The Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that the common people have always been the focus of all initiatives by the Indian Railways. Presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament today, he said, it has been an unprecedented year for customer oriented works and Indian Railway’s responsiveness to customer needs reached new heights as it turned social media into a feedback and complaint redressal mechanism. The Minister said, the Railways has set up a dedicated IVRS system to seek direct feedback from passengers. More than 1 lakh telephone calls are made every day to seek inputs from passengers. He said, with all these measures, Indian Railways was able to give ‘Voice’ to the customer that was not only heard but also acted upon. These channels were used not only to seek feedback but to provide medical care, safety of passengers especially women and other aspects of human care and also helped us to monitor the cleanliness of stations and trains. Shri Prabhu said, now there is no barrier between the common passenger and the Railways.

Referring to a series of measures to significantly improve the quality of train services, the Minister said the Railways has received assistance through funds from MPLAD and CSR. He said, 124 Members of Parliament have given their commitment to contribute for passenger amenities. The Railways has generated over 65,000 additional berths by augmenting 884 coaches on patronized routes on permanent basis, installed 2,500 water vending machines at stations, provided mobile charging points in general class coaches, placed dustbins in all new non-AC coaches, enabled online booking of retiring rooms, set up mechanized laundries to provide clean and hygienic bed rolls. Disposable bed rolls are now available at select stations to all classes of passengers and introduced a new train between Varanasi and Delhi, ‘Mahamana Express’ with modern refurbished coaches.

Passenger amenities enhancement expands feedback channels and upgrades station and onboard facilities to improve traveler services. The Railways established a dedicated IVRS and telephone outreach plus social media complaint redressal to solicit passenger feedback and monitor services, while implementing infrastructure upgrades including additional coaches and berths, water vending machines, mobile charging points, dustbins, online retiring-room booking, mechanized laundries, disposable bed rolls, and a refurbished train service, partly financed through Member contributions and CSR funds.