COVID forces Central Railway, Western Railway to keep 70th bday quiet

Essential services workers wait for a train at Dadar station. File pic

Both the Central and Western Railways' 70th inception day celebrations were quite a low-key one in view of the current situation and the fact that the decision regarding opening up the Mumbai local trains for the general public awaits a government nod. State government officials said that they were in two minds regarding the same as many countries were facing a second wave of COVID-19 and a decision would be taken only after Diwali.

Speaking on the Formation Day, as Central Railway (CR) refers to it, CR chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said, "We mark the platinum jubilee this year. It was on November 5, 1951 that the CR was formed by integrating the Nizam State, Scindia State and Dholpur State Railways, with the pioneering Great Indian Peninsula Railway."

Rapid transit system

The CR suburban railway network has played a major role in the socio-economic growth of Mumbai and also heralded the advent of mass rapid transit system in India. It has a vast network of 4151.93 km traversing through the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The Mumbai suburban network of CR is one of the largest networks in the world carrying approximately 4.5 million passengers every day. As on date, the CR has five divisions - Mumbai, Bhusaval, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune, which includes 466 stations.

The Western Railway (WR) calls it the Foundation Day. Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer of the WR said that it had achieved many milestones since its beginning. The WR came into existence on November 5, 1951 through a merger of its forerunner, the erstwhile Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI), with other state railways like Saurashtra, Rajputana and Jaipur.

Face mask distribution

"To highlight the glorious past, short videos on topics like WR's Golden Heritage and Important Places are being shared on social media. Besides this, several stations, headquarter and division buildings and heritage locomotives will be decorated using lights. We will also plant saplings at headquarter and divisional offices as a noble gesture. Face masks will be distributed among housekeeping and cleaning staff across the WR section," he said.

In addition to this, a slogan-writing competition for staff and officials was held and a caller tune 'Dhadak Dhadak' was created for all WR employees having official mobile numbers. General Manager Alok Kansal presided over a virtual platform to inaugurate various infrastructure development projects across all divisions and headquarters.

Also Read: COVID-19 cases in Mumbai shoot past 1,000 again

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