RailEnquiry

  Indian Railways News  / No pharmacy, internet at 2 railway stations - South India - Chennai - ibnlive

CHENNAI: They are the two major railway terminals linking Chennai with the rest of the country. Attracting over three lakh people every day, the city’s premier landmarks handle roughly 150 trains, and tens of thousands of passengers. However, the absence of a pharmacy is a blot on these stations, which otherwise have several first-of-its-kind initiatives to their names. What is more, neither Central nor Egmore has an Internet café, at a time when wi-fi facilities are offered even on board trains.
Picture this. A passenger who urgently requires his prescribed medicine after arriving at Central Railway Station must make his way to the congested Nainiappan Maistry Street, off Walltax Road, to find a pharmacy, spending at least 20 precious minutes. For a browsing centre he has to walk down to the adjacent Walltax Road, again 20 minutes. A few emergency medicines like paracetamol tablets and pain relievers are sold at a book stall in the station. 
Enquiries into the critical absence of these basic facilities revealed that three pharmacies were shut down in the last three years, and the lone Internet centre at the Central Railway Station run by RailTel Corporation of India Limited was closed about 12 months ago. The huge rent for the stall proved a constraint as the Internet centre generated hardly any income.
Apparently Egmore Railway Station too, after more than a century of servicing commuters, lacks these facilities, forcing hapless people to go to Kennet Lane, diagonally opposite 96the station. Though a pharmacy cum general shop is functioning close to the railway terminal, the net savvy must make it to the fag end of Kennet Lane to browse the Internet. When contacted, a senior official of Southern Railway stated that tenders had been floated for two pharmacies at Central and Egmore Railway Stations, which are yet to be finalised.

  Indian Railways News  / Northeast Frontier Railway earnings from catering service improves in 2011-12

GUWAHATI: The Northeast Frontier Railway has achieved a nearly four-fold jump in revenue from catering services during 2011-12 owing to better management and superivision of operations.

"During 2011-12, NFR earned Rs 8.57 crore as against Rs 1.83 crore earned during 2010-11 from pantry car catering system....which is a record breaking achievement," NF Railway Chief Public Relations Officer S Hajong said today.

He added that sales through static catering units at major stations under the NF Railway like New Tinsukia, Guwahati and New Jalpaiguri has also increased substantially after the Indian Railway took over catering units from the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

With a view to improve catering system in zone, the management of catering services was shifted from IRCTC to the zonal railways under the new Catering Policy 2010.

"The supervision and monitoring has been strengthened by the NF Railway by deploying railway personnel, who check quality and hygiene and take corrective action in a time-bound manner," Hajong said.

A Catering Monitoring Cell at the NF Railway headquarters in Maligaon, Guwahati, and divisional levels have been set up, which work round the clock to redress the passenger grievances.

Over 80 staff members deployed in both static and mobile catering units have been trained in catering skills under a collaboration with the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition Guwahati.

During the last financial year, about 331 special inspections were carried out and Rs 1.80 lakh were recovered as penalty from defaulting vending units, Hajong said.

  Indian Railways News  / 75 touts apprehended at rail premises

New Delhi : Intensifying the drive against touts and unauthorised travel agencies, Norther Railway has apprehended 75 persons for their alleged involvement in illegal sale of train tickets. "We have carried out special drive to prevent illegal sale of tickets at reservation and booking offices between April 2 and 20 and have apprehended 75 touts during the period," said a senior Northern Railway official. Apprehended touts are being prosecuted under Section 144 of Railway Act. Railways' vigilance team along with RPF have conducted the special drive to prevent touting activities during the summer rush. In the raid, two unauthorised travel agencies were apprehended and 12 tickets were recovered from them. "The persons present in the agencies were handed over to RPF for further prosecution under Section 143 of Railway Act," he said. Besides, 149 cases of travelling on transferred tickets were also detected and a sum of Rs 90,172 was realized from them during the checks. The drive will continue against the touting activities and the passengers travelling on the tickets purchased in the name of other passengers, said the official.

