ProUI

KOLKATA : 
Ever since Mamata Banerjee stepped down as the Railway Minister in 2011, the Railway Ministry has come to be headed by stop-gap Ministers. It started with Dinesh Trivedi then Mukul Roy, followed by C. P. Joshi, Pawan Bansal, again C. P. Joshi, none completing even one full year, and now Mallikarjun Kharge.Dinesh Trivedi had the longest term (July 2011 to March 2012) and Joshi, the shortest, two terms (September to October 2012 and May to June 2013) totalling a little more than two months. One wonders if there will be further changes between now and the declaration of the Lok Sabha election dates.Interestingly, the same stop-gap arrangement also persists in respect of several top level positions in the Railways. Of seven members of the Railway Board, two positions, Member (Traffic) and Member (Staff), have been lying vacant for nearly two months now. While the Chairman, Railway Board, is himself handling the portfolio of Member (Traffic), the Member (Engineering), is handling the portfolio of Member (Staff) as an additional charge. More important, Chairman and Financial Commissioner, both board-level positions, are due to retire on June 30. Their successors are yet to be named.

Four out of 26 positions of General Managers across various zonal railways and production units of the Railways are vacant and at least one of them, the position of GM in Metro Rail, Kolkata, has been vacant for nearly a year now. The GM of West Bengal-based Chittaranjan Locomotives, a production unit, has been handling the portfolio of GM of Metro Rail as an additional charge.

The GM positions in three other zonal railways have been lying vacant since April/early May. These are South East Central Railway (SECR), Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR). The GM of East Coast Railway is looking after SECR as an additional charge. Similarly, the GM of North Western Railway is looking after WR and the GM of Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, a production unit, CR as additional charge.

The positions of two more GMs in South Eastern Railway, Kolkata, and Integral Coach Factory, Perambur, are to fall vacant from July 1. Inquiries reveal that the panel of names for positions of GMs sent for approval has been returned by the appropriate authorities. In other words, ad hocism will continue.

BANGALORE: On Saturday, remarking began on buildings on Bannerghatta Road near the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences & Research. This after the alignment of the Gottigere-Nagavara and RV road-Bommasandra line in Metro Rail Phase 2, including the interchange station realignment off the hospital premises, was finalized by the state government."We saw some men rubbing off the old markings and putting new figures on compound walls from Saturday morning," said Indrasish Sarkar, president, Casa Ansal Apartments Association. Over 40 residents of the apartment on Bannerghatta Road would have lost their dream homes if the realignment had taken place. Now, it seems their houses will remain, but the Metro pillars would the view from their apartments and construction work will hinder access for at least three years.However, sources said commercial buildings beside Casa Ansal towards Bannerghatta Road may be included for construction space. A high-powered committee meeting on Saturday chose not to discuss the controversial Jayadeva hospital issue after BMRC made clear its stance on realignment.

This is about right to walk on a footover bridge built by railways out of tax-payers' money
There cannot be an as insignificant place as the common railway footover bridge at Parel and Elphinstone station on Mumbai railway to highlight the "disconnect" of top cops vis-a-vis small conveniences of city's commuters. No matter how higher up officer you are, the hawkers' lobby in Mumbai is all powerful.Here's the story--The bridge connecting at Parel and Elphinstone stations has been a narrow one and the crowd at the stations has increased manifold after the rise of towers and malls from the mills. At Parel-end, the crowd is so great that the railways have had to deploy policemen and home guard constables to monitor the crowd so that there is no stampede. Theoretically for the media, there have been proposals pending to have more infrastructure and fancy plans to boost up the station, but nothing has happened in reality, but that's a different subject.



Naturally, with such heavy crowds, the presence of hawkers on the bridge here is quite natural. One can openly see cops in uniform chatting with them in a "friendly" manner. There are CCTVs and it is a matter of common knowledge. But we can ignore them till a point.



Last Thursday evening, the crowd on the bridge at Elphinstone-end was so huge that it was jostling for space and there was no place to walk; the reason -- there were more hawkers this time selling everything from raincoats to mobile phones and umbrellas to jackfruit with a huge crowd blocking the walkway to buy the wares. A cop was dealing with one of them about God knows what.



