ProUI

वैशाली पतंगे बनीं कोंकण रेलवे की मुख्य जनसंपर्क अधिकारी

नवी मुंबई: कोंकण रेलवे महामंडल ने वैशाली पतंगे को मुख्य जनसंपर्क अधिकारी के पद पर नियुक्त किया है। उनसे पहले सिद्धेश्वर तेलगू इस पद पर थे। तेलुगू को अब कोंकण रेलवे के कार्मिक विभाग के मुख्य अधिकारी पद पर भेजा गया है। वैशाली पतंगे इसके पूर्व यहां साल 1998 से 2009 के दौरान कोंकण रेलवे की जनसंपर्क अधिकारी रह चुकी हैं। उन्होंने कार्यभार संभाल लिया है।

Can't find the English/Hindi notification in SER website, so posting this Bengali news link from "Sangbad Pratidin".

The Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) is zeroing on government land on Kanpur road to set up a maintenance and operation depot for the ambitious Metro rail project. For this, the portion of the land housing 32 Battalion Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) in Sarojini Nagar is emerging as the best choice.After a survey of the government land along both sides of Kanpur Road, a proposal in this regard has been sent to the state government. Principal secretary (home), who is analysing the proposal, would take a final call. Officials said if the proposal gets a go-ahead from the government, the PAC battalion -- spread over 70 acres -- would be relocated to a 50-acre gram sabha land near New Jail in Mohanlalganj.“Though the final decision is yet to be taken, it is very likely that the PAC land would be used for the purpose,” said an official.

The LDA has been on the lookout for land on Kanpur Road for quite some time. Among the options provided by the district administration, the development agency ultimately chose the PAC campus because of its large area (70 acres).

The construction of the depot would also require demolition of some portion of the PAC building. “The LDA wants a 50- acre government land for the purpose. Given the requirement, the authority is not left with many options. They plan is to use 50 acres for the depot and the remaining 20 acres for a different project,” added the official.

Ideally for the proposed 23-km North-South corridor (from Lucknow airport to Munshipulia), the LDA would require two depots on either side. But there is no vacant area on the Munshipulia side. So, the facility proposed on the PAC campus, officials said, promises to be the main depot of the project. It's infrastructure would include a test track, depot workshop, an operational control room and a sub-station. It would also offer space for inspection shed, stabling sheds, automatic train washing plant and interior cleaning facilities. “The depot would cater to all inspection, maintenance, washing and administrative needs of the Metro rail,” said the official. Earlier this month, the high power committee headed by chief secretary Jawed Usmani gave a green signal to the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) that would oversee the project and put state capital on the fast track by giving it the most modern mode of public transport.

SCR dispatches coaches to Haridwar; And a Special train being run and extra coaches attached on trains from Delhi to Secunderabad to clear stranded pilgrims

              South Central Railway has dispatched a special empty rake consisting of 15 coaches (6 Sleeper class; 2 AC III tier; 5 General Second class and 2 General Second class Luggage cum Brake Van coaches) from Secunderabad to Haridwar today i.e. 21th June 2013. It is part of the efforts of Railways to attach extra coaches/operate special trains  for clearing the pilgrims stranded due to floods in Uttarakhand back to their destinations from railway stations in Uttarakhand region/ New Delhi.

    Senior Officials of South Central Railway are in close liaison with Railway Board and Northern Railway authorities to coordinate the movement of special trains/attaching extra coaches o­n trains from Northern region towards Andhra Pradesh to cater to the needs of the stranded pilgrims.

A Special train is being run to Secunderabad from Delhi tonight to clear the passengers bound to Andhra Pradesh. This special train leaves Delhi Nizamuddin at 21:30 hrs. of today i.e., 21st June, 2013 and is expected to arrive Secunderabad o­n23rd June, 2013.In addition, extra coaches are also being attached to Dakshin Express and Duronto Express leaving Delhi today to Secunderabad to clear the extra rush of passengers.

