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Nagpur: In a bid to double its freight carrying capacity, the Nagpur Division of Central Railway will go in for ‘Locotrol’ soon. Trials are being conducted at Ajni Loco Shed.

Locotrol includes two to four or so locos which can usually be coupled together to operate automatically, without any special provisions, with the crew manning only one of them.

Senior railway officials from Nagpur said that the three trials that were conducted have been partially successful. Ajni is one of the two sheds where this is being done. The other is Lallaguda in Hyderabad.

“There are some teething troubles and we will overcome them as engineers from Hyderabad are at work,” officials said.

The Nagpur Division of Central Railway is already into long-hauling for transporting coal, containers and box wagons. wherein two freight trains with 59 wagons each – coupled together have one loco in the front and another at the rear. Both the locos have crew.

However, officials informed that under the new Locotrol system, there will be two or three locos in the train one at front and one in middle and another at the rear. The middle one will operate by remote control from front loco, so no extra drivers will be needed. It will allow for trains to become longer.

Officials said WAG 7 locos are being upgraded for the purpose. It will allow the loco to start with slightly higher loads. Another plan is to making the loco heavy so that wheels don’t slip easily and the loco can pull more load.

Even as Locotrol is seen as the advantage, the flip side is that freight trains are slow. They get overtaken by passenger trains very often. So the freight trains have to be put on a side track called a loop line so that the train coming up behind can overtake.

However, the standard length of a loop line across Indian Railways these days is around 600 metres, which is the length of a standard freight train.

“If the railways run double length train, they will need a loop line that is around 1,400 metres long. But the railways don’t have that. So even if they have the remote control technology there are limitations to how much it can be used,” a senior officer said.

What is a Locotrol

The locos at the middle and rear of the train are radio-controlled by the crew at the head of the train This system is used in some places for heavy freight sections With multiple locos lashed up, there are cables that pass between successive locos, which carry the control signals between the manned loco and the others. In Locotrol, railways will need minimum drivers

The Railway Ministry can proceed on projects in Karnataka only after receiving Rs 445 crore from the State government, said Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday.“The state has to give the Railways Rs 445 crore. Unless they give us this amount, we can not proceed,” he told reporters. “Karnataka is one of the few states which have agreed to implement pending rail projects by sharing 50 per cent of the cost. It has also agreed to give free land,” he said.

NAGPUR/CHANDRAPUR/WARDHA: Heavy downpour lashed Nagpur and Chandrapur throwing life out of gear on Friday. Chandrapur recorded the highest rainfall of the season so far at 280 mm in entire Vidarbha and the city recorded 128.6 mm from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm. The regional meteorological office has predicted heavy rains for another 48 hours in the entire region.

The city's Ambazari lake too was overflowing. Sources said that this is for the first time since 1994 that the lake is overflowing in the July. The lake usually overflows in August-September. The heavy rains caused the Gandhi Sagar lake to overflow a few days ago.

The Gorewada reservoir too is threateningly filled close to the brim. The lake's overflow height is 315.65 meter. According to leader of ruling party Praveen Datke, the water level is only .5 meter below the overflow height. He said high alert announced in areas situated on the banks of Pili river especially in West and North Nagpur. "Families living along the Pili River banks will be shifted to NMC schools," he said. Gorewada lake's overflow water enters Pili River. Bor nullah, a major tributary of Pili River, is in spate.

The were reports of at least three people drowning in Chandrapur and one dying of lightning strike in Brahmapuri. Wardha district, which has recorded 728.19mm rains this season, has claimed nine lives so far and caused a heavy damage to the crops on more than 11,000 hectares.

Maximum rain in the 12 hours in city was received between 5.30 am to 8.30 pm. The rainfall in first nine hours was just 14.6 mm but this figure reached 128.6 mm by 8.30 pm. Most other districts in Vidarbha did not receive much rain on Friday. Washim, Amravati, Gondia did not get any rains at all. Brahmapuri in Chandrapur district was the only town which received 42 mm from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. Wardha recorded just 4 mm and Yavatmal recorded 1 mm.