I thought something had to be done and called up the senior divisional security commissioner, who heads Railway Protection Force Mumbai divison. He is the head of RPF and supposed to have control over officers and team with the primary job being "protection of railway property." He assured action, but asked me to send him a text message. A message was sent immediately.



The next day, there was no change and I alerted him. The top cop told me that the bridge falls under senior inspector at Dadar and that he had confirmed him that hawkers had been cleared and asked me to alert him.



I skip a day and take the bridge on Sunday. The hawkers are still there. I send a text message to the top cop. "No change. Have given up."



We have been reading news stories about how powerful the hawkers' lobby on Mumbai railway has been. This is proof. I am very well aware that removal of hawkers is not the commissioner's job, but it is reflects badly on a system if  things don't change even after alerting the highest authority. A system failure. The incident highlights how disconnected the top brass can be from ground realities. These are small conveniences Mr Commissioner, for the Mumbai commuter about right to walk on a footover bridge built by railways out of tax-payers' money. That's all.

During his recent visit to Japan, the Prime Minister agreed to a joint feasibility study by Japanese experts along with the Indian Railways officials for constructing a high speed corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Currently the French Railway experts are also studying the business model for the same corridor based on future traffic projections. A few months back, a high powered committee of secretaries was appointed to look into possible funding options and the report is still awaited. The draft 12th Five-Year Plan envisages development of one high speed rail corridor of about 500 kilometres in the current plan period. It has also proposed setting up National High Speed Rail Authority for implementation of HSR corridor projects. Does it mean that the government has finally decided to develop high speed railways for the ever rising passenger transport demand on important routes?The proposal for developing High Speed Railway (HSR) between Delhi and Kanpur via Agra was first mooted in mid-eighties when Madhavrao Scindia was the Railway Minister. An internal study found the proposal unviable at that time due to the high cost of construction and inability of travelling passengers to bear much higher train fares than what were for normal trains. The Railways then settled for the Shatabdi trains, fast inter-city day trains generally travelling at maximum speed of 130 kilometres per hour, even as the Bhopal Shatabdi has a maximum speed of 150 kilometres per hour between New Delhi and Agra. While we are still discussing the pros and cons of developing HSR in the country, Chinese Railways who began planning for HSR in mid-nineties, started construction in 1998 and now have largest HSR network in the world extending over 7000 route kilometres. Recently the Chinese Railways signed a MOU with Indian Railways for technical cooperation including HSR technology and also showed interest in constructing HSR in India.

From time to time, the issue of providing high speed rail has been discussed at various forums with demand being made several times, even in Parliament, for providing ‘bullet trains’ in India, similar to HSR in Japan. Their introduction was opposed also on grounds that HSR are expensive, and they can wait for some more years till the paying capacity of the people increases considerably so that they can afford traveling by them. Theyalso argue that middle level speed up to 180/200 kilometres per hour on existing lines would be adequate for India as it is cost effective and more energy efficient than HSR.

The introduction of High Speed Rail in India is mentioned in the Railway Vision 2025 where it is stated that the Indian Railways would develop six corridors in four regions. Railways have commissioned pre-feasibility studies for all the possible corridors and these are at different stages of completion.

Despite its mention in the Railway Vision 2025, Indian Railways have been very cautious about committing to developing HSR in India. The Eleventh Plan strategy for passenger business was to increase commercial speed of passenger trains and to introduce faster trains with peak speeds of 150 kilometres per hour between metropolitan cities. The Twelfth Plan for Railways has again emphasized on increasing commercial speeds and augmenting trains as the thrust area of passenger business. The development of High Speed rail corridors is still not a priority and its actual materialisation will depend upon fund availability; the preferred mode for which is Public Private Participation.

There is a high degree of enthusiasm in different states for high speed corridors. Some of the state governments have commissioned their own pre-feasibility studies on potential corridors with high traffic demand. Kerala has planned a HSR from Thiruvananthapuram to Mangalore in Karnataka. Maharashtra might introduce HSR from Mumbai to Nagpur apart from Pune Mumbai Ahmedabad corridor which has been put on fast track by the Central Government. Tamil Nadu has envisaged a HSR corridor connecting Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Kanya Kumari in ‘Vision Tamil Nadu 2023’ released this year. Karnataka wants a HSR from Bangalore to Mysore and also from Bangalore to Belgaum and Gulbarga.

