ProUI

Imagine a railway court functioning in a moving train! In an initiative to speed up disposal of criminal and petty cases which are pending at the Railway Magistrate Court in Kollam, the Thiruvananthapuram division of railways will start ‘Court on Wheels’ in the coming months.

The coach of the ‘court’ will be attached to a train plying in the Thiruvananthapuram division. Any case, ranging from ticketless travel, irregularities in train travel, abuse of woman travellers and thefts caught by the RPF, will be brought before the railway magistrate who will travel in the coach. The cases will be settled immediately.

The court will function akin to any other court with the magistrate in chair. However, if the passenger demands that he would like to appoint a lawyer to contend the case, it will then be referred to the Railways’ Kollam Second Class Magistrate. Currently, all cases under the Thiruvananthapuram division are settled in Kollam. Occasional sittings by the railway magistrate are held at major stations once or twice in a month.

“However, the ‘Court on Wheels’ will function almost everyday and will be attached to different trains throughout the month. If on one day the coach is attached to the Guruvayur-Ernakulam- Trivandrum Intercity Express, it will be linked to Venad Express the other day. Crimes related to that particular train will be settled in the train itself,” said Thiruvananthapuram Divisional Security Commissioner R K Tripathi. The idea is to bring down the rate of crimes taking place within trains. “The number of ticket-less travel has increased over the months. People who are not willing to pay the fine can settle their case with the railway magistrate. However, if the passenger realises that a magistrate is onboard, he would think twice about travelling without a ticket,” the official said.

More Railway Protection Force and Government Railway police will be deputed onboard the train. They will be given the responsibility of bringing the offenders to the magistrate. RPF officials said even though the initiative is on their agenda, they were yet to make a full-fledged plan. A special coach for the purpose has to be set up and a date fixed for the launch. Recently, the Palakkad division had started the mobile railway court, a first in the state. It settled over 60 cases last week, collecting fine of up to Rs 20,000.

फैजाबाद। मध्य प्रदेश और राजस्थान में हो रही झमाझम बारिश के बाद आई बाढ़ ने कई ट्रेनों को फंसा रखा है। कई ट्रेनों को रद्द कर दिया गया है तो कई प्रमुख ट्रेनों का रूट डायवर्जन हुआ है। इस इलाके से होकर फैजाबाद पहुंचने वाली इकलौती ट्रेन साबरमती एक्सप्रेस भी बाढ़ में फंसी बताई जा रही है। सोमवार को यह ट्रेन 11 घंटे बाद भी फैजाबाद नहीं पहुंच सकी थी। पूछताछ केन्द्र को भी ट्रेन के बारे में सही जानकारी नहीं थी। रेलवे सूत्रों का कहना था कि मप्र और राजस्थान में तेज बारिश हो रही है। इससे पटरियों पर पानी भर गया है और ट्रेनों का संचालन मुश्किल हो रहा है। एनटीईएस (नेशनल ट्रेन इन्क्वायरी सिस्टम) से अहमदाबाद-वाराणसी एक्सप्रेस सर्च करने पर ‘ट्रेन डायवर्टेड बिटवीन एमकेसी एंड बीना स्टार्टेड आन 27.07.13’ लिखकर आ रहा है। नाम न लिखने की शर्त पर रेलवे के एक अधिकारी ने रेलवे स्टेशन के दूसरे कंप्यूटर पर रूट की तलाश की। बताया कि साबरमती को मक्सी (एमकेसी) से मोड़ा गया है। ट्रेन सुजानपुरा, बैरागढ़, सिंहोर, भोपाल, विदिशा, गंजबसोदा होकर बीना चलाई गई है। इसके बाद बबीना होकर झांसी पहुंचेगी। अधिकारी ने कहा कि करीब 35 साल पहले साबरमती भोपाल होकर चलती थी। बीना से नई लाइन पड़ जाने के बाद से यह ट्रेन भोपाल न जाकर मक्सी होकर सीधे रतलाम पहुंच जाती थी। इससे करीब सात-आठ घंटे की बचत हो रही है। कहा, वर्तमान में ट्रेन कहां है, इसका पता तो नहीं है, हां करीब 11 घंटे बाद ट्रेन के फैजाबाद आने की संभावना है। यह समय गुजर जाने के बाद भी साबरमती ट्रेन फैजाबाद नहीं पहुंच सकी थी

MANGALORE: After Puttur Railway Yatri Sangha, the Kanyakumari District Railway User's Association (KKDRUA) has also joined the chorus urging Union Railway Minister to propose Mangalore railway division under South Western Railway (SWR), headquartered in Hubli.

The association wants sections of Konkan railway like Karwar up to Madgaon included in Mangalore division. P Edward Jeni, Secretary of association said Mangalore central one of the primary revenue earner for Southern Railway has got its divisional head quarters in the neighbouring Kerala state as it comes under Palakkad division of Southern Railway.

