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Hon’ble Minister for Railways has inaugurated various services on Konkan Railway in the function held at Panaji (Goa)

09-April-2017

Under the able guidance of Hon’ble Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhu, Konkan Railway took various initiatives for the upliftment of Konkan Region by way of providing more and more passenger amenities as well as customer oriented services for freight users over Konkan Railway which has facilitated in making the journey more comfortable.  Amongst the measures initiated by the Hon’ble Minister includes capacity enhancement of KRCL line, route electrification, construction of additional eleven new stations etc. to name a few.
To boost the development of Konkan region and provide all kind of support to the people of Konkan in general, Hon’ble Minister for Railways has inaugurated following services in the function held today at Panaji (Goa) through remote :

1)   New Halt Station at Saundal between Vilavade – Rajapur Road Station.
Hon'ble Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhu inaugurated Saundal Halt Station in Ratnagiri District for the convenience of the residents in and around Saundal area.
Saundal village, Dist. Ratnagiri is between Vilavade (km. 250/718) and Rajapur Road (km 267/349)  stations of Konkan Railway.The  proposed Halt station caters to about 35000 local populace of surrounding villages like Oni, Pachal  Partawale, Solawade, Gotane, Yalawan, Ozar, Tulawade etc. The proposed station, Saundal (km: 260/420) is about 9.7 KM away from Vilavade and 6.9 KM away from  Rajapur Road station. Hon’ble MR conducted Bhoomi Poojan on 16.10.2015 at site. The work of proposed Halt station is completed with a total expenditure of ` 1.22 Crores. Konkan Railway express its sincere thanks to the residents of Saundal for their support & cooperation for timely completion of the work of new station. The location for  the proposed station is on embankment of 28 Mtr height with track  gradient of 1 in 260 in which  49500 CUM of Earthwork in embankment is involved.  Following passenger facilities are provided at Saundal Halt station.:
Rail Level Platform of 460 Mtr X 6 Mtr.
One Ticket booking office.
Modular shelter of size 6 Mtr x 5 Mtr each - 3 nos.
Drinking Water Pedestals – 3 nos.
One borewell with water supply arrangement.
Trains proposed to halt at Saundal Halt Station
   # 50105/50106 Sawantwadi-Diva-Sawantwadi  Passenger
   # 50101/50102 Ratnagiri-Madgaon- Ratnagiri Passenger

2)   Goods siding at Thokur Station:
Thokur area is upcoming as an industrial hub.  Mangaluru Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) is being formed with an expectation of setting up of more than 300 + petro chemical factories.  In addition to that, ONGC Mangluru Petro Chemical LTD (OMPL) has already started functioning.  Presently these companies are not provided with proper rail connectivity. The importance of Railway siding at Thokur is quite prominent in this scenario.
Konkan Railway has constructed a 370 Mtr siding at Thokur station at an estimated cost of ` 1.75 Crore for facilitating the projected traffic from Mangalore area.  KRCL is expecting substantial earning from this siding.
Major commodities expected to move from this siding will be Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA), Pet-coke, Sulphur, Bitumen, Fertilizer, etc.
Today,,Hon’ble Minister for Railways has inaugurated this goods siding at Thokur Station.

3) Commissioning of  four India Post  Passenger Reservation System (PRS) at  LANJA, RATNAGIRI, SANGAMESHWAR & KHED.
In order to avoid inconvenience and hardship in reserving train accommodation to passengers of non-rail head location as well as residing in city area situated away from Railway stations, Hon'ble Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhu has inaugurated four India Post Passenger Reservation System (PRS). With the opening of these four India Post PRS, total India Post PRS in Ratnagiri region will become seven and over all nine on entire Konkan Railway.  
Lanja Post-Office is situated in heart of Lanja City. POST OFFICE PRS Lanja will serve passengers of Lanja Taluk. At present there is no PRS facility anywhere in Lanja Taluk and passengers have to go to Ratnagiri or Kankavali which are 35 & 85 KM away from Lanja. Further, passenger can get reservation of any train which is not possible through present system of Quota Reservation System provided at Adavali and Vilavade station.
Sangameshwar Post-Office : PRS is situated at a prominent location of Sangameshwar town. It is about 500 Mtr away from Sangameshwar bus station and 04 KM from Sangameshwar Railway station. This new PRS will facilitate passengers of Sangameshwar Taluk. At present passengers of Sangameshwar  & Deorukh have to travel a distance of 40 KM either to Ratnagiri or Chiplun which is nearest PRS for booking of train tickets.
Ratnagiri City Post-Office : PRS facility will be operated at Head Post Office. Ratnagiri .This post office is situated in main market of Ratnagiri city & located 8.5 KM away from Ratnagiri Railway station. This will facilitate resident of Ratnagiri city and Taluk. This PRS will fulfill a long pending demand of Ratnagiri to setup City Booking Office  in Ratnagiri city. It will also facilitate  passengers to book ticket of any train which is not possible through town booking agencies situated in Ratnagiri city
Khed Post Office is located in the heart of Khed city. It is 2.5 KM away from Khed Railway station. This post office PRS will facilitate passengers of Khed city and as well as rural area of Khed Taluk.


4)   Integrated - Control Office Application (COA) system
Hon'ble Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhu has inaugurated IT enabled train operation system called Control Office Application (COA) on KRCL.
The Control Office Application (COA) of Indian Railway has been implemented in KRCL in a unique model by seamless integration with the existing Operations and Train Control Module (OT) of KRCL where Train timings captured at Stations are updated on a real-time basis and Controllers can monitor and manage the running of trains. By implementation of COA in KRCL,  the final route of Train movement has been mapped in the COA application of Indian Railway, so that a holistic view of the entire movement of trains in Indian Railway and its statistics generation is achieved.
It is this application that feeds the National Train Enquiry System (NTES) which provides upto date information on train running to the passengers. COA also links train operations information to Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) and Integrated Coaching Management System (ICMS) of Indian Railway.

5) Signing of Facility Agreement for Rs 1200 crore Rupee Term Loan among SBI, EXIM Bank with KRCL for Roha-Veer track Doubling and Route Electrification projects"
Route Electrification of Konkan Railway & Doubling of Roha-Veer section are two projects sanctioned by the Government of India. KRCL has begun execution of these projects which will now cost  ` 1510 crore including financing charges.

Ministry of Railways has sanctioned an amount of `  310 crore in the Budget 2017-18 for these projects. KRCL has made arrangements for the balance fund of ` 1200 crore through a Rupee Term Loan Facility from a consortium of lenders consisting of State Bank of India and EXIM Bank. The infrastructure project is funded on a 20-year structured loan pattern. M/s SBI caps was the advisors for KRCL for the loan arrangement. The fund from this facility would be availed from April ‘2017 onwards with the signing of the loan agreement

The above facility agreement was signed today in the august presence of Hon'ble Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhu.

                                                                                  


(L. K. Verma)
Chief Public Relations Officer

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