PUNE: The Pune railway division has eliminated five unmanned level crossings located on railway tracks. Four level crossing were located on Daund-Baramati tracks and one was located in Miraj-Kolhapur section. The railway administration said that road users have been provided alternative level crossings and sub way to cross the tracks.

"The Pune division is planning to close about 15 unmanned level crossings in the current financial year. Of which, five crossings have been closed already. The administration is working to close down remaining crossings. This will make the tracks safer and help prevent accidents", said an official from the Pune railway division.

"There are 28 unmanned level crossings in Pune division. A target has been set to eliminate/close down all these crossings by 2015. Most of these level crossings are located on Daund-Baramati and Pune-Miraj tracks. Besides the administration also deployed staff at all the crossings on Pune-Lonavla and Pune-Daund tracks", the official added.

The railway administration has appealed to the road users to take precautions while crossing the tracks at the unmanned crossings. An official said that sign boards have been installed at the unmanned crossings. Besides repeated announcements are being made at all the prominent stations to use foot over bridges to cross the railway tracks.

MUMBAI: A day after a motorman of a Churchgate-bound train jumped the red signal at Borivli, Western Railway (WR) personnel said the signal should be shifted.

Western Railway had to cancel 24 services in the wake of Wednesday's incident. The motorman J K Saha was immediately taken off duty and an inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause.

A motorman said, "More than a year ago, the signal on platform 5 was moved from the left side of the track to the right. Motormen are comfortable with signals on the left. In fact, we have complained to the administration about the confusion at Borivli." "A motorman loco inspector, who is on the signal-sighting committee, had refused to approve the location of the signal on the grounds that led to Wednesday incident. If the administration had paid attention to the problem identified by the Mumbai division motorman loco inspector, the signal would not have come at the place," he added.

The signal-sighting panel comprises members from the signal department, traffic department and an inspector from the motorman loco cadre. "The administration, in order to have its way, invited a loco inspector from Valsad to complete the formality of selecting the point. This loco inspector approved the point on the basis mail/express train, whose engine halt a few feet away from this objectionable signal point. For mail/express train the sighting is clear but the problem is acute for those piloting local trains," he claimed.

The motorman said, "The position of the signal on at this location is such at when the train enter Platform No. 5 his sight falls on the signal meant for train on Platform No. 6."

The motorman also said that a repeat signal at the rear end of the train is also provided at Platform No. 5 at Borivali. A motorman on the condition of anonymity said, "The guard should have seen the signal being red aspect and warned the motorman from starting the train. Till 2003, the guard were also liable to observe the repeat signal. This dual-checking system was done away without any logical reasons."

The motorman said that the punishing the erring staff is not going to solve the problem. The solution lies in making the system fool proof."

Friday's incident could have proved serious had the train on Platform No. 6 also pulled out of the station. This would have resulted in side collision. The other possibility was of the train coming out of Platform No 5 getting derailed as the cross-over point was set for forward movement of train moving out of Platform No. 6. Fortunately, the erring train did not reach the cross over point. The erring motorman managed to apply emergency brake soon after three compartments had crossed the signaling pole.

The new bi-weekly express train between Manamadurai and Chennai (16182/16181) will be introduced from Saturday.

P. Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, will flag off the inaugural special at Manamadurai railway station at 8.15 p.m.

The regular service of the train will commence from June 26 from Chennai Egmore and from June 27 from Manamadurai.

The train Chennai Egmore – Manamadurai (bi-weekly) Express (16181) will leave Chennai Egmore at 8.20 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays and reach Manamadurai at 7.45 a.m. It will have stop at Tiruchi for 10 minutes from 3.30 a.m.

In the return direction, the train (16182) will leave Manamadurai at 8.15 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays and reach Chennai Egmore at 6.05 a.m. the next day.

It will stop at Tiruchi for 10 minutes from 11.45 p.m. It will also stop at Chennai Mambalam.

