ProUI

In a setback to Udhampur-Katra rail link project, the work on the 25-km-long stretch has been slowed down after the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir over the BSF firing incident at Ramban.

The Katra line was expected to be operational by the end of August as work was going on full throttle. But now it is further delayed and likely to be commissioned in October this year. “The workforce involved in laying the tracks between Udhampur and Katra, part of the Kashmir rail link project, had fled after the turmoil in the state due to the firing incident and it has affected the progress of the ongoing work,” a senior Northern Railway official involved in the project said. He said majority of the skilled workforce were from outside of the state including Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar. Though the work has been resumed in the section, the pace is slow as all the workers have not yet returned, the official said. The ballast-less track is being laid on the Udhampur-Katra section which involves about 11 km of tunnelling, nine major bridges, 29 minor bridges and 10 rail bridges. Trial run will be conducted on the route after the completion of laying the track and the Commissioner Railway Safety will inspect the line before giving the clearance. We are trying to make the line operational before the commencement of Navaratri, official said. All the tunnelling as well as bridge works have been completed. PTI

Union Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge will lay the foundation stone to commence works on electrification of the railway track from Wadi Junction to Gulbarga railway station on August 2. Sources told The Hindu on Tuesday that Mr. Kharge will also lay the foundation stone for the proposed new railway over bridge near Mother Theresa School on the New Jewargi Road in Gulbarga city, to replace the existing narrow ROB. — Special Correspondent

The State government has urged the MPs from the State to mount pressure on the Centre for carving out an exclusive railway zone for the State, Rural Development Minister K. C. Joseph has said.Briefing reporters about the deliberations at the MPs’ conference held here on Tuesday to discuss the issues to be raised at the monsoon session of Parliament, Mr. Joseph said that there was no dispute over the headquarters of the zone and it will be set up at a place acceptable for all. The Central government has not yet got the report of the committee appointed by the government for setting up railway zones. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who chaired the session sought the MPs’ cooperation to take up the issue with the Centre.The import duty on rubber has been fixed at 20 per cent or Rs. 20 per kg whichever is less. The meeting resolved to urge the Centre to fix the duty at 20 per cent itself. The State government had sought Rs. 607 crore to overcome the damage caused by the monsoon. Though the State was eligible only for Rs.403 crore, the meeting decided to seek assistance as per the report and also include compensation for sea erosion and deaths due to lightening strike in the Central norms.

Steps for expediting work on the Kanjikode coach factory was yet another demand set by the State government. The delay in starting the work was a matter of concern. The hurdles thrown up by the banks in the State in waiving the interest on the education loan of students with an annual income up to Rs.3 lakh will be raised in Parliament. Since road works under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana in the State have been completed, the State will demand for inclusion in the second phase. The issue of granting central assistance for the kole farmers in Thrissur too would be taken up, he said.

Union Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies K. V. Thomas who attended the meeting explained the significance of the Food Security Act and said that there will be no cut in the Central grain quota to the State.

Steps for distributing food and providing medical care to the tribes of Attapady too were discussed. Except Union Ministers A .K .Antony, Shashi Tharoor and E.Ahamed and M.I.Shanavas, MP, all UDF MPs were present. LDF MPs boycotted the meeting.

In a setback to Udhampur-Katra rail link project, the work on the 25-km-long stretch has been slowed down after the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir over the BSF firing incident at Ramban.

The Katra line was expected to be operational by the end of August as work was going on full throttle. But now it is further delayed and likely to be commissioned in October this year. “The workforce involved in laying the tracks between Udhampur and Katra, part of the Kashmir rail link project, had fled after the turmoil in the state due to the firing incident and it has affected the progress of the ongoing work,” a senior Northern Railway official involved in the project said. He said majority of the skilled workforce were from outside of the state including Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar. Though the work has been resumed in the section, the pace is slow as all the workers have not yet returned, the official said. The ballast-less track is being laid on the Udhampur-Katra section which involves about 11 km of tunnelling, nine major bridges, 29 minor bridges and 10 rail bridges. Trial run will be conducted on the route after the completion of laying the track and the Commissioner Railway Safety will inspect the line before giving the clearance. We are trying to make the line operational before the commencement of Navaratri, official said. All the tunnelling as well as bridge works have been completed. PTI

The extended service of the Kannur-Thiruvananthapuram Jan Shatabdi Express (Train no. 12081) will be flagged off by K. Sudhakaran, MP, at Kannur railway station at 4.45 a.m. on Friday.

