ProUI

A public interest writ petition has been filed in the Madras High Court to restrain the authorities concerned from deleting Royapuram railway station from the list of heritage buildings in phase-I, prepared by the CMDA and the Heritage Conservation panel.

The second bench comprising Justices R Banumathi and T S Sivagnanam before which the PIL from advocate S Sathia Chandran came up for hearing on Wednesday, ordered notice returnable in two weeks.

The PIL’s interim prayer was to restrain the Southern Railway GM from carrying out any repair or renovation work, including painting of the building.

According to the petitioner, he came to know through a newspaper that the Southern Railway officials had approached the Heritage Conservation Committee for removal of the Royapuram railway station building from the list of the heritage buildings so as to enable them to demolish it and undertake some other projects.

It was most unfortunate that the Railways had mooted this extreme, destructive and disastrous step of wiping out the history from its precincts and at the same time, claiming heritage of various kinds.

The building is of historic importance, remaining the oldest station in the entire sub-continent from 1856. On the 72-acre station premises, the heritage building did not even occupy a quarter ground of 2,400 sq.ft.

Hence the insensitivity of the railways to the history and heritage of the station building was highly condemnable, the petitioner contended.

Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge today assured to take up the issue of setting up a separate Divisional Railway Headquarters based in this city of North Karnataka in view of the long pending demand of the people of his home town.
Speaking to reporters here last night, he said in addition to the Central, South Central and South Western Railway Zones, efforts were on to carve out a new Division based in Gulbarga.
The proposed division may cover Yadgir, Bidar, Raichur, parts of Bijapur besides Gulbarga, he said. While the state has three Railway divisions for over 3,150 kms of railway tracks, Maharashtra has seven and Andhra Pradesh six, he said.

PATNA: Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) of Danapur, Sonpur and Dhanbad Divisions of East Central Railway (ECR) have been transferred by the Railway Board, New Delhi, following completion of their two-year tenure in their respective divisions. However, officials orders in this connection are yet to reach the ECR headquarters.

According to sources, NK Gupta, an officer of IRSE cadre presently posted in Southern Railway, has been posted as new DRM of Danapur division. Present DRM LM Jha is likely to be transferred to the ECR’s construction wing, sources said, adding Rajesh Tiwari and BB Singh are likely to be posted as new DRMs of Sonepur and Dhanbad divisions, respectively.

The train number, days of Service and timings of  Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT Bi-weeklyExpress train will be  revised as detailed below:
Train No. 22819 / 22820 of Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam bi-weekly Express will be revised as 18519 / 18520 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam Express with effect from 10th September, 2013 ex. Visakhapatnam  and  from 12th September,  2013 ex. Mumbai  LTT.

Train No. 18519 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT bi-weekly Express will depart Visakhapatnam at 23 30 hrs instead of 08 45 hrs and arrive Mumbai LTT at 04 40 hrs o­n the  next day  instead of 11 05 hrs with effect from 10thSeptember, 2013.

In the return direction, Train No. 18520 Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam by-weekly Express will depart Mumbai LTT at 06 55 hrs instead of 12 25 hrs and arrive Visakhapatnam at 11 15 hrs. o­n the next day instead of 14 45 hrs with effect from 12th September 2013.

Similarly, the days of service will be also changed.  Train No. 18519 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT bi-weekly Express will depart Visakhapatnam  o­n Wednesdays and Saturdays as existing whereas Train No. 18520 Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam by-weekly Express will depart Mumbai LTT o­n Fridays and Mondays instead of Thursdays and Sundays.

PATNA: Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) of Danapur, Sonpur and Dhanbad Divisions of East Central Railway (ECR) have been transferred by the Railway Board, New Delhi, following completion of their two-year tenure in their respective divisions. However, officials orders in this connection are yet to reach the ECR headquarters.

According to sources, NK Gupta, an officer of IRSE cadre presently posted in Southern Railway, has been posted as new DRM of Danapur division. Present DRM LM Jha is likely to be transferred to the ECR’s construction wing, sources said, adding Rajesh Tiwari and BB Singh are likely to be posted as new DRMs of Sonepur and Dhanbad divisions, respectively.

The train number, days of Service and timings of  Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT Bi-weeklyExpress train will be  revised as detailed below:
Train No. 22819 / 22820 of Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam bi-weekly Express will be revised as 18519 / 18520 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam Express with effect from 10th September, 2013 ex. Visakhapatnam  and  from 12th September,  2013 ex. Mumbai  LTT.

Train No. 18519 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT bi-weekly Express will depart Visakhapatnam at 23 30 hrs instead of 08 45 hrs and arrive Mumbai LTT at 04 40 hrs o­n the  next day  instead of 11 05 hrs with effect from 10thSeptember, 2013.

In the return direction, Train No. 18520 Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam by-weekly Express will depart Mumbai LTT at 06 55 hrs instead of 12 25 hrs and arrive Visakhapatnam at 11 15 hrs. o­n the next day instead of 14 45 hrs with effect from 12th September 2013.

