While commemorating the run of the first train on Indian soil between Boribunder and Thane on 16th April, 1853, every year, during the period of thehistoric Railway Week (from 10th to 16th April), Divisions / Workshops / meritorious employees will suitably be awarded by SCR in recognition of their exemplary services during the previous year.
During this period, Performance Efficiency Shields will be presented by General Manager to the Divisions / Workshops which have shown the best performance in various disciplines during the last year. Further, the distinguished services of individual Officers / staff will also be recognized through General Manager’s individualMerit Awards at Zonal level.
As a part of the 57th Railway Week Celebrations, South Central Railway will hold the main Zonal level function at Rail Kalarang, New Bhoiguda, Secunderabad at 15 30hrs on 12th April, 2012. Shri G.N. Asthana, General Manager, South Central Railway will be the Chief Guest and will give away the Zonal Performance Efficiency Shields to the Divisions / Workshops and individual Medals/Merit Certificates to 187 selected Officers and staff.
Addl. General Manager, Principal Heads of Departments, Divisional Railway Managers from all the Six Divisions (Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Guntur and Nanded), Chief Workshop Managers from three Railway Workshops (Lallaguda, Rayanapadu, and Tirupati) and other officers / staff will be present on the occasion.
Similarly, in the Divisions and Workshops also, individual Merit Awards to meritorious staffwill be distributed by the respective Divisional Railway Managers and Chief Workshop Managers at the functions to be held at their Headquarters during the later part of this week.
On the eve of Railway Week Celebration functions on SCR, a special brief on the Origin & History; Growth and the highlights of the recent performance of SCR is furnished herewith .
Origin & History of South Central Railway:
·South Central Railway was formed on 02-10-1966 when Hubli and Vijayawada Divisions of Southern Railway and Sholapur and Secunderabad Divisions of Central Railway were carved out and merged into a new Zone.
·Subsequently, Guntakal Division of Southern Railway was merged with South Central Railway on 02-10-1977 and Sholapur Division was remerged with Central Railway.Secunderabad Division was split into two Divisions viz. Secunderabad and Hyderabad on 17-02-1978.
·Following reorganization of Zones and Divisions with effect from 01-04-2003, two new Divisions viz., Guntur and Nanded were operationalised duly transferring Hubli Division to the newly formed South Western Railway.
·Presently, S.C.Railway has 6 Divisions, viz, Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Guntur and Nanded.South Central Railway predominantly serves the states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and to a limited extent, portions of Karnataka, Tamilnadu & Madhya Pradesh.
·On SCR, there are 690 Stations spread over a vast stretch of 5810 Kms of route length. SCR operates around 600 Passenger carrying trains on an average per day ( 210 Mail/Express Trains, 175 Passengers trains and others are Suburban/ MMTS services)
Growth :
·SCR in its present form has been in existence since 01-04-2003. The Zone grew at a rapid pace since 2003 till today registering huge growth in the traffic volume ; earnings and passenger services over the years.
·The number of originating passengers has risen from a level of 194 Million passengers in 2003-04 to 384 Million Passengers in 2011-12( 98% growth). At present, SCR is carrying around 10.5 Lakh originating Passengers on an average per day.
·On freight front, the originating loading has shown a growth rateof 130% in this period from 44.8 Million Tonnes (MTs) to 103 MTs. SCR is the fourth Zonal Railway on Indian Railways who load more than 100 MTs in a financial year.
·The Gross Earnings also has shown an impressive growth of 185% from Rs 2880 Crs in 2003-04 to Rs. 8200 Crs in 2011-12.
Recent Performance Highlights:
·Despite several disturbances affecting Rail traffic, SCR posted a healthy growth of 11.5% in it's Gross Earnings during 2011-12 as compared with last F.Y. In this period, the Zone loaded 103 MTs of originating freight traffic ( 7.3% growth) and carried 384 Million originating Passengers (7.5 % growth)
·Intune with Railways' strong commitment to Safety, highest priority is being accorded to Safety in train working. In view of the Safety concerns at Unmanned Level Crossings( UMLCs), SCR has already set in motion the process of eliminating all the UMLCs by 2015. In the last fiscal, 159 such road crossings have been removed.
·15 New Mail/Express/Passenger train services, 10 additional MMTS services have been introduced in 2011-12. 36 new generation MMTS coaches have also been inducted to augment capacity on MMTS System
·For provision of facilities/ amenities to Passengers, Rs. 205 Crs have been spent towards upgradation of Passenger amenity infrastructure at Stations in the previous two financial years(i.e between 2010-12).
·The pace of execution of Railway infrastructural works on SCR has shown significant improvement in the recent past . During the year 2011-12, new lines on 132 Kms and ROBs at 25 locations have been commissioned, which is the highest on Indian Railways.