A press release issued by Railways said the Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode Jan Shatabdi Express (Train no. 12082) leaving Thiruvananthapuram on Friday will run up to Kannur.

A.P. Abdullakutty, MLA; municipal chairperson Roshni Khalid; and district panchayat president K.A. Sarala will be present at the flag-off function. The detailed timings of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur Jan Shatabdi Express are as follows: Thiruvananthapuram-2.20 p.m., Kollam- 3.15 p.m., Chengannur-4.12 p.m., Kottayam-4.52 p.m., Ernakulam Town-6.05 p.m., Thrissur-7.18 p.m., Shoranur-8.20 p.m., Tirur-9 p.m., Kozhikode-9.55 p.m., Vadakara-10.30 p.m., Thalassery-10.50 p.m., and Kannur-11.30 p.m.

The Thiruvananthapuram-bound train will leave Kannur at 4.45 a.m.

The press release said Mr. Sudhakaran would also inaugurate a cleanliness drive, tree plantation and garden development, and safety awareness programme at the railway station at 10 a.m. on Friday.

SOURCE THE HINDU

The frequency on the swanky 23-km Airport Metro Express Line (AMEL) will be increased during peak hours from Thursday, a Delhi Metro official said Tuesday.

"The frequency of the trains during peak hours is being revised to 10 minutes and 30 seconds from the existing 15 minutes from Thursday (Aug 1). During off peak hours, it will remain 15 minutes," Anuj Dayal, Delhi Metro's executive director for corporate communications, said.

The move means more train trips per day.

"Due to the change in the frequency, the daily train trips will increase to 180 from 146 at present," Dayal added.

For AMEL, the morning peak hours are from 7.30 a.m. to 12 noon and the evening peak hours are from 3 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

The AMEL will also run at slightly higher speed.

"The operating speed of the trains on the AMEL will be increased to 80 kmph from the existing 70 kmph," Dayal said.

The line will also operate for longer hours.

"The first train service from both the terminal stations - Dwarka Sector 21 and New Delhi - will start at 4.45 a.m. instead of the present 5.30 a.m. at New Delhi and 5.15 a.m. at Dwarka Sector 21," the official said.

However, the last train will continue to depart from the New Delhi station at 11.30 p.m. and from Dwarka Sector 21 at 11.15 p.m.

"The early morning services of the AMEL will tremendously help the passengers who board trains like Shatabdi Express which depart from the New Delhi railway station early in the morning and reach back late in the night," the official said.

The changes in the frequency, timing and speed of AMEL were made based on the feedback from the commuters.

Delhi Metro took over AMEL July 1 after Reliance Infrastructure refused to run the service.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Reliance-led Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) were at loggerheads after some serious defects surfaced in the Airport Metro corridor structure.

The Airport Metro ferries over 15,000 people daily. Some 70 percent of the travellers use the line to commute to and from the airport.

The driver of the high-speed train involved in last week's Spanish train disaster was responding to a phone call from the rail company when the crash took place, according to a preliminary investigation released on Tuesday. The driver, Francisco Garzón, has been provisionally charged with multiple counts of negligent homicide.

The train, operated by Spain's national rail company, Renfe, left the track and slammed into a wall as it was approaching Santiago de Compostela on a journey from Madrid to Ferrol in north-western Spain. The death toll from the accident stands at 79.

In an official statement, the court handling the case said that "minutes before the derailment, [Garzón] received a call on his professional telephone to signal to him the route he had to take on arriving in Ferrol. It appears, from the content of the conversation and the background noise, that the driver consulted a plan or some similar paper document."

The person on the other end of the telephone "appears to have been a controller", the statement said. The existence of the conversation emerged from an inspection of the "black boxes", which began in the presence of the investigating magistrate on Tuesday morning.

The statement said the train was travelling at 192km/h (119mph) shortly before the crash. It added that "a brake was activated seconds before the accident" and that "it is estimated that at the moment the train left the tracks it was travelling at 153km/h." The speed limit on the bend where the train derailed was 80km/h.

News of the call Garzón took adds a new dimension to the investigation and for the first time raises questions about Renfe's role. Garzón who was only a few kilometres from Santiago del Compostela station when he answered the telephone, could have been called when the train was stationary.

Since the disaster, the heads of Renfe and the network operator, Adif, have put the responsibility squarely on Garzón. But the driver's union has expressed concern that he was being blamed before the analysis of data from the onboard recorders.

Garzón was charged when he appeared before the investigating magistrate on Sunday. He was freed from custody on condition that he surrendered his passport and agreed to report to the court once a week.

