Indian Railways Directs North Central Zone To Take Measures To Improve Punctuality Of Trains

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The Railway Board has requested the North Central Railway Zone to increase the punctuality of the trains that originate from or travel through it. NCR, which has long had a sterling reputation for keeping trains on time, has recently recorded low punctuality performance as some trains have failed to keep to their scheduled running times.

"It has been observed that the punctuality performance of NCR is showing a declining trend," the Railway Board said in a communication to the Principal Chief Operations Manager of NCR.

"Board desires that NCR should take corrective measures for the punctual running of trains, closely monitor the punctual running of mail express trains from point to point, control assets failures and improve rectification time of failures so that punctuality losses are minimised," it added.

Anand Swaroop, Divisional Railway Manager, Agra division, which comes under NCR, blamed the ongoing infrastructural work, due to which the smooth running of trains has been impacted. "A lot of infrastructural work is going on in the division," Swaroop said when asked to respond to the Board's communication.

"It is just a temporary phase which will get over very soon as construction work is about to be finished. We will show a more remarkable punctuality record once all the projects are completed," Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, Chief Public Relations Officer, NCR, said.

Three divisions -- Prayagraj, Jhansi, and Agra -- come under the NCR zone, and in March 2022, the zone showed 93.20 percent punctuality which was the best among all the 17 railway zones in the country.

With PTI Inputs