ProUI

Srinagar:
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi will flag off the train from Banihal in the Jammu region to Qazigund in the Kashmir valley tomorrow, not only will the century-old dream of rail connectivity be fulfilled partly, but it will also bring in more cheer to people of Kashmir who travel by train daily.The Railways is introducing four new trains in Kashmir which will chug between Banihal and Baramulla on a daily basis from June 27.“We will introduce four new trains between Banihal in Ramban district and Baramulla in north Kashmir from Thursday,” said a senior official of the Northern Railway. “The total number of trains which will operate here will now be 14. We are already running 10 trains,” he said.The official said the more number of trains would help them to cater to a heavy rush.“The four new trains have eight coaches and they will be able to meet the heavy rush,” he said. — TNS

Hazaribag: BabulalMarandi on Tuesday flagged off the first passenger train between Koderma and Nawadih on Koderma-Nawadih-Giridih railway track under Dhanbad division. The railway network - the foundation stone for which was laid by former prime minister AtalBihariVajpayee in 2005 - will help people of Koderma, Domchanch, Markacho, Maheshpu and Nawadih .The Rs 371.36-crore Koderma-Giridih track project, covering 111 km, was sanctioned and supposed to be commissioned by 2005-06. However, work could not b started due to lack of funds. Later, the Babulal Marandi government agreed to meet 50% of the project cost, which was escalated to Rs 787.87 crore due to the delay. The JVM-P chief had said the project would create new avenues for employment generation in the mineral-rich belt on the Grand Chord section of the East Central Railway, which could not be exploited earlier due to lack of rail connectivity.

DRM Sudhir Kumar, Dhanbad division, said all efforts are on to complete the line by December. The passenger train will have five compartments and will be hauled by diesel engine. It will make two trips everyday except Sunday. tnn

He said he was happy since it was during his tenure as central minister for environment and forest that the project came up for forest clearance. But he said that he would have been more happy had the entire Koderma-Giridih(111 KM) route been completed.

New Delhi, June 25: Kashmir's dream of an all-weather surface link would turn into a reality on Wednesday when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurate the rail link between Banihal to Qazigund in Kashmir.

Dr Singh and Sonia would jointly flag off the first train at around 11.50 AM on the 18-km-long section between Banihal in Jammu and Qazigund in Kashmir, marking the start of the rail service to Kashmir.

The 8-coach train will make regular operation from Banihal to Baramulla from June 27 after the inaugural run on June 26.

The Banihal-Baramulla-Banihal train will make five trips daily beginning at 7.10 AM from Banihal and 7.35 AM from Baramulla. Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah along with other central ministers Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad are expected to be present on the historic occasion.

"We have seven pairs of trains to run between Banihal and Baramulla. Earlier there were five rakes only but now it has been increased," said a senior Northern railway official.

The Banihal-Qazigund section, which includes an 11-km-long tunnel, would reduce the distance from 35 km (by road) to 18 km. It has been constructed at a cost of Rs 1,691 crore. This rail section is very significant as it will provide an all-weather link to Kashmir Valley which often gets cut off from the rest of the country due to snowfall during winters.Passengers travelling by train from Kashmir Valley to Banihal can avail bus service from there till Udhampur where train service is available for the rest of the country.

Northern Railway is coordinating with Jammu and Kashmir government for arrangements for the bus service. "The bus service will be available from Udhampur to facilitate passengers  availing train from Banihal next month," a senior Northern Railway official said.

Train service is already operational within Kashmir Valley on the 118-km-long route between Qazigund and Baramulla in north Kashmir.

"It (Qazigund-Banihal section) was a challenging task. Besides the difficult terrain, land was acquired for the Kashmir rail link project in adverse law and order situation in the state," the official said. 

Trial run on Banihal-Qazigund section was successfully done on December 28 last year and since then trains carrying stones  are running on regular basis.

Currently, problems are being faced by passengers travelling between Banihal and Qazigund due to closure of Jawahar Tunnel in winter months due to heavy snowfall.

