MINUTES of the PNM Meeting between Railway Board and AIRF held on 16th & 17th April, 2025

MINUTES of the PNM Meeting between Railway Board and AIRF held on 16th & 17th April, 2025

MINUTES
of
The PNM Meeting
between
Railway Board
and
All India Railwaymen’s Federation
held
on 16th & 17th April, 2025

MINUTES OF THE PNM MEETING HELD BETWEEN
RAILWAY BOARD AND AIRF ON 16th & 17th APRIL, 2025

MEMBERS PRESENT

SECTION — A : INTRODUCTION

CRB & CEO as Chairman of the meeting welcomed the President/AIRF, General Secretary/AIRF, other representatives of AIRF, his colleagues in Railway Board and members of official side. He congratulated the Federation and their affiliates for their remarkable performance in the last Secret Ballot Elections. He hoped that the Agenda items of this PNM will be discussed and resolved fruitfully during the meeting.

He expressed his heartfelt thanks to all for successful completion of Kumbh Mela 2025 from January to February 2025, wherein Railwaymen have put in their efforts and accomplished the task in a grand manner, appreciated by one and all. During these forty five days over 17300 trains were run, which included 7484 Mela special trains as against 8394 trains including 694 specials run during the previous Kumbh (2019).

He took the opportunity to mention that Indian Railways are undergoing massive transformation and modernization. We are all aware of the faith that the country and the government has reposed in Indian Railways as the primary transporter of passengers and cargo.

Freight Loading

Indian Railways recorded its highest ever freight loading of 1617.38 million tonnes (M1’s) in 2024-25 which is 1.68% more than the previous financial year.

Revenue

Indian Railways generated 22.56 Lakh Crore Revenue in 2023-24 with Net Profit of ₹3,260 Crore amid Major Investments in Staff, Pension, and Energy.

These achievements underscore the Railways’ robust performance and its pivotal role in facilitating the movement of goods and passengers across the country.

Connectivity with Kashmir 

With the completion of the prestigious 272 km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, the Kashmir Valley is set to get rail connectivity with other parts of the country. The completion of Banihal-Katra section has been an engineering marvel in which 97 KMs of length is tunnel and 7 KMs of distance is covered by 4 main bridges.

Record Track Upgradation

• Indian Railways has achieved a significant milestone by upgrading over 23,000 track kilometers (TKM) of the Indian Railways network to support train speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour (kmph). This remarkable progress underscores the government’s commitment to modernizing railway infrastructure, improving connectivity, and reducing travel times for millions of passengers nationwide. With nearly 1/5″ of India’s railway network now equipped for higher speeds, these advancements have been made possible through robust safety measures such as modern signalling systems and strategic fencing, and further Kavach installation is underway.

Coach production

Indian Railways has achieved a significant milestone in the financial year 2024-25 by manufacturing 7,134 coaches, marking a 9% increase from the previous year’s production of 6,541 coaches, with special emphasis on non A/C coaches with production of 4,601 coaches, catering the needs of common man. This rise reflects India’s growing emphasis on modernizing Railway infrastructure to meet increasing passenger demand for all sections of society.

Pamban Bridge

The New Pamban Bridge which is India’s first vertical lift sea bridge has set a new benchmark in modern infrastructure and maritime harmony. The bridge was dedicated to the nation by our Hon’ble Prime Minister on 6th April 2025. The Pamban Strait, which separates the Indian mainland from Rameswaram Island in Tamil Nadu, is now home to an impressive railway engineering marvel, as India’s first vertical-lift railway sea bridge. Replacing the iconic but aging 110-year-old Pamban bridge, this new structure is more than just metal and bolts, but a symbol of how history and progress can flow together. With the opening of this bridge, the traffic has started again going to Rameswaram which was closed since 23.12.2022.

Amrit Bharat Station Development Scheme

A total of 1,337 stations have been identified under the scheme so far and work is in progress at 1,202 stations. The total cost of the project is around Rs 1 lakh crore.

HR Initiatives

He mentioned a few salient HR initiatives taken during last year:-

• As a system improvement, the Ministry of Railways has introduced a system of publishing annual calendar from 2024 for recruitment to various categories of Group ‘C’ posts. Accordingly, ten Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs) for 92116 (Safety-63669, Non-Safety 28447) vacancies have been notified during January to December 2024 for filling up of posts of ALPs, Technicians, Sub-Inspectors, Constables etc.
• Human Resource Management System (HRMS) developed through CRIS is focussed to digitize various administrative functionalities. As part of continuous upgradation, the inter-Railway transfers, and processing of compassionate ground appointments cases upto inspection by Welfare Inspectors stage have been enabled in HRMS. This will bring efficiency and transparency in the system.
  • Further, with continuous monitoring by Board and efforts by Zonal Railways, more than one lakh cases of promotions have been completed.
  • Around 3900 cases of Compassionate Ground Appointments have been settled.
  • 2290 cases of medically decategorisation which is approximately 98.5% of the pendency have been finalised.

The above achievements could not have been possible without the constructive cooperation from the Federation. He once again thanked AIRF for their continued cooperation and support and also congratulated all Railwaymen for their performance and hard work.

***