MUMBAI, August 11: The Central Railway will announce within eight days a revised time-table, with appropriate amendments after talks with passengers' associations.

Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde announced the decision, after a meeting with railway officials, at a press conference today. Also, railway districts will be reorganised to enable the police to better handle commuters' agitation.

Till date, there are only three districts: Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. ``This resulted in much hardship since Thane district had to be supervised from Pune, while Nagpur was in charge of the rest of the state. Now, Thane will have its own district. There will be a separate district for Vidarbha and a third district will handle Sambhajinagar to Nashik section,'' said Munde.The Deputy CM made the announcement in the backdrop of recent agitations on the Central Railway, which culminated in a go-slow agitation by CR station masters.

Castigating the railways for failing to give an advance intimation of the station master's agitation, Munde assured that in future there would be a better communication between the two, so that such agitations can be better handled. ``A strategy to handle the situation should have been worked out.

Advance notice to the commuters should have been telecast,'' he said.Munde, who is also in charge of home affairs, observed that the time-table was delayed this year. While earlier time-tables were released by July 1, this year it was delayed by a month. He disclosed that the Central Government, which is expected to foot 50 per cent of the expenditure on the railways, has not been keeping its commitments. ``The railways have not sanctioned about 1888 police posts, even though we are paying their salaries,'' he said. According to him, the railways have not sanctioned any post since 1979 and the Central Government owes the state government Rs 72 crore. A total of only 4884 posts have been sanctioned by the Railways, while an extra 1888 has been working for the state. Of these, the largest number (1574) is within Mumbai. Maharashtra today has a total railway police force of 6772.

On MUTP-II, Munde said the draft on the Mumbai Rail Development Corporation (MRDC), a separate board for suburban services, is waiting the central cabinet's approval adding that the World Bank aid will not come if a separate board is not approved.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.