On Thursday it rained heavily in entire Wardha district. Wardha city received 158mm and one of its talukas town, Selu, received 256mm rain from Wednesday 8.30am to Thursday 8.30am.

The downpour caused nullahs to overflow in Chandrapur and the Ramala lake too was overflowing. The streets were submerged and many homes flooded. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the streets for hours due to water logging on streets. The entire district witnessed heavy downpour and Nagpur-Chandrapur highway was cut off due to water overflowing the rivers and nullahs.

An autorickshaw was swept away from the overflowing bridge on Bhivkund nullah on Ballarpur-Chandrapur road at around 3 pm. Three people drowned while passersby managed to rescue four passengers. Two bodies - including that of a three-year-old girl Priya Bind and her father Rupesh (28) - were recovered and one remained untraced till late in the evening. One person was swept away in Chandrapur's Indira Nagar area.

Vehicular traffic came to a standstill and Chandrapur city's thoroughfares were flooded. Water entered many shops along the roads. Some schools withheld their bus services, holding the students back at the school due to flooded streets. Many houses, particularly those in slum areas, collapsed due to heavy rains. Water entered over 200 houses and hutments in Warora town. All major roads in the district were cut off due to flash floods following heavy rainfall. Bridges on Rajura-Ballarpur, Warora-Wani, Chimur-Warora, Chandrapur-Mul, Ballarpur-Kothari, Chandrapur etc were reported overflowing.

About 700 people were shifted from low-lying areas of Chandrapur, 100 in Bhadravati and 38 people were shifted to safer places in Pombhurna. All seven gates of the Irai dam were opened by 1 metre and it added to the woes of flood-hit people. Guardian minister Sanjay Deotale visited Chandrapur and inspected the flood hit areas.

Before this Nagpur had received 145.1mm rainfall on July 15 and Wardha had recorded a high of 158mm on July 18. The city had received a high of 187mm on June 26 when it had poured continuously for two days. As per the regional meteorological office the highest ever rainfall in 24 hours in city was recorded on July 12, 1994 at 304 mm.

Train movement hit: Heavy rains also affected train movement. Trains including Rajdhani Express, Lucknow-Chennai Express were running late as rainwater had submerged the railway tracks in Chandrapur. Rail traffic on the Mumbai-Nagpur route too has been severely hit.

Flights affected: The heavy rain affected the air traffic in Nagpur. The Jet Lite Mumbai-Nagpur flight was held for 25 minutes before it was allowed to land at Nagpur airport due to poor visibility. The flight landed at 7.30 pm when visibility improved.

Mining ops stalled: The deluge has brought mining activity to a standstill in Chandrapur. Five of the Western Coalfields Limited's (WCL) mines have been cut off due to flooding. These include two underground mines which are more prone to risk. WCL sources say there have been no casualties as the miners were evacuated soon after the water started reaching the danger levels. The mines have been cutoff since last four days. A senior WCL official said it may take a few more days for things to normalize even if the rains stopped on Saturday.

5 CSTPS units shut: Power generation in the state has taken a big hit as five out of seven units of the 2,340 MW Chandrapur power station were not generating on Friday. The remaining two units were only generating about 150 MW. Unit 4 and Unit 5 have been taken out for maintenance. Unit 2 is down due to boiler tube leakage while Unit 6 developed a snag when a blast took place in its transformer duct. Unit 7 was a victim of heavy rain as coal became sticky.

