Rlys Banks upon GPS DEVICES In All trains to Improve punctuality

NEW DELHI: In a major move that may help railways in improving punctuality of all trains, the Ministry of Railways has decided to install GPS devices in every passenger as well as freight trains. According to a senior railways official, the installation of GPS devices would let railways in getting status of trains’ movement on a real-time basis.

“The GPS devices would be installed in the locomotive of every train so that movement of trains would be tracked. As per the plan, the GPS devices would be installed by March next year,” the official said, adding that earlier the proposal was to install the GPS devices in premium trains only.

“There are instances of wrong data reporting from data logger side that brought shame to the national transporter as the railways was reporting above 80 per cent punctuality in the months of the early months of 2018, which slipped down to 65 per cent in May and previous months,” the official said.

Explaining about the extended delay, the official said, “The punctuality suffered a lot due to long blocks for the maintenance of tracks. We put the safety of passengers at top priority so the trains got delayed. Now almost most of the tracks have been repaired so the punctuality has also been improving.”

“Now the punctuality of trains has improved a lot. As per the latest report, about 73 per cent trains running on time and punctuality of remaining trains would also be improved in coming days,” the official said.

In another major move, the Railways Ministry has cleared that there would be no rollback of the controversial flexi-fare scheme, which was introduced during the tenure of former Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu.

On the issue, a senior official said, “There is no plan to reverse flexi-fare system as its applicable only in 1.5 per cent trains. So people should not make it an issue all the time.”