6 reasons why 59% of India believes Railways improved under Suresh Prabhu

Though, he offered to resign in recent light of train accidents, in his two years of tenure, Prabhu was seen bringing passenger friendly reforms in the country’s largest public sector enterprise.

Moneycontrol News

According to a survey done by Ipsos on Thursday and Inshorts last year, 59% of India believes Suresh Prabhu did a decent job with railways.

Despite having offered to resign recently in light of the increasing number of train accidents, in his tenure of two years Prabhu was seen to have brought passenger friendly reforms in the country’s largest public sector enterprise.

The latest reform introduced by him was that of the book-now-pay-later service for tatkal bookings offered by IRCTC. The traffic on the portal, which was earlier plagued by a multitude of issues, was seen growing as a result of the reform.

Here's a look at the list of reforms Prabhu brought during his tenure as Railway minister:

4 new trains were introduced, one for unreserved passengers and three for reserved ones. They are likely to be operational in next couple of months. Prabhu also planned introducing bullet trains to reduce the time of travel.

Humsafar Express: A fully AC train with optional service for meals

Tejas Express: It will showcase the future of train travel in India with operating speeds of 130 kmph

Uday Express: Overnight double-decker train, which will run on the busiest of routes. It will have 40% more passenger capacity.

Antyodaya Express: A superfast train for those travelling on long routes. Will be fully unreserved.

High-speed Wifi was introduced at key stations and the minister had set a target of 400 stations by 2018.

Varied food options: Soon, passengers would be able to order pizzas and burgers on the Indian Railways website. Dominos, KFC would be setting up their restaurants at stations.

For executives, Prabhu is trying to bring airport like experience to railways. IRCTC will set up executive lounges at 49 locations.

You can now book retiring rooms for passengers on an hourly basis instead of 12 or 24 hour slots.

Tweet your complaints: A 24/7 complaint centre is up and running. All you have to do is tweet a problem to get a prompt reply from Indian railways.