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MANGALORE: Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel has requested the general manager of Hubli based South Western Railway (SWR) to restrict movement of goods train movement during night - from 6pm up to next morning 6am - between Sakleshpur and Subrahmanya Road. In a letter to the official, the MP said such a step is prudent in view of monsoon season which is severe in coastal Karnataka and where landslips along the Shirady Ghat are common.

The MP said landslips and cancellation of passenger trains causes hardships to people who have booked train seats well in advance. Observing that during the past decade, passenger trains have been held up in the Ghat section, Nalin urged SWR not to run goods train in the night, and also ensure proper track beat is taken up in the late evening as well as early morning and thereby ensure smooth running of the passenger trains during monsoon.

Adding a new chapter to its glory after commissioning the escalator at Bhubaneswar Railway Station recently, East Coast Railway has provided four Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) in its jurisdiction for the convenience of the passengers and rail users to go from o­ne platform to another.At Chilika, Delang, Lingaraj Road Halt and Joranda stations under Khurda Road Division, Railways have commissioned Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) for passengers at Stations to go from o­ne platform to another and also to cope with the growing traffic at Railway premises. These facilities have been commissioned in about two months time.
Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) are commissioned by the Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical wings of Railways. Massive concerted efforts and co-ordination with detailed planning is put into these works with use of high end machinery like high capacity cranes and lifters.
These Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) are erected after ascertaining all safety measures and after taking proper traffic block (planned controlling of trains) under intimation to all concerned.
Construction of these Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) have been welcomed by the users of these facilities at the particular stations, as they will provide a lot of relief to Senior Citizens, ladies, students, children and medical patients.

Railway Passengers (Cancellation of ticket and Refund of fare) Rules, 1998 have not been substantially revised in the last 15 years during which period a large number of changes have taken place in the ticketing system of Indian Railways.  Firstly, Computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) as well as Computerised Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) have proliferated. Reservation through internet has also been introduced through which 45% of the total reserved tickets are issued. Integrated Train Enquiry System -- 139 is functional through which ticket status can be obtained through SMS. The above developments warranted that the refund rules be revised comprehensively.

A 11-km railway tunnel across the Pir Panjal mountain range, inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday, is not only the longest such in India but an engineering marvel and a "dream come true" for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

It took seven years for thousands of men, most of them highly-trained and skilled in tunnel building, who braved geographical constraints and inclement weather to build the all-weather tunnel. Some of the tunnel boring machinery - an improved Austrian version - has been used for the first time on such a large scale in the country during the laying of the tunnel.

A three-metre-wide road has also been provided inside the tunnel for maintenance and relief and rescue operations in the event of any eventuality.

"The tunnel has been made water-proof by providing a continuous PVC membrane between the primary and secondary lining. It is equipped with state-of-the-art air quality monitoring, communications, fire-fighting and emergency rescue systems," an engineer at the site told IANS, not wishing to be identified.

Built at a cost of Rs.1,300 crores ($213 million), the tunnel has reduced the surface distance between the Qazigund town in the Valley and Banihal town in the Jammu region by 18 km, besides providing an all-weather surface link between the two regions.

The over 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu highway, till today the only surface link between the landlocked Valley and the rest of the country, would often remain closed for days without end in the winter months due to heavy snowfall on the Banihal sector of the highway.

"That experience is now a thing of the past for the people of Jammu and Kashmir," Congress President Sonia Gandhi told a jubilant public rally here when an eight-coach train was flagged off from here to Qazigund.

The tunnel had been a dream for the people of the state and not many believed it would become operational in their lifetime.

"I had been hearing of a railway tunnel that would connect us with the Valley and the people there with Banihal and other parts of the country. Today, I have seen the dream come true before my own eyes," Siraj-ud-Din, 70, who was part of the jubilant crowd that saw history being made as the train cruised from here through the tunnel to the Valley, told IANS.

Others in the Valley are hopeful their horticultural produce would be carried at lower costs and without any hassles through the tunnel in the future.

"The tunnel is going to reduce the transportation cost for our fruit to terminal markets in the country and also ensure that it reaches in time , whether it is raining or snowing," Mushtaq Ahmad, who has a large apple orchard in north Kashmir's Sopore town, told IANS.

Bangalore, June 27 (ANI): On the occasion of completing 160 glorious years of the Indian Railways, South-Western Railway organized a weeklong photo exhibition here showcasing rare moments of the railway journey and putting it on display. "Railways has progressed immensely reaching to every doorstep in the last 160 years. We have portrayed the journey of the railways by displaying rare photographs from all these years," said Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM) Sandeep Mehra. The photographs were put on display after a careful selection and consideration from the archives of Indian railways so that the railway fans can have close look at it. More than 100 rare photographs were displayed in the exhibition, reviving the nostalgia of passengers with ancient trains, engines and political dignitaries like Mahatma Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi making their journeys. The photographs were divided into different varieties and according to the era. Visitors taking a look at the Indian railways journey praised the immense progress made by the railways. "Railway's initiative had been very good. Earlier, there were only carts and most people had to travel by foot. The invention of railways made life easy. A huge difference has come in the railway of ancient times and now. The initiative of railways had been very good," said Anita Rao, a visitor. This exposition would be held all over India, educating people about the importance of the Indian railways. The photographs, which encompassed all the fundamental aspects of the railways, spoke of a long gone era and the enhancement achieved during the present. (ANI)

The next time, better not treat the PNR status generated by 139 centralised railways enquiry service as gospel.

