ProUI

NEW DELHI: The much awaited decision on Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) taking up two extension projects - one each in Noida and Faridabad - was deferred by the company's board last week after Delhi government representatives present in the meeting sought more time to submit the official response to the proposals.Sources said after Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has made her views public against Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) taking up fresh projects outside the national capital, the city government seems to be in no mood to favour the corporation for executing two extension plans -- Noida City Centre to Sector-62 and YMCA Chowk in Faridabad to Ballabhgarh."This is nothing else than a tactics to buy time by the Delhi government. Their representatives had agreed to all the proposals when a sub-committee held meeting on the same issues. Now it surprises why they now propose to submit fresh views," said a senior Union urban development ministry official.He added that only after the go ahead from all sub-committee members the proposals were included in the agenda. "Extension of those two lines and one in Ghaziabad is very crucial for providing better connectivity to Delhi. The purpose to arrest or reduce stress on city's infrastructure will be defeated if we delay such decisions," the official claimed.To tame the chief minister even the Planning Commission had said that it wants DMRC to take up projects in the NCR.Earlier Dikshit had sent a letter to defence minister A K Antony registering her unhappiness after Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments had made announcements on expansion of Metro network in their states. She had written that the announcements were made without the approval of the group of ministers (GoM) and without consulting her government, which has a 50% share in the DMRC.The 6.7-km City Centre-Sector 62 link is proposed be completely elevated. In the case Faridabad, Haryana has pushed for extension of the Metro track by 3.2 km from YMCA Chowk to Ballabhgarh for better connectivity.

The Manamadurai-Chennai Egmore bi-weekly Silambu Express was flagged off here on Saturday. The Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the Minister of State for Commerce and Industries E.M. Sudarsana Nachiappan and Chairman Manamadurai Town Panchayat I. Joseph Rajan flagged off the train.

The train no 16181, Chennai Egmore Manamadurai bi-weekly Silambu Express will run on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The train no 16182 Manamadurai-Chennai Egmore bi-weekly Silambu Express will run on Fridays and Mondays.

The trains will stop at Tambaram, Chengalpattu, Melmaruvathoor, Villupuram, Vridachalam, Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Chettinad, Karaikudi, Devakottai Road and Sivaganga. The train no 16182 will stop at Mambalam also.

The Royapuram Railway Station, once "Madras Central", is today a shadow of its glorious past. With the Southern Railways planning to raze this heritage site to make way for developmental projects on the 72-acre station premises, we take a look at how it has survived over the past 157 years. Compiled by: Susanna Myrtle Lazarus

Fails to re-route diverted trains through Visakhapatnam

More than six months after Union Minister of State for Railways Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy’s announcement of re-routing of diverted trains through Visakhapatnam, the Railways seem to be averse to the decision. No provision has been made in the new Railway Time Table, to be issued on July 1, on re-routing of the diverted trains through Visakhapatnam. Mr. Suryaprakash Reddy had declared at a public function in the city in December last year that the trains being diverted via Duvvada would be re-routed through Visakhapatnam. He also agreed to provide a... halt to Garib Rath at Duvvada and said he was with the people of the region in their struggle for a separate railway zone with Visakhapatnam as headquarters to end the injustice to Waltair Division.“This indicates that the Railway Minister’s announcement has been bypassed by the Railway Board. It shows the ‘pull’ that the powers that be in Odisha have at the Board level and also the ‘commitment’ of our MPs in pursuing the demands of the people at the Board-level,” said Praja Spandana president C.S. Rao.“Waltair Division with an annual revenue of over Rs.5,000 crore earns more than the revenue of the other two Divisions of ECoR – Khurda and Sambalpur – put together. The ‘breadwinner’ of the zone is neglected while the other two Divisions, which are in Odisha, gets sops like development of over 550 km new tracks, new projects, new trains, increased reservation quotas and even new bogies,” a former railway employee said. “ECoR has been formed for the development of Odisha but not Andhra. It can be called ‘Odisha zone’ but not ‘ECoR Zone’. A new zone with Visakhapatnam as headquarters can be created and named as South East Coast Railway Zone. The new zone can be formed with Vijayawada, Guntur and Waltair Divisions,” feels R. Rama Rao, advisor to the Uttarandhra Rakshana Vedika (URV).

“A new Division can also be formed at Rajahmundry and there would be no objections as all these places are located in AP. Of late, the Zones have been created State-wise and some of the States have two zones and AP also deserves two zones,” he said.

It’s high time the Chief Minister took up the issue with the Prime Minister and the Railway Minister and ends the decade-old problem once and for all.

