The Union Minister of Railways & Coal, Piyush Goyal distributed awards to winning stations of Station Beautification competition in Rail Bhawan today. This innovative competition was organized among Zonal Railways in December 2017. Balharshah & Chandrapur Railway Stations of Central Railway have been awarded the first prize while Madhubani station of East Central Railway & Madurai station of Southern Railway were the co-winners of the second prize. Gandhidham station of Western Railway, Kota station of West Central Railway & Secunderabad station of South Central Railway were joint winners of the third prize. The Minister, Shri Piyush Goyal felicitated the artists who participated in this initiative by giving them cash awards & appreciation certificates. Minister of State of Railways, Shri Rajen Gohain, Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Ashwani Lohani & other Senior Railway Board officials were also present on the occasion. Shri Piyush Goyal also unveiled booklet containing photographs of all such stations which have been beautified under this endeavor.
Under the guidance of Minister of Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal, Indian Railways has launched an innovative initiative for the station beautification with wall art of paints and graffiti or local arts with participation of local artists, private groups and volunteers. More than 62 stations across Zonal railways have been beautified under this initiative by utilizing skills of local artists, mostly using local art form, painting style, local themes or contemporary arts. This initiative provided forum for expression of the emerging talents in the area and visibility of local art forms to the travellers.An evaluation committee of senior officials of Ministry of Railways was constituted to judge the entries of the stations who participated in this initiative. The entries were evaluated on the basis of a number of criterion including depiction of local subjects, culture & themes, Overall harmony of art with the station colours, type of art form used, quality of work done.The award winning entries for the grant of awards given away today were selected on the basis of the recommendations of this committee which were approved by Chairman, Railway Board.
As a token of appreciation, the prize winning entries were awarded the following cash prize:-
1st Prize: Balharshah & Chandrapur Railway stations (Central Railway) – Rs.10 Lakhs.
2nd Prize: Madhubani Railway station (East Central Railway) & Madurai Railway station (Southern Railway) – Rs. 5 Lakhs.
3rd Prize: Gandhidham Railway station (Western Railway), Kota Railway station (West Central Railway) & Secunderabad Railway station (South Central Railway) – Rs. 3 Lakhs.
On this occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal also launched the Bridge Management System (IR-BMS). This is a web-enabled IT Application for meaningful assimilation, analysis and dissemination of information related to various activities like Bridge Master Data, works Data, Inspection/Monitoring and Maintenance of the bridges of Indian Railways. Three technical booklets viz. Ultrasonic Testing Pamphlet, AT Welding Pamphlet, Flash Butt Welding Technical Pamphlet were also unveiled by the Minister.