B. Sridhar/TNN
Passenger trains will no longer be halted for extended hours to allow freight trains to pass, announced Anil Kumar Jain, General Manager (GM) of South Eastern Railway (SER), on Wednesday. He made the statement during a meeting with a delegation from the Rail Yatri Sangharsh Samiti (RYSS) at the Tatanagar railway station.
Jain confirmed that a Public Relations Inspector (PRI) will be permanently stationed at Tatanagar to monitor passenger train movements. The PRI will brief both the media and the RYSS daily regarding arrivals and departures. Additionally, the PRI will be authorized to conduct inspections and investigate train statuses along the Kharagpur-Tatanagar and Chakradharpur-Tatanagar sections to ensure that passenger traffic is not disrupted by freight trains.
The GM further assured that he will personally monitor operations regularly to ensure that MEMU trains to and from Tatanagar run on time. These assurances came after RYSS convenor and Jamshedpur (West) MLA Saryu Roy highlighted the severe difficulties commuters face while traveling on MEMU trains. “Commuters are forced to sit in trains for three to four hours just to travel a distance of 40 kilometers,” Roy told the GM.
Earlier, speaking to the media, the GM said that SER administration has developed a comprehensive set of short-term and long-term plans to modernize rail infrastructure in Tatanagar and its adjoining areas. To alleviate pressure on the existing station infrastructure, the railway administration is actively preparing a proposal for a satellite terminal near Tatanagar. This new terminal aims to decongest the main Tatanagar station and significantly improve overall operational efficiency.
Additionally, the administration plans to remove nine of the roughly 32 diamond crossings inside the Tatanagar yard by October, a move that will successfully eliminate the current 10 kilometers per hour speed restriction across the yard. The division is also investing approximately Rs 50 crore in developing essential stabling lines, with a completion target of 2027. This includes building two new stabling lines at the Tata Marshalling Yard and three more at Adityapur.
Jain explained that a shortage of platforms at Tatanagar currently forces many trains to wait outside the station. The new stabling lines will allow incoming trains to quickly shift to Adityapur after passengers disembark, clearing the platforms faster and reducing overall travel delays.