High Speed Railways are more suitable for inter-city travel at medium distance segments (up to 500/750 kilometres) wherein transit time does not increase beyond 3 to 4 hours.Drastic reduction in the transit time as compared to the one for conventional Railways, providing greater convenience and travel comforts with stations located in city centres, gives HSR an edge over air travel. The high speed rail changes the entire game of passenger transport. The provision for fast and frequent rail travel gives business activity a boost. HSR is comparatively more energy efficient than air. HSR requires much less land for construction as compared to expressways and highways. A two - line HSR is generally equivalent to eight- lane highways available to passengers preferring to travel by road. As a result, building HSR is more beneficial from the point of view of sustainability because it saves land and reduces energy usage and carbon emission.

Railways, being a central subject, states have little say in its development. Given the limited availability of funds, capacity creation for the carriage of freight is always preferred over passenger transport by railways. Since the railways are not able to charge passenger fares as per actual cost incurred and have to subsidise the passenger business from freight there is little enthusiasm for funding HSR or even increasing capacity for passenger travel.The high Powered Committee on Railway Safety has even suggested that introduction of new trains should be halted in view of safety.

Looking towards a cash-strapped Railway Board, for developing HSR in India, is like chasing a chimera. Development of Metro Railways was possible only when it was taken out of Railway Board and given to the Ministry of Urban Development. Indian Railways was hesitant to invest in loss-making Metro Rail projects. Kolkata Metro took several years to complete a stretch of 16 kilometres. A strong political will only could persuade the Railway Board to take up expansion of Kolkata Metro railway in the other parts of city.

State Governments are in a better position to assess the need for high speed corridors. The State Governments should be encouraged to develop HSR in their states by determining suitable funding mechanisms and creating organisations for developing them. The Railway Board should perform only regulatory functions by providing technical and safety standards as it used to do in the pre-independence days when the railway companies ran individual railway systems. For HSR beyond state boundaries, Railway Board will frame operating rules and regulations for exchange of trains. In this arrangement, the Railway Board will continue to have a greater responsibility for determining the gauge of new HSR tracks, common standards for erection and maintenance of track, rolling stock and signalling system. This is particularly important as today almost all HSR Railways are willing to provide their technology to India and as they see it as a major future business interest. In the long run, the country should strive to develop indigenous HSR technology and manufacturing capacity for rails, rolling stock and signalling system. This can be done only by the Railway Board.

This is about right to walk on a footover bridge built by railways out of tax-payers' money
There cannot be an as insignificant place as the common railway footover bridge at Parel and Elphinstone station on Mumbai railway to highlight the "disconnect" of top cops vis-a-vis small conveniences of city's commuters. No matter how higher up officer you are, the hawkers' lobby in Mumbai is all powerful.Here's the story--The bridge connecting at Parel and Elphinstone stations has been a narrow one and the crowd at the stations has increased manifold after the rise of towers and malls from the mills. At Parel-end, the crowd is so great that the railways have had to deploy policemen and home guard constables to monitor the crowd so that there is no stampede. Theoretically for the media, there have been proposals pending to have more infrastructure and fancy plans to boost up the station, but nothing has happened in reality, but that's a different subject.



Naturally, with such heavy crowds, the presence of hawkers on the bridge here is quite natural. One can openly see cops in uniform chatting with them in a "friendly" manner. There are CCTVs and it is a matter of common knowledge. But we can ignore them till a point.



Last Thursday evening, the crowd on the bridge at Elphinstone-end was so huge that it was jostling for space and there was no place to walk; the reason -- there were more hawkers this time selling everything from raincoats to mobile phones and umbrellas to jackfruit with a huge crowd blocking the walkway to buy the wares. A cop was dealing with one of them about God knows what.



I thought something had to be done and called up the senior divisional security commissioner, who heads Railway Protection Force Mumbai divison. He is the head of RPF and supposed to have control over officers and team with the primary job being "protection of railway property." He assured action, but asked me to send him a text message. A message was sent immediately.