Similarly, the days of service will be also changed.  Train No. 18519 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT bi-weekly Express will depart Visakhapatnam  o­n Wednesdays and Saturdays as existing whereas Train No. 18520 Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam by-weekly Express will depart Mumbai LTT o­n Fridays and Mondays instead of Thursdays and Sundays.

The train number, days of Service and timings of  Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT Bi-weeklyExpress train will be  revised as detailed below:
Train No. 22819 / 22820 of Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam bi-weekly Express will be revised as 18519 / 18520 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam Express with effect from 10th September, 2013 ex. Visakhapatnam  and  from 12th September,  2013 ex. Mumbai  LTT.

Train No. 18519 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT bi-weekly Express will depart Visakhapatnam at 23 30 hrs instead of 08 45 hrs and arrive Mumbai LTT at 04 40 hrs o­n the  next day  instead of 11 05 hrs with effect from 10thSeptember, 2013.

In the return direction, Train No. 18520 Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam by-weekly Express will depart Mumbai LTT at 06 55 hrs instead of 12 25 hrs and arrive Visakhapatnam at 11 15 hrs. o­n the next day instead of 14 45 hrs with effect from 12th September 2013.

Similarly, the days of service will be also changed.  Train No. 18519 Visakhapatnam-Mumbai LTT bi-weekly Express will depart Visakhapatnam  o­n Wednesdays and Saturdays as existing whereas Train No. 18520 Mumbai LTT-Visakhapatnam by-weekly Express will depart Mumbai LTT o­n Fridays and Mondays instead of Thursdays and Sundays.

INDORE: After months of delay, survey work for metro rail service in Indore is all set to take off.

A team of representatives from joint venture firm comprising German firm LRTC (GmbH) and Mumbai-based Rohit Associates Architects & Engineers Pvt Ltd, which has got contract for preparing detailed project report (DPR) for Indore and Bhopal metro, will be in Indore on Thursday to initiative survey works.

Urban administration and development department of Madhya Pradesh government had signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the JV firm on May 5 for preparation of DPR.

Representatives of the company will interact with the officials of IMC and district administration following the survey.

Initially, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was supposed to prepare DPR for metro but it did not work out and the state had decided to issue global tender for DPR. The state government will be paying around Rs 10.50 lakh per kilometre for preparation of DPR. The firm will carry out techno-commercial and economic viability survey of metro, mono and light rail models. They will do the feasibility study for all three modes and analyze before preparation of DPR.

Snaking across the length and breadth of the subcontinent, India's railway system has often been likened to veins feeding the beating heart of a large and complex nation.Over more than 160 years the system has chugged away, adapting to change as India itself has faced it: from simple, overcrowded carriages frequented by the poor to tourist-targeted luxury services that evoke some of the grandeur of the country's colonial past.Amid these hugely divergent choices, a group of Australian and Indian authors last year crowded into a sleeper car in Mumbai and embarked on an unusually intimate 3½-week journey, of an AsiaLink program that took the traditional concept of an overseas writer's tour and turned it into something more immersive and ''real''.''It was a bit like a literary lasagne,'' says children's and young adult fiction writer Kirsty Murray. ''There was me and Ben Law and Sudeep and Annie and Georgia and Chandrahas and all of these layers of authors and designers and thinkers, which was nice, though occasionally arduous. A great way to get to know people is watching them wake up. Watching them wake up and listening to them snore is a very intimate experience with another writer.''Advertisement With them were six handcrafted travelling cases, home to a cleverly designed portable library filled with hundreds of Australian books. Created by Melbourne duo Georgia Hutchison and Rob Sowter, the cases were originally intended for the comparatively gentle task of rolling into and out of a few hotel lobbies along the group's 4000-kilometre journey across southern India.

Instead the cases, handmade in a Brunswick workshop of Australian hardwood, plyboard and vegetable-dyed kangaroo leather, were taken aboard the trains, too, where they were accidentally doused in the juices from defrosted fish, were temporarily misplaced for days on end and, in one instance, shared storage space with an in-use coffin.

''We didn't imagine that they would have to go through as much trauma as they did,'' Hutchison says. ''I had been and lived in India before so I do know what it's like, but there are so many different types of India and the type of India that we went to was different to the described. But they held up.''

Both affiliated with RMIT's Design Hub, Hutchison's and Sowter's initial brief from AsiaLink's writing programs manager Nic Low was vague - he knew he wanted to create a travelling library, but didn't know how that should look or what it should mean.

''We worked with him to develop the shape of the project … suggesting that maybe we create a space, that maybe a library needs to be somewhere that you can physically sit down and read a book or where you can sit around and have ideas about books,'' Hutchison says.

The result is a collection of deceptively simple cases on wheels, some of which house components for modular wooden bookshelves that can be adjusted for height and length, and braced to each other for support. In events in Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and Chennai the five authors - Australians Kirsty Murray and Benjamin Law, and Indians Annie Zaidi, Chandrahas Choudhury and Sudeep Sen - would set up the library filled with offerings from classic and contemporary Australian writers, using the cases as seats and referring to the books on display to discuss aspects of Australian culture and literary history. In each city, a complete set of the books was donated to a major library and the authors also visited numerous schools along the way.

