ProUI

The Mamata Banerjee government on Thursday set a schedule for the relocation of settlers from the East-West Metro route in Salt Lake’s Duttabad at a meeting called by urban development minister Firhad Hakim.
At the meeting, Hakim told officials of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the implementing agency for the project connecting Salt Lake Sector V to Howrah Maidan, that a survey to ascertain the number of encroachers would start on August 23.
KMRC officials said the presence of the minister, who has emerged as Mamata’s pointman on several key issues, such as the roll-out of the Reliance’s 4G service in the city, suggested a change of stand of the state government, which had earlier refused to help sort out the tangle.
“We have assured KMRC officials that there will be no more hindrance to completing the Duttabad stretch. The state government will extend all cooperation in shifting the encroachers,” Hakim said after the meeting.
The urban development department also allotted two plots with a total area of more than an acre to rehabilitate the encroachers.
The Rs 4,875-crore project is hit by land problem at various points on the 14.7km stretch, including Duttabad.
Gammon India has pulled out of the Duttabad stretch after waiting four years for the government to remove encroachments from a 365-metre stretch where 13 piers were to be built to support the elevated tracks. The company has demanded Rs 19 crore in compensation for losses suffered because of the government’s failure to relocate the families, who have refused to move out.
In March, a survey to identify the Duttabad families to be relocated had to be abandoned after Trinamul supporters, led by an MLA, drove away KMRC and government officials.
Sources, however, said things started looking up after Hakim took the initiative to remove the hurdles following orders from the chief minister.
The KMRC will initially build temporary structures for the encroachers on one of the two plots the urban development department had allotted. Later, permanent houses will be built forthe families on the second plot.
“The state government’s approach looks positive and we hope to complete the construction of the Duttabad stretch within two years. The first phase from Salt Lake to Sealdah should be complete by the end of 2015,” said Hemant Kumar Sharma, the managing director of the KMRC.
He said a tender was floated on Wednesday for the construction of temporary houses for the encroachers.
“We had earlier floated a tender but had to cancel it because there was little chance of the encroachers being shifted,” said Sharma.
The KMRC also extended the tenure of the tender to hire a contractor for laying the tracks at Duttabad. The tender had to be floated after Gammon had withdrawn from the project. Gammon’s departure seemed to have scared off prospective contractors. In June there was only one bidder for the tender, forcing the KMRC to extend it till July.
“Now we have one more bidder and has extended it till August. Wehope that more bidders will express interest for the project,” said Sharma.
The KMRC has prepared an alternative alignment with an increased span that will affect fewer settlers, sources said. The altered blueprint has seven piers instead of the originally planned 13, increasing the distance between every pair from 25 to 90 metres.
However, the KMRC’s problems in the second phase between Sealdah and Howrah Maidan continue. The state government is yet to act on a Calcutta High Court order to remove 90 families from Bowbazar where the Central station will come up.
Litigation and red tape have forced Afcons, the infrastructure arm of Shapoorji Pallonji, to seek Rs 257 crore in compensation for not being able to start work on the Central station-Howrah Maidan stretch in three years.

Bifurcation of Telangana-Andhra may impact Hyderbad Metro Project

Hyderabad: The proposed bifurcation of the state has cast a shadow on the ‘realty plans’ of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. Hyderabad Metro has been designed as a ‘unique model’ wherein only 55 per cent of the revenue is supposed to come from passengers, and the remaining 45 per cent from property development and commercial activities such as parking charges, advertisements etc.

Only some international Metros such as the ones in Singapore and Hong Kong have adopting this model. The model was conceptualised for the Hyderabad Metro after studying major Metros across the globe wherein it was found that Metro projects are not financially viable if they depend  only on passenger fares for revenue generation.

Accordingly, HMR officials have devised plans to develop 18.5 million square feet along the 72-km Metro corridors in the next five years with an investment of over Rs.2,200 crore. Shopping malls, multiplexes, office space and retail chains are being planned to make the HMR financially viable.
However, the latest developments over Telangana have become a cause of concern for officials who fear that the realty sector in the city would be hit if a new capital is formed for Seemandhra region within 10 years as announced by the UPA government and that Hyderabad would not have the capacity to absorb the massive realty development to be undertaken for the Metro project during this period.

Project developer L&T has decided to develop six million square feet in the first phase and the HMR is scheduled to commence commercial operations between Nagole and Mettuguda by April 2015. The entire 72-km project has to be completed by July 2017 as per the agreement between state government and L&T.