The next day, there was no change and I alerted him. The top cop told me that the bridge falls under senior inspector at Dadar and that he had confirmed him that hawkers had been cleared and asked me to alert him.



I skip a day and take the bridge on Sunday. The hawkers are still there. I send a text message to the top cop. "No change. Have given up."



We have been reading news stories about how powerful the hawkers' lobby on Mumbai railway has been. This is proof. I am very well aware that removal of hawkers is not the commissioner's job, but it is reflects badly on a system if  things don't change even after alerting the highest authority. A system failure. The incident highlights how disconnected the top brass can be from ground realities. These are small conveniences Mr Commissioner, for the Mumbai commuter about right to walk on a footover bridge built by railways out of tax-payers' money. That's all.

Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand Subhash Kumar has informed that 400 people were airlifted on Sunday from Badrinath, while 500 others are being evacuated by road.“On Sunday, we managed to rescue 1,200 people from Guptkashi and approximately 390 people from Gaurikund. A combined rescue team will conduct a combing operation in Kedarnath valley on Monday to make sure that nobody has been left behind,” Kumar said.Kumar said despite the floods and landslides ravaging in three districts of the state, the water supply schemes of Chamoli in Badrinath, Pandukeshwar, Govindghat, Ghanghria, Joshimath, Gopeshwar, Karnaprayag and Gauchar have been temporarily restored. In Rudraprayag, the damaged water supply schemes of Rudraprayag town, Fata, Agasthmuni, Rampur, Seetapur and Ukhimath have been restored successfully. He said the state government has posted 150 doctors in the affected areas for immediate medical attention to the injured and 75 imported satellite phones are being used by agencies to establish communication in far-flung areas.

The state officials said it is difficult to ascertain the exact toll at the moment as debris in many places could not be cleared.

“There could be more in the coming days. The search is still going on in the affected areas and it may take some time to ascertain the numbers because the rescue teams have such a large area to cover,” they said.

The state government is providing each evacuated person with `2,000 in cash for any exigencies.

Arrangements have been made for free railway tickets for the pilgrims to go back home along with a provision of two extra railway coaches in regular trains.

Meanwhile, Border Road Organisation (BRO) is working in the flood-affected areas to clear the debris and build damaged roads. The BRO deployed more than 95 excavators and bulldozers and approximately 4,000 of its personnel and labourers are working day and night in the priority areas in Rudraprayag-Gaurikund axis and Govindghat-Badrinath axis.

A wooden footbridge and 300-m foot track across hard rock have been built and at least 300 pilgrims and 2,000 mules rescued from Gaurikund. In the Joshimath-Badrinath axis, the construction of a foot track is under progress and a readymade footbridge is being launched across river Alaknanda. It is expected that after completion of these, the stranded passengers from Badrinath may be rescued by the land route.

The Railways have been running special trains from Haridwar and Dehradun to evacuate people free of charge.

The Railways said it was revalidating even the expired tickets to help passengers reach their destinations. “Special arrangements have been made at these stations to refund the fare against the tickets of flood-affected passengers.

“To refund the fare against of such tickets at these stations the rules have been relaxed so that affected passengers may get refund against their tickets or revalidate those tickets for undertaking their journey to their destination on the same ticket,” a Railways statement said.

नागपूर

इतवारी स्थानकावर उभ्या असलेल्या मालगाडीच्या कोळशाच्या बोगीला आग लागल्याची घटना रविवारी सायंकाळी घडली . अग्निशमन विभागाने तातडीने घटनास्थळी पोहचून ही आग आटोक्यात आणली .

