RAILWAYS ACTION PLAN FOR CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION YEAR 2003-2004
The Railways have
worked out an action plan to increase customer satisfaction during
the current financial year 2003-2004 especially in the areas of
safety, security, punctuality and cleanliness as a sequel to the
Railway Minister, Shri Nitish Kumar having declared this year
as the Year for Customer Satisfaction.
The action plan
seeks to upgrade safety related training facilities at all Zonal
Training Centres and Central Engineering Centres, accelerate the
implementation of Anti-Collision Device, provide continuous track
circuiting on selected sections and improve crash worthiness of
rail coaches.
In the area of
security, the Railway Protection Act is proposed to be amended
to provide enhanced powers to Railway Protection Force in strengthening
security measures in trains and railway premises. A Bill seeking
to amend the Railway Protection Act has already been introduced
in the Parliament during its Budget Session this year.
As for improving
the punctuality of passenger services, the monitoring mechanism
is being streamlined and strengthened by introduction of a New
Computerized Coaching Operations Information System.
To give effect
to the ‘Operation Cleanliness’ announced by the prime Minister
on Independence Day 2002, a task force headed by member Mechanical
in the Railway Board Shri S. Dasrathy is working out modalities.
Besides, additional
facilities are being provided to rail users this year, such as,
introduction of more and more high speed wagons to carry goods
faster to destinations, building 10 refrigerated parcel vans to
carry speedily perishable food stuff across the country on express
trains.
Further improvement
in passenger interface areas includes extension of computerization
of unreserved ticketing system, expansion of computerized Passenger
Reservation System centers, booking of tickets through Internet
and computerization of refunds. In addition, the scope of certain
concessions has been widened, as for example, senior citizen concession,
cancer and thalassemia patients, heart patients, kidney patients,and
accredited media persons. Besides, the rules regarding issue of
duplicate tickets in lieu of lost tickets have been liberalized.
