Railway Board Chairman Ashvini Lohani said on Thursday that the fate of the closed Dhabad-Chandrapura Rail Line will be decided by the next month, after meeting the senior officials of Coal India on the issue. Referring to the 19 trains which were closed following the closure of Dhabad-Chandrapura line, Lohani said that the Board was working on it and some of them might be resumed very soon.
Talking to the media persons in Dhanbad, Lohani said that the safety of passengers was the priority of Indian Railways. Referring to the train accidents, Lohani said that there has been a decrease of around 40 per cent accidents this year as compared to the last year after new railway tracks were laid down. He said that regular maintenance of railway tracks on has also contributed a lot in decreasing the train accidents in the country.
As safety of passengers is the priority of Indian Railways, special directions have been passed to the railway officials in this regard," said Lohani. Negligence towards safety of passengers will not be tolerated at any cost and stringent action will be taken against those found responsible for it, he added. Lohani further added that to ensure safety of passengers, initiatives have been taken to fill up the vacant posts for which directions have been passed. Later in Ranchi, he also called on Chief Minister Raghubar Das in the evening.
Answering a question related to old coaches in the trains, Lohani said that only newly designed coaches will be manufactured after 2018 and the older ones will be replaced with them. Lohani also hinted at opening small diversions on the line under short term plans. When asked about starting rail service in Katras, he said that any decision will be taken in the public interest. The Railway Board Chairman announced 1.25 lakh new recruitments on different posts at third and fourth grade level in the Indian Railways, including the posts for rail safety.