Indian Railways has faced increasing criticism for late-running trains in recent months. (File)
Railways' premium trains Shatabdi and Rajdhani ran around 30 per cent and 22 per cent late respectively during the last two months, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain informed Rajya Sabha today.
The minister said that between April and June, the punctuality of trains was affected due to large scale maintenance work being carried out on the tracks.
He said railways took 4.6 lakh hours for such work during April-June 2018 as against 4.11 lakh hours during the same period in 2017. It is 11.89 per cent more than the last year.
"Various steps have been initiated to improve punctuality such as prioritisation of preventive maintenance of assets to minimise asset failures, capacity enhancement projects by construction of additional loop lines at stations, construction of third line corridors... Besides, punctuality drives are launched from time to time and staff involved in train operations are sensitised," he said.
In the last two months, while 70 per cent Rajdhani trains running in the south east central zone were late, 64 per cent of Shatabdi trains running through the eastern zone were delayed.
None of the Rajdhani trains running in south central zone remained 100 per cent on time while Shatabdis running in the south eastern zone recorded a punctuality of almost 92 per cent.