2017 batch IRTS officer Prashasti Srivastava has been honored with ‘Ati Vishisht Rail Seva Award’ by the Railway Ministry. It is the highest award of the Indian Railways.

Ms. Prashasti is presently posted as DCM (Divisional Commercial Manager) of Agra division, North Central Railway.

Informing about the news, she said that she will receive the award from the railway minister on December 15, 2023.

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The 30-year-old officer spearheaded the initiative of an inventive concept of conveyor belt used in loading and unloading of goods from wagon and saving time in freight train operations.

Ms. Srivastava said that the work has been done to increase the income of the Railways and improve the speed of goods trains. “I worked on the innovative idea. Then, I discussed it with our senior officers. After many important suggestions from them, the idea was started from Yamuna Bridge and Kuberpur Goods Shed as a pilot project in 2021-22,” she said.

The innovative idea started through a third party. The person working as a third party had to pay Rs. 5 lakh annually to the Railways. The third party will charge the conveyor service charge from the customer whose goods reached Yamuna Bridge Goods Shed through railway goods train.

The officer also said that the conveyor belt system increased the speed of loading and unloading goods from the wagon. Risks at the workplace reduced and labor costs also reduced. Moving freight racks are an asset. This generates revenue unlike stand steel racks waiting for loading and unloading. With conveyor belt system, a wagon is unloaded in 45 minutes and maximum in 6 hours.

When the pilot project in Agra Railway Division proved successful, it was sent to the Railway Board. Now the Railway Board has decided to start this project in all the goods sheds of its network. This itself speaks about the success of the pilot project led by Ms. Prashasti Srivastava.

WHO IS PRASHASTI SRIVASTAVA

Ms. Srivastava hails from Gorakhpur. Her father Pramod Kumar Srivastava is a retired government officer. Being in government service, he was transferred a lot. That is why, Ms. Srivastava studied in many cities.

Her grandfather Nanak Sahay was a railway man and served in Gorakhpur.

She did her high school and intermediate studies from St. Paul’s School, Etah.

Then she did Mechanical Engineering from the University of Greater Noida. After graduation, she started preparing for civil services. Her first choice was IAS, then IPS and Income Tax. Her fourth choice was IRTS.

After becoming an IRTS officer, she has taken many initiatives which have helped the common people. Under her leadership, the Agra Cantt and Mathura Junction stations have been made more accessible and friendly, keeping in mind the specially abled passengers. The initiatives include portable ramp and wheelchairs to board coaches, Braille indicators for platform numbers, reflective strips on stairs, Braille information books at the inquiry counter, and QR codes for videos in sign language.

Apart from this, under her leadership, Agra Division’s initiative to outsource reservation forms printing to private entity is proving to be successful. Under this initiative, a private firm will provide 21 lakhs reservation forms free of cost, plus revenue of 4.4 lakhs, to the Agra division.