The Zonal Headquarters is located at Chennai in yet another neighbouring state of Karnataka. It's quite natural that however bigger may be the contribution of Mangalore, revenue wise, due to its administrative control located in other states, raw deal has been meted out to Mangalore,'' he said.

He alleged that Palakkad division has been eyeing Mangalore just for its revenue especially from the NMPT ( New Mangalore Port Trust) and also the Mangalore Junction, which is used as mere dump yard for the trains which used to primarily serve the Malabar region of Kerala. The number of from Mangalore towards Kerala side is a clear indication of the fact that Palakkad division is hardly interested in linking Mangalore with other interior parts of Karnataka,'' he further alleged.

As a case in point, he cited the example of Yesvantpur - Mangalore - Kannur express (via Mysore) is being operated to help Malabar region to have more train links with Bangalore. After lot of struggle a portion of that train was made to run in the opposite direction from Mangalore to Karwar, the district HQ of Uttara Kannada district which has been languishing for direct train connectivity with the state HQ. Even now one can see a weekly train from Mangalore to Yesvantpur being announced as to be operated via Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (Kuppam) to Yesvantpur.

Thus, this train would be getting a unique identity in Indian railways of originating from the same state (Karnataka) and ending up in the same state (Karnataka) but being operated through three other different states,'' he rued indicating how Palakkad division proposes trains from Mangalore with the sole motive of catering to the Malabar region of Kerala as there are limited facilities like pit line, maintenance facilities in major railway stations in Malabar like Kozhikkode, Kannur etc. Jeni pointed out that due to this route from Mangalore- Hassan is hardly utilized, adding the reason cited for operating few passenger trains via Subrahmanya Road, Hassan section is that line is used mainly for freight traffic. This is not at all an acceptable reason as Mangalore is not at all connected with places in Karnataka like Hubli, the HQ of SWR, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Bidar, Raichur etc.

फैजाबाद। मध्य प्रदेश और राजस्थान में हो रही झमाझम बारिश के बाद आई बाढ़ ने कई ट्रेनों को फंसा रखा है। कई ट्रेनों को रद्द कर दिया गया है तो कई प्रमुख ट्रेनों का रूट डायवर्जन हुआ है। इस इलाके से होकर फैजाबाद पहुंचने वाली इकलौती ट्रेन साबरमती एक्सप्रेस भी बाढ़ में फंसी बताई जा रही है। सोमवार को यह ट्रेन 11 घंटे बाद भी फैजाबाद नहीं पहुंच सकी थी। पूछताछ केन्द्र को भी ट्रेन के बारे में सही जानकारी नहीं थी। रेलवे सूत्रों का कहना था कि मप्र और राजस्थान में तेज बारिश हो रही है। इससे पटरियों पर पानी भर गया है और ट्रेनों का संचालन मुश्किल हो रहा है। एनटीईएस (नेशनल ट्रेन इन्क्वायरी सिस्टम) से अहमदाबाद-वाराणसी एक्सप्रेस सर्च करने पर ‘ट्रेन डायवर्टेड बिटवीन एमकेसी एंड बीना स्टार्टेड आन 27.07.13’ लिखकर आ रहा है। नाम न लिखने की शर्त पर रेलवे के एक अधिकारी ने रेलवे स्टेशन के दूसरे कंप्यूटर पर रूट की तलाश की। बताया कि साबरमती को मक्सी (एमकेसी) से मोड़ा गया है। ट्रेन सुजानपुरा, बैरागढ़, सिंहोर, भोपाल, विदिशा, गंजबसोदा होकर बीना चलाई गई है। इसके बाद बबीना होकर झांसी पहुंचेगी। अधिकारी ने कहा कि करीब 35 साल पहले साबरमती भोपाल होकर चलती थी। बीना से नई लाइन पड़ जाने के बाद से यह ट्रेन भोपाल न जाकर मक्सी होकर सीधे रतलाम पहुंच जाती थी। इससे करीब सात-आठ घंटे की बचत हो रही है। कहा, वर्तमान में ट्रेन कहां है, इसका पता तो नहीं है, हां करीब 11 घंटे बाद ट्रेन के फैजाबाद आने की संभावना है। यह समय गुजर जाने के बाद भी साबरमती ट्रेन फैजाबाद नहीं पहुंच सकी थी

CHENNAI: A few days after 169-year-old CSI Tamil Wesley Church at Broadway developed cracks due to the tunnelling work for the metro rail; crevasses appeared on the walls of another old church in the same area.

Authorities of the Arcot Lutheran Church, which was built in 1892, found the cracks when they opened it for service on Monday morning.