Spanish news agencies, quoting police and court sources, said that he admitted he had acted recklessly. But, according to subsequent versions, he said he was confused as to which bit of the route he was travelling on.

The Spanish daily El País said one of the first people to speak to Garzón after the crash was the police inspector who took command of operations at the scene. The paper said that, in the report he later submitted, the police commander recalled that he had asked the driver how he was.

He quoted Garzón as replying: "I'm slightly injured. But I'm not what is important. What's important are the passengers." Then, on three occasions, he said: "I've fucked it."

Colleagues and neighbours of Garzón came forward to defend him, describing him as a responsible and cautious driver. Juan Jesús García Fraile of the railway workers' union cautioned that, without the data from the black boxes, "we do not know what happened".

The view taken of the crash could have important financial repercussions. Spain has been a pioneer of high-speed rail traffic and has an important railway construction industry. Renfe is among firms bidding for a €13bn (£11.2bn) contract to build a high-speed rail link in Brazil. The terms of the tender reportedly exclude firms involved in the running of systems where an accident has taken place in the preceding five years.

The most deadly previous crash in Spain was in 1944 when up to 800 people are reckoned to have died at Torre del Bierzo in the centre of the country.

रेल घूस कांड का खुलासा होने के पहले दिन से ही दिन से मैं कह रहा हूं कि इस मामले से मेरा कोई लेना देना नहीं है।

सीबीआई ने जिस दिन मुझसे सात घंटे तक पूछताछ की और महेश कुमार की संदीप गोयल व मंजूनाथ से फोन पर हुई बातचीत सुनाई, उस दिन मैं और निश्चिंत हो गया।

बातचीत की रिकार्डिंग सुनते ही स्पष्ट हो गया था कि महेश कुमार जो चाहता था, मैंने उसके बिल्कुल विपरीत किया। ऐसा लग रहा है कि इस पूरे मामले में शायद मैं टारगेट नहीं था। हालांकि कौन टारगेट पर था, इसका खुलासा भी जल्द हो जाएगा।

यह कहना है पूर्व केंद्रीय रेल मंत्री एवं चंडीगढ़ के सांसद पवन कुमार बंसल का। रेल घूस कांड में घिरे बंसल ने चंडीगढ़ के सेक्टर-28 स्थित आवास पर अमर उजाला से इस मसले पर विस्तार से बातचीत की।

बंसल ने कहा कि जब अचानक मेरे साथ इतनी बड़ी घटना हुई तो मैं अंदर से टूट गया, लेकिन विपक्ष और मीडिया ने मुझे ताकत दी। इसी वजह से आज मैं फिर उठ खड़ा हुआ हूं। अभी मैं यह भी कहने की स्थिति में नहीं हूं कि इस मामले से मेरे भांजे विजय सिंगला का भी लेना देना है या नहीं?

उन्होंने कहा कि मुझे फंसाने में किसी कांग्रेसी का हाथ नहीं हो सकता। भाजपा चाहे इस मामले में वरिष्ठ कांग्रेसी नेता अहमद पटेल और राहुल गांधी का नाम उछाल रही है, लेकिन सभी बातें बेबुनियाद हैं। मेरा मानना है कि बातचीत में अहमद पटेल का नाम सिर्फ प्रभाव डालने के लिए इस्तेमाल किया गया होगा।

महेश कुमार की यह थी गलतफहमी: बंसल ने कहा कि 19 और 20 अप्रैल को महेश कुमार की मंजूनाथ और संदीप गोयल के साथ हुई बातचीत की ट्रांसस्क्रिप्ट से स्पष्ट है कि संदीप गोयल और मंजूनाथ को यह मालूम ही नहीं था कि मैं 18 अप्रैल को महेश कुमार को मेंबर स्टाफ नियुक्त करने संबंधी फाइल पर हस्ताक्षर कर चुका हूं।

सीबीआई के पास जो ट्रांसक्रिप्ट है, उससे स्पष्ट है कि महेश कुमार चाहता था कि मेंबर स्टाफ (एमएस), चेयरमैन रेलवे बोर्ड (सीआरबी) और मेंबर इलेक्ट्रिकल (एमएल) की नियुक्ति एक साथ हो।

महेश कुमार चाहता था कि चेयरमैन रेलवे बोर्ड का पद खाली होने के बाद तत्कालीन मेंबर इलेक्ट्रिकल को वरिष्ठता के आधार पर इस पद पर नियुक्त कर दिया जाए।

इसके बाद मेंबर इलेक्ट्रिकल का पद खाली हो जाता और इस पद पर उसे नियुक्त कर दिया जाता। लेकिन, हुआ बिल्कुल इसके विपरीत।

पूर्व रेल मंत्री पवन कुमार बंसल ने कहा कि इस मामले में पूरी तरह निर्दोष होते हुए भी मेरे पास खुद को बेगुनाह साबित करने का कोई तरीका नहीं होता, अगर किसी भी वजह से मेंबर स्टाफ की नियुक्ति की फाइल पर दो सप्ताह पहले मैं हस्ताक्षर नहीं कर दिया होता।

Railway cops are regularly absent from duty, reveals GRP data.

