East Coast Railway to showcase Puri station

BHUBANESWAR:  East Coast Railway (ECoR) has geared up to ensure that the railway station at Puri is presented to pilgrims as an epitome of cleanliness. At the final review of Rath Yatra preparations on Monday, General Manager of ECoR Umesh Singh has directed senior railway officials to focus on sanitation and hygiene at the station, besides the safety and security of passengers during travel.

“As a part of our contribution to Swachh Bharat Mission, it is extremely important for us to present the railway station in its best condition during the Rath Yatra period. The station should give very positive feeling to all pilgrims and tourists while alighting and getting down at the station,” he said. 

Every year, thousands of passengers travel by trains to Puri to witness the world famous Rath Yatra celebrations. This year, the Railways have already announced 184 special trains to ply during the festival in addition to the other scheduled trains. The number of special trains is likely to touch 190 as a few more trains are also being planned.

Singh also reviewed security arrangements and stressed upon proper crowd management by RPF and GRP. He asked to monitor punctuality of all incoming trains from originating points itself and install more CCTV cameras at crucial junctions. The Rath Yatra mobile app developed by ECoR is expected to provide much-needed relief to passengers who can get live status of trains coming to Puri. Another new facility added this year is provision of truck-mounted accident relief vehicle which can quickly reach any point at Puri station for relief and restoration works.

New MEMU trains
ECoR has also decided to introduce Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) train services on Puri-Angul and Sambalpur-Rourkela routes from Tuesday. Two trains having faster acceleration and deceleration capability will replace Angul-Puri-Angul passenger and Rourkela-Sambalpur-Rourkela DMU. The Angul-Puri-Angul MEMU will run daily except on Monday from Puri and on Tuesday from Angul as per the schedule of previous passenger train.

The Jharsuguda-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda passenger train will be replaced with another MEMU train and run with revised timings between Rourkela and Sambalpur from both the directions. The train will leave Rourkela at 7.2 am and arrive at Sambalpur at 10.45 am. In the return direction, it will leave Sambalpur at 11.10 am and arrive at Rourkela at 2.45 pm. Rourkela-Jharsuguda-Rourkela passenger will be replaced with a MEMU train.