Last winter, only one-way vehicular movement was allowed between Jammu and Srinagar on the highway. There were sudden closures for almost four months from December 2012 to March this year due to heavy snowfall and slippery conditions. "All these problems will be reduced to a large extent by running of train services between Banihal and Qazigund," the Northern Railway official said, adding that "it will be a cheaper, faster and dependable mode of transport for the people." Known as Pir Panjal tunnel, it is the longest transportation tunnel in India and third longest in Asia. The tunnel has been constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 1,300 crore and taken almost seven years to complete.

The tunnel has been constructed using New Austrian Tunnelling Method, which has been used for the first time on such a large scale in India. This method optimises the tunnel design by mobilising the inherent ground strength in adopting a curved section, providing primary support system immediately after excavation and monitoring the ground behaviour while permitting it to develop its inherent strength.

ALLAHABAD: Review works meeting regarding the progress of various ongoing projects of the North Central Railway was held at Subedarganj headquarters. Addressing the meeting, additional general manager and chief electrical engineer AK Rawal stressed on preparing the engineering pan first before putting any work in the work plan as this would ensure easy completion of the work.

He also said all the works regarding the Adarsh and model stations should be completed urgently and passengers' amenities work should be given priority. In addition to this, additional general manager and chief electrical engineer AK Rawal observed that works relating to comprehensive development of six major stations of the zone- Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra Cantt, Mathura, Jhansi and Gwalior should be done on the priority basis.

This includes the works related to improvement in the circulating area, lighting, signage and improvement in external structure.

During the meet, the principal chief engineer Satish Kumar stressed on the urgent completion of the works regarding safety at railway crossings including the completion of about 25 ROB (railways over bridges) and 75 limited height sub-ways in the current financial year. Various ongoing projects of construction department, IRPMU, Open Line were also discussed. All the heads of the various departments were present at the meeting.

Nawashahr:
A deputation of local NGO Jago Nawanshahr Jago Society submitted a memorandum to the Divisional Railways Manager (DRM),Ferozepur, yesterday.  The deputation included Nirmal Singh Rehal, Balraj Singh Mann, Gurwinder Singh, Vivek Kumra, Jaswant Singh Bhatti, Vasdev Pardesi and Dr Kamaljit Lal, They urged him to restore the trains which were suspended because of terrorism as well as to start a new train from Nawanshahr  to Amritsar. The NGO has been getting resolutions passed by village panchayats and municipal council as well as contacting MPs and MLAs for fulfilling the demand of restoring suspended trains and starting rail services from Nawanshahr to Amritsar.

The first passenger train on the the newly constructed Koderma-Nawadih -Giridih railway line was on Tuesday flagged off by JVM(P) chief Babulal Marandi.With the flagging off, Koderma Station also received the status of a junction on the Grand Chord section of the East Central Railway under the Dhanbad Division.The train with five bogies hauled by a diesel engine would make two trips every day except Sunday with a nominal fare of Rs 10.The 111 km Koderma-Giridih line costing Rs 371 .36 crore was sanctioned and was to be commissioned by 2005-6, but was hit by a fund problem.The work started again when the then state government under Marandi state agreed to meet 50 per cent of the total cost of the project.The foundation stone of the project was laid by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.Marandi told reporters that said that the train services would play a significant role for the development of the region which could not be exploited earlier and also create new avenues for employment.

The increasing number of vacancies in the posts of station masters poses a grave danger to the safety of Railways and its services, said office-bearers of the All India Station Masters Association during a hunger strike by the Chennai division of the association on Tuesday.

The association claimed that the Chennai division of the Southern Railways had 190 vacancies among the 928 positions as of December 2012.

There will be a further increase of 45 vacancies by next year by way of retirement, said John Vincent Kumar, national president of the All India Station Masters Association.

“These huge vacancies will have a direct bearing on the functioning and safety of the Railways. As per norms, station masters are to work only for eight hours in normal areas and  six hours in high intensity areas owing to the stress levels involved. But as of now, most of us are forced to work for 12 hours at a stretch, and even a weekly day off is denied to us. This will affect the station masters and their ability to ensure the proper safety to the passengers,” he said.

The station masters also alleged that this year, the number of summer special trains was reduced by 10 per cent owing to shortage of drivers and station masters.

