ProUI

बिहार का एक रेल पुल ऐसा है, जहां के ट्रेनों का आवागमन जानवर तय करते हैं। इनकी मर्जी के बिना ट्रेन यहां से नहीं गुजरती है। कई दफा ऐसा होता है कि ये जानवर जब ठान लेते हैं तो ट्रेन घंटों यहां पर रूक जाया करती है। आपको भले यकीन न हो, लेकिन यह सौ फीसदी सच है।

कानपुर। रेलवे प्रशासन ने लंबी दूरी की ट्रेनों में बढ़ती प्रतीक्षा सूची के मद्देनजर पांच जोड़ी ट्रेनों में अतिरिक्त स्लीपर कोच लगाने का फैसला किया है। वाराणसी के मुख्य जनसंपर्क अधिकारी ने इसकी पुष्टि की है।

स्टेशन अधीक्षक मेवालाल ने बताया कि 5023 गोरखपुर यशवंतपुर एक्सप्रेस में 20 अगस्त से एक अतिरिक्त स्लीपर, 5024 यशवंतपुर-गोरखपुर एक्सप्रेस में 22 अगस्त से , 5014 काठगोदाम-भगत की कोठी एक्सप्रेस में 21 अगस्त को एक अतिरिक्त स्लीपर, 5013 भगत कोठी एक्सप्रेस में 21 और 23 अगस्त को एक स्लीपर, 2541 गोरखपुर-एलटीटी एक्सप्रेस में 21 अगस्त, 2542 एलटीटी-गोरखपुर एक्सप्रेस में 23 अगस्त से एक-एक स्लीपर कोच, 5004 चौरीचौरा एक्सप्रेस में 21 अगस्त को गोरखपुर से एक स्लीपर और 5003 चौरीचौरा एक्सप्रेस में 22 अगस्त को कानपुर अनवरगंज से एक अतिरिक्त कोच, 2589 गोरखपुर-सिकंदराबाद एक्सप्रेस में 21 अगस्त और 2590 गोरखपुर-सिकंदराबाद एक्सप्रेस में 23 अगस्त को सिकंदराबाद से अतिरिक्त कोच लगाया जाएगा।

Sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Eastern Region, carried out a raid at the Sealdah station on Wednesday morning and seized 7.5kg of high-grade hashish from Manali in Himachal Pradesh, valued at Rs 2.63 crore in te international market.
    The drug was being carried by two passengers of the Rajdhani Express. The two, residents of Thakurpukur, have been arrested. Sources revealed that the haul was one of the largest in recent times and the first one on a train like the Rajdhani Express. The seized hashish, said sources, was of the ‘Malana Cream’ variety, that fetches Rs 30lakh to Rs 35 lakh per kilo in the international market.
    “The NCB was assisted by Railway Protection Force (RPF) officers and personnel from the Sealdah Division of Eastern Railway (ER). Soon after the Rajdhani Express arrived at the station, Rina Dolui (25) and Steafen (40) were arrested. They were booked in berths 37 and 38 of the AC-III tier B6 coach of the train. Their ticket was booked from Delhi,” said an Eastern Railway official.
    NCB officials confirmed that the two were part of an inter-state drugrunning racket. The raid was carried out on the basis of specific information, said a source.
    “The duo are part of an organized gang. They are lower-rung members and carried the drugs with them. In the past, we have arrested other members of this gang. Many of them are still behind bars. We have also carried out raids in Manali to arrest members of this gang. This is a major haul as 7.5kg of hashish is rarely seized in one raid,” said S Biswas, zonal director, NCB, Eastern Region.

