Sub: Proposal of the Railway Ministry for closure of Railway Printing Presses, Restructuring of the Workshops and closure of Parel Workshop of Central Railway

 Consequent upon unfortunate stampede, that took place at Elphinstone Road Station of Mumbai Area on 29.09.2017, resulting in death toll of 23 rail commuters, a High Level Meeting was held by Hon’ble Minister for Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal Ji, wherein Chairman and other Railway Board officials also participated. Certain important decisions had reportedly been taken in the said meeting, including closure of Railway Printing Presses, Restructuring of the Railway Workshops and Closure of Parel Workshop of Central Railway to pave the way for a new Passenger Terminal at that location. …..

No.AIRF/24(C)                                                                                     Dated: October 26, 2017

The Member(Rolling Stock),

Railway Board,

New Delhi

 

Dear Sir,

Sub: Proposal of the Railway Ministry for closure of Railway Printing Presses, Restructuring of the Workshops and closure of Parel Workshop of Central Railway

 Consequent upon unfortunate stampede, that took place at Elphinstone Road Station of Mumbai Area on 29.09.2017, resulting in death toll of 23 rail commuters, a High Level Meeting was held by Hon’ble Minister for Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal Ji, wherein Chairman and other Railway Board officials also participated. Certain important decisions had reportedly been taken in the said meeting, including closure of Railway Printing Presses, Restructuring of the Railway Workshops and Closure of Parel Workshop of Central Railway to pave the way for a new Passenger Terminal at that location.

You might be aware that, there had been a decision of closure of the Railway Printing Presses around one decade back also. AIRF had strongly opposed the said proposal, and subsequently the issue was discussed threadbare with this federation by the Railway Board and an agreement was arrived at to continue with a number of Railway Printing Presses and side by side closing a few which became obsolete at that time. It was further decided to augment and modernize 05 Railway Printing Presses, for which a substantial amount was also sanctioned for procurement and installation of latest printing machineries. As a consequence of the said decision, crorers of rupees have been spent by the Ministry of Railway for procurement of latest and modernized printing presses and some of such new machines have already been installed, the manpower of these printing presses is in the process of undergoing training to work on these machines or have since completed the same.

At this juncture of time, sudden decision to close all the printing presses, including those which have been augmented and modernized would not only result in sheer wastage of substantial railway revenue as also pose unwarranted problem of staff redeployment. This may also result in dislocation of the staff and their families as well.

It may also be recalled that, Parel Workshop of Central Railway is located at a prime location, and this Workshop was established way back in the year 1879 by the Britishers and is spread over 47 acres of land. A railway colony is also situated in the vicinity of said Workshop, covering an area of around 15 acres of land, wherein thousands of Railwaymen and their family members, including school going children and aged parents are residing. Sudden closure of this workshop is also likely to directly hurt around 3,000 staff working in this workshop and their families would also be uprooted, who are residing there for decades together.

Here it is also worth to point it out that, workers of Parel Workshop have always stood all the times and adopted all the technologies advised by the high-ups.

Since the above-mentioned issues are of prime importance, involving the staff matters, it would not be proper to take any arbitrary decision without consulting the organized labour.

This federation, therefore, urges upon not to take any arbitrary decision without considering the pros and cones and far reaching consequences of closure of Railway Printing Presses and Parel Workshop of Central Railway and this issue be discussed threadbare with the federation before taking any further decision in the matter.

This may kindly be treated as “Most Urgent”.

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