ProUI

Haridwar:
In view of thousands of pilgrims stranded in calamity-struck Uttarakhand, the Railways has started special trains from Haridwar, Dehradun and Rishikesh to other parts of the country.Stranded passengers are being transported free of cost as per coordination between the Railways and the Uttarakhand Government ensuring that sufficient empty coaches are sent to Haridwar and Dehradun.Three special trains were run yesterday to Lucknow, Delhi and Ambala and more were being planned as per the expected requirement in the coming days, according to sources in the Ministry of Railways.A task force has also been set up at the level of the Railway Board under its Chairman Vinay Mittal, who is monitoring the situation.The Northern Railway, under which the Moradabad Division, Haridwar and Dehradun railway stations fall, have also geared up by making additional arrangements for the pilgrims.Senior officers have been deputed as special officers in charge of four most crucial points. These officers will be responsible for liaison and coordination with the state civil authorities, ensuring management and dispersal of passengers by trains, running of special trains and also ensuring setting up of 24-hour passenger help booths at these locations.The designated officers are Sanjeev Garg for Dehradun (09717630953), DK Singh for Rishikesh (097171630969), Hitendra Malhotra for Haridwar (09760534001) and Vivek Shrivastava for New Delhi (09717631001).

Railway Police Force officials with adequate personnel of inspectors and constables have also been deputed at these four locations along with doctors and paramedical staff.

Adequate arrangements of catering facility, drinking water and frequent announcements via a public address system regarding the status of trains and other passenger-related information is also being done

Meanwhile, a delegation of the BJP met railway officials and complained about lack of sufficient additional trains for the disaster-affected pilgrims from Haridwar.

Led by party unit district chief Vikas Tiwari, the activists gave a memorandum in this regard to Moradabad Divisional Manager Hitendra Malhotra. They demanded extra bogies and trains from Haridwar to other parts of the country.

Malhotra said additional bogies were being attached to the trains bound for Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and other states. In case of cancellation of reservation, full payment was being done to the passengers.

He added that additional counters and information centres had been set up at the Haridwar and Rishikesh railway stations in view of a rise in the number of passengers owing to the natural calamity. The passengers mainly comprise pilgrims who were rescued from Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri, Gangotri, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Karanprayag, Tehri, Srinagar, Garhwal and Rudraprayag areas.

HELPLINE NUMBERS

Haridwar: 09760534054, 09760534055

Dehradun: 0135 2622131

Rishikesh: 0135 2434167

Railways 
Northern Railway will run two pairs of special trains, 04911/04912 between Hazrat Nizamuddin and Beas and 04917/04918 between Saharanpur and Beas.

ALLAHABAD: To meet the unprecedented catastrophe in Uttarakhand, and evacuate the passengers stranded there, Indian railways has galvanized into action.

Minister of railways, Mallikarjun Kharge, has given directions to railway board to arrange special trains to evacuate stranded persons from the calamity hit areas.

In this connection, special trains have been arranged, which have started running from Haridwar. On June 20, two specials were run to Lucknow and Delhi respectively. More specials are being planned as per the requirements. Three specials are planned for June 21. One is from Haridwar to Lucknow at 6.30 pm, second is from Haridwar to Mumbai at 8.15 pm and third is from New Delhi to Secundrabad at 9.30 pm.

In coordination with government of Uttarakhand, Indian railways has decided to carry stranded passengers free of cost to their respective destinations. Railway administration is ensuring that sufficient empty coaching rakes are sent to Haridwar/Dehradun. A Task Force has been set up at the level of railway board under chairman, railway board, Vinay Mittal to monitor the situation. Northern railway and its Muradabad division have fully geared up for making appropriate arrangements (Uttarakhand falls mostly under Muradabad Railway Division of Northern Railway).

The following Senior officers have been deputed as Special officers in charge of four most crucial points:

Dehradun- Sanjeev Garg, Chief Commercial Manager/Freight Marketing-Mob.no 09717630953

Rishikesh - DK Singh, Chief Commercial Manager/Project-Mob.no. - 097171630969

Haridwar -Hitendra Malhotra, Additional Divisional Railway Manager Moradabad-Mob.no. 09760534001

New Delhi - Vivek Srivastava, Additional Divisional Railway Manager/Delhi-Mob.no. -09717631001.

These Officers are maintaining liaison and co-ordination with the state civil authorities and ensuring management and dispersal of passengers and also ensuring setting up of passenger help booths at these locations to be manned round the clock.

