ProUI

Samaikhyandhra JAC groups are said to be gearing up for a show down with rail-roko agitations on Sunday even as the police issued stern warnings to the protesters against stopping trains. The JAC groups had decided to stop trains as it would have an impact on the movement of people across the country and jolt the UPA Government at the Centre into going for a rethink on the bifurcation of the state. Leaders of Samaikyandhra Student JAC held a meeting with leaders of Telugu Desam, Congress and YSR Congress parties on Saturday and expressed their intention to stop trains as part of their ongoing agitation bifurcation of the state.The police officials ruled out allowing rail-roko agitations. Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy said that action against would be taken against the protesters as per law. He said Section 144 was clamped at railway stations and tracks under the city limits, banning unlawful assembly of people. Superintendent of Police (Visakha Rural) Vikramjeet Duggal said that trespass into railway stations, obstructing trains and causing inconvenience to passengers and damage to railway property are non-bailable offences.

Samaikhyandhra JAC groups are said to be gearing up for a show down with rail-roko agitations on Sunday even as the police issued stern warnings to the protesters against stopping trains. The JAC groups had decided to stop trains as it would have an impact on the movement of people across the country and jolt the UPA Government at the Centre into going for a rethink on the bifurcation of the state. Leaders of Samaikyandhra Student JAC held a meeting with leaders of Telugu Desam, Congress and YSR Congress parties on Saturday and expressed their intention to stop trains as part of their ongoing agitation bifurcation of the state.The police officials ruled out allowing rail-roko agitations. Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy said that action against would be taken against the protesters as per law. He said Section 144 was clamped at railway stations and tracks under the city limits, banning unlawful assembly of people. Superintendent of Police (Visakha Rural) Vikramjeet Duggal said that trespass into railway stations, obstructing trains and causing inconvenience to passengers and damage to railway property are non-bailable offences.

Rail services were disrupted today on the Jammu-Pathankot route as the ABVP activists stopped a train at the Kathua railway station protesting the recent clashes at Kishtwar district.Demanding sacking of the Minister of State for Home, Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo over the Kishtwar incident, the activists of ABVP blocked the railway tracks and raised anti-government slogans, police said.The Ahmedabad-bound train from Jammu was stopped for a brief period by the activists at the Kathua station. However, the rail services were restored when the protesters left the spot.Several political parties, including BJP, have blamed Kitchloo for the clashes between the two communities and demanded a high-level probe by independent authority.Meanwhile, VHP condemned the communal violence in Kishtwar and asked the Centre to take immediate steps in this regard, otherwise it would have "far reaching repercussions"."The killing of five jawans by the militants along the LoC is a well-planned conspiracy and the terrorists were responsible for the communal clashes in Kishtwar yesterday," VHP spokesperson Prakash Sharma said in a statement here."The Centre should take urgent measures to protect the minority communities and should or otherwise the incident would have far reaching repercussions," Sharma added.Clashes between two communities left two people dead and at least 20 injured, several business establishments and vehicles gutted in arson in Kishtwar district where curfew was clamped and Army called in to assist the local administration in maintaining law and order yesterday.

Rail services were disrupted today on the Jammu-Pathankot route as the ABVP activists stopped a train at the Kathua railway station protesting the recent clashes at Kishtwar district.Demanding sacking of the Minister of State for Home, Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo over the Kishtwar incident, the activists of ABVP blocked the railway tracks and raised anti-government slogans, police said.The Ahmedabad-bound train from Jammu was stopped for a brief period by the activists at the Kathua station. However, the rail services were restored when the protesters left the spot.Several political parties, including BJP, have blamed Kitchloo for the clashes between the two communities and demanded a high-level probe by independent authority.Meanwhile, VHP condemned the communal violence in Kishtwar and asked the Centre to take immediate steps in this regard, otherwise it would have "far reaching repercussions"."The killing of five jawans by the militants along the LoC is a well-planned conspiracy and the terrorists were responsible for the communal clashes in Kishtwar yesterday," VHP spokesperson Prakash Sharma said in a statement here."The Centre should take urgent measures to protect the minority communities and should or otherwise the incident would have far reaching repercussions," Sharma added.Clashes between two communities left two people dead and at least 20 injured, several business establishments and vehicles gutted in arson in Kishtwar district where curfew was clamped and Army called in to assist the local administration in maintaining law and order yesterday.