Rainfall in 12 hours across Vidarbha

Amravati nil

Akola 8

Brahmapuri 42

Chandrapur 280

Buldhana nil

Gondia nil

Wardha 4

Yavatmal 1

(Rainfall in mm)

* Heavy rains disrupt rail movement

* Mumbai-Nagpur flight landing delayed due to poor visibility

* Mining in WCL's mines comes to a standstill

* Power generation too affected

Conservation work around the historic Neela Gumbad, part of the Humayun’s Tomb, is being hampered because of dumping of railway paraphernalia near the monument.An abandoned room of Northern Railway next to the garbage dump is preventing construction of a by-pass by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which wants to connect Neela Gumbad with Humayun’s Tomb. This would also enable the octagonal structure, next to the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station (HNRS), to become part of the world heritage site.Speaking to The Hindu , AKTC project director Ratish Nanda said it was important to allow visitors’ access to Neela Gumbad, ensure preservation of the world heritage site as well as simplify operations of the railway station. “We have been urging the Railways to design and implement a landscape scheme but nothing concrete has come out of it.” Heavy sleepers and other railway material have been dumped near the monument. “This has emboldened the local residents in the Nizamuddin area to dump their litter here. The Archaeological Survey of India, which signed an MoU with the Railways to develop the Neela Gumbad area, has entrusted AKTC with the task of conserving the monument and constructing a by-pass,” said Suraj Kumar, a conservator.

In his letter this past Monday, ASI Director General Pravin Srivastava reminded Northern Railway of the agreement regarding development of the Neela Gumbad area. “The agreement incorporates demolition of a small abandoned room of the Railways next to the garbage dump to facilitate construction of the by-pass.”

A senior Northern Railway official said: “We had temporarily given the land to ASI for beautifying the area. To decongest the HNRS we have to store our material there (near the monument).”

VIJAYAWADA, India, July 20  -- For the first time in the history of Indian Railway, a woman has been appointed as a guard for goods train, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

Forty Three-year old D Mohini Kumari was appointed as the woman guard on freight trains by the South Central Railway (SCR) on the other day.

Kumari, a graduate who was appointed a clerk in SCR on compassionate ground in 2006 after the death of her husband, took charge of her new assignment here Friday.

According to railway sources, she qualified for the post of guard in a departmental examination and later underwent training at Secunderabad.

Talking to PTI, Mohini said she is prepared to face any kind of challenge in her new job, where women are rarely appointed.

She advised women to break new grounds and be ready to face challenges in life.

Pune: The diesel loco shed of Pune division of Central Railways, a known bastion of the male fraternity, is silently witnessing a revolution – an increasing number of female staffers are becoming an inseparable part of the department.

In the last couple of years, about 35 female staffers have joined the department. The strength of the male workers is 703.

“Earlier women were not very forthcoming when it came to technical work. However, in the past couple of years, a lot of women are seen opting for technical jobs,” said Railways officials.

All these 35 women have passed out from various ITIs and have taken examinations conducted by the Railways to get a job.

Vandana Sathe (25), one of the youngest among the female workers at the diesel loco shed, stated that many people assume women do not like technical work. “However, all 35 of us are thoroughly enjoy our work,” she said.

She added, “I work in the electrical section and have to check the wiring in various components of the loco when it comes for maintenance. This work is very critical and important.” Divisional Mechanical Engineer Sandeep Verma stated that women at the diesel loco shed work from 8 am to 5 pm.

NEW DELHI: A special court hearing the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case was on Friday told by the railways that it cannot provide the CCTV footage of the platform from where one of the accused claimed to have left Delhi in a train prior to the night of the incident. Additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna had yesterday directed the Northern Railways to produce the CCTV footage of December 15, 2012, in the court after accused Akshay Thakur sought that the footage of New Delhi Railway Station be ordered to establish that he had left Delhi on that day by Maha Bodhi Express. However, the railway authority told the court that it only preserves the CCTV footage for 30 days, so it cannot provide the same. "In pursuance of my order on July 18 for procuring of CCTV footage of the platform departure of Maha Bodhi Express. Railway Police Force (RPF) have not preserved such records as such is done for only 30 days," the judge, while referring the report from railway authority, said. Besides this, the recording of statement of the defence witnesses on behalf of Pawan Gupta did not take place due to failure of his counsel Vivek Sharma to turn up with witnesses.

