ProUI

Lakhimpur, Aug 22 (PTI) An elephant was today crushed under the wheels of the Gokul Express in the Manjhra Purab range of Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, an official said.

"A probe into the matter has been initiated and if the train driver is found guilty, appropriate legal action would be taken," Divisional Forest Officer of the sanctuary, Ashish, told PTI.

He added that the aged tusker was trying to cross the railway tracks near Khairatia railway station when the incident occurred.

Southern Railway will ask Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES), a public sector consultancy firm to study the feasibility of converting Royapuram railway station into a terminal and retain it as a heritage structure.Speaking at a press meet in the city on Wednesday, Surya Prakash Reddy, minister of state for railways and divisional railway manager Pradeep Kumar Mishra said a decision regarding the station would be arrived at once the study was completed.“It will be difficult to convert the station into a terminal, as it is quite small. The process will not be easy,” Mr. Reddy said.Officials from RITES said they had not received any formal work order from Southern Railway as of now. “Once we get the work order we will decide on how to go about the study,” an official said.The Royapuram station is the oldest in the country and was inaugurated on July 1, 1856. As per the city’s list of heritage structures, the station is under the Grade I category.

Earlier, there were plans made to demolish the structure for various development projects.

Two new platforms

In another announcement, Mr. Mishra said that the Moore Market Complex (MMC) suburban railway station will get two new platforms and the number of tracks from it to Basin Bridge station will also be increased.

As of now, there are four lines between these two stations and this will be increased to six.

On an average, over 2 lakh commuters use the MMC station every day, and 275 services are operated from here. “As of now trains get delayed as there is not enough space for many trains in the station. This causes considerable delays,” said a senior railway official.

Tenders will soon be called for to start work on the two new platforms. According to officials, the work is expected to begin in the next few months and is expected to be completed by April next year.

“The benefit of the additional platforms will be that services will be on time and the number of services can be increased later,” said the official.

Mr. Reddy also said the all the unmanned and manned level crossings in the city and State will be replaced with rail underbridges or overbridges. “There are over 880 level crossings in the State and 35 in Chennai. All of these will be replaced in a phased manner,” he said.

He said that the process of converting Chennai Central station into a world-class facility was also on.

“As of now many projects have been delayed due to lack of funds,” he said.

Consultant to determine feasibility of converting building into terminal and retaining it as heritage structure

Lakhimpur, Aug 22 (PTI) An elephant was today crushed under the wheels of the Gokul Express in the Manjhra Purab range of Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, an official said.

"A probe into the matter has been initiated and if the train driver is found guilty, appropriate legal action would be taken," Divisional Forest Officer of the sanctuary, Ashish, told PTI.

He added that the aged tusker was trying to cross the railway tracks near Khairatia railway station when the incident occurred.

The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed two persons to pay costs of Rs.25,000 each to the railways for unnecessarily dragging it into a litigation.

Justice K.K.Sasidharan passed the order while dismissing a plea by P.Arunodayam and N.Kasturi seeking to restrain the ICF from claiming any right over their lands at Villivakkam here.Earlier, the petitioners had been requested by the authorities to hand over about five grounds on the northern boundary of their patta land abutting ICF compound wall for straightening the Otteri Nulla by the State government. They were offered alternative lands. The petitioners handed over the lands to the Revenue department.Mr.Justice Sasidharan said the petitioners were trespassers in respect of the lands owned by the railways. They had approached the court with a false claim and wanted the court to believe that their predecessor was in possession of the lands on the basis of patta issued.Now that it was evident that their predecessor had no right in respect of the lands, it should be construed that the petitioners also had no right. The government proceeded in the matter as if the property belonged to the petitioners. The petitioners’ claim was now found wrong by the documents produced by the railways. The petitioners were successors of land-grabbers. They were liable to pay costs to the railways by September 30, he said.

A 24-year-old woman was delivered of a male baby in the general compartment of Kacheguda–Mangalore (Weekly) special at Salem Railway Junction here on early Wednesday morning.

Sabeena was returning home from her parent’s house in Hyderabad in Mallapuram. When the train arrived at the junction at around 1 a.m., she developed labour pain. Her relatives informed the railway police who informed the station doctor.

Crack noticed at welding point

Three trains were delayed as a crack was noticed at the welding point in the railway track between Alakudi and Budalur on Wednesday morning.After Mysore-Mayiladuthurai train passed, the crack was noticed and railway engineers rushed to the spot.As the work was going on, Chennai-Kumbakonam Rockfort Express train was detained at Budalur station for 25 minutes. Tiruchi-Nagore passenger and Thanjavur-Tiruchi passenger departed from Tiruchi junction and Thanjavur junction after a delay of half an hour.Train service was resumed after the repair work was completed.A goods train was detained at Budalur station.As the railway gate at Budalur was closed for half an hour, traffic was also affected.

