ProUI

The sole city counter of South Eastern Railway (SER), Ranchi division, near Kutchery Chowk, which used to issue general or unreserved tickets, is out of action for over a year. Don’t believe the signboard that claims otherwise.
No one has bothered to remove the signboard that reads “dakshin purvi railway jansadharan ticket booking”.
Last week, Pithoria resident Sudarshan Mahto discovered the signboard was misleading the hard way.
He wanted to buy an unreserved ticket for the Jasidih-bound Ranchi-Baidyanathdham Express (13320), which departs from Ranchi station at 1.25pm.
“A friend told me I could buy a ticket from the city counter near Kutchery. So I got down at Ratu Road bus stand around noon, took a rickshaw to the booking counter, read the signboard and then discovered the service has stopped,” Mahto said, adding he then hurried to the station.
S.K. Dwivedi, who owns the Kutchery counter, said he had taken the franchisee to book general tickets from SER, Ranchi division, in 2009.
“I am sorry for not removing the signboard,” Dwivedi toldThe Telegraph.
“But it is a fact that for over a year we have stopped issuing general tickets,” he confirmed.
Asked why, he said: “It was not profitable from any angle. We earned Re 1 from every ticket sold from here. On any given day, not more than 100 tickets were sold from the counter. It meant earnings of around Rs 100 per day.”
To add to this, a clause that hit him below the belt was that of surrendering wrongly printed tickets to railway authorities at Ranchi station by noon of the following day.
According to Indian Railways norms, a ticket seller must return a wrongly generated ticket to the nearest railway station by noon of the following day.
Failing that, he must pay a fine of Rs 50,000.
“Say, a person wants a ticket for Lohardaga, but by mistake, my staff at the counter issues one for Muri. The customer will demand and get his correct ticket and leave. But the headache of submitting the wrong ticket to the railway authorities at the station before the next noon will fall on me,” Dwivedi said.
He added that if he didn’t return the ticket on time, he would have to shell out a hefty Rs 50,000 to the railways as penalty, no matter how cheap the original ticket was.
When contacted, Arjun Mazumdar, assistant commercial manager of SER, said they would set up a new ticket counter somewhere near the railway station.
“I will also ask Dwivedi to remove the signboard,” Mazumdar said.
For now, with the closure of the centrally located Kutchery kiosk, one has to trudge all the way to Ranchi station and queue up to buy general or unreserved train tickets.
Indian Railways IRCTC online train reservation facility is valid only for reserved tickets. Being a netizen won’t help if one has to buy a general ticket.

As part of the plan to protect railway tracks and prevent encroachments on its property, rail authorities have decided to construct a 7km-long wall between Bhopal railway station and Habibganj railway station at a cost R1.5 crore.

Commandant of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Bhopal Vijay Khatarkar said, “A wall would be constructed on both sides of the tracks between Habibganj and Bhopal railway stations.

It will help to protect railway properties and prevent several untoward incidents. The budget for the project has been sanctioned and work is expected to start soon.

The wall would first be constructed in areas which are considered security threats,” he said.

Recently, 20-year-old Poonam Soni was run over by a train while crossing the track near Kasturba Nagar.

Several people cross the railway tracks daily between Habibganj and Bhopal railway stations especially near Kasturba Nagar, Rachana Nagar, Subhash Railway crossing, Barkhedi and Aishbagh. At numerous occasions, they are run over by approaching trains. The RPF has failed to put an end to this menace.

Often, anti-social elements put stones, iron rods and electric poles on the tracks. “Once the wall is constructed, anti-social elements would not be able to sabotage the tracks.

It would also help the RPF to protect railway properties,” a senior railway official said.

Several slums have come up adjacent to the railway tracks near Subhash railway crossing, Barkhedi and other areas. The shanties have even covered the railway signals as a result train drivers face problems while crossing this section. “If the wall, which is estimated to be 6ft-tall, is constructed from both sides, the people would not able to develop shanties near the railway track,” said Vijay Khatarkar.

However, railway sources said as of now with the first phase of construction, the railway authorities will not meddle with the existing encroachments but will carry on the work at places which are still under the possession of the railways.

Two bogies of a goods train carrying oil to Mumbai from Gujarat Refinery derailed at Vadodara railway station today, briefly affecting the movement of trains on Mumbai-Delhi route.Nobody was injured in the mishap, that caused large amount of oil spillage on tracks this morning, police said.Meanwhile, Vadodara BJP MP Balkrishna Shukla has demanded a probe into the derailment."About 1.30 lakh litres of oil spilled over the tracks and surrounding areas because of the derailment. It is a very serious matter and guilty should be punished," he said.Gujarat Refinery, located at Koyali on the outskirts of the city, is owned by Indian Oil Corporation.

NEW DELHI: Conservation of early Mughal-era monument Nila Gumbad has hit a wall with Northern Railway using part of the earmarked land to store material. While work inside the monument continues, that on the exterior settings has been stopped till the land is cleared. ASI director-general Praveen Srivastava has written to the railways. The project is being undertaken by Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) with co-funding from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. Officials said the railways continued to dump material at the site of the monument owned by ASI, so the exterior settings cannot be worked upon. "Removal of of pink plaster layers, applied here as recently as 2003, has revealed original ornamental patterns that are being carefully restored by art conservators trained during the Humayun's tomb conservation,'' said an AKTC official.