Officials are, however, adopting a cautious approach towards realty development now. They are conducting surveys with various consultancies to ascertain the impact of bifurcation on realty development along the three Metro corridors.

Based on the findings of the surveys, officials are planning to make certain amendments to the realty plans, though they are confident that things will improve in the city in the long run.

Economic Times reported that in order to have more participation of global players, Railways has invited fresh bids for the Mumbai elevated rail corridor project.The new request for qualification document for the 60 km long elevated rail corridor between Churchgate and Virar has been issued with significant changes in terms and conditions.The project cost has been estimated at INR 21,500 crore, an increase of INR 500 crore from the earlier one.A senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project said that "We have replaced the earlier RFQ document with a new one and the last date of submission is September 2nd.”The official said that earlier the elevated corridor was supposed to be a broad gauge line but now it has been decided for the standard gauge.He said that "So those players who could not participate in the bidding earlier can now participate the aim of the new RFQ documents is to attract more global players in the changed circumstances.”There are total 6 bidders, including Reliance Infrastructure, Gammon, L&T, ILFS and GMR, who had already submitted the proposals as per the earlier document.Though these 6 players have to again submit the proposals with new documents, they will be exempted from paying the mandatory INR 10 lakh fee as the cost of the form.Railways will be signing an agreement with Maharashtra government shortly for execution of the project.Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh in its recent review meeting of flagship infrastructure projects has asked the Railways to expedite the elevated corridor project.

Western Railways announced,Mumbai Local Train passengers will  face a  Mega Block on Sunday (11 - 08 - 2013)..........................

Southern Railway announced that there will be a Regulation of Train services due to Pre - Interlock and Non - Interlock in connection with yard remodeling as part of Gauge Conversion work between Pollachi and .................

The Mamata Banerjee government on Thursday set a schedule for the relocation of settlers from the East-West Metro route in Salt Lake’s Duttabad at a meeting called by urban development minister Firhad Hakim.
At the meeting, Hakim told officials of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the implementing agency for the project connecting Salt Lake Sector V to Howrah Maidan, that a survey to ascertain the number of encroachers would start on August 23.
KMRC officials said the presence of the minister, who has emerged as Mamata’s pointman on several key issues, such as the roll-out of the Reliance’s 4G service in the city, suggested a change of stand of the state government, which had earlier refused to help sort out the tangle.
“We have assured KMRC officials that there will be no more hindrance to completing the Duttabad stretch. The state government will extend all cooperation in shifting the encroachers,” Hakim said after the meeting.
The urban development department also allotted two plots with a total area of more than an acre to rehabilitate the encroachers.
The Rs 4,875-crore project is hit by land problem at various points on the 14.7km stretch, including Duttabad.
Gammon India has pulled out of the Duttabad stretch after waiting four years for the government to remove encroachments from a 365-metre stretch where 13 piers were to be built to support the elevated tracks. The company has demanded Rs 19 crore in compensation for losses suffered because of the government’s failure to relocate the families, who have refused to move out.
In March, a survey to identify the Duttabad families to be relocated had to be abandoned after Trinamul supporters, led by an MLA, drove away KMRC and government officials.
Sources, however, said things started looking up after Hakim took the initiative to remove the hurdles following orders from the chief minister.
The KMRC will initially build temporary structures for the encroachers on one of the two plots the urban development department had allotted. Later, permanent houses will be built forthe families on the second plot.
“The state government’s approach looks positive and we hope to complete the construction of the Duttabad stretch within two years. The first phase from Salt Lake to Sealdah should be complete by the end of 2015,” said Hemant Kumar Sharma, the managing director of the KMRC.
He said a tender was floated on Wednesday for the construction of temporary houses for the encroachers.
“We had earlier floated a tender but had to cancel it because there was little chance of the encroachers being shifted,” said Sharma.
The KMRC also extended the tenure of the tender to hire a contractor for laying the tracks at Duttabad. The tender had to be floated after Gammon had withdrawn from the project. Gammon’s departure seemed to have scared off prospective contractors. In June there was only one bidder for the tender, forcing the KMRC to extend it till July.
“Now we have one more bidder and has extended it till August. Wehope that more bidders will express interest for the project,” said Sharma.
The KMRC has prepared an alternative alignment with an increased span that will affect fewer settlers, sources said. The altered blueprint has seven piers instead of the originally planned 13, increasing the distance between every pair from 25 to 90 metres.
However, the KMRC’s problems in the second phase between Sealdah and Howrah Maidan continue. The state government is yet to act on a Calcutta High Court order to remove 90 families from Bowbazar where the Central station will come up.
Litigation and red tape have forced Afcons, the infrastructure arm of Shapoorji Pallonji, to seek Rs 257 crore in compensation for not being able to start work on the Central station-Howrah Maidan stretch in three years.