Dhanbad, Aug. 10: The new chief security commissioner of East Central Railway, A.K. Pathak, is planning to groom Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel under his jurisdiction into a formidable force that can take on Naxalites.

Pathak, who took charge on August 7, said that he was committed to reining in rebel attacks in his zone. “We will co-ordinate with state police, CID and top government officials to ensure that the railways remains safe,” he said.

The senior railway official also said that RPF personnel would be trained like paramilitary troops and bomb disposal squads would be constituted in many areas. This apart, he promised to upgrade RPF gear during his tenure.

“Unless security personnel are equipped with latest gadgets and arms, they cannot fight criminals and Naxalites, who target railways from time to time,” said the chief security commissioner.

He added that tenders to revamp RPF gear were floated in the past, but were never executed.

After taking commando training in 1992 at BSF camp in Hazaribagh, Pathak went on to join engineering services and later moved to RPF.

MARGAO: Minister of State for Railways Adhir Rajan Chowdhury, on Saturday,  assured to re-start the skybus project of the Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC) by overcoming the financial problem.  Commenting  on the skybus project, which has been the failure, the minister said that “despite having financial implications,  the KRC had tried the new phenomena and later viewed  it as non-viable  for  it could not fetch the expected revenue  and that led to  the scrapping of the project.”

“I feel that the KRC should have a re-look at this phenomena as this is one of salient features of the KRC,’’ he opined.

Acknowledging  the  `wonderful’  service being provided by the Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC), the minister  said  it needs to emulated by the railway sectors.

Chowdhury, during his  first  Goa  visit as the minister, inspected the innovation of the KRC including the anti-collision device (ACD).

The Minister said that “though the KRC had financial  problems, the officials  tried to  give best of the services  to the commuters and they need to be praised for that.”

He visited the Margao railway station and later Verna station. He inspected the  ACD.

The managing director of KRC, Banu Tayal, informed that the management had added skybus to the urban transport act  to enable to  get  the necessary certificate for commencing the project.

“The  necessary changes are effected  in the  urban  transport act and the Railway Safety Commission  would see about it later,’’ he said  adding nearly Rs 100 crore are required for  the research works.

Tayal informed that the   Indian Railway  has already financed the KRC and urged the  state government “to pitch in for the KRC effective skybus project.”

MUMBAI: Central Railway’s (CR) power-conversion project to change from Direct Current (DC) to Alternating Current (AC) has failed to gain traction although its deadline was extended on numerous occasions. Central Railway’s DC-AC power conversion project has failed to gain traction even though the deadline has been revised on numerous occasions in the past.

The switchover is the key to improving energy conservation and the performance of suburban and long-distance trains. While Western Railway (WR) effected the turnaround in February 5, 2012, CR stretches-Kalyan-Thane and Thane-LTT (fifth and sixth line)-are yet to be converted to AC.

The authorities have failed to get their act together. Commissioner of Railway Safety (Central Circle) Chetan Bakshi has insisted on implementation of a few crucial things before granting a clearance.” said a CR official. The then Union railway minister had announced that CR would be able to complete the DC-AC conversion by March 31, 2013 end of financial year 2012-13. However, four months after the March deadline passed, CR is struggling to switch to AC even up to LTT. Many officials concede that the railway board’s electrical directorate has done a botched job. Some officials also resent the intervention of the commissioner of railway safety (CRS), others claim that the queries raised by him are “relevant”.

“The CRS has refused to budge from his stand as he does not want to compromise on safety. His main concerns are lack of adequate gap between the overhead wire and the roof of foot overbridges, road overbridges and the Parsik tunnel. Many officials are also wary of undertaking the switchover work in monsoon,” a CR official said. For the stretch below the FOBS and ROB, CRS is happy to grant approval provided the CR authorities obtain clearance from the railway board. However, at Parsik tunnel, he has refused to grant approval unless adequate gap is maintained between OHE and base of the roof.

An official said, “A height of the 4.69 meter between the railway level and the OHE wire has to be maintained in AC section. CRS has found that the OHE wires at 70 meters in the tunnel are at an increased height. CRS has fears that Pantographs will graze against the tunnels surface, thus affecting operations and also safety

The only solution is to lower the tracks keeping into factor the maximum moving dimension of a train. His fears are not unfounded as 25 pantographs as many as 8 trains were damaged after grazing the tunnel surface for similar reason in May 2013.These trains were withdrawn from services, leading to major disruption on CR.

