Minister of State for Railways inagurated various facilities at Surat

Darshana Jardosh - Minister of State for Railways and Textiles inaugurated several facilities on Thursday, 14th October,2021 in a function held at Surat station. Mayor Hemali Boghawala, MP Prabhubhai Vasava and MLA Pravinbhai Ghoghari, other distinguished guests including G.V.L. Satyakumar – Divisional Railway Manager of Mumbai Division of WR and various senior railway officers were also present.

According to a press release issued by Sumit Thakur – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, Surat Station witnessed a slew of inaugurations. MoSR Darshana Jardosh unveiled the plaque and inaugurated the heritage locomotive and selfie point at Surat station along with other dignitaries. She then inaugurated the CCTV Surveillance System control room, the Coach Guidance System and the VIP Room at Surat station. In her address, MoSR shared her vision for Surat and welcomed the new and positive changes that the Railways is bringing to the area. She emphasized that Surat is the second highest passenger revenue earning station of Mumbai Division of WR and that it holds a strategic position on the Mumbai-Delhi connectivity line, which is frequented by businessmen.

With a view to revisit the heritage past of the Railways in the city, a vintage locomotive has been placed on pedestal in the circulating area and a Selfie Point to uphold the dynamic nature of the city. The Diesel Locomotive manufactured by Chittaranjan Locomotive Workshop, Bardhaman & commissioned on 28th Sept, 1992 at Diesel Shed Bandra. The loco was retired on 5th January 2015 after 24 years of excellent service in Western Railway. This selfie point will be an added attraction to the bustling city & will enable the public as well as railway passengers to find moments of cheer and pride. This duo combination has uplifted the face of circulating area.

Taking into cognizance the amount of passenger footfall at Surat station and to enhance the safety and security of passengers, a new Integrated Security Control Room with modern amenities was a must at Surat station. To fulfill this requirement, High-tech cameras were planned to be installed throughout station premises to cover all areas of the station 24x7. The work was undertaken on war-footing at a cost of Rs. 1.2 crores and has been completed. 86 cameras will be covering the entire Surat station, with 68 cameras having already been installed and functional and the rest will be connected very soon. 3 types of High-Quality cameras i.e., PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom); 4K cameras (Very High-quality images for Face Recognition) and FHD (Full HD cameras) have been used for better monitoring of the station premises. The Face Recognition System shall work on real time and offline mode. The system shall have the provision to take multiple samples of same face belonging to same person.

With the inauguration of the Coach Guidance System, all coach indicators and announcement system of Platform No. 1, 2 & 3 have been updated and provided with latest internet based Coach Position feeding, display and automatic announcement system. The system has been installed at a cost of Rs. 36 lakhs.

The old VIP room at Surat station has been redeveloped & upgraded. The area of the VIP room has been increased with a capacity to hold meetings with more than 25 people at any given time.

Thakur further added that MoSR also interacted with a visually impaired announcer Shri Virendra Chahwala. She interacted with press media persons and general public. With the inauguration of various facilities for the benefit of passengers, Surat station is set for a new aesthetic and hi-tech look.