On an average, one constable skips patrol duty every day, shows data with the Government Railway Police (GRP), which mans trains and railway platforms across the city.

That’s not a good sign, considering that the GRP is already shortstaffed and that the number of attacks on women travelling alone is increasing – on Saturday, a 23 year-old nurse was molested and attacked inside a train at Mahalaxmi.

At least 312 policemen have been penalised to the tune of Rs1.56 lakh in the past one year for skipping patrol duty, a measure that does not seem to be enough of a deterrent.

As per rules, if a policeman is not present for duty, he is fined Rs500 and is suspended, pending inquiry.

The attack on the nurse could have been prevented had constable Devendra Shinde, attached to Borivli GRP, not missed catching the morning train after falling asleep at Churchgate station.

Former senior policemen said the penalty for not turning up for duty has to be more severe for it to work.

“The punishment should be penalty to the tune of the basic salary when the policeman is caught the first time. For repeat offenders, major proceedings should be initiated. If a policeman is found to be habitually bunking, he should be demoted or made to retire,” said YP Singh, former IPS officer who is now a lawyer. Singh said it would help if “policemen are allowed to take their weekly offs”.

Former Mumbai police commissioner Julio Ribeiro said dereliction of duty indicates the larger issues with the police force.

“There is a great deal of political interference. The solution is to restore the authority of the department.”

PS Pasricha, former Maharashtra director general of police, said: “Apart from strict punishments, effective supervision is the key to nailing irresponsible policemen,” he said.

B Shirsat, deputy commissioner of police , GRP, said: “After I took charge, 312 policemen have been penalised for absenteeism from patrol duty.”

भारत के पूर्वोत्तर इलाके में ब्रहृमपुत्र नद पर देश का सबसे लंबा रेलवे पुल बनाया जा रहा है. दरअसल, असम के डिब्रूगढ़ जिले में असम और अरुणाचल प्रदेश की सीमा पर तकरीबन 5 किमी लंबा यह रेल-सह-सड़क पुल बनाया जा रहा है. भारत सरकार ने वर्ष 1997-98 में इस पुल के निर्माण की मंजूरी दे दी थी, लेकिन 21 अप्रैल, 2002 को तत्कालीन प्रधानमंत्री अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी द्वारा इसके शिलान्यास के पश्चात ही इसका कार्य आरंभ हुआ था.

शुरुआत में इसके निर्माण की गति धीमी रही, लेकिन 2007 में राष्ट्रीय महत्व की परियोजना का दर्जा दिये जाने के बाद इसके निर्माण कार्य में तेजी आयी. इसकी लागत का 75 फीसदी रकम वित्त मंत्रलय और शेष रकम रेल मंत्रलय मुहैया करायेगी. इस पुल की लागत शुरुआत में 1,767 करोड़ रुपये बतायी गयी थी, जिसके संभवत: 2015 में निर्माण कार्य संपन्न होने तक चार हजार करोड़ रुपये पहुंच जाने की संभावना जतायी गयी है. इस पुल में कुल 42 पिलर बनाये गये हैं, जिन पर 125 मीटर लंबे स्टील के बने हुए स्पैन डाले जा रहे हैं. इसे पूरी तरह से स्टील और कंक्रीट के ढांचे से तैयार किया जा रहा है.

इस पुल के निचले हिस्से में रेलवे की दो लाइनें और ऊपरी हिस्से में तीन लेन की सड़क होगी. इस पुल को रेल लिंक से जोड़ने के लिए इसके दोनों तरफ रेल लाइन बिछायी जा रही है. इसमें दक्षिणी किनारे का अधिकांश रेल लिंक तैयार हो चुका है. इस पुल का प्रारंभिक निर्माण अध्ययन और विस्तृत डिजाइन का कार्य रेल इंडिया टेक्नीकल एंड इंजीनियरिंग सर्विसेज ने किया, जबकि इसका ढांचा गैमन इंडिया द्वारा तैयार किया जा रहा है.