गोमती एक्सप्रेस में सीट को लेकर मारपीट

कानपुर। गोमती एक्सप्रेस में सीट पर बैठने को लेकर यात्रियों में मारपीट हो गई। एक पक्ष ने दो बार चेनपुलिंग करके ट्रेन को रोका। पुलिस ने टिकट धारक को सीट खाली करवा दी। तब जाकर ट्रेन निर्धारित समय से आधा घंटे बाद रवाना हुई। बुधवार सुबह 6:50 बजे गोमती एक्सप्रेस सेंट्रल स्टेशन के प्लेटफार्म नंबर सात पर आई। तभी डी-12 कोच की सीट नंबर 74 पर राकेश और उनका परिवार बैठने को चढ़ा। पर इस सीट पर पहले से ही दैनिक यात्री जमे थे। राकेश ने टिकट दिखाया फिर भी दैनिक यात्री सीट से नहीं हटे। इस बात को लेकर पहले कहासुनी हुई और इसके बाद मारपीट होने लगी। टीटी के मौके पर नहीं पहुंचने पर ट्रेन चलते ही राकेश ने चेनपुलिंग करवा दी। ट्रेन चली तो फिर चेनपुलिंग हुई। इसके बाद टीटी और पुलिस मौके पर गई और जबरन सीट घेरे बैठे यात्रियों को हटवाया। तब जाकर ट्रेन सुबह साढ़े सात बजे रवाना हुई।
•कई रूटों पर यात्री लोड बढ़ने से आवागमन में हुई दिक्कत

Thiruvananthapuram: A study has indicated that the suburban railway project was more economical than building highways in the state. The preliminary report was prepared by Food Security Commissioner Biju Prabhakar for the government.

The report said that the suburban railway project would cost only one tenth of the proposed metro and mono-rail projects. The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation was entrusted with conducting feasibility studies on the project based on the preliminary report submitted by Prabhakar.

The report said that while metro and mono-rail projects could cost between Rs 100 to Rs 250 crores per kilometre, the suburban railway project would cost about Rs 20 crores to Rs 25 crores per kilometre. While building highways would cost about Rs 12 crores per kilometer, its costs would increase by many times considering costs for land acquisition. The report also went on to say that the first phase of the project connecting Thiruvananthapuram and Chengannur would cost a maximum of Rs 2500 crores while the 20-km monorail stretch in Thiruvananthapuram would cost about Rs 3500 crores.

The report also called for the creation of a special purpose vehicle that would bring together the state government and the railways to work on the project.

Thiruvananthapuram: A study has indicated that the suburban railway project was more economical than building highways in the state. The preliminary report was prepared by Food Security Commissioner Biju Prabhakar for the government.

The report said that the suburban railway project would cost only one tenth of the proposed metro and mono-rail projects. The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation was entrusted with conducting feasibility studies on the project based on the preliminary report submitted by Prabhakar.

The report said that while metro and mono-rail projects could cost between Rs 100 to Rs 250 crores per kilometre, the suburban railway project would cost about Rs 20 crores to Rs 25 crores per kilometre. While building highways would cost about Rs 12 crores per kilometer, its costs would increase by many times considering costs for land acquisition. The report also went on to say that the first phase of the project connecting Thiruvananthapuram and Chengannur would cost a maximum of Rs 2500 crores while the 20-km monorail stretch in Thiruvananthapuram would cost about Rs 3500 crores.

The report also called for the creation of a special purpose vehicle that would bring together the state government and the railways to work on the project.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State government and the Indian Railways will form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for exploring the possibility of starting suburban Memu services between Thiruvananthapuram and Chengannur and Thiruvananthapuram and Harippad. The state cabinet decided to entrust the task of conducting a feasibility study in this regard with the Mumabi Rail Vikas Corporation Ltd.

“The idea is to have an automatic signalling system and operate Memu services in these routes during the peak hours,” chief minister Oommen Chandy told reporters after the cabinet meeting. The idea is to go for a complete maintenance of the existing railway line and also the maintenance of the stations along these routes.

The government had send food safety commissioner Biju Prabhakar to Mumbai to study the Memu services being operated there. The state cabinet discussed the report submitted by him to the chief secretary and decided to go for a feasibility study for launching a similar service in the state.

