ProUI

INDORE: With regard to the news item published on July 25 under the headline, 'Chittorgarh railway station gets nod for LPG use', senior division commercial manager Suresh Barmecha said that as per the safety guidelines issued by Ministry of Railways, the zonal railways have been delegated power to permit restricted cooking on the platforms except in case of suburban stations for preparation of items like tea, samosas etc and other small consumable items. Normally cooking on the platform is to be carried out by using electrical induction cooking.

However, with due consideration to rampant power cuts/shortage of electricity at a particular station, permission to use cooking through LPG gas can be considered. Permission to use LPG cylinder is being examined strictly on the merit of the case-based on the guidelines issued by Railway Board.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) will soon become the first railway station in the city to have internet protocol-based smart CCTV cameras that will automatically detect unusual movement or activity and sound an alarm. The current surveillance system is reactive, as video footage is analysed only after an incident.

As part of integral security system (ISS), Central Railway (CR) will install IP-based CCTVs at five other major suburban stations as well.

The cameras, to be installed in the next three months, will be equipped with "software command and control" that will flag suspect behavior and set off an alarm.

The contract to install 423 CCTVs in the first phase was awarded to Tata Group company Nelco six months ago.

The new installations will take the count of CCTVs at CST, Dadar, Kurla, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Thane and Kalyan stations to 784.

"Within three months, installation of IP-based CCTVs will begin at CST.

There are 132 CCTVs at CST and 130 IP-based cameras will be added. The new cameras will enable staff at three CR offices to monitor feeds simultaneously on the internet," said a senior CR official.

Anil Sharma, Chief Security Commissioner, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Central Railway, said: "CR has awarded a Rs 24-crore contract to Nelco for vehicle scanners, baggage-screening systems, explosive detection and disposal systems and metal detectors. IP-based cameras with command and control software are part of ISS.

"The software will also record action taken, if any, by security personnel. There is also a plan to train railway staff in behavioral science."

At most stations and railway premises at present, footage from CCTV cameras is monitored by RPF personnel or the station master or booking clerks.

"Now, the feeds will be monitored by RPF, signaling department and the company that is given the contract," said a senior official.

The work of the new Divisional Railway Manager's (DRM) office at Raja Bahadur Mill Road is progressing at a snail's pace for want of funds. The project was announced in 2006 with an estimated expenditure of Rs 8.5 lakh and a stipulated time frame of two years. Currently, the DRM and other offices are housed at a building near the Pune railway station.

A railway official said barring first two years there has been a lot of trouble in getting funds for the project. The work had to be halted between 2010 and 2012 as there was no fund allotment during this time, he added.He said over 50 per cent work has been completed. With Rs 3 crore each allotted in 2012 and 2013 budgets, the work on the project has gathered steam, he said.

The DRM office has over 500 employees working at more than 15 section offices and branch offices, with a daily footfall of 200 visitors.

The new building will house offices of DRM, Divisional Commercial Manager, IRCTC, Railway Engineers and PRO along with conference and meeting rooms, open areas and parking space.

Harsha Shah of Railway Pravasi Group blamed the railway board for the delay in projects in the state.

"The work should have been completed in a year. This would have pushed the ambitious plan of making the Pune railway station a world class station as the shifting of offices would have provided the much needed land for the station. But the railway board is not providing funds. The board announces projects and forgets them. Also, general manager and DRM's of the railways change after a few years and they hardly care about the projects," said Shah.

Railway spokesperson Y K Singh said the project will be completed in 5-6 months.

To increase its carrying capacity on routes which have high number of passengers, the Railways plan to run duplicate trains. These trains will follow main trains with a short time-gap. The ministry will also attach additional coaches in important trains. This is to be done without delay, said an official. Disclosing it to media persons, new Member (Traffic) Railway Board, Devi Prasad Pandey said that we can implement it without delay. He said at the moment, production of wagons is at a satisfactory level and that there will not be any shortage of it. Pandey said that the railways has the required capacity.He arued that the ministry is in search of avenues to enhance track capacity. Pandey  dismissed apprehension that the condition of the track is not good enough to allow it. “We are maintaining our tracks in a more efficient manner. The new technology has been introduced and it is doing well,” he said. This would be an improvement to what has been termed as special trains. Railways run special trains to ease out rush during festive seasons. On the contrary, duplicate trains will run regularly.
Pandey said that the ministry is doing path analysis to know the requirement of different routes.

Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge said on Tuesday that Karnataka lagged Bihar, Haryana and Assam as far as development of rail network was concerned. It was not even close to the level in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, he said.

SEE MORE ...

The work of the new Divisional Railway Manager's (DRM) office at Raja Bahadur Mill Road is progressing at a snail's pace for want of funds. The project was announced in 2006 with an estimated expenditure of Rs 8.5 lakh and a stipulated time frame of two years. Currently, the DRM and other offices are housed at a building near the Pune railway station.

A railway official said barring first two years there has been a lot of trouble in getting funds for the project. The work had to be halted between 2010 and 2012 as there was no fund allotment during this time, he added.He said over 50 per cent work has been completed. With Rs 3 crore each allotted in 2012 and 2013 budgets, the work on the project has gathered steam, he said.

