ProUI

Jammu:
Second incident of landslide on railway tracks within four days has raised a big question mark on the safety of passengers travelling on the hilly terrain.Due to the overnight heavy rainfall for 48 hours, a major landslide occurred near Tunnel-16 between Manwal and Ramnagar yesterday. Though no loss of life was reported, the track and the tunnel got damaged badly, which will take more than two days to get restored.This was the second such incident within four days. On August 2, the Hemkunt Express got derailed at Samba due to heavy rainfall.These two incidents have developed fear among passengers to travel in train during the monsoon.Subash Chander from Delhi, who was waiting for his train at the Jammu Railway station along with his family, said, “I have read the news of the incident which happened yesterday. Though we have to travel as our tickets are confirmed, a fear is also travelling with us” .

“The railway should check all the tracks regularly, especially during the monsoon when landslides are expected,” he added.

Another passenger, Supriya Sharma from Pune, said, “The Railways should take strong steps to make the track safe for passengers”.

Farooq Andrabi, Chief Officer Superintendent, Traffic, said, “It was a natural calamity. No one can predict anything, but the engineering team is doing their best to make the track safe for the passengers”.

“Passengers’ safety is the first priority of the Railways, as it is the world’s second largest railways,” he added.

The Jammu-Udhampur Railway track remained closed to traffic on the second consecutive day after the landslide destroyed the track near Tunnel-16 (T-16) between Manwal and Ramnagar.

However, railway officials said the traffic would remain suspended on the track linking the Northern Command of the Army based in Udhampur with the rest of the country till the restoration of track will be completed.

Andrabi said, “The work is in progress and the track will be restored by Friday. All the trains for Udhampur from Jammu have been cancelled, but the rail traffic to the rest of the country is through”.

There are seven trains for Udhampur from Jammu, Malwa Express, Jammu Mail, Uttar Sampark Kranti, Summer Special and three DMUs. All these train have been affected due to the landslide.

This line is an important link for Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (JUSBRL) Project to connect the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country.

A pilot project of ticketing through non-internet based mobile phones has been launched by IRCTC on Ist July 2013.  The salient features of the scheme are as follows:-
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Source - pib

The introduction of “Go-India” smart Card on Pilot basis was announced in the Railway Budget 2011-12 and the work of Go-India project (Phase I) has been sanctioned in June 2013.

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ALLAHABAD: To commemorate 10 years of its existence, North Central Railway has planned a series of programmes. The year-long celebrations will have public participation and even passengers can take part in them. Talking to TOI, CPRO North Central Railway, Sandeep Mathur said, "It is a proud moment that NCR has completed 10 years. There will be a series of programmes that will be organised throughout the year so that people can have everlasting memories and celebrate their association with NCR. There will be logo designing, slogan and jingle writing and photography competitions which will be open for public participation." He also added that there will be various cultural and educational programmes during the month of September. Further, there will also be sporting activities for the railway employees and officers. In addition to this, there will also be a 'Walk' where general public will participate. North Central Railway came into existence on April 1, 2003. It has completed 10 years of existence this year. The railway zone is planning a series of events to commemorate the event. The first set of events will include a logo designing competition, slogan writing and photography competition. While logo designing, NCR is expecting the participants to design logo based on the achievements of North Central Railway.

There will also be a slogan writing contest in which participants will require to write a slogan about the various facets of North Central Railway. The maximum length of the slogan is about 10 words. There will also be a jingle writing contest which can be of maximum 8 lines. The last date of submission of entries to these contests is August 21. This competition is open to the general public and also to the railway employees.

To mark the event, there will also be a photography competition in which participants can showcase photographs pertaining to stations, trains or any event related with NCR. The last date of entries to this competition is October 15.

NCR officials informed that in September, a series of cultural and educational programmes are also being planned. In the cultural programme, there will be dance, drama and singing competition in which wards of the railway employees will showcase their talent in front of the audience. There will also be a debate competition.

In February next year, there will be various sporting activities for the railway employees and the officers. There will be various sports competitions including cricket, hockey, athletics and other events.