The Nila Gumbad is named after the turquoise blue tiles used by the Mughal builders to cover the dome. Many of the tiles have fallen due to vibrations caused by trains. As part of the project, efforts will be made to insulate the monument from the jerks caused by poorly maintained railway tracks. "The restoration will make sense only if the road bifurcating Nila Gumbad from Humayun's tomb is shifted, as agreed upon by the railways in a 2010 MoU with the ASI. This will allow millions of annual visitors at the tomb to visit this marvel and to avoid sanctions from Unesco,which were imposed on the Hampi world heritage site over a bridge bifurcating the site,'' said an official.

Srivastava wrote to the DRM northern railways requesting that a 2010 agreement be adhered to and AKTC be allowed to continue works as planned. In response, say ASI sources, the railways have requested recently re-built enclosure walls be demolished. ``This while the railways have built ugly, tall concrete fencing within the prohibitied zone of Humayun's tomb without any permissions,'' said officials. "The determined effort of the Railways to continue to vandalize a world heritage site is shocking. Especially since in lieu of the proposed development, alternate structures have already been built for the railways,'' said project director, AKTC Ratish Nanda.

Conservationists are hoping the issue is resolved soon. With the blue tiles already being prepared in kilns at Humayun's tomb, Nila Gumbad will hopefully soon stand proud once again in all it's Mughal grandeur, claimed ASI officials.

Says he found it at his son's home and was carrying it to throw it from the running train

A major security lapse was averted at the Pune railway station when a routine bag scan revealed that an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of police was carrying an illegal country made pistol in his bag. The arrested person has been identified as Subhash Ganpatrao Gaikwad (55), who hails from Narayannagar in Amravati.On Sunday, Gaikwad was produced before the court of judicial magistrate first class, which remanded him in a day’s police custody on the grounds that police were probing from where he got the pistol, whether he had used it or had plans to sell it.The incident came to light after a constable Sachin Jagdhale, attached to the railway protection force (RPF), lodged a complaint with the government railway police (GRP) on Saturday.According to inspector DS Rajput, the RPF in-charge here, Gaikwad has been currently posted at the Amravati wireless department. Subhash had planned to travel back to his hometown in Amravati by Azad Express.

“Around 6pm, Gaikwad entered platform number one where a constable found a suspicious object in his bag during scanning. Gaikwad was first reluctant to give his bag claiming the different object was just a toy and also showed his police identity card to get away. Our constable insisted on checking the bag and found a seven-inch countrymade pistol,” Rajput said.

When the RPF asked him whether he had arms documents and licence, Gaikwad told that he was in Pune to visit his software engineer son at Shivne and found the pistol in his house, the inspector said.

“Gaikwad further claimed that he took away the pistol without telling his son and was planning to throw it away from a running train,” he said.

An offence had been registered against Gaikwad and he had been handed over to GRP. He was then arrested by GRP under relevant sections of Arms Act.

Mahendra Bagade, assistant police inspector, GRP, who is investigating the case said, “Gaikwad claimed that he had come to Pune to visit his son Shrikant. While cleaning the house, he found the pistol in the garden area. Without asking his son, he kept the pistol along with him and was travelling to his workplace. Despite being in  the police department, he did not alert the police. We are recording the statement of his son after which the picture will be clear.”

NEW DELHI: Conservation of early Mughal-era monument Nila Gumbad has hit a wall with Northern Railway using part of the earmarked land to store material. While work inside the monument continues, that on the exterior settings has been stopped till the land is cleared. ASI director-general Praveen Srivastava has written to the railways. The project is being undertaken by Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) with co-funding from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. Officials said the railways continued to dump material at the site of the monument owned by ASI, so the exterior settings cannot be worked upon. "Removal of of pink plaster layers, applied here as recently as 2003, has revealed original ornamental patterns that are being carefully restored by art conservators trained during the Humayun's tomb conservation,'' said an AKTC official.

The Nila Gumbad is named after the turquoise blue tiles used by the Mughal builders to cover the dome. Many of the tiles have fallen due to vibrations caused by trains. As part of the project, efforts will be made to insulate the monument from the jerks caused by poorly maintained railway tracks. "The restoration will make sense only if the road bifurcating Nila Gumbad from Humayun's tomb is shifted, as agreed upon by the railways in a 2010 MoU with the ASI. This will allow millions of annual visitors at the tomb to visit this marvel and to avoid sanctions from Unesco,which were imposed on the Hampi world heritage site over a bridge bifurcating the site,'' said an official.

Srivastava wrote to the DRM northern railways requesting that a 2010 agreement be adhered to and AKTC be allowed to continue works as planned. In response, say ASI sources, the railways have requested recently re-built enclosure walls be demolished. ``This while the railways have built ugly, tall concrete fencing within the prohibitied zone of Humayun's tomb without any permissions,'' said officials. "The determined effort of the Railways to continue to vandalize a world heritage site is shocking. Especially since in lieu of the proposed development, alternate structures have already been built for the railways,'' said project director, AKTC Ratish Nanda.