Shimoga-Talaguppa Broad Gauge Horata Samiti has decided to pressure the Ministry of Railway to link Talaguppa in Shimoga district and Honnavar in Uttara Kannada district at the earliest.S.G. Kumaraswamy, Joint Secretary of the Samiti, told The Hindu on Friday that a meeting of the Samiti was held in Sagar on Thursday to discuss the issue.He said that, district would be connected to the Konkan railway after the execution of this project. Ministry of Railways had sanctioned administrative approval for the project to connect Talaguppa and Honnavar and had commissioned a survey in this regard. The project is yet to get clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest.The meeting decided to press the Ministry of Railway to construct more tunnels along the proposed line to minimise damaging the forest, he said.The people of Shimoga and Uttara Kannada districts will benefit from the project. It will ensure easy access to Mumbai for people of Shimoga district while the travel distance to Bangalore will be reduced for the people of Uttara Kannada district, he said. The meeting also decided to press the Ministry of Railway to introduce passenger train service between Shimoga and Talaguppa as announced in the railway budget and to upgrade the amenities at Sagar railway station. Writer Na. D’Souza, honorary president of the Samiti, other functionaries were present.

NAGPUR/CHANDRAPUR/WARDHA: Heavy downpour lashed Nagpur and Chandrapur throwing life out of gear on Friday. Chandrapur recorded the highest rainfall of the season so far at 280 mm in entire Vidarbha and the city recorded 128.6 mm from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm. The regional meteorological office has predicted heavy rains for another 48 hours in the entire region.

The city's Ambazari lake too was overflowing. Sources said that this is for the first time since 1994 that the lake is overflowing in the July. The lake usually overflows in August-September. The heavy rains caused the Gandhi Sagar lake to overflow a few days ago.

The Gorewada reservoir too is threateningly filled close to the brim. The lake's overflow height is 315.65 meter. According to leader of ruling party Praveen Datke, the water level is only .5 meter below the overflow height. He said high alert announced in areas situated on the banks of Pili river especially in West and North Nagpur. "Families living along the Pili River banks will be shifted to NMC schools," he said. Gorewada lake's overflow water enters Pili River. Bor nullah, a major tributary of Pili River, is in spate.

The were reports of at least three people drowning in Chandrapur and one dying of lightning strike in Brahmapuri. Wardha district, which has recorded 728.19mm rains this season, has claimed nine lives so far and caused a heavy damage to the crops on more than 11,000 hectares.

Maximum rain in the 12 hours in city was received between 5.30 am to 8.30 pm. The rainfall in first nine hours was just 14.6 mm but this figure reached 128.6 mm by 8.30 pm. Most other districts in Vidarbha did not receive much rain on Friday. Washim, Amravati, Gondia did not get any rains at all. Brahmapuri in Chandrapur district was the only town which received 42 mm from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. Wardha recorded just 4 mm and Yavatmal recorded 1 mm.

On Thursday it rained heavily in entire Wardha district. Wardha city received 158mm and one of its talukas town, Selu, received 256mm rain from Wednesday 8.30am to Thursday 8.30am.

The downpour caused nullahs to overflow in Chandrapur and the Ramala lake too was overflowing. The streets were submerged and many homes flooded. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the streets for hours due to water logging on streets. The entire district witnessed heavy downpour and Nagpur-Chandrapur highway was cut off due to water overflowing the rivers and nullahs.

An autorickshaw was swept away from the overflowing bridge on Bhivkund nullah on Ballarpur-Chandrapur road at around 3 pm. Three people drowned while passersby managed to rescue four passengers. Two bodies - including that of a three-year-old girl Priya Bind and her father Rupesh (28) - were recovered and one remained untraced till late in the evening. One person was swept away in Chandrapur's Indira Nagar area.

