New Delhi, Oct. 2 (IANS): Railway and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that the passengers travelling in the national transporter no longer have to "suffer" as the quality of services has improved in the last five years, and India in the coming years will become the world's biggest coach manufacturing hub.
Goyal said this while releasing the station cleanliness report on Wednesday at the New Delhi railway station, and later inaugurated an exhibition on Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.
During his address Goyal said: "In the last five years the experience of travel in railways has changed. Now people don't have to suffer anymore and they complete their 'safar' (travel) with comfort."
Goyal said that cleanliness has an important place in our life. "And the way in which people adopted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a clean Bharat, is the biggest tribute to Bapu on his 150th anniversary."
He said that several programmes highlighting the cleanliness drive have been organised at over 6,500 stations across the country to create awareness.
Highlighting the works of the Railway Ministry, he said: "In the last few years we have shifted our focus from the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coaches and have decided to adopt the safer Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB)coaches."
"Currently, all the coach manufacturing units are producing over 8,000 coaches annually, and in the coming years this will go up. Similarly, manufacturing of bio toilets is also on the rise as we are making highest number of bio toilets. So, I can say that in the coming years, India will become world's biggest coach manufacturing hub," Goyal said.
The Railway Minister, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, said: "When we think of Bapu, we can recall that he was the biggest critic of railways."
"We are open for criticism. From criticism we get the chance to learn," he said.
He said that the Indian Railways as per the instructions of the Prime Minister has formed 150 nurseries in the vacant railway lands adjacent to the tracks.
Goyal also made a surprise inspection at the New Delhi railway station and also interacted with the passengers in the waiting room.