“As per rough estimates, the project would cost Rs 20 crore per kilometer. The distance between Thiruvananthapuram and Chengannur is 110 km. The state government will have to source the fund for the project and hence it has been decided to explore the possibility of mobilizing funds for the same. The Memu service option is much cheaper when compared to metro rail and monorail,” said the Chief Minister.

The idea is to have maximum stoppages for the Memu service without affecting regular express and passenger train traffic. The service will benefit daily short distance commuters if it is operated during peak hours. There are at least 25 railway stations between Thiruvananthapuram and Chengannur. The main task will be the renovation of these 25 stations which would incur a heavy expenditure, he added.

It’s criminal to blame others when your own house is not properly set.  It’s absurd if you take up others for no fault of them, when your own face is carrying the image of a culprit.  Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, MOSR has disputed the number of pilgrims dead in the mind-numbing accident at Bihar’s Dhamara Ghat station on Monday; he has blatantly held the state government responsible for not alerting it to the size of pilgrims who may travel that day; and has announced that new platforms and foot over-bridges would be built and a better public address system put in place.  It looks safety is not necessarily a systemic issue for Railways but something it attends to only on a case-by-case basis at some particular “incident” and not “accident”.  If such incident / accidents were not to happen, the thought of safety would not arise!

This is a jaw-dropper for the nation. The question is “Why all these Passenger Amenities, only NOW?  Why not earlier?” It is easy to make mincemeat of his utterances because he also added that with the Centre-provided funds under the Prime Minister’s Grameen Sadak Yojana, Bihar could have built a road network instead of “where the railways is the only mode of transport”. In short, according to him, the Indian Railways knew the ‘Shravan rush’ in that particular station’s geography and was very well aware of the pilgrims rush, and was not culpable in the tragedy at all!…

Here’s a rebuttal. One:  Railways has its own mechanism in place wherein from the Pointmen to Asst.Station Master, Station Master and other Safety, Traffic, Commercial, Mechanical, P-Way, Openline, Telecom and Signalling Staff each traveling and inspecting in that particular section almost on daily basis (ipso facto a practice in Railways since its existence), how come Mr.Choudhury claim that the accident happened due to sheer neglect of the State Government in not building the roads and in not alerting the Railways. Can anyone buy his comment? Never. He should have asked his own Zonal Railway and Divisional Railway authorities as to why a “Caution Order” and “Speed Restriction” not issued to Station Masters, Drivers and Guards (a normal practice in Railways during the engineering/signalling works etc) on that particular section while knowing that particular “Shravan rush” occasion falls once in an year and huge pilgrims gathers at that station?

Two:  it is not the number of dead that is the matter. Even if only one person were to die, it should be a matter of serious concern when that “only mode” is State-owned. A higher toll does not necessarily add to the gravity of poor management except that they add to the worsening statistics.

Three: being the “only mode” of transport, the transporter who is increasingly pretending to be a commercially-run corporate entity ought to know the demands on the system, especially since these are festivities on the calendar. These are not one-off events which can surprise the railways.

Four: whether the Bihar administration, held as a model of good governance, builds the roads or not is not the railway’s concern, unless, of course, unable to cope with the press of passengers, the ministry, of which he is the second nodal point after the full-fledged minister, had discussed this specific issue.

Five:, the railways, in business for 160 years almost to the day when the accident took place, cannot now suddenly spring up with the clarity that the place needed new platforms, foot over-bridges and a better public address system. His ministry even tried to pass it off as an ‘incident’, which meant the victims needn’t be compensated; only if it was an accident, there is a liability.

Six:  Dhamgara Ghat railway station, which is famous for the Katyayani temple, barely 400 meters away from the station, is a pathetic tale of neglect and apathy. Girded up by rivers, it is virtually an island, and rail is the only link to this place. On either side of this place that is between Koparia and Dhamara Ghat and again between Dhamara and Badlaghat, a stretch of 14 km, there is no road. The inhabitants trek the area through two abandoned bridges across rivers Bagmati and Kosi. “You cannot even afford a bicycle,” said one Rambabu Mishra. Often people take country boats to reach the station,” said Navin Kumar, who lives near the Katyayani temple.

