Western Railway has taken a giant leap in last 50 years for providingbetter, increased, affordable and comfortable services to its esteemed passengersand enhanced connectivity of Gujarat with rest of the country.Major initiatives taken during this period are as under:-
Projects
Unigauge-To connect Gujarat seamlessly with rest of the country, 2515 kms of gauge converted from Metre Gauge and Narrow Gauge to Broad Gauge in Gujarat.
Strengthening Infrastructure by providing new lines/ doubling for better connectivity with remote parts of the State and to work as Catalyst in development -282 km of new line and 181 km of doubling of track have been completed.
Port like Mundra, Pipavav and Dahej have been connected with main line for facilitating trade and industry.
Massive electrification of track.
IT Initiatives
68 Passenger Reservation Centres (PRS), 279 Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) have been opened.45% of the tickets are sold through Internet
1929 kms of Optical Cable Communication have been laid
Faster, Affordable and Comfortable travel:-
·Train Fare less than half of road transport for AC services and one-fifth for non-AC services.
·Introduced AC 3 Tier, AC Double Decker, Garib Rath and Yuva trains for affordable AC travel.
·Introduced Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duranto and Garib Rath trains for faster and comfortable journey.
·Introduced new generation LHB coaches for better riding.
Safety Improvements:-
·Provided modern Colour light and automatic signalling.
·Extensive elimination of LC gates by providing Road Over Bridges and Subways.
·Provision of heavier rails and concrete sleepers on all main line in the state for safe track structure.
Manifold improvement in Infrastructure and Increase in Traffic carrying over five decades as evident from the following:-
·Number of passenger increased from approximately 135 million to 330 million.
·Number of Mail Express trains in Gujarat increased from 44 to 260.
·14 pairs of High Speed Trains such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duranto and Garib Rath introduced bringing the cities closer.
·Goods loading increased from approximately 6 MT to 58 MT.
·Track length increased to 5781.68 kms.
·Running time for the fastest train between Ahmedabad-Mumbai decreased from 9.40 hours to 6.45 hours & for Ahmedabad-Delhi from 23.40 hours to 13.40 hours.
·To ensure faster and pollution free travel, 1837 kms electrified.
·Automatic Signalling provided around 500 route kms facilitating significant increase in number of trains. Mumbai-Ahmedabad route is the longest stretch of Automatic Signalling on Indian Railways.
·239 station have been provided Route Relay and Panel Interlocking.State of Art Electronic Interlocking has been provided at 16 stations.
·Massive investment of approximately Rs. 5000 crores during last five years alone.
AND THE GROWTH STORY continues:-
New addition in Infrastructure planned
New Line
182 km
Gauge Conversion
664 km
Doubling
375 km
Road Over Bridge
125
Subways
405
·Infrastructural Projects Worth 5000 Crores such as Gauge Conversion, Doubling and New Lines are in the pipeline.
·Various additional trains UTS/ PRS Centres, Station Improvement, Passenger Amenitiesare also in pipeline.