  Indian Railways News  / Delhi : Lucky passengers recall the harrowing moments

It was a nightmarish experience. And the feeling is yet to sink in that we have survived. Had the train caught fire following the derailment, there would have been many fatalities.Having escaped with minor injuries, passengers of the ill-fated Punjab Mail which derailed near Rohtak in Haryana in the early hours of Sunday consider themselves extremely fortunate to have survived to tell the tale.“It was a nightmarish experience. And the feeling is yet to sink in that we have survived. Had the train caught fire following the derailment, there would have been many fatalities,” said Rakesh Kumar (37), a Bathinda resident, travelling in S-10 coach of the Mumbai-bound Ferozpur-Mumbai Punjab Mail that derailed on the Rohtak-New Delhi section around 4 a.m.Mr. Kumar was on his way to Delhi along with his wife Manju (34), son Nikhil (14) and daughter Jasmine (16) when the mishap took place. “My daughter is under treatment at a hospital in Delhi for some skin disease and I often accompany her to the Capital. She had an appointment on Sunday and my wife and son also insisted on coming along. Minutes before the derailment my wife had got up to go the washroom and suddenly the train started shaking. Even before we could realise what was happening, our coach derailed and landed on its side. The lights went off and there was dust all around. It took us more than 30 minutes to find our way out of the coach. We lost our luggage as well, but who cares when life itself is at stake?,” said Mr. Kumar.

For a group of half-a-dozen labourers, who were on their way to Vrindavan in Mathura on the auspicious occasion of “Pooranmashi”, it was no less than a re-birth. “We had heard and read about accidents and derailments, but experienced it for the first time. It is as if we are out of the jaws of death,” said Subhash (40), a resident of Nehru Colony in Rohtak, who was travelling in a general coach along with his friends.

Anil (42), one of the friends of Subhash, said: “We pulled out several people from inside the derailed coaches even before the rescue teams and the police reached. Though it was pitch dark at the site, two policemen in the ladies coach were carrying torches which proved handy.”

A journey to their son's in-laws turned out to be a miserable experience for an elderly couple who along with their son were also injured in the mishap. “We had boarded the train at Kot Kapura for Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Suddenly the coach started shaking around 4 a.m. and passengers on the upper and middle berth fell on the floor. We somehow pushed ourselves out of the coach and were later taken to a hospital in Rohtak. Around noon, an ambulance took us to the New Delhi railway station where the station master helped us board another train to Gwalior. We managed to reach Gwalior at 4 p.m. Had the train not met with an accident, we could have reached around 10 a.m.,” Harjinder Singh (58) told The Hindu over phone.

Prem Sagar (63), an Agra resident, was pained more by the “apathetic” attitude of the administration than the injuries he received in the accident. “The treatment meted out to the injured at Rohtak hospital was unacceptable. I had severe pain in the knees and shoulders. When I asked for medicine, the hospital officials told me that it was Sunday and the chemist shop was closed. They asked me buy the medicines from the market outside. They offered me Rs.500 as financial assistance which I turned down. We were then packed into ambulances in groups of 7-8 people and sent to our respective destinations.”

  Indian Railways News  / Close shave for Duronto passengers

Passengers on New Delhi – Sealdah Duronto Express had a narrow escape after the train ran into a herd of cattle near the Ranigunj station on Friday afternoon. Though the train didn’t derail and there was no injury to passengers, the locomotive suffered some damage and had to be replaced before the train resumed its journey towards Sealdah. The train, which was already running behind schedule by over three and half hours when it reached Ranigunj, was further delayed by nearly two hours while the locomotive was replaced and necessary checks carried out.

    Sources in the railways claimed that the train might have derailed had it been moving even close to its top speed of 120 km per hour. Passengers were served sandwiches, fruit juice and bottled water at Durgapur after they complained of the delay. Some passengers also complained that the toilets had run out of water by the time the train started from Ranigunj.

    “The incident happened just outside the Ranigunj station after the train ran over a cow at 1.40 pm. The cow-catcher of the locomotive was damaged and had to be removed. The train started from the spot at 2.35 pm after all the coaches were checked for any damage. It reached Ranigunj station at 2.42 pm where the locomotive was replaced. It finally left Ranigunj at 3.25 pm. As there are no facilities on board the train to serve lunch to passengers, arrangements were made at Durgapur. Passengers were served meals there,” an Eastern Railway spokesperson said.

    According to experts, immediate steps need to be taken to prevent the movement of cattle on tracks used by high-speed trains like the Durontos and Rajdhanis. Unprotected tracks are a major problem due to which the railways are unable to run trains at top-speed.