Dog squad a mistake, admits WR General Manager

At the conference to launch the new suburban railway timetable, the GM said he had not been consulted. He initially defended the decision. “The dogs were chained. Railway Poilce Force dogs never bite, they smell,” Gupta stated, adding that nobody had been hurt to justify the outrage.

WR has begun installing grills on its windows to prevent stone throwing. Seven trains have been completely equipped with the grills. All 79 WR rakes would be completely fitted with grills by October, at a cost of Rs 25 lakh Gupta stated. However, there was no solution presently to protect passengers standing on footboards.

Meanwhile, WR has increased the number of 12 car rake services from the existing 203 to 230 services from August 1. Fourteen of these trains will be in the Up direction and 13 in the down direction. The number of 12 car services in morning peak will increase from 23 to 25 and in the evening peak

Briefing the media on WR’s achievements, he said that revenue from passenger traffic had increased by 30 per cent. It was 450 crore this year as opposed to Rs 398 crore in the last financial year. On the goods line, the railway had increased earnings from last year’s Rs 595 crore to Rs Rs 660 crore this year.

The railway had already begun plans for commercial exploitation of vacant space above railway stations, but this had suffered a temporary setback due to the drop in property prices.

IRCON had already started construction of a new building at Borivli station for Rs 7 crore. Initially, these would house only railway offices and later be expanded for sale when property prices picked up, Guptastated.

The railway had identified Bandra station as a nodal point for suburban rail travel and a point for boarding trains. In the next six months, WR would get architectural drawings for a new Bandra station building followed by tenders for the construction of the actual building for Rs 25 crore, he said.