In view of the commencement of works for the construction of road over bridge from August 25, the Kondayyapalem railway gate will be closed for vehicular staff from 10 p.m. on August 24. The vehicular traffic will be diverted through Atchyuthapuram gate and Two-Town bridge till the completion of the construction works, according to a railway press release issued here on Wednesday.

Suburban train services

The State Cabinet gave its green signal for a feasibility study on suburban train services between Thiruvananthapuram and Chengannur as well as Thiruvananthapuram and Harippad on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the media after the Cabinet meeting that the project was proposed to be taken up as a joint venture between the Indian Railways and the State Government.

A special purpose vehicle (company) would be formed with participation of the government and the Railways for implementation.

The feasibility study would be entrusted to the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation, a joint venture of the Railways and the Maharashtra government operating suburban services in Mumbai.

The Chief Minister said that platforms and other facilities would have to be upgraded and automatic signalling system introduced to facilitate running of Mainline Electrical Multiple Units (MEMU) continuously during peak hours.

The MEMUs would stop at 25 stations along the route.

Mr. Chandy said that double lines of the existing railway network would be sufficient for the services. Services would be scheduled in such a way as not to affect the passenger and express train services along the routes. However, the timing of goods trains would have to be altered.

He said that as per rough calculations, the cost of the project would be about Rs.20 crore a km.

This was lower than that for other projects such as the proposed north-south high speed railway corridor. The Cabinet had taken the decision based on preliminary report submitted by Biju Prabhakar who had visited Mumbai to study the suburban system there and hold discussions with Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation.

The Chief Minister said that he had met Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge along with K. Sudhakaran and M.I. Shanavas, MPS, in Delhi and submitted a memorandum listing the State’s demands for railway development, including formation of a railway zone in the State.

The Railways were complaining of delays in land acquisition in the State and difficulties in getting earth for filling and quarrying.

Road repair

Mr. Chandy said the roads damaged in heavy rain across the State would be repaired in a month. The Cabinet had given administrative sanction for works totalling Rs.431 crore. It had also decided to release Rs.200 crore additionally. Minister for Public Works V.K. Ebrahim Kunju was visiting the districts to review restoration works. He had already visited seven districts and would be visiting the rest of the district by the end of this month.


Project proposed as a joint venture between Railways and State

Special purpose vehicle envisaged

In view of the commencement of works for the construction of road over bridge from August 25, the Kondayyapalem railway gate will be closed for vehicular staff from 10 p.m. on August 24. The vehicular traffic will be diverted through Atchyuthapuram gate and Two-Town bridge till the completion of the construction works, according to a railway press release issued here on Wednesday.

The State Highways Department is set to call for tenders for the construction of the new road over bridge (ROB) across the Railway track at Periyar Nagar on the Thiruvanaikovil Trunk Road in the city next month.The Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, a public sector undertaking, will construct the Railway portion of the proposed ROB. The public sector undertaking will undertake the task as it is currently executing the track doubling work on the Villupuram-Dindigul section and the railway crossing forms part of the section, sources in the State Highways Department told The Hindu . Normally, the Railways takes up the responsibility of building the portion of ROBs on its land under projects taken up with the Highways Department.The new four-lane ROB will replace the existing narrow two-lane bridge that has turned a major traffic bottleneck in Srirangam in recent years. Commuters have been facing an ordeal everyday owing to the frequent traffic snarls on the road. Traffic hold ups often occur on the weak and narrow bridge over the railway track at Periyar Nagar.

Highways Department sources also indicated that the tender for the new bridge will be called next month as the estimates have been readied and sent for approval. The State government has already accorded administrative sanction for the new bridge at an estimated cost of Rs.43 crore. Indications are that the project cost could be higher given the rise in land cost. However, only a limited area is to be acquired for the project as a substantial portion of the required lands are government held. The land plan schedule for the ROB has already been submitted to the government to be forwarded to the government for approval.

The Highways Department is now planning to take up the construction of a subway first at the project site so as to ensure that vehicles passing through the busy road could be the diverted through it. “We have decided to raise the height of subway to nearly four metres against the normal height of 2.5 metres so that even buses can be operated through it,” said an officer of the department.

This means that the department will not have to wait for the completion of the ROB currently under construction on the Oyamari Road along the Cauvery bank as originally felt.