Wants State to make its stand clear on Havelock Bridge

The all-party meeting convened under the chairmanship of senior Telugu Desam Party leader Ganni Krishna has set a deadline as July 1 to the State government to declare its stand on proposed auction of historic Havelock Bridge across river Godavari.It expressed serious concern and anguish over the decision and warned serious consequences if the Railway Board authorities go unilaterally on their own.The meeting resolved to meet visiting Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Sunday and represent the matter through MLA Rowthu Suryaprakasha Rao with a delegation consisting representatives of all parties and organisations.Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, former minister and general secretary of TDP who addressed the all-party meeting here on Saturday said that every one above the party lines should join together and protest the proposed auction and at the same time demand for handing over the bridge to the State Tourism Department to develop as a tourist attraction under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) method.BJP national executive council member Somu Veerraju said that Railway Board is body which do not respond to the public concerns immediately and its’ dictatorial tendencies should be protested at all levels by involving local MPs and more than 12 Union Ministers from the State to save Havelock Bridge.CPI district secretary Meesala Satyanaryana said that the State government should make its stand clear that it is going to adopt to protect the historic monument. CPI (M) leader Arun called upon the parties to fight unitedly to save the bridge.Nandepu Srinivas, President, Chamber of Commerce said that as Zonal Railway Consumers Committee member, he had written to senior Railway officials and they said that ball is in State government’s court.He announced that Chamber is ready to give its support for any agitation.Ashok Kumar Jain, Wholesale Merchants Association and former chairman of Chamber announced that if the government is not going to meet the deadline Rajahmundry should observe one-day bandh for which Chamber, merchants would give full support.Jakkampudi Viajyalakshmi, YSR Congress Central Committee member said that the people who are in power should guide the rest of the parties in fighting the cause and combined effort will give results. Loksatta district president V.V. Ramarao and City TDP president Vasireddy Rambabu spoke.The president of Andhra Kesari Yuvajana Samiti said that they would take up cultural mass movement and also week-long pictorial competitions on Havelcok Bridge from Sunday. T.K. Visweswara Reddy, Sappa Durgaprasad, B.V. Naidu and others spoke.

Wants State to make its stand clear on Havelock Bridge

The all-party meeting convened under the chairmanship of senior Telugu Desam Party leader Ganni Krishna has set a deadline as July 1 to the State government to declare its stand on proposed auction of historic Havelock Bridge across river Godavari.It expressed serious concern and anguish over the decision and warned serious consequences if the Railway Board authorities go unilaterally on their own.The meeting resolved to meet visiting Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Sunday and represent the matter through MLA Rowthu Suryaprakasha Rao with a delegation consisting representatives of all parties and organisations.Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, former minister and general secretary of TDP who addressed the all-party meeting here on Saturday said that every one above the party lines should join together and protest the proposed auction and at the same time demand for handing over the bridge to the State Tourism Department to develop as a tourist attraction under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) method.BJP national executive council member Somu Veerraju said that Railway Board is body which do not respond to the public concerns immediately and its’ dictatorial tendencies should be protested at all levels by involving local MPs and more than 12 Union Ministers from the State to save Havelock Bridge.CPI district secretary Meesala Satyanaryana said that the State government should make its stand clear that it is going to adopt to protect the historic monument. CPI (M) leader Arun called upon the parties to fight unitedly to save the bridge.Nandepu Srinivas, President, Chamber of Commerce said that as Zonal Railway Consumers Committee member, he had written to senior Railway officials and they said that ball is in State government’s court.He announced that Chamber is ready to give its support for any agitation.Ashok Kumar Jain, Wholesale Merchants Association and former chairman of Chamber announced that if the government is not going to meet the deadline Rajahmundry should observe one-day bandh for which Chamber, merchants would give full support.Jakkampudi Viajyalakshmi, YSR Congress Central Committee member said that the people who are in power should guide the rest of the parties in fighting the cause and combined effort will give results. Loksatta district president V.V. Ramarao and City TDP president Vasireddy Rambabu spoke.The president of Andhra Kesari Yuvajana Samiti said that they would take up cultural mass movement and also week-long pictorial competitions on Havelcok Bridge from Sunday. T.K. Visweswara Reddy, Sappa Durgaprasad, B.V. Naidu and others spoke.