The following Helpline nos. have been installed:

Haridwar: 09760534054/09760534055 Dehradun: 01352-622131 Rishikesh:01352-434167

RPF officers with adequate contingent of inspectors/constables have been deputed at these locations. Doctors and paramedical staff in sufficient numbers have been deployed at these stations.

Railways have ensured setting up of additional booking and enquiry counters at above locations for handling the additional requirement of booking, enquiries and refund etc. Arrangement of Catering facilities and Drinking water has been ensured at these locations. Frequent announcements through the public address system regarding status of trains and other passenger related services has been ensured.

Railways 
Northern Railway will run two pairs of special trains, 04911/04912 between Hazrat Nizamuddin and Beas and 04917/04918 between Saharanpur and Beas.

Thiruvananthapuram: The new railway timetable coming into effect from July 1 would witness the speeding up of over 80 trains running through the Thiruvananthapuram division. The running time will be reduced by five minutes to an hour. The maximum speed limit will be increased from 100 km per hour to 110 km.The new initiative will help the railways increase its line capacity and result in operating more trains through this sector. This is  because the railways could not introduce new trains as the division lacked the capacity for the same. The trains will be speeded up with minimal change in the current timings.Sources said that there would also be an increase in the maximum speed on the Shoranur–Mangalore line  during the same period.Divisional Railway Manager Rajesh Agarwal told Deccan Chronicle that there are also plans to increase the running time of the trains further during the next one year. The infrastructure in the division would be improved to ensure this, Agarwal said.The Thiruvananthapuram railway division operates 80 express and 60 passenger trains daily carrying  2.6 lakh commuters daily.

Chandigarh:
Hundreds of passengers commuting to Chandigarh via trains in morning faced trouble due to the delay in arrival and departure of trains. The delay was caused due to a damaged overhead wire near Babarpur. Railway officials said all the trains which were plying between 8:45 am to 1:30 pm were delayed due to repair work of the overhead wire.A senior railway official said due to the damage in the overhead wire only single track was used for the plying the trains on the route near Babarpur. This delayed arrival and departure of all the trains till afternoon.Suman Sharma, a resident of Sector 38, who was traveling in the Himalayan Queen which got delayed by 20 minutes, said it has become a routine practice of the railway to delay the arrival and departure of the trains. She was not consoled with the fact that the delay in the train today was due to some technical fault.

The South Central Railway (SCR) on June 21 dispatched a special empty rake consisting of 15  coaches to Haridwar for attaching extra coaches or operating special trains for clearing the pilgrims stranded in Uttarakhand due to heavy rains and floods. Separately, a special train is being run from Delhi (Nizamuddin station) to Secunderabad to clear the passengers bound to Andhra Pradesh, the SCR said in a release here. The special empty rake consists of six sleeper coaches, two AC-III tier, five general second Class and two general second class luggage-cum-brake van coaches. Senior SCR officials 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, the release said. Extra coaches are also being attached to Secunderabad- bound Dakshin Express and Duronto Express from Delhi to clear the extra rush of passengers, it added.l

Chandigarh:
Hundreds of passengers commuting to Chandigarh via trains in morning faced trouble due to the delay in arrival and departure of trains. The delay was caused due to a damaged overhead wire near Babarpur. Railway officials said all the trains which were plying between 8:45 am to 1:30 pm were delayed due to repair work of the overhead wire.A senior railway official said due to the damage in the overhead wire only single track was used for the plying the trains on the route near Babarpur. This delayed arrival and departure of all the trains till afternoon.Suman Sharma, a resident of Sector 38, who was traveling in the Himalayan Queen which got delayed by 20 minutes, said it has become a routine practice of the railway to delay the arrival and departure of the trains. She was not consoled with the fact that the delay in the train today was due to some technical fault.

Central Railway

Press Release

SPECIAL TRAFFIC BLOCKS BETWEEN ASANGAON-VASIND

   

Central Railway will operate two traffic blocks o­n Up and Dn north east lines between Asangaon and Vasind for engineering works as under -

ON UP & DN LINES BETWEEN ASANGAON AND VASIND

FROM 10.20 AM TO 11.20 AM (1 HOUR)

ON 24.6.2013 (MONDAY) & 26.6.2013 (WEDNESDAY) (2 BLOCKS)

CANCELLATION OF 2 SUBURBAN TRAINS o­n 24.6.2013 & 26.6.2013

1. Asangaon local leaving CST at 9.26 am &

2. CST local leaving Asangaon at 11.16 am

RESCHEDULING OF SUBURBAN TRAIN o­n 24.6.2013 & 26.6.2013

1. CST local scheduled to leave Kasara at 10.10 hrs will be rescheduled to leave Kasara at 10.40 hrs.

Mail/express trains arriving Mumbai during the block period will also be regulated and arrive their destination 10 to 20 minutes behind schedule.

