Mumbai, Apr 16 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Railway Hari Singh Rathwa today awarded employees of Indian Railways for their outstanding service during the 53rd Railway Week celebrations here.

The National Awards for Outstanding Services 2008 were presented to 283 railway employees for their honesty and integrity in fulfilling their duty.

The awardees include Vijay Kumar Malviya, who lost both his legs while saving the life of a person in an accident, and late Raghubir Singh, who noticed broken fuel tubes of locomotive and mixture of hot steam and ash entering the cabin of the locomotive and stopped the luxury train ''Palace on Wheels''. He saved the lives of all the passengers but lost his life during the operation.

Southern Railway received a shield for Comprehensive Health Care, East Coast Railway received a Civil Engineering Shield and the Mechanical Engineering Shield was given to Central Railway.

Southern and Western Railway jointly won the Electrical Engineering Shield, while the Signal and Telecommunication Engineering Shield was jointly won by North Eastern and West Central Railway.

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