Composition

The composition of the trains will be one AC 2-tier, two AC 3-tier, six sleeper class, six general second class, and two luggage-cum-brake van coaches.

The trains will go via Tambaram, Chengalpattu, Melmaruvathur, Villupuram, Vriddhachalam, Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Chettinad, Karaikudi, Devakottai Road, and Sivaganga.

Advance reservation for the inaugural special and regular trains has already commenced, according to a release from the Tiruchi Railway Division here on Thursday.

BANGALORE: Karnataka is riding high on expectations from two new ministers in the UPA-II government --railway minister Mallikarjuna Kharge and transport and highways minister Oscar Fernandes -- given the fact that rail and road connectivity is very poor in the state, compared to many others. Former railway ministers -- Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mamata Banerjee, to name a few - have been generous to their respective home states. So there are expectations that Kharge will follow suit and shower bouquets on Karnataka.But there's a rider here. Unlike Lalu and Mamata, Kharge doesn't have much time, as there's strong speculation of early general elections. While there have been seven railway ministers from Karnataka before Kharge, only CK Jaffer Sharief had a reasonable tenure of over four years.

State BJP chief Prahalad Joshi, who has been fighting for improvement of railway facilities in the state, said: "During the BJP's rule, the Karnataka government took up several projects under the 50:50 cost-sharing agreement. If Kharge at least ensures these projects take off, nothing like it.''

There are good reasons why there are so many expectations from the duo. Karnataka's rail connectivity and infrastructure is way behind many other prominent states, including Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. While Gujarat and Bengal have around 36km of railway line for every 1,000 sqkm, it's about 21km in Karnataka. The total length of the railway line in the state is around 3,500km, much less than 5,328km in Gujarat, 5,535km in Maharashtra and 5,172km in Andhra Pradesh.

Upgrading roads

The state is also lagging in road connectivity. The state government has sent numerous proposals to the Union ministry of transport and highways to upgrade 4,382km of state roads to national highway (NH) standards. "Our arterial roads are awful compared to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The only way to improve them is by developing state highways to NH standards. This will not only ensure better connectivity with neighbouring states, the quality of infrastructure and maintenance of state roads will also improve. Hopefully, Fernandes will take this up on priority and sanction it at the earliest," said a senior PWD official.

Brace yourself for more trouble than usual while travelling by suburban trains over the next two weekends as the Central Railway (CR) is planning mega blocks to switch from the existing 1,500 volt direct current (DC) to 25,000 volt alternate current (AC) between Kalyan and

Thane. According to sources, while there will be four-hour blocks during this weekend for inspection, the actual conversion will take place during a four-hour night block next weekend.

However, since the CR is already under fire for frequent disruption of services because of water-logging and technical failures, officials are reluctant to carry out blocks on consecutive weekends.

“This may lead to more problems for commuters,” said an official.

Being a more powerful and efficient traction system, adopting AC-traction will allow CR to run more trains, increase the speed of those and reduce energy bills, too. After conversion, CR officials also expect reduction in the travel time of suburban locals by a few minutes.

On the slow corridor, the conversion will be completed up to the Kalawa car shed, while on the fast corridor, it will be up to the south-end of the Thane station. AC-traction will also be adopted for the fifth and sixth corridors between Thane and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) stations.

A senior official told HT that inspection work has been proposed to begin on June 21, but four-hour blocks were proposed for June 22 and 23. While the actual process will be completed during four-hour blocks on the midnight of June 29-30, there will be three-hour blocks for post-conversion work.

“A detailed program has been sent to us by the Commissioner Railway Safety (CRS), we are awaiting a nod from the general manager,” the official said.

“The schedule for CRS inspection has been sent to the headquarters for an approval. A final decision on the block is is expected on Friday,” said Atul Rane, chief public relations officer of CR.

Train Schedule of Train No.: 59837/59838 and 59839/59840