Even to a lay ear, these utterances, surprising as they are, reveal how the transporter was passing the buck and shirking its responsibility. The points made by Chowdhury actually tantamount to an admission that the system over which he is a key leader has been lax in the very specific areas he touched upon.

It gives an impression that to Indian Railways, safety is not necessarily a systemic issue but something it attends to on a case-by-case basis. If accidents were not to happen – and I concede this is a macabre thought — the thought of safety would not arise. Otherwise, it would be happy to plod along with its unsafe bridges, unmanned railway crossings, poorly maintained coaches, et al as if all was well.

It is more than surprising that 90% Birdges on Indian Railways have ‘Caution Orders’ and ‘Speed Restrictions’ being issued since last 15 years, year on year.  Does this speak anything fair on Indian Railways?  

To a network which criss-crosses the country, even such simple matters as eliminating the death traps called unmanned level crossings is a slow work in progress. Recently, it was reported that the country has 12,582 of them (amounting 40 per cent of all crossings), and eliminating 10,797 of them by 2017 was an ‘ambitious’ target.

To add to this, we have the railway minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, saying that if the state governments shared the costs, by chipping in with 50 per cent of the estimates, his organisation would even build bridges. It is as if once the railways gets the right of way to plough through a region, everything else, including safety, becomes someone else’s responsibility!

Indian Railways, apart from doling out top posts allegedly for phenomenal bribes, has a bigger responsibility to the nation, of running a safe system. Had it been a private operator, would the government have been so lax about the standards of operations? Not at all, and the licence of such a private operator would have been cancelled by now and a criminal case would have been imposed on such aspiring party. Simply because Railways is a Central Government-owned does not mean that it can get away with anything at its whims and fancies.

Apart from financial implications, it is a mindset issue.

That’s why nation cannot buy Chowdhury’s absurd views.

HARYANA: Union Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury today said Rs 2,200 crore would be spent on construction of the Rail Coach Factory at Sonipat in the state.

The annual manufacturing capacity of the factory would be 1,000 coaches, but initially it would manufacture 400 coaches in a year, he said, lauding Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for providing 400 acres of land for the factory.

Expressing regret about loss of life in rail accidents, Chowdhury said the entire department feels extremely pained and hurt due to the incidents like the one in Bihar.

However, he said, it is no fault of Railways and that people should not violate rules and cross railway tracks.

"Railways could lay tracks across the country, run trains on it and provide better facilities to passengers, but maintaining law and order is the responsibility of state governments concerned," he said, according to an official release.

The Minister said half of the expenses incurred for deputing police force by the state governments for maintaining law and order are borne by the Centre.

Appealing to the people to always use over bridges for crossing rail tracks, the Minister said, "Sufficient security arrangements even on small stations are our responsibility, but cooperation from the state government is needed to maintain such arrangements."

Madras High Court today dismissed a petition which falsely claimed a land actually belonging to the Railways and imposed a cost of Rs 50,000.

Justice K K Sasidharan, who passed the order on a petition filed by P Arunodayam and N Kasturi, said they were rank trespassers in respect of the land claimed by them and dismissed the petition and further directed them to pay cost to the Railways before September 30.

The case related to a land in Villivakkam, which was acquired by the government for Railways vide a notification dated January 22, 1958. But the petitioners have produced a sale deed dated December 1, 1995 executed by one C Narayanasamy in favour of their mother.

The document was bereft of details as to how the seller got this property. The petitioners obtained patta for the land in question, which was issued without giving any notice to Railways which was already acquired for it.

He further said the claim of the petitioners was found to be wrong by the documents produced by Railways.

The Judge also said the writ petition was clearly misconceived. On the issue of Patta the judge said the predecessor-in-interest of the petitioners succeeded in getting the patta on account of the Assistance given by the revenue officials and the greedy officials of Tamil Nadu Housing Board.

The Judge said the petitioners unnecessarily dragged the Railways to litigation and dismissed the petition with cost.