Passengers are requested to kindly bear with the Railway Administration for the inconvenience caused.

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Date: June 22, 2013

This news comes to you from Public Relations Department, Central Railway, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Mumbai.

1 Hindi Press Release (283 KB)

The Bangladesh Railway (BR) is going to purchase allegedly 'imperfect' locomotives and passenger coaches from India using a part of the billion-dollar Indian credit support.Officials said Friday, after the 20 sets of 'imperfect' Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) import from China, the BR has again decided to procure five sets (30 units) of Indian DEMU and 70 AC passenger coaches which will not be compatible with the BR infrastructures."The Chinese DEMUs, imported at a cost of more than Tk 6.0 billion, have already been found not suitable for the Bangladesh Railway infrastructures. The passenger carrying capacity of DEMUs is low and passengers are finding traveling by these trains very uncomfortable.The plan to procure imperfect DEMU from India will create serious problems during transportation of passengers on the railway lines," an official concerned said.The Planning Commission (PC) has detected 'shoddy' work in the two separate development project proposals of the BR and refused to give approval, the official told the FE requesting anonymity.The BR has recently sought revision of the five sets of DEMU procurement and a fresh 70 AC passenger coach procurement project from the PC."The five sets of DEMU, to be purchased from India, are 10 MMD (maximum moving dimension) more than the existing engine of the BR," said the official.The passenger AC coaches are also not technically compatible with the Bangladesh's railway fleet as those are 140.99MMD (nearly 8.0 inches) higher than the existing coaches, he said.The BR has recently changed the project proposal of the DEMU procurement, increasing the procurement cost by 16 per cent to Tk 3.84 billion, and sent it to the PC for getting approval."But the PC has refused to approve it due to imperfection in the DEMU specification," he said.According to the original project proposal, the 10-set DEMU procurement was to be completed between January 2010 and June 2012. Now the BR has sought three years' extension up to June 2015 for procurement of the engines.

Besides, the BR has also undertaken another new project to procure 70 air-conditioned (AC) passenger coaches at a cost of Tk 9.14 billion from India to strengthen its fleet. And it has been sent a proposal to this effect to the PC for approval.

A PC official said they would not approve revision of the DEMU purchase project before adjusting the specification of the multiple units with the Bangladesh standard.

"In the next project evaluation committee (PEC) meeting, we will form a technical committee for reviewing the project proposal and giving expert opinion. Unil that time, we will not consider for approval both the projects," he said.

Under another project, the BR has recently procured 20 sets (60 units) of imperfect DEMU from China at the cost of Tk 6.62 billion which are also not compatible with Bangladesh's railway system.

Now the Chinese DEMU has become almost unusable due to faulty specifications compared to the Bangladesh standard. The DEMUs are so high from the platform and the windows are so faulty that the passengers cannot undertake journey comfortably.

A government official said the BR had undertaken the DEMU and 70 AC passenger coach procurement projects without proper feasibility study.

A Railway official said the BR has revised its Tk 3.31 billion proposal of 5 sets of DEMU procurement on the recommendation of the selected Indian supplier ignoring the specifications suitable for Bangladesh conditions, the official said.

It has also changed its preliminary plan proposal was given to procure meter-gauge (MG) DEMU and coaches from India with the support of billion-dollar Indian line of credit.

Later, the BR had changed the specification to broad-gauge (BG) since no Indian suppliers were ready at that moment to supply the MG DEMU and coaches, he added.

A delegation of the BR, led by its joint director general Md Samsuzzaman, visited the Indian DEMU supplier company in July 2012 and almost settled all the matters including the prices with the Indian supplier, the BR official told the FE.

The official said bridges on the railway line have been constructed as per the specification of the existing engines and passenger coaches.

"If the maximum moving dimension of the proposed Indian DEMU and the coaches become higher than our present engines and coaches, those will not be able to cross the bridges," he told the FE.

"Usually some passengers are allowed to board the roof-top of the trains during the Eid vacation and Biswa Ijtema. What will be happen if the proposed Indian DEMU and coaches are not adjusted with the Bangladesh standards," he questioned.

The official said some BR officials and a vested group are involved in procuring these allegedly imperfect DEMU and coaches misusing public funds.

When contacted, the Director General of the BR was not available for comment.