Officials of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) inspected the cracks and promised to take remedial measures.

When TOI visited the church on Monday afternoon, vibrations from the boring machine could be felt on the railings of the building.

CSI Tamil Wesley Church, located two buildings away on the same road, had developed cracks a few days ago, and CMRL officials offered to repair the building when they met the members of the parish on Sunday.

Commuters seemed to be happy with the Metro, revealed a survey conducted by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

It covered over 85,000 respondents during the Customer Satisfaction Week from July 15 to 21 and again on July 26, at the top 22 stations receiving the highest footfall. Respondents have rated the DMRC highest in comfort with 7.42 out of 10 and customer care at 7.38, followed by information dissemination at 7.30.

Surveys were done on eight crucial aspects of Metro operations and each aspect was made the theme of the survey for a day of the week. The topics covered included availability, accessibility, information, quality of service, customer care, comfort, security and safety and commuter related aspect outside the Metro station. Stations where the survey was conducted included Rajiv Chowk, Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, Karol Bagh, Laxmi Nagar, Uttam Nagar East, Saket, Vaishali, HUDA City Centre, Shahadra, MG Road, GTB Nagar, Hauz Khas, Dilshad Garden, Noida City Centre, Central Secretariat.

Some of major subheads were – modes of access to DMRC system, first and last train timings, frequency of trains, facilities for the disabled and elderly, buying tokens and smart cards, adequacy of lifts and escalators, availability of parking, among others. Commuters were asked to rate the services on a scale – excellent, very good, good, satisfactory and need improvement.

“The findings of the survey reveal that the commuters are largely satisfied with the quality of service offered to them and have rated Delhi Metro as very good,” said a DMRC spokesperson.

“However, the DMRC will not rest on such laurels and will continue to serve its public with utmost dedication and commitment and bringing out necessary improvements whenever required.”

The areas where the public felt that further improvement can be done are quality of smart cards and tokens, condition of roads, drains and pavements, encroachment and tackling beggar nuisance outside Metro stations.

Among the respondents, 75.8 per cent were males while the rest were females. Office going professionals and students formed a bulk of the ridership as they comprised 62.5 and 30.4 per cent of the total respondents respectively.

Commuters belonging to the age group between 19 and 30 years formed the majority among the respondents at 68.6 per cent, while those belonging to the age group between 31 and 50 years were the second biggest group with 21.8 per cent.

At present the ridership of the Delhi Metro is above 23 lakh.

To clear extra rush of passengers, the South Central Railway will run 18 special trains between Kacheguda-Mangalore and Aurangabad-Tirupati.

Kacheguda-Mangalore special train will depart from Kacheguda at 06.00 hrs on August 6, 13, 20 and 27 (Tuesdays) and arrive in Mangalore at 11.20 hrs the next day.

In the return direction, the train will depart from Mangalore at 20.00 hrs on  August 7, 14, 21 and 28 (Wednesdays) and arrive in Kacheguda at 03.40 hrs on the third day (Fridays).

Aurangabad-Tirupati special train will depart from Aurangabad at 18.40 hrs on August 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 (Fridays) and arrive in Tirupati at 19.00 hrs the next day.

In the return direction, the train will depart from Tirupati at 21.15 hrs on August 3,10,17,24 and 31 (Saturdays) and arrive in Aurangabad at 20.30 hrs the next day.

NEW DELHI: Reeling under financial stress, railways is planning to set up captive nuclear power plants which will help the national transporter cut its fuel bill substantially and contribute to energy security.

“We are in talks with Nuclear Power Corporation to set up power plants at existing nuclear sites,” Kul Bhushan, Member (Electrical), Railway Board, said.

The transporter will soon sign an MoU with the government PSU and is also exploring some options in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The move is part of the strategy by railways, the country’s largest high speed diesel consumer, to revisit its energy consumption considering recent hikes in diesel price for bulk users. Railways spent Rs 8,000 crore on electricity in 2012-13, while its diesel bill was around Rs 15,000 crore.

However, in terms of productivity, the larger share of work is done by electric locomotives. Around 65% of freight and 50% of passenger traffic is carried using such locomotives.

Among the strategies being worked out by railways is to increase electrification of tracks, increase production of electric locomotives and to set up captive power plants to ensure adequate and cheap power.

The transporter, which pays about Rs 5.4 a unit of electricity, is expecting to get electricity at Rs 4 or even less through its own captive power plants.

Railways is expecting to operationalize the first phase of its captive power plant at Nabi Nagar in Bihar in May 2014. “The 1000MW plant will be full operational by March 2015,” Kul Bhushan said.

The state-run transporter is also hoping to fast-track commissioning of 2x660MW ‘super critical’ thermal power plant in Purulia’s Adra in West Bengal. The Rs 7,700 crore project is a joint venture between NTPC and railways.

