Indian Railways (IR) has set a target of achieving 90% punctuality of trains by 1 November, after the score slipped to around 65% in the last three months.

The operator has also set a deadline of 1 December to solve all its catering issues and 2 October to achieve cleanliness in trains and stations.

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Indian Union Minister of Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal stated in a review meeting with some railway zones that all areas will have to achieve the set goals.

Up until a few months ago, the company reported a punctuality of 80% and above, which has been the average rate for the last ten years. However, things have slipped in recent months, with long-route trains running late by up to 20 hours or more.

According to Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani, the punctuality score has dropped due to several maintenance works, as well as the implementation of automatic reporting through data loggers.

“The minister made it clear that no laxity will be tolerated by the zones in achieving the punctuality target.”

Punctuality reports were previously recorded manually, increasing chances of misreporting, but the department has now adopted data loggers, and 90% of punctuality figures are auto-generated through the loggers.

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A railway official told Press Trust of India: “In the meeting, the minister made it clear that no laxity will be tolerated by the zones in achieving the punctuality target. He also said that reasonable cleanliness should be seen on station premises by October 2.

“The zones said that addressing catering issues would take time as base kitchens need to be set up, so they have been given a longer time.”

The Indian railroad network has more than 8,000 stations across the country.