Indian Railways, infamous for not keeping up with schedules, has claimed that it has achieved 100 per cent punctuality rate—for the “first time in its history”—on July 1. That means no trains among the 201 that run on July 1 were delayed, said the Indian Railways.
“Trains in the fast lane: enhancing services to unprecedented levels, Indian Railways made history on July 1, 2020 by achieving 100 per cent punctuality rate," Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal tweeted on Thursday.
All departures and arrivals of the passenger trains were on time. It is, however, important to note that only a fraction of the total trains are currently running, which means less congestion on tracks. Its previous best, according to the Railways, was 99.54 per cent on June 23, when a train got delayed.
Last month, the railways had sent a missive to its zones to ensure 100 per cent punctuality in the running of 230 special trains, which is less than two per cent of the 13,000 trains that normally run on the entire network.
According to news agency PTI, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav told all general managers and divisional railway managers to ensure that the 15 pairs of Rajdhani special trains and 100 pairs of passenger trains maintain their schedule without any delays.
He said that since the number of trains being run on the network is currently small, the punctuality has to be 100 per cent, PTI further reported.
Meanwhile, the Railways on Wednesday formally kickstarted its plans to allow private entities to operate passenger trains on its network by inviting request for qualifications (RFQ) for participation on 109 pairs of routes through 151 modern trains, the national transporter said.
The 109 origin-destination routes have been formed into 12 clusters across the Indian Railway network. Each train shall have a minimum of 16 coaches, it said. The Railways also said that majority of these modern trains are to be manufactured in India as 'Make in India' and the private entity shall be responsible for financing, procuring, operating and maintaining the trains.