From the present level of 3,000MW of peak requirement, it is estimated that the demand for electricity over the next 10 years will be nearly 5,000MW. “These plants will bring down the cost at which electricity is available to us,” Kul Bhushan said.

“The plan is to ensure cost-effective and environment-friendly solution for rail transport,” he said.

To achieve the above objectives, Ministry of Railways is planning to float a new PSU by name Railway Energy Management Company, as was declared in the Railway Budget 2013-2014 by the then Railway Minister in Parliament.

In the Communication sector too, Indian Railways was over dependent on DOT/BSNL earlier.  IR could cut cost of the entire communication and related infrastructure by floating its own Telecom PSU, RailTel Corporation of India Ltd which saved the cost of approx.Rs.500 Crore per annum – says a report.

NEW DELHI: Reeling under financial stress, railways is planning to set up captive nuclear power plants which will help the national transporter cut its fuel bill substantially and contribute to energy security.

“We are in talks with Nuclear Power Corporation to set up power plants at existing nuclear sites,” Kul Bhushan, Member (Electrical), Railway Board, said.

The transporter will soon sign an MoU with the government PSU and is also exploring some options in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The move is part of the strategy by railways, the country’s largest high speed diesel consumer, to revisit its energy consumption considering recent hikes in diesel price for bulk users. Railways spent Rs 8,000 crore on electricity in 2012-13, while its diesel bill was around Rs 15,000 crore.

However, in terms of productivity, the larger share of work is done by electric locomotives. Around 65% of freight and 50% of passenger traffic is carried using such locomotives.

Among the strategies being worked out by railways is to increase electrification of tracks, increase production of electric locomotives and to set up captive power plants to ensure adequate and cheap power.

The transporter, which pays about Rs 5.4 a unit of electricity, is expecting to get electricity at Rs 4 or even less through its own captive power plants.

Railways is expecting to operationalize the first phase of its captive power plant at Nabi Nagar in Bihar in May 2014. “The 1000MW plant will be full operational by March 2015,” Kul Bhushan said.

The state-run transporter is also hoping to fast-track commissioning of 2x660MW ‘super critical’ thermal power plant in Purulia’s Adra in West Bengal. The Rs 7,700 crore project is a joint venture between NTPC and railways.

From the present level of 3,000MW of peak requirement, it is estimated that the demand for electricity over the next 10 years will be nearly 5,000MW. “These plants will bring down the cost at which electricity is available to us,” Kul Bhushan said.

“The plan is to ensure cost-effective and environment-friendly solution for rail transport,” he said.

To achieve the above objectives, Ministry of Railways is planning to float a new PSU by name Railway Energy Management Company, as was declared in the Railway Budget 2013-2014 by the then Railway Minister in Parliament.

In the Communication sector too, Indian Railways was over dependent on DOT/BSNL earlier.  IR could cut cost of the entire communication and related infrastructure by floating its own Telecom PSU, RailTel Corporation of India Ltd which saved the cost of approx.Rs.500 Crore per annum – says a report.

Lucknow: Lucknow Development Authority is constructing the office for Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation in Janpath area. Earlier, there were offices of Ganga Cell, Urban Development department and electricity department of LDA in this area. Office of Ganga Cell would be shifted to the guest house of Jal Nigam in Mall Avenue.

Located in proximity to Awas Bandhu office, six separate cabins are being made in LMRC’s office. It would also have a common hall. Separate cabins are being made for project research and computer section of this project. Officials from LDA told that before August 15, the new office of metro cell in Janpath would start functioning.

A metro cell official told that the office would be beautifully made so that people may realize that the metro and its stations would be made equally beautiful. The designing of the office has been done in accordance with the consent of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which has prepared the final DPR (detailed project report) for metro project.

The metro cell is keeping many information under wraps as instructed by the government. Metro cell and government want to establish their own shops and small malls so as to generate revenue from them in future. There is also a proposal to raise the DM circle rate of the adjoining land areas of metro route and stations.

After increasing the rates, funds would be created for construction and maintenance of metro rail project. parking facilities would also be created near metro stations to facilitate people. For this, LMRC has to purchase the nearby lands itself. Officials of the metro cell also confirmed that because of these things, the project has been kept confidential.

Builders of the city have already started flocking near LDA to purchase lands near metro route and its stations to construct shopping malls, complexes and apartments. Many have shown interest in buying lands near Amausi, Transportnagar, Krishnanagar, Alambagh Chouraha, Alambagh Bus Station etc where the metro stations are proposed to be set up.

Strangely, no RTI application has come for Charbagh which is an important terminal of metro route. The main hot spots for builders are places including Hussainganj, Hazratganj, IT College, Mahanagar, Badshahnagar, Indiranagar and Munshipulia etc.