South Eastern Railway conducted a special ticket checking drive at Panskura, Mecheda, Deulti, Bagnan, Uluberia, Dasnagar and Tikiapara of Kharagpur Division from 10th July to 16th July and again from 27th July to 3rd August, 2013.
During this massive ticket checking drive in the suburban section of SER , 804 passengers were detected travelling either without ticket or with irregular tickets and an amount of Rs.2.94 lakhs (Rupees Two lakhs ninety four thousand) was realised from them as fine.
During the period, 2009 unbooked luggage cases were also detected by the officers and staff of Commercial Department along with RPF Personnel and an amount of Rs.1.18 lakhs (Rupees One lakh eighteen thousand) was collected as fine.
The ticket checking drive is still continuing for curbing ticketless travel.
.........................

09-08-2013
4 Special Trains between Mumbai and Velankanni - Bookings open for 01029 & 01031 from 11.8.2013

Central Railway

Press Release

4 SPECIAL TRAINS FOR VELANKANNI FESTIVAL

Railways have decided to run 4 special trains between Mumbai and Velankanni to clear the extra rush of passengers during Velankanni Festival. The details of service as under –

A) CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI TERMINUS – VELANKANNI- CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI TERMINUS SPECIAL

01029 special train will leave Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus at 11.30 hrs o­n 26.8.2013 (Monday) and will arrive Velankanni at 19.15 hrs next day.

01030 special train will leave Velankanni at 13.35 hrs o­n 28.8.2013 (Wednesday) and will arrive Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus at 23.40 hrs next day.

HALTS: 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.

   

COMPOSITION:    o­ne AC first cum AC 2-tier, o­ne AC 2-tier, Two AC 3-Tier, 12 Sleeper class, 4 Reserved second class seating and 2 General second class cum guard’s brake vans.

   

B) LOKMANYA TILAK TERMINUS – VELANKANNI- LOKMANYA TILAK TERMINUS SPECIAL

01031 special train will leave Lokmanya Tilak Terminus at 12.05 hrs o­n 27.8.2013 (Tuesday) and will arrive Velankanni at 18.45 hrs next day.

01032 special train will leave Velankanni at 13.35 hrs o­n 29.8.2013 (Thursday) and will arrive Lokmanya Tilak Terminus at 23.45 hrs next day.

HALTS: Thane, Kalyan, Lonavla, Pune, Solapur, Gulbarga, Wadi, Raichur, Guntakal, Gooty, Kadapa, Renigunta, Arakkonam, Chennai Egmore, Tambaram, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Tirupadaripulliyur, Chidambaram, Sirkazhi, Mayiladuthurai, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam.

   

COMPOSITION: o­ne AC 2-tier, o­ne AC 2-tier cum AC 3-tier, Two AC 3-Tier, 10 Sleeper class, 2 Reserved second class seating and 2 General second class cum guard’s brake vans.

RESERVATION: Bookings for 01029 and 01031 open from 11.08.2013.

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Date: August 9, 2013.

Shri Debaraj Panda, an officer of 1985 batch of the Indian Railway Traffic Service has joined as New Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) in Sambalpur Division of East Coast Railway.Prior to this new posting Shri Panda was serving as Chief Freight Transportation Manager (CFTM) of East Coast Railway at Bhubaneswar.Shri Panda, a Post Graduate in Economics from JNU, joined Indian Railways in 1987.Thereafter, he has worked in various important capacities in Adra, Waltair and Khurda divisions of South Eastern Railway and East Coast Railway. He worked as Chief Vigilance officer in East Coast Railway Head quarters office. He also served in IRCTC as Group General Manager at Kolkata and as Chief Passenger Transportation Manager (CPTM) of East Coast Railway head quarters office.Apart from the above, he has also undergone training in strategic Management at Paris and Johannesburg.

General Manager, North Central Railway's interview to All India Radio and Doordarshan on completion of ten years