Kolkata,
The 72nd Republic Day was celebrated at South Eastern Railway’s Headquarters, Garden Reach yesterday (26.01.2021) with due solemnity. The whole programme was organized maintaining health protocols and social distancing.
Sri Sanjay Kumar Mohanty, General Manager, South Eastern Railway unfurled the National Tri-colour and took salute at the ceremonial parade presented by the contingents of Railway Protection Force and Civil Defence personnel.
Addressing the staff and officers of SER, Shri Mohanty said that railway employees have been rendering commendable service during the Covid 19 pandemic. With a view to maintain uninterrupted supply of essential commodities i.e food grains, medicines, medical equipments etc. railway have arranged to run about 2200 Parcel Express Trains to different parts of the country so far. With a view to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic, SER has developed its hospitals at Ranchi, Adra, Kharagpur and Chakradharpur as COVID hospitals with 400 Isolation Beds. Moreover, SER arranged to run about 774 Shramik Special Trains during the Covid-19 pandemic for the benefit of the stranded migrant workers, students and other passengers. With a view to fulfil its social commitments during the pandemic, SER arranged to provide 5 lakh free meals and food packets to poor and needy people upto December, 2020.
Highlighting the achievements of SER, Shri Mohanty said that as a part of Digital India Initiative, high speed Wi-Fi connectivity has been provided at 246 stations. To promote cashless transaction for purchasing tickets, SER has installed about 400 POS machines at different PRS and UTS counters. Beside this, 513 PGRS POS Machines have been provided to Ticket Checking Staff upto December, 2020 for digital transaction. For the benefit of the employees, e-pass and PF withdrawal system have been introduced through Human Resource Management System (HRMS) Application.
SER’s Freight Loading performance in 2019-20 had been spectacular and this railway loaded 171.96 million tonnes of freight which was 11.04 % more than the previous year. This was the highest ever loading after trifurcation of this railway. In the current financial year, in spite of lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic, S E Railway has loaded 124.69 million tonnes of freight upto December 2020. The loading achieved in December, 2020 has been the highest ever monthly loading performance of this railway.
As a part of extension of its network, SER has commissioned 72.3 KM 3rd line in the year 2020-21. For the benefit of the customers, maximum numbers of goods sheds are working round the clock. Due to the untiring efforts of SER employees, it has been possible to increase the sectional speed in Andul-Tatanagar stretch and trains are now running at 130 Kmph in this route.
Republic Day was also celebrated at S E Railway Bharat Scouts & Guides Den, Railway Schools and Divisional Headquarters of four Divisions including various units and locations of South Eastern Railway.
