Completion of 200 long pending projects during COVID period helped Railways plan for future: Goyal

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the completion of 200 long pending projects during the coronavirus period helped the Railways in planning for the future.

Speaking at FICCI's 3rd edition of Smart Railways Conclave on 'Future of Rail Transport', Goyal said that he wanted the Railways to be safe and service-oriented, modern, agile, reliable part of the economy and driven by technology.

''Technology will be overarching support system which will ensure that Indian Railways works to a plan for a better future for logistics & transport, both of passenger and goods,'' he said.

''During COVID period, we were able to complete nearly 200 long-pending infrastructure works. The completion of these projects helped us in planning our Railways better for the future,'' he said. He further said that currently the speed of freight trains is twice the speed that was a year ago and they are now part of the new zero based timetable. ''We have taken up 40 smart yards for predictive maintenance. The plan is to make all our maintenance yards fully mechanised with modern equipment so that we can ensure safety and security of all our trains and passengers,'' he said.

''Under PM Narendra Modi ji's vision for Railways, today we are relentlessly working at ensuring that our customers are provided with satisfactory experience. Today, with the merger of Indian Railways budget with the national budget, we were able to resist political pressures and focused on completing long-pending projects,'' he said.

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