GUWAHATI, July 28 - Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has expanded the recently launched �Train Captain� concept to cover around a dozen long-distance and premium trains and is looking to bring more trains under this concept.
Besides two New Delhi-Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express trains and the two Shatabdis, the Train Captain scheme has also been implemented in the 15603 Guwahati-Ledo- Intercity Express, the 55615 Guwahati-Silchar Fast Passenger, the 15601 Silchar-New Delhi Poorvottar Sampark Kranti Express, the 12501 Guwahati-New Delhi Poorvottar Sampark Kranti Express, the 15611 Guwahati-Silchar Express, the 15665 Guwahati-Dimapur BG Express and the 12503 Agartala-Bangalore Cantonment-Agartala Humsafar Express.
�The response to the Train Captain concept has received very good response from the commuters. So, depending on the feedback from the commuters we may extend the scheme to other premium trains also in the coming days,� Pranav Jyoti Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of NFR told The Assam Tribune.
NFR had last month introduced Train Captains in premium trains. The 12423 Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express was the first train where the concept was introduced.
It came after the Railway Board directed all zonal railways to introduce the service of Train Captains on priority basis in all important trains.
The Train Captain is the overall in-charge of the train and he or she is responsible for ensuring all amenities provided by railways to the passengers and coordinating with all onboard teams during the complete journey of the train.
�Long distance Mail and Express trains have a large group or team of railway personnel and outsourced staff on board for offering various services to the passengers and to provide maintenance on run. The concept of Train Captain was introduced in order to have a single person or leader responsible for coordinating the entire team and facilitating all services during the complete journey of the train,� Sharma said.
All on board railway personnel and supervisors of all outsourced agencies report to the Train Captain for effective control and supervision.
The Train Captain is tasked to ensure that the coaches are properly manned and that staff are in proper uniform and perform their duties properly.
The Train Captain is tasked to allot vacant berths to RAC passengers, ensure correct realisation of dues by TTEs and conductors, report to higher authorities about staff who fail to perform their duties, coordinate the work of all team members, carry out quick inspections to ensure that the passenger amenities are in proper working order, take steps for rectification of any shortcomings in passenger amenities, ensure cleanliness of coaches, bathrooms, ensure proper pre-cooling of AC coaches before start of journey, etc.
The official has to maintain a complaint book and make it available to any passengers for recording complaints and ensure their redressal, carry out quality check of food and cleanliness of utensils, ensure timely serving of meals, check prices in menus, take action against anybody violating rules regarding prohibition on use of tobacco products on trains, prevent unauthorised hawking and begging on trains, guide passengers to GRP escort party or else make a blank FIR available to passengers in case of theft of luggage or other items and look at safety aspects like availability of fire fighting equipment aboard trains, among other things.
