With key Railway posts lying vacant,projects lag behind

The GM of East Central Railway,Girish Bhatnagar,had retired on July 3. Since then the zone is under the additional charge of Deepak Krishna,general manager of Eastern Railway,Kolkata.

The GM of South Central Railway,H K Padhee retired on May 31. The zone is now under the additional charge of Kuldeep Chaturvedi,GM of South Western Railway.

The GM of CORE (Central Organisation of Rail Electrification),G R Vij,holds the additional charge of GM,Diesel Locomotive Works. S M Bhardwaj,GM of Diesel Locomotive Works,had retired in June. Similarly,the GM of Western Railway holds the additional charge of GM North Western Railway — the post is lying vacant since August 31.

“Though the Ministry of Railways had initiated the process in time to fill up the posts,it got affected due to the Lok Sabha elections and the subsequent formation of the new government,” said Railway Board Spokesman Anil Saxena. He added the process is on and a decision will soon be taken in this regard.

A zonal officer of East Central Railway,Hajipur,said: “Without a regular GM since July,work has been badly affected and there is no coordination among the various divisions. This has had a telling impact on various projects.”

Saxena,however,denied that work was being hampered due to delay in the posting of GMs. All projects are under progress,including the Eastern Freight Corridor,he added.