Western Railway commuters have benefitted from measures
like the introduction of 12-car rakes and increase in services over the years, but they say its punctuality has taken a beating in the process.
    Officials too admitted that WR’s moves to increase its capacity, by switching from 9-car rakes to 12-car and 15-car ones and introducing more services, may have inadvertently slowed it down. The punctuality of its trains has come down from 97% to around 95% and nearly 50 to 60 services are behind schedule on an average every day.
    “A signal turns from red to yellow to double yellow and green as a train moves from one signaling territory to another. But a 9-car train occupies lesser signaling territory compared to a 12- or 15-car train. In the present situation, some trains are unable to hit maximum speed as it takes longer to get a double yellow or green signal. When the motorman sees a yellow signal, he has to reduce the speed to 38 kmph,” a senior official explained.
    The maximum speed on fast lines is 80 to 100 kmph, whereas it is atleast 50 to 60 kmph on slow lines if the signal is clear. Many services run behind schedule due to the extra time taken by the longer rakes to cross each signaling territory. However, it is difficult to recover the lost time with speed as the tracks are saturated due to the increase in services. Moreover, minor disruptions or trespassing incidents also delay trains.
    In 2006-07, WR had 1,140 services, including 532 ninecar ones. After procuring new rakes, converting to AC traction and expansion of its rail corridor, WR now runs 1,305 services, of which 1,165 are 12-car and 30 are 15-car services.
    “On an average, there is a 5-10 minute delay. But besides delays over signaling, the problem is also due to the retrofitted rakes, whose performance is below standard,” claimed a motorman.
    “I board a train to Bhayander at 8.23pm from Dadar, but it never reaches its destination on time, halting intermittently between stations,” said Mira Road resident Vijay Pancholi.
    “Most trains halt for at least four to six minutes between Dahisar and Borivli,” said Shailesh Goyal, former member of the Zonal Rail User Consultative Committee.
    A senior railway official said, “Our first task is to re-position the signals to allow trains to run at maximum speed. The signal poles were installed keeping in mind 9-car services.”
    WR has also decided to remodel the yard at Borivli and plans to improve its services with help from the Indian Institute of Technology-Powai. WR’s divisional manager Shailendra Kumar said, “We will take a number of steps to improve punctuality.”
NINE TO TWELVE STRETCH
2006
1,043
services at 4 minutes per service
2013
1,305
services at 3 minutes per service AUTO-SIGNALING | Signals on WR automatically convert from red to yellow, double yellow and green once a train hits its track circuit TRACK CIRCUIT | It is an electrical circuit installed to know if a train is occupying the track in a particular section. It comprises a power supply at one end and a relay on the other end DISTANCE | Signal poles are installed at a distance of 400-500 meters, while the length of each coach is 22 meters. The change to 12-coach rakes means a train takes longer to hit its track circuit as the motorman often encounters a yellow signal which restricts him to a speed of 38kmph. This has a cascading effect on other services
BORIVLI ISSUE
At Borivli, Western Railway authorities plan to remodel the yard to allow the simultaneous entry of trains in the Churchgate direction on both platforms 5 and 6. Shifting the crossover further north will help resolve the problem. WR has requested the BMC for a small patch of land to carry out the modification

Bhubaneswar: The Carriage Repair Workshop of the East Coast Railway at Mancheswar added another feather to its cap by getting the coveted ISO 9001-2008 Certification for Quality Management Systems on Wednesday. RCoR Chief Mechanical Engineer Prem Chandra received the certificate issued by Certification Services Ltd. He praised the initiatives taken by the Mancheswar Workshop and urged its staff and officers to continue their efforts to achieve many such milestones in future also.Chief Workshop Manager SK Pankaj informed that the Workshop is planning to celebrate its completion of 30 years of production in December with lot of festivities and record outturn. It is also planning to get ISO 14000 for Environment Management System and ISO 18000 certification for Occupational Health & Safety System by December.Last month, the Workshop achieved the highest-ever outturn of 145 coaches. It also produced 1,001 wheels, which is another milestone.

Through unstinted efforts, commuters of Tumkur pursue railway officials run a Special Train.  With their persistent, relentless and peaceful pursuation, SWR officials finally considered running of a special train between Tumkur and Bangalore.  On Monday, the officials of the South Western Railway were in for a surprise when a group of commuters walked into their office and offered them sweets.

The commuters, who were from Tumkur, were at the office to thank the railway officials for running a special train between Tumkur City and Bangalore. About 4,000 passengers commute from Tumkur to Bangalore every day. Though about 22 trains ply on the route, most passengers depend on either the push-pull train (trains that can be driven from either end) from Arsikere or Sholapur express trains. Commuters who travel to Bangalore for work prefer Sholapur express as it reaches Tumkur at 8 am, as the train from Arasikere reaches early in the morning. When the timings of Sholapur express was changed to 6.30 am in May, a group of commuters, among the many inconvenienced by the new schedule, decided to campaign for a special train. They distributed pamphlets among other passengers and called for a meeting on June 2. As many as 600 passengers turned up for the meeting and their signatures, contact numbers and address, along with that of about 600 others were collected. In addition, a forum called Tumkur-Bangalore employee daily commuters was created following the meeting. Members of the forum, led by a government employee BH Ramakumari, met top railway officials in Bangalore and briefed them about the 25,000 students, government and private sector employees and others travellers, including 4,800 seasonal ticket holders, between the two cities who desperately needed a special train from Tumkur.