The DRM office has over 500 employees working at more than 15 section offices and branch offices, with a daily footfall of 200 visitors.

The new building will house offices of DRM, Divisional Commercial Manager, IRCTC, Railway Engineers and PRO along with conference and meeting rooms, open areas and parking space.

Harsha Shah of Railway Pravasi Group blamed the railway board for the delay in projects in the state.

"The work should have been completed in a year. This would have pushed the ambitious plan of making the Pune railway station a world class station as the shifting of offices would have provided the much needed land for the station. But the railway board is not providing funds. The board announces projects and forgets them. Also, general manager and DRM's of the railways change after a few years and they hardly care about the projects," said Shah.

Railway spokesperson Y K Singh said the project will be completed in 5-6 months.

Agra : Irate passengers of Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali Express on Thursday night held up the train at Tundla railway station and showed stale dinner served to them which have live worms crawling.  As the passengers protested, the railway authorities sealed the stale food inside bottles for testing and promised action against the vendor. The stale food was supplied inside B-1 AC coach of the train. The train was held up at the station for more than 30 minutes.

The Southern Railway has replaced an old brick bridge with prefabricated reinforced cement concrete boxes near the Thiruvennainallur railway station.The replacement would make the railway track running on the bridge strong and stable. A statement from the Southern Railway, Tiruchirapalli division, stated that for putting up the two RCC boxes about 100 employees along with heavy machinery were deployed.While the work was taken up on July 24, two trains between Vriddhachalam and Villupuram were partially cancelled and four other trains were diverted from Vriddhachalam via Cuddalore Port and Villupuram. — Special Correspondent

फिरोजपुर के लोगों को 15 अगस्त से नई देश की राजधानी से जुड़ने के लिए एक और ट्रेन का तोहफा मिल सकता है। पूर्व रेलमंत्री पवन बंसल ने दो रेलगाड़ियों को मुक्तसर के माघी मेले में घोषणा की थी उसमें से इंटरसिटी नामक ट्रेन को चलाने के लिए मूर्त रूप देने की कोशिश की जा रही है। यह ट्रेन फिरोजपुर से सुबह 4.45 पर फिरोजपुर से चल कर दिल्ली के सराय रूहेला 10.45 मिनट पर पहुंचेगी। रेलवे के सूत्र बताते हैं कि सारी तैयारियां पूरी हो चुकी हैं लेकिन अभी दिल्ली से अधिकारिक तौर पर कोई आदेश नहीं आया है। किसी भी गाड़ी के चलने के दो दिन पहले दिल्ली से आदेश आता है। वहीं रेल मंडल प्रबंधक नरेश चंद्र गोयल का कहना है कि अभी दिल्ली से उन्हें कोई आधिकारिक सूचना नहीं मिली है। वहीं कांग्रेस के गुरुहरसहाय के विधायक राणा गुरमीत सिंह सोढ़ी ने बताया कि वे दिल्ली में इस मामले में लगातार प्रयास कर रहे हैं ताकि फिरोजपुर की जनता को कोई बड़ा तोहफा दे सकें। इस मामले में दोबारा 29 तारीख को रेल मंत्री मल्लिकार्जुन खडगे से फिर मिलने वाले हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि फिरोजपुर में पहले लोगों को जनता एक्सप्रेस के भरोसे रहना पड़ता था और उस ट्रेन के चलने से तमाम राहत मिलेगी।

फिरोजपुर के लोगों को 15 अगस्त से नई देश की राजधानी से जुड़ने के लिए एक और ट्रेन का तोहफा मिल सकता है। पूर्व रेलमंत्री पवन बंसल ने दो रेलगाड़ियों को मुक्तसर के माघी मेले में घोषणा की थी उसमें से इंटरसिटी नामक ट्रेन को चलाने के लिए मूर्त रूप देने की कोशिश की जा रही है। यह ट्रेन फिरोजपुर से सुबह 4.45 पर फिरोजपुर से चल कर दिल्ली के सराय रूहेला 10.45 मिनट पर पहुंचेगी। रेलवे के सूत्र बताते हैं कि सारी तैयारियां पूरी हो चुकी हैं लेकिन अभी दिल्ली से अधिकारिक तौर पर कोई आदेश नहीं आया है। किसी भी गाड़ी के चलने के दो दिन पहले दिल्ली से आदेश आता है। वहीं रेल मंडल प्रबंधक नरेश चंद्र गोयल का कहना है कि अभी दिल्ली से उन्हें कोई आधिकारिक सूचना नहीं मिली है। वहीं कांग्रेस के गुरुहरसहाय के विधायक राणा गुरमीत सिंह सोढ़ी ने बताया कि वे दिल्ली में इस मामले में लगातार प्रयास कर रहे हैं ताकि फिरोजपुर की जनता को कोई बड़ा तोहफा दे सकें। इस मामले में दोबारा 29 तारीख को रेल मंत्री मल्लिकार्जुन खडगे से फिर मिलने वाले हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि फिरोजपुर में पहले लोगों को जनता एक्सप्रेस के भरोसे रहना पड़ता था और उस ट्रेन के चलने से तमाम राहत मिलेगी।