कोळशाने भरलेली ही मालगाडी २१ जूनच्या मध्यरात्री विशाखापट्टणम् येथून इतवारी स्थानकावर आली होती . ही गाडी खापरखेडा येथे जाणार होती . मात्र पुढील आदेश न मिळाल्याने ती इतवारी यार्डात थांबून होती . सायंकाळी साडेपाचच्या सुमारास आरपीएफचे हेड कॉन्स्टेबल पी . के . गजभिये यांना मालगाडीच्या एका वॅगनमधून धूर निघताना दिसला . त्यांनी लगेच याबाबत पोलिस निरीक्षक तसेच स्थानक व्यवस्थापकांना कळविले . याच यार्डात मालगाडी शेजारी टाटा पॅसेंजर उभी होती . रात्री ९ . ३० वाजता टाटा पॅसेंजर सुटल्यावर या मालगाडीवर पाण्याचा मार करू , असे प्रशासनाने ठरविले होते . पावसाचे वातावरण आणि थोड्या प्रमाणात निघणारा धूर यामुळे ही आग आधी कोणी फारशी गांभीर्याने घेतली नाही . मात्र काही वेळातच धुराचे प्रमाण वाढले . त्यामुळे तातडीने अ ​ ग्निशमन विभागाला कळविण्यात आले . कोळसा हा ज्वलनशील पदार्थ आहे . आतल्या आत घर्षण होऊन तो अनेकदा पेट घेतो . आजची आगही त्यातूनच लागली असावी असा अंदाज आहे .

Banihal: The 11 km long railway tunnel between Banihal and Qazigund is ready with nearly 200 CCTVs, 25 telephone booths and a number of auto sensors installed in it to ensure a hassle free journey for commuters."192 CCTVs, 25 exhaust fans, 25 telephone booths and a number of auto sensors to indicate fire and other troubles have been installed inside the tunnel," IRCON officials constructing the vital Kashmir rail project told PTI ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's scheduled visit on June 25.Singh, along with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other leaders from the Centre and state, is scheduled to be present when the railway tunnel is inaugurated on June 25.A control room set up at Banihal railway station will monitor all activities inside the tunnel built in the Pir-Panjal range, officials said.Keeping in mind any eventualities, engineers have also constructed a six metre wide motor road along with the railway track.
"A six metre wide motor road along with railway track has been constructed inside tunnel for rescue and relief operations in case of any emergency," officials said, adding that the high-tech Pir-Panjal Railway tunnel was water and fire proof.
Built at a cost of Rs 1,300 crore by the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), the 11.3 km long tunnel will connect Kashmir Valley with the Banihal town of Jammu division and will be India's longest and Asia's second longest railway transport tunnel, officials said.
It has taken seven years to complete the entire project, they added. With completion of Banihal-Qazigund tunnel, another leg of the 273 km long Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail project, which has 911 minor and major bridges apart from 114 km long tunnels, has been completed.
The yet to be completed first phase of the project connecting Udhampur with Katra is 25 km long, has 38 bridges and 11 km long tunnels.
The KatraQazigund section is 129 km long, with 68 railway bridges and 103 km long tunnels.
Third phase of the prestigious project between Qazigund and Baramulla is 119 km in length, with 811 minor and major railway bridges. However, there is no tunnel in this section, which is in the Kashmir valley, officials said.
"The QazigundBanihal section will reduce distance between the two divisions of Kashmir and Jammu by about 17 km," HCC project manager for the railway tunnel, Sarnappa Yalal, said.
"Problems faced by commuters travelling between Banihal and Qazigund due to closure of Jawahar Tunnel in the winters will largely be mitigated by running train services between Banihal and Baramulla.
"Moreover, distance between the two towns will be reduced from 35 km road length to 17.72 km rail route," he said.

GUWAHATI: Criticizing the delay in completion of railway projects in the northeast, CPI (M)'s youth wing, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), on Sunday accused the Centre of not giving importance to improvement of railway connectivity in the region.The Tripura and Assam units of DYFI has decided to stage a demonstration before the Northeast Frontier Railway headquarters at Maligaon on August 7, demanding early completion of railway projects. DYFI Tripura unit president, Tapas Dutta, said broad gauge conversion of tracks in South Assam is an important railway projects, but it is still incomplete.

The Railway Police, on Sunday, booked four pantry car workers of Duronto Express who allegedly beat up four passengers of the train following a scuffle over delayed supply of meals.According to the complaint received by the police, the workers attacked the passengers while they were about to alight at the Kozhikode railway station around 2.40 p.m. The workers were taken into police custody and charged under Section 341 (wrongful restraint) and 323 (for voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC. The journey of the Ernakulam-bound train was resumed after a one-and-a-half-hour long halt at the Kozhikode station.