Vehicular traffic came to a standstill and Chandrapur city's thoroughfares were flooded. Water entered many shops along the roads. Some schools withheld their bus services, holding the students back at the school due to flooded streets. Many houses, particularly those in slum areas, collapsed due to heavy rains. Water entered over 200 houses and hutments in Warora town. All major roads in the district were cut off due to flash floods following heavy rainfall. Bridges on Rajura-Ballarpur, Warora-Wani, Chimur-Warora, Chandrapur-Mul, Ballarpur-Kothari, Chandrapur etc were reported overflowing.

About 700 people were shifted from low-lying areas of Chandrapur, 100 in Bhadravati and 38 people were shifted to safer places in Pombhurna. All seven gates of the Irai dam were opened by 1 metre and it added to the woes of flood-hit people. Guardian minister Sanjay Deotale visited Chandrapur and inspected the flood hit areas.

Before this Nagpur had received 145.1mm rainfall on July 15 and Wardha had recorded a high of 158mm on July 18. The city had received a high of 187mm on June 26 when it had poured continuously for two days. As per the regional meteorological office the highest ever rainfall in 24 hours in city was recorded on July 12, 1994 at 304 mm.

Train movement hit: Heavy rains also affected train movement. Trains including Rajdhani Express, Lucknow-Chennai Express were running late as rainwater had submerged the railway tracks in Chandrapur. Rail traffic on the Mumbai-Nagpur route too has been severely hit.

Flights affected: The heavy rain affected the air traffic in Nagpur. The Jet Lite Mumbai-Nagpur flight was held for 25 minutes before it was allowed to land at Nagpur airport due to poor visibility. The flight landed at 7.30 pm when visibility improved.

Mining ops stalled: The deluge has brought mining activity to a standstill in Chandrapur. Five of the Western Coalfields Limited's (WCL) mines have been cut off due to flooding. These include two underground mines which are more prone to risk. WCL sources say there have been no casualties as the miners were evacuated soon after the water started reaching the danger levels. The mines have been cutoff since last four days. A senior WCL official said it may take a few more days for things to normalize even if the rains stopped on Saturday.

5 CSTPS units shut: Power generation in the state has taken a big hit as five out of seven units of the 2,340 MW Chandrapur power station were not generating on Friday. The remaining two units were only generating about 150 MW. Unit 4 and Unit 5 have been taken out for maintenance. Unit 2 is down due to boiler tube leakage while Unit 6 developed a snag when a blast took place in its transformer duct. Unit 7 was a victim of heavy rain as coal became sticky.

Rainfall in 12 hours across Vidarbha

Amravati nil

Akola 8

Brahmapuri 42

Chandrapur 280

Buldhana nil

Gondia nil

Wardha 4

Yavatmal 1

(Rainfall in mm)

* Heavy rains disrupt rail movement

* Mumbai-Nagpur flight landing delayed due to poor visibility

* Mining in WCL's mines comes to a standstill

* Power generation too affected

Shimoga-Talaguppa Broad Gauge Horata Samiti has decided to pressure the Ministry of Railway to link Talaguppa in Shimoga district and Honnavar in Uttara Kannada district at the earliest.S.G. Kumaraswamy, Joint Secretary of the Samiti, told The Hindu on Friday that a meeting of the Samiti was held in Sagar on Thursday to discuss the issue.He said that, district would be connected to the Konkan railway after the execution of this project. Ministry of Railways had sanctioned administrative approval for the project to connect Talaguppa and Honnavar and had commissioned a survey in this regard. The project is yet to get clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest.The meeting decided to press the Ministry of Railway to construct more tunnels along the proposed line to minimise damaging the forest, he said.The people of Shimoga and Uttara Kannada districts will benefit from the project. It will ensure easy access to Mumbai for people of Shimoga district while the travel distance to Bangalore will be reduced for the people of Uttara Kannada district, he said. The meeting also decided to press the Ministry of Railway to introduce passenger train service between Shimoga and Talaguppa as announced in the railway budget and to upgrade the amenities at Sagar railway station. Writer Na. D’Souza, honorary president of the Samiti, other functionaries were present.