The delegation met Union railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge in Bangalore on July 9 to press for the demand. As they did not get an assurance from the minister then, members of the forum approached Kharge during his visit to Tumkur railway station on June 11. Kharge agreed to their demand and it was fulfilled in a span of about two months. On Monday, the passengers were at the South-West Railway office in Bangalore to celebrate the success of their efforts.

Karnam Ramesh, employee of a private firm, who was in the forefront of the campaign, said the officers who were given sweets exclaimed that they had provided new trains to many other places as well, but none had come forward to thank them.

Ramesh explained that their demand was met as they managed to convince the railway department and political leaders about the viability of plying a new train in the route.

“We never wanted the campaign to be violent. We had decided that none of us would stop trains or pelt stones. It was decided to approach the department in a right manner. In addition, top officers of the railway department helped us throughout the movement,” he said.

The Kerala Railway Police (KRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) will prepare an action plan to ensure the safety of women passengers on trains and create legal awareness to curb such cases.

A field report comprising suggestions and recommendations of women’s organisation leaders will be submitted to top Railway Police officials within a couple of weeks. District-level opinion-gathering meetings will be arranged for the purpose and the recommendations will be sent to the Chief of Kerala Railway Police in Thiruvananthapuram.

“We have received directives from senior officers to prepare the report at the earliest. We will forward it within a week,” said KRP Sub-Inspector P. Muraleedharan. He said the new action plan would focus more on creating awareness among women passengers of how to act legally to curb crimes, including misbehaviour and sexual harassment by fellow passengers or officials on trains.

Leaflets distributed

KRP and RPF officials jointly distributed over 400 leaflets on Monday to sensitise women on legal ways to combat sexual harassment and various other atrocities reported during train journeys. City Police Commissioner G. Sparjan Kumar inaugurated the distribution campaign at the Kozhikode railway station.

The Kerala Railway Police (KRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) will prepare an action plan to ensure the safety of women passengers on trains and create legal awareness to curb such cases.

A field report comprising suggestions and recommendations of women’s organisation leaders will be submitted to top Railway Police officials within a couple of weeks. District-level opinion-gathering meetings will be arranged for the purpose and the recommendations will be sent to the Chief of Kerala Railway Police in Thiruvananthapuram.

“We have received directives from senior officers to prepare the report at the earliest. We will forward it within a week,” said KRP Sub-Inspector P. Muraleedharan. He said the new action plan would focus more on creating awareness among women passengers of how to act legally to curb crimes, including misbehaviour and sexual harassment by fellow passengers or officials on trains.

Leaflets distributed

KRP and RPF officials jointly distributed over 400 leaflets on Monday to sensitise women on legal ways to combat sexual harassment and various other atrocities reported during train journeys. City Police Commissioner G. Sparjan Kumar inaugurated the distribution campaign at the Kozhikode railway station.

Withdraw the call or face action, sponsors told

DGP V. Dinesh Reddy on Thursday made it clear that there was no question of allowing ‘rail roko’ as part of the ongoing agitation in coastal and Rayalaseema districts. Non-bailable cases would be booked against those participating in the programme.Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Dinesh Reddy said rallies in support of integrated State or Telangana in the State capital would not be allowed at all.He asked the sponsors of ‘rail roko’ to withdraw their call or else the police would take stringent steps identifying the participants on the basis of video clippings.“There will be 100 per cent video coverage of railway stations and tracks. And there will also be an aerial survey.” Recalling a SC direction not permitting rail roko at any cost, Mr. Reddy said it was on the basis of court ruling that the police acted tough against a similar programme in Telangana in the past. The same norm would be applied this time in a counter agitation. Police had taken the call seriously and he had himself held consultations with the SCR General Manager, chief operations manager and chief security commissioner.The Additional DGP in charge of railways would be stationed in Vijayawada to enforce the proposed steps, he added. He said the police would permit democratic forms of protest to highlight grievances but not something that infringed the rights of others.

Holding up train traffic fell into the category of infringement because it led to suffering to passengers, including the aged.

NGOS’ PROTEST

Referring to the picketing of government offices by non-gazetted staff, Mr. Reddy warned that there was little difference in the programme with ‘wrongful restraint’ which attracted criminal action. There was also the danger of anti-social elements penetrating into the mob to create lawlessness.

On the preparedness of police to tackle the agitations, Mr. Reddy said 55 companies of Central paramilitary forces were deployed for the purpose. Police did not enter the Secretariat to deal with protests in the absence of any request from the Chief Secretary or the Principal Secretary (Political).