimum of 3 hours up to a maximum of 48 hours. This facility id introduced currently at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat stations. It will be introduced in other stations in a planned phased manner. It will lead to better utilization of the retirement rooms and will also generate revenue for the Indian railways.
- Appointment of Train Superintendents for every train:
Suresh Prabhu thought that there should be someone who should be held responsible and accountable for ensuring the smooth functioning of all the onboard operations and services available for the passengers in every train. So, Railway Ministry decided that each train would have a Train Superintendent (TS). Initially, TS will be appointed in a pilot phase in all the Rajdhani Trains starting from Delhi. Senior TTEs will be appointed as Superintendents having an individual seat in each train. They would be responsible and accountable for ensuring that all the passengers onboard get their grievances solved related to mobile chargers, AC, water, catering, linen, bedrolls along with security concerns. The contact details of TS’s will be put up in each coach. The Central Railways Information Service (CRIS) is also planning to develop an app for the smooth and timely communication between the TS and ground staff, onboard staff, as well as the control offices. - Availability of drinking water through self-help groups:
The Indian Railway Ministry under the leadership of Suresh Prabhu has collaborated with the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry to launch a scheme in which the passengers will be made available clean and chilled drinking water by the Self-help groups (SHGs) at cheaper prices. They will use vending machines at stations for this purpose and it is to be noted that IRCTC has already installed more than 500 such machines at the major stations in the country. The WCD Ministry has already recognized the groups and agreement has been signed to improve their standard of living. All these announcements were made in New Delhi.