BANIHAL: Undeterred by challenges it faced while executing two big-ticket infra projects here, Hindustan Construction CompanyBSE 8.34 % will bid for such upcoming works in this region like the 13-km Arpinchala-Dharam underground railway project.The Mumbai-based firm has recently executed the 11-km long Pir Panjal railway tunnel, the third longest in the world, and also the Uri-II hydro power project in Jammu and Kashmir.The company is set to bid for the 13-km long Arpinchala- Dharam project as well, the official said."The Banihal-Qazigund railway tunnel, the longest in the country, was awarded to us in 2005. The track is now ready for the Railways. The amount of challenges we had to face was mind-boggling."However, that does not deter us from bidding for more projects and we are, in fact, working on the same route that will connect between Dharam-Sumbar. We will bid for more projects on the same track in the coming days," said tunnel's project manager Sharanappa Yalal.Sources said that government has already come out with a tender inviting developers to bid for the Arpinchala to Dharam project and HCC is making preparations to bid for it.HCC had bagged the Pir Panjal tunnel project from IRCON, a construction subsidiary of the Railways, in 2005. Though the initial cost of the project was Rs 400 crore, it went up to Rs 800 crore as the scope of the project widened.The tunnel, which connects the Bichelri valley of Banhial in Jammu with Qazigund in Kashmir, will reduce the distance between the two places to 18 km from 35 km by road."It will also help the economy of the two places. The tunnel will facilitate transportation during winter. During the most part of the year, the inclement weather forces closure of the road tunnel and the highway," Yalal said."However, it was not easy to execute the project. Initially, we had brought two road headers from Germany for boring the tunnel. But, as we started working, we found the geologically young and unstable mountain range is not fit for traditional way of tunneling. We then brought the New Austrian Tunneling method for the first time in India," he said.The official said the Uri-II 240 MW hydro power project is also ready for commissioning though it has been taken out of the PM's inauguration agenda during his two-day proposed visit here as NHPC said it had developed some technical snag."We have done the civil construction part of the project and the project hand over is likely to happen soon. It is up to NHPC to decide on the date of commissioning of the project," he said.NHPC is building the Rs 1,724 crore project at Baramulla on the river of Jhelum. Talking about the Pir Panjal project, Yayal said: "The company faced weather problems as well. During November to June period of the year, the area remains almost inaccessible due to snow, which envelopes the arterial road causing huge problems for transporting required materials. Getting manpower, even those who are unskilled, was difficult." The tunnel is a part of the 345-km long Jammu Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Railway Link, aimed at connecting Jammu to Baramulla on the northwestern part of the valley. Trains now ply from Baramulla to Quazigund and Jammu to Udhampur on this stretch. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to inaugurate the tunnel, thereby connecting Qazigund to Banihal. Around 90-km long stretch, between Udhampur to Banihal is to be completed to get the stretch connected by the Railways. Meanwhile, sources said Railways is likely to tie up with state transport authority to help passengers reach out to the unlinked passage by bus at no extra cost. Passengers would be able to book tickets up to Baramulla. An announcement in this regard is likely during the tunnel's inauguration by the Prime Minister. HCC has executed a majority of India's landmark infrastructure projects. Its landmark works include the Bandra Worli Sea Link, Mumbai - India's first and longest open sea cable-stayed bridge; the Kolkata Metro, Farakka Barrage and India's largest nuclear power plant at Kudankulam - Tamil Nadu.

The Manamadurai-Chennai Egmore bi-weekly Silambu Express was flagged off here on Saturday. The Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the Minister of State for Commerce and Industries E.M. Sudarsana Nachiappan and Chairman Manamadurai Town Panchayat I. Joseph Rajan flagged off the train.

The train no 16181, Chennai Egmore Manamadurai bi-weekly Silambu Express will run on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The train no 16182 Manamadurai-Chennai Egmore bi-weekly Silambu Express will run on Fridays and Mondays.

The trains will stop at Tambaram, Chengalpattu, Melmaruvathoor, Villupuram, Vridachalam, Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Chettinad, Karaikudi, Devakottai Road and Sivaganga. The train no 16182 will stop at Mambalam also.

The Royapuram Railway Station, once "Madras Central", is today a shadow of its glorious past. With the Southern Railways planning to raze this heritage site to make way for developmental projects on the 72-acre station premises, we take a look at how it has survived over the past 157 years. Compiled by: Susanna Myrtle Lazarus

The Royapuram Railway Station, once "Madras Central", is today a shadow of its glorious past. With the Southern Railways planning to raze this heritage site to make way for developmental projects on the 72-acre station premises, we take a look at how it has survived over the past 157 years. Compiled by: Susanna Myrtle Lazarus