Railways to shut down Nizam-era SCR press in Secunderabad

HYDERABAD: The Railway Board has decided to shut down the remaining railway printing presses across the country, including the Nizam-era South Central Railway (SCR) printing press in Secunderabad.
The SCR Press was first established by the Nizams in 1879 and was taken over by Indian government after 1950. It will be closed by March 31, 2020. The decision was conveyed to all the general managers of Indian Railways in a letter by Manoj Kumar Gupta, executive director of railway stores, Railway Board.The closure order also states that “the broad guidelines for implementation of the above decision of Railway Board has been duly agreed by chairman of the railway board.”

The SCR printing press began printing cardboard tickets, time-tables, forms and other documents for systemic functioning of railway operations from the Nizams’ period. The closure notice states that the unreserved and reserved tickets, time-tables, maps and other stationery materials which were being printed at the five presses would be outsourced to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association’s (IBA) authorised private printers.
The decision has not gone down well with the employee unions. “Closing down railway presses and going for privatisation will definitely hamper the systematic functioning of the railway operations. We strongly oppose the decision,” said K Srinivas, president, SCR Mazdoor Union.
According to a source in SCR, almost 98% of travel is done by unreserved tickets despite upgradation of ticketing system. “The major chunk of travel is done in unreserved category where passengers are issued tickets manually. Across the country, 340 crore unreserved tickets are being issued annually even till date, which means 10 lakh tickets are being issued per day,” he said.
The railway unions submitted a memorandum to SCR authorities, stating that closing down the press will damage railway system and affect workforce.