MINISTER WATCH: PIYUSH GOYAL IN SEPTEMBER

Ficci on September 1: “The government is ready to fully finance carbon-capture technology and is in favour of opening up the technology to all.However, this idea did not find takers as companies wanted to sell technology for a profit. Climate change is being made into a business, which is not in the right spirit.”

IIM Kolkata on September 9: “Initially, the Railways had a target of removing all unmanned crossings in three years. But I told them, ‘why not do it within a year?’”

New Delhi on September 12: “The official deadline set in consultation with the Japanese side is 2023, but we would like to complete it (bullet train) by 2022. The prime minister believes the country’s engineers and workmen have it in them to complete the project a year in advance.”

New Delhi on September 21: “The railway ministry is looking at ways to speed up the electrification process as it would help reduce the ~16,000-crore bill on diesel. The ministry is consulting all the people, who are involved in the electrification process.”

New Delhi on September 28: “Way back in the 1960s, Railways started using computers in a small way and by 1985, you had passenger reservation system all computerised. I remember banking started using computers in the 1990s. I am delighted about that, but I do wish we had expanded those frontiers much to bring technology for safety, for example.”

September 29: “A complete safety and capacity audit of all foot overbridges (FOB) across the suburban train network will be conducted. Normally, it takes 20 days to come out with the report (of any incident), but for the auditing purpose of all the FOBs, we need to send technical experts and I guess that within 20 days we will have the audit reports of all the FOBs of the suburban trains.”