Historic moment for Railways: 100% punctuality of trains achieved

Indian Railways on July 1, 2020, created history by achieving 100 per cent punctuality rate as not a single train out the 201 that ran on Wednesday arrived or departed late. The previous best percentage was 99.54, achieved on June 23, 2020.

New Delhi: For the first time in Indian history, 100 per cent punctuality of trains has been achieved by Indian Railways with a total of 201 trains reaching their destination on time.

As per the data given by the Ministry of Railways, the previous best of punctuality was 99.54 per cent on June 23, 2020, with a delay of just one train.

Due to national lockdown, Indian Railways has suspended passenger services till August 12. Currently, 230 special trains are running across the country, which is less than two per cent of the total number of 13,000 trains that used to run normally on the entire network.

While speaking to ETV Bharat, RD Bajpayee, Railways Executive Director, said, "On July 1, we ran 201 trains and all of them reached to their destinations on right time. Though, the number of trains running currently are very less but definitely our efforts to achieve 100 per cent punctuality has been achieved. We are now targeting to continue this trend even after the resumption of passenger train services."

READ:|Railways to speed up trains upto 160 kmph on Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Mumbai routes

"We have done a lot of maintenance work during the lockdown period. We used to have many asset failures in tracks or signals, which is now been repaired. This is also going to contribute a lot in future to achieve a high level of punctuality in trains," he further added.

Announcing about the news, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also tweeted, "Trains in the Fast Lane: Enhancing services to unprecedented levels, Indian Railways made history on 1st July 2020 by achieving 100% punctuality rate."

Meanwhile, Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav also told all General Managers and divisional railway managers, recently, to ensure that all 230 trains maintain their schedule without any delays as the number of trains currently being run on a small network so the punctuality has to be 100 per cent.