Mission Raftar Will See Average Speed Of All Indian Trains Go Up, Considerably: Suresh Prabhu

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A month into his second year as Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu assures that he is hard at work implementing announcements made in Budget 2016. Prabhu speaks to BOOM Founder-Editor Govindraj Ethiraj two-days day after Indian Railways flagged off its first semi-high speed train - Gatiman Express.

Minister Of Railways, Suresh Prabhu considers the next 3-6 years crucial for the implementation of Mission Raftar - an effort to increase the overall average speed of the all the trains. He underlines the Central Government's initiative to increase the speed of trains and reduce accidents. A number of trains-Tejas, Gatiman, Humsafar, Antyodaya have been lined up for enabling convenient transport.

Prabhu says that the Railways Ministry regards speed and safety as factors that should go hand to hand. Railways are also looking to procure technology from other countries like Japan, Korea to upgrade the various aspects such as geospatial technology, a highly efficient locomotive engine. Prabhu says he is also focusing on better signaling, efficient technology for rolling stocks, new ideas for electrification and so on.

Prabhu highlights that 139 of the previous budget announcements have been implemented so far. Coming to the 2016 Budget, 12 announcements have been fulfilled in the span of three months. Organizational capability and motivation has been key in achieving the targets of the Railways.