“The Central Government has put a blanket ban on government recruitments. Though drivers, station masters and guards are excluded from this, the government continues to follow the same policy here too,” claimed N Shanmughasundaram, president of the Chennai division of the All India Station Masters Association.

The association pointed out that the largescale vacancy was a result of the mass recruitment that had taken place in the late 1970s and early 80s.

“That whole batch is retiring in the next few years  and this would lead to mass vacancies.

“If the government does not take proactive steps to fill the vacancies, it will lead to multiple problems,” said Shanmughasundaram.

The union demanded that the Railway Board relax recruitment processes to facilitate filling up of vacancies and also to create a body on the lines of the employment exchange to meet the current crisis of mass retirements.

Eastern Railway posted 19 per cent growth in passenger earnings to nearly Rs 321 crore during the first two months of this fiscal.

According to a press statement, ER earned Rs 269 crore from passenger traffic during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, ER registered about 6 per cent growth in earnings from penalties, to a little more than Rs 7 crore, as against Rs 6.75 crore, during the corresponding period of last year.

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet is likely to consider the case of setting up of a company to implement the ambitious Rapid Rail projects in the national capital region (NCR), on Thursday. The proposal has been pushed by the Union urban development ministry. According to the proposal, the company will have a seed fund of Rs 100 crore. As reported by TOI earlier all four NCR constituent states - Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan - will contribute 50% of this seed money for NCR Transport Corporation (NCRTC) whereas Centre will put the rest. Sources said NCRTC will also reduce burden on Delhi Metro Rail Corporation as it would take care of creating facility for similar type of long-distance rail service across NCR.

Formation of the company on the lines of Delhi Metro is crucial to expedite the project work. Ministry sources said that within two months after the Cabinet decision the company would come into existence with a full time managing director and other officials.

राजेंद्रनगर टर्मिनल से खुलनेवाली ट्रेनों के सभी एसी कोच सिर्फ एक फीटर (टेक्नीशियन) के हवाले हैं. यात्र के दौरान इनमें यदि कोई बड़ी खराबी आ जाये, बैटरी में आग लग जाये या शॉर्ट सर्किट हो जाये, तो बड़ा हादसा होने से कोई नहीं रोक सकता.राजेंद्रनगर टर्मिनल से एसी कोच को लेकर जब कोई टेक्नीशियन निकलता है, तो उनकी सांस अटकी रहती है. भगवान से प्रार्थना करता है कि चलती ट्रेन में कोई मेजर फॉल्ट न हो. दरअसल, एक टेक्नीशियन के भरोसे एसी कोच में बिजली के 110 वोल्ट डीसी से 440 वोल्ट एसी का काम करना खतरे से खाली नहीं है.करीब दो महीना पहले तक एसी कोच में एक टेक्नीशियन के साथ एक हेल्पर भी होता था. जब कोई फॉल्ट एसी कोच के अंदर या बाहर होता था, तो दोनों मिल कर काम करते थे. जब टेक्नीशियन ट्रेन के नीचे जाता था, तो हेल्पर अन्य जरूरत का सामान मुहैया कराने से लेकर उसकी देख-रेख में भी लगा रहता था. लेकिन, अब हेल्पर की सुविधा नहीं दी जा रही है.ऐसी स्थिति में फॉल्ट बनाते समय शॉर्ट सर्किट हो गया या आग लग गयी, तो उसे देखनेवाला कोई नहीं रहता. राजेंद्रनगर टर्मिनल से एसी कोच में स्कॉर्ट ड्यूटी करनेवाले एक टेक्नीशियन ने बताया कि ट्रेन में एसी के एक से छह कोच होते हैं. वातानुकूलित यंत्रों को चलाना और देखना उसका काम है. यात्र के दौरान सभी कोचों के यंत्रों को चलाने व उन्हें देखने में काफी दिक्कत होती है. बिना हेल्पर के 440 वोल्ट/एसी का काम क रना जान जोखिम में डालने के बराबर है. एक कोच की लंबाई करीब 70 फुट होती है. एक से दूसरे, तीसरे व चौथे कोच तक जाने में जितना समय लगता है, उतने समय में यदि कोई अनहोनी या गड़बड़ी हो जाये, तो भगवान ही मालिक है.