Conservationists are hoping the issue is resolved soon. With the blue tiles already being prepared in kilns at Humayun's tomb, Nila Gumbad will hopefully soon stand proud once again in all it's Mughal grandeur, claimed ASI officials.

Says he found it at his son's home and was carrying it to throw it from the running train

A major security lapse was averted at the Pune railway station when a routine bag scan revealed that an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of police was carrying an illegal country made pistol in his bag. The arrested person has been identified as Subhash Ganpatrao Gaikwad (55), who hails from Narayannagar in Amravati.On Sunday, Gaikwad was produced before the court of judicial magistrate first class, which remanded him in a day’s police custody on the grounds that police were probing from where he got the pistol, whether he had used it or had plans to sell it.The incident came to light after a constable Sachin Jagdhale, attached to the railway protection force (RPF), lodged a complaint with the government railway police (GRP) on Saturday.According to inspector DS Rajput, the RPF in-charge here, Gaikwad has been currently posted at the Amravati wireless department. Subhash had planned to travel back to his hometown in Amravati by Azad Express.

“Around 6pm, Gaikwad entered platform number one where a constable found a suspicious object in his bag during scanning. Gaikwad was first reluctant to give his bag claiming the different object was just a toy and also showed his police identity card to get away. Our constable insisted on checking the bag and found a seven-inch countrymade pistol,” Rajput said.

When the RPF asked him whether he had arms documents and licence, Gaikwad told that he was in Pune to visit his software engineer son at Shivne and found the pistol in his house, the inspector said.

“Gaikwad further claimed that he took away the pistol without telling his son and was planning to throw it away from a running train,” he said.

An offence had been registered against Gaikwad and he had been handed over to GRP. He was then arrested by GRP under relevant sections of Arms Act.

Mahendra Bagade, assistant police inspector, GRP, who is investigating the case said, “Gaikwad claimed that he had come to Pune to visit his son Shrikant. While cleaning the house, he found the pistol in the garden area. Without asking his son, he kept the pistol along with him and was travelling to his workplace. Despite being in  the police department, he did not alert the police. We are recording the statement of his son after which the picture will be clear.”

Even as its plan to provide an extra coach for women failed to take off, the Pune division of Central Railway (CR) also seems to "care less" when it comes providing safe travel for women on Pune-Lonavala local trains. CR deploys one constable each in two compartments of local trains at night but none during the day. Four rakes make 42 trips between Pune and Lonavala every day, ferrying around one lakh commuters.CR spokesperson Y K Singh said, "One constable each is deployed on the four local trains that make trips between Pune and Lonavala at night. However, there are no constables in the women's compartments during the day."Harsha Shah, president of Railway Pravasi Group, said CR officials apparently think that crime against women are not committed during daytime. However, she said the problem with Railways is that they have to provide security to VIPs and VVIPs. "The GRP has to ensure security of VIPs, so they can't spare constables for ordinary commuters. Even otherwise they are short-staffed," she said.Shah said unauthorised hawkers, beggars, eunuchs and criminal elements freely enter local train compartments and harass women and college girls. "In the ladies' compartment, the situation gets worse if there is no police presence. Women are suffering in silence and the Railways are looking on."

Even as its plan to provide an extra coach for women failed to take off, the Pune division of Central Railway (CR) also seems to "care less" when it comes providing safe travel for women on Pune-Lonavala local trains. CR deploys one constable each in two compartments of local trains at night but none during the day. Four rakes make 42 trips between Pune and Lonavala every day, ferrying around one lakh commuters.CR spokesperson Y K Singh said, "One constable each is deployed on the four local trains that make trips between Pune and Lonavala at night. However, there are no constables in the women's compartments during the day."Harsha Shah, president of Railway Pravasi Group, said CR officials apparently think that crime against women are not committed during daytime. However, she said the problem with Railways is that they have to provide security to VIPs and VVIPs. "The GRP has to ensure security of VIPs, so they can't spare constables for ordinary commuters. Even otherwise they are short-staffed," she said.Shah said unauthorised hawkers, beggars, eunuchs and criminal elements freely enter local train compartments and harass women and college girls. "In the ladies' compartment, the situation gets worse if there is no police presence. Women are suffering in silence and the Railways are looking on."

The Secunderabad-Yeshwanthpur-Secunderabad Garibrath Express will halt for two minutes at Lingampalli.

According to South Western Railway release, Secunderabad-Yeshwanthpur Garibrath Express (Train no. 12735) will leave Secunderabad at 7.15 p.m. and reach Yeshwanthpur at 7.40 a.m. the next day from September 24. Yeshwanthpur- Secunderabad Garibrath Express (Train no. 12736) will depart from Yeshwanthpur at 7.15 p.m. and reach Secunderabad at 8.35 a.m. the next day with effect from September 25.