''In a way I was really blown away when I went to India and discovered so much amazing Indian literature that I had not been able to find in Australia,'' Murray says of her first trip to India in 2007 to research her young adult historical fiction book India Dark.

''I was completely gobsmacked at this huge divide of each culture being in a colonial narrative and yet so little understanding of each other's stories.''

In August, the literary exchange that began with last November's Bookwallah tour of India will continue on to Australia as Zaidi and Choudhury appear as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival. They will later join Murray and Law on a train journey taking them from Melbourne to Sydney and on to Brisbane for the Brisbane Writers Festival.

The cases, meanwhile, are staying put. Their materials, such as brass fittings and the kangaroo skin exteriors, were chosen for their ageing qualities - and they are now beginning to show some wear. ''Like a well-travelled pair of jeans,'' says Hutchison.

A documentary about the Bookwallah project will screen at Federation Square on July 30 and run every Tuesday in August. The cases are on display in the State Library's Cowen Gallery until September 1.

Snaking across the length and breadth of the subcontinent, India's railway system has often been likened to veins feeding the beating heart of a large and complex nation.Over more than 160 years the system has chugged away, adapting to change as India itself has faced it: from simple, overcrowded carriages frequented by the poor to tourist-targeted luxury services that evoke some of the grandeur of the country's colonial past.Amid these hugely divergent choices, a group of Australian and Indian authors last year crowded into a sleeper car in Mumbai and embarked on an unusually intimate 3½-week journey, of an AsiaLink program that took the traditional concept of an overseas writer's tour and turned it into something more immersive and ''real''.''It was a bit like a literary lasagne,'' says children's and young adult fiction writer Kirsty Murray. ''There was me and Ben Law and Sudeep and Annie and Georgia and Chandrahas and all of these layers of authors and designers and thinkers, which was nice, though occasionally arduous. A great way to get to know people is watching them wake up. Watching them wake up and listening to them snore is a very intimate experience with another writer.''Advertisement With them were six handcrafted travelling cases, home to a cleverly designed portable library filled with hundreds of Australian books. Created by Melbourne duo Georgia Hutchison and Rob Sowter, the cases were originally intended for the comparatively gentle task of rolling into and out of a few hotel lobbies along the group's 4000-kilometre journey across southern India.

Instead the cases, handmade in a Brunswick workshop of Australian hardwood, plyboard and vegetable-dyed kangaroo leather, were taken aboard the trains, too, where they were accidentally doused in the juices from defrosted fish, were temporarily misplaced for days on end and, in one instance, shared storage space with an in-use coffin.

''We didn't imagine that they would have to go through as much trauma as they did,'' Hutchison says. ''I had been and lived in India before so I do know what it's like, but there are so many different types of India and the type of India that we went to was different to the described. But they held up.''

Both affiliated with RMIT's Design Hub, Hutchison's and Sowter's initial brief from AsiaLink's writing programs manager Nic Low was vague - he knew he wanted to create a travelling library, but didn't know how that should look or what it should mean.

''We worked with him to develop the shape of the project … suggesting that maybe we create a space, that maybe a library needs to be somewhere that you can physically sit down and read a book or where you can sit around and have ideas about books,'' Hutchison says.

The result is a collection of deceptively simple cases on wheels, some of which house components for modular wooden bookshelves that can be adjusted for height and length, and braced to each other for support. In events in Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and Chennai the five authors - Australians Kirsty Murray and Benjamin Law, and Indians Annie Zaidi, Chandrahas Choudhury and Sudeep Sen - would set up the library filled with offerings from classic and contemporary Australian writers, using the cases as seats and referring to the books on display to discuss aspects of Australian culture and literary history. In each city, a complete set of the books was donated to a major library and the authors also visited numerous schools along the way.

''In a way I was really blown away when I went to India and discovered so much amazing Indian literature that I had not been able to find in Australia,'' Murray says of her first trip to India in 2007 to research her young adult historical fiction book India Dark.

''I was completely gobsmacked at this huge divide of each culture being in a colonial narrative and yet so little understanding of each other's stories.''

In August, the literary exchange that began with last November's Bookwallah tour of India will continue on to Australia as Zaidi and Choudhury appear as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival. They will later join Murray and Law on a train journey taking them from Melbourne to Sydney and on to Brisbane for the Brisbane Writers Festival.

The cases, meanwhile, are staying put. Their materials, such as brass fittings and the kangaroo skin exteriors, were chosen for their ageing qualities - and they are now beginning to show some wear. ''Like a well-travelled pair of jeans,'' says Hutchison.

A documentary about the Bookwallah project will screen at Federation Square on July 30 and run every Tuesday in August. The cases are on display in the State Library's Cowen Gallery until September 1.