A CR official said, “We have taken a block on Sunday to lower the tracks so concerns raised by CRS are addressed. An inspection by CRS will be carried out in next couple of weeks.”

Officials feel they can clear the hurdles.

“We hope to switching to AC from Kalyan to LTT by August-end,” said CR public relations officer Atul Rane.

i. The project, the cost

CR has yet to switch to 25 KV Alternating Current between Kalyan-CST and Panvel-CST, spanning across 1,681-km tracks.

Cost: Rs 796 crore

ii. Original deadline

March 2012-13

Sept 2012: Kalyan-Thane-LTT stretch

iii. Revised deadline

May 2013: Revised deadline for Kalyan-Thane and Thane-LTT section.

iv. The problem

Since the section will switch to AC, adequate gap has to be maintained between base of the bridge/tunnel and the Over Head Wires. CRS, central circles wants this to be sorted out as he feels that inadequate height can lead to operations problems.

v. How it will improve your ride

Apart from energy savings, CR will be able to add more services because of improved speed while the maximum speed under the DC system is 80 kmph, AC-compatible rakes can clock 100 kmph.

Currently, AC compatible locomotives cannot ply south of Kalyan, while DC locomotive cannot run North of this station. Around 44 long distance trains that leave from LTT everyday have to spend 20 minutes on an average at Igatpuri or Bhusaval to change the locomotive. On switching to AC, mail/express trains will make savings of this many minutes.

Chandigarh : The Railways has decided to run a special weekly express train from Chandigarh to Dibrugarh to clear the passengers’ rush. As per the schedule timetable of the Railways, train number 05904 will depart from the city on every Sunday (from August 11) at 11.15 pm which will reach Dibrugarh at 6.15 am on Wednesday.On every Friday, train number 05903 will depart from Dibrugarh to Chandigarh. The train will depart from Dibrugarh at 8.40 am on every Friday and will reach Chandigarh at 1.10 pm on Sunday.The train will have 17 coaches, including an AC 2-tier, AC 3 tier, nine sleeper class, four general class and two disabled-friendly second class luggage van coaches. The special summer express will halt at 36 stations.

MUMBAI: The railways will run four special trains from Mumbai to Velankanni to clear the extra rush of passengers for the Velankanni festival. A CR official said, "A special train will leave CST at 11.30 am on August 26 and will arrive Velankanni at 7.15 pm the next day. "Another special train will leave Velankanni at 1.35 pm on August 28 and will arrive CST the next day at 11.40 pm." The halts will be at Dadar, Thane, Kalyan, Lonavla, Pune, Solapur, Gulbarga, Wadi, Raichur, Guntakal, Gooty, Kadapa, Renigunta, Puttur, Tiruttani, Katpadi, Vellore, Arni Road, Tiruvannamalai, Tirukkovilur, Villupuram, Cuddalore Port, Chidambaram, Sirkazhi, Mayiladuthurai, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam. The train will have one AC first cum AC 2-tier, one AC 2-tier, two AC 3-Tier, 12 sleeper class, four reserved second class seating and two General second class cum guard's brake vans.

A third special train will leave LTT (Mumbai) at 12.05 am on August 27 and will arrive Velankanni at 6.45 pm the next day. And, the fourth special train will leave Velankanni at 1.35 pm on August 29 and will arrive LTT in Mumbai at 11.45 pm the next day, officials said.

New Delhi: In an effort to spruce up passenger amenities, Indian Railways has decided to install water-purifiers in coaches to improve the quality of drinking water and hygiene in trains. “The first coach with water purifier facility is being readied at the Jagadhri railway workshop in Jalandhar and it will soon be part of a long-distance express train as a pilot project,” said a senior Railway ministry official. “Trains get its water supply from stations and because of the prevalence of iron impurities in certain areas, quality of water also gets affected,” he said.

Currently, luxury trains are being equipped with water purifiers. Pantry cars of many trains including in Rajdhani and Shatabdi already have water-purifiers.

“Our aim is to provide clean water in trains and we are beginning with the facility in LHB coach first and later on conventional coaches will also be equipped with water purifiers,” the official said.

Besides, in view to improve the standards of cleanliness and hygiene in coaches, On-Board Housekeeping Services (OBHS) scheme has been introduced in all Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and important long distance Mail/Express trains.

Under the scheme, a set of housekeeping staff travels on-board and ensures cleanliness in compartments and toilets.

Railways has also decided to allot two berths in each train for OBHS who have been entrusted with the job to maintain cleanliness in trains.