Maharashtra's railway apparatus in time of crisis was not up to mark: Piyush Goyal
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, in an exclusive conversation with India TV said that Maharashtra government's arrangements in terms of usage of railway services in the state were not up to the mark. Speaking on India TV's #TeamModiOnIndiaTV, the minister said that Railways had provided Maharashtra with all the trains the state requested but some of those trains were not used adequately.
"We provided Maharashtra with all the trains they asked for. When we received a request for 145 trains from Maharashtra, we arranged the trains for them overnight, despite Maharashtra not providing us with proper list of passengers etc. As per reports, about half of those trains were not utilised. My concern is that if they would have asked for only the trains they were prepared to use, we would have deployed the unutilized trains for other states," Goyal said.
"This could partly be because Maharashtra is suffering from a high number of COVID-19 cases and in these times mismanagement is normal," he further added.
The Railway Minister assured all states that he Railways was both capable and ready to provide all the trains required by any state for the smooth transportation for people.
When asked about the lack of coordination among the authorities, Goyal said, "There was no lack of coordination among the Indian Railways authorities. There was a new sytem put in place amid the coronavirus outbreak. The system worked perfectly fine for 15 days. In some states like Gujarat, smooth sailing was seen all through. But in some other states the arrangements were not upto the mark."
Speaking about the steps taken by the railways since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power for his second stint in office last year, Goyal pointed out some stark improvements that have been made to the infrastructure at all levels. "Free WiFi has been installed in over 5,000 railway stations. Cleanliness has been a top priority for us in the last one year."
Piyush Goyal also spoke of India's COVID-19 readiness in general. "There was a time we did not use to manufacture a single PPE kit. Now we are making over 3 lakh a day. We are making our own sanitizers and now have the capability to carry out over 1 lakh COVID-19 tests a day."
The railway minister also spoke of the running of 200 trains on their normal routes and stops from June 1. He also informed that most of these trains had already been booked for days.