This was the lesson a group of IIT-M researchers learnt the hard way when they were offloaded from the Delhi-Chennai Duronto Express on June 18 because the automated text message on their mobile phone showing confirmed seats did not tally with the final reservation charts that declared the tickets as wait-listed.

The group of seven, including researchers and students, were returning from Delhi after attending a workshop at the IIT-Mandi on text-to-speech synthesis technology for the visually challenged.

“We had booked two sets of tickets almost two months in advance. Though they were initially wait-listed, we got the automated SMS from 139 a few hours before departure in which some tickets were confirmed and the rest were RAC,” said Anusha, who is a research associate on a text-to-speech synthesis project under way at IIT-M.

But, when the IIT-ians checked the chart at the Hazrat Nizamuddin station , they were shocked to find their tickets reverted to the wait-list. Imagining it to be a clerical error as they had a digitally generated proof of confirmed seats, the students boarded one of the coaches hoping to explain the situation to a Travelling Ticket Examiner.

Much to their chagrin, the TTE refused to accept the SMS confirmation and declared them as ticketless travellers. “The TTE even said the Railways was in no way obligated to the IRCTC as it was a private entity and that there was no option but for everyone to get down at the next halt,” said Anusha.

Though the Duronto does not have any scheduled stop between Delhi and Chennai, it has technical halts at a few stations.

As the group included four women, they were advised by their professor Hema Murthy not to wait till the train reached Jhansi and instead alight somewhere before it got too dark.

The group got off the train at Farah near Mathura and took a bus back to reach Delhi at 11 p.m. physically and emotionally drained. With the help of their professor, the students took a flight to Chennai with the air tickets costing about Rs. 70,000.

When contacted, an IRTC official conceded that the episode was “very, very rare.” The surmise at present points either to a technical glitch in 139 or an eleventh hour pull-out of a coach on the train that led to the downgrading of the reserved seats to wait-listed status - a change which was not communicated to passengers.

The IRCTC is investigating why the automated text on PNR status was at variance with the final reservation charts. “We have sought a response from the Railways,” an official said.

Though the IRCTC has electronically refunded the reservation amount, the IIT-ians believe that a mere fare refund does not compensate for the harrowing experience they underwent.

“We are exploring means of claiming compensation from the Railways,” Ms. Anusha said.

Imphal, June 26 2013: A little over a year after the first trial engine run was successfully conducted on the Jiri-Tupul rail line on March 22, 2012, digging of the first tunnel along the this railway track under NF Railway at Awang Khun in Tamenglong district has been completed today.

The 460 metre long Tunnel No 19 which was completed today is among the 34 tunnels to be dug along the Jiri-Tupul rail line.

The tunnel was dug by a Hyderabad based private construction company, Sushi Infra Pvt Ltd.

Speaking to reporters who went there today, an official of the construction company engaged in the tunnel construction said that a machine, Rocket Boomer, weighing 37 MT imported from Sweden was deployed in digging the tunnel.

He said a total of 13 Rocket Boomers have been used in different points of the rail line construction by around 20 companies engaged in the construction under NF Railway.

The official said that insurgency problem, frequent bandh, blockade and unfavourable condition of the highway disturb the smooth progress of the railway construction.

The first of the 34 tunnels which has been completed

He also admitted that the companies have to rely on other highways for transportation of heavy equipment and other basic items as the condition of NH-37 is not favourable for vehicles carrying heavy equipment.

Frequent incidents of extortion, abduction and threats are problems faced by the companies from militants, he said.

It has also been estimated that around Rs 34 crore was spent in digging the tunnel.

On March 22 last year NF Railway successfully conducted the first trial engine run covering over a distance of 12 kilometres from Jiribam railway station to Dholakal.

The foundation stone of the rail line was laid in November 2004 by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh while Lalu Prasad Yadav was the then Railways Minister.

In 2005 the Jiri-Imphal rail line was declared a National Project.

MANGALORE: Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel has requested the general manager of Hubli based South Western Railway (SWR) to restrict movement of goods train movement during night - from 6pm up to next morning 6am - between Sakleshpur and Subrahmanya Road. In a letter to the official, the MP said such a step is prudent in view of monsoon season which is severe in coastal Karnataka and where landslips along the Shirady Ghat are common.

The MP said landslips and cancellation of passenger trains causes hardships to people who have booked train seats well in advance. Observing that during the past decade, passenger trains have been held up in the Ghat section, Nalin urged SWR not to run goods train in the night, and also ensure proper track beat is taken up in the late evening as well as early morning and thereby ensure smooth running of the passenger trains during monsoon.

Railway Passengers (Cancellation of ticket and Refund of fare) Rules, 1998 have not been substantially revised in the last 15 years during which period a large number of changes have taken place in the ticketing system of Indian Railways.  Firstly, Computerised Passenger Reservation System (PRS) as well as Computerised Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) have proliferated. Reservation through internet has also been introduced through which 45% of the total reserved tickets are issued. Integrated Train Enquiry System -- 139 is functional through which ticket status can be obtained through SMS. The above developments warranted that the refund rules be revised comprehensively.

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval to the 23-km-long first phase of the Lucknow Metro project, which will be called "North-South Corridor" and connect Lucknow airport to Munshipulia.

The metro will pass through important city areas like Charbagh near the railway station, Vidhan Sabha Marg, Hazratganj, Lucknow University, IT crossing and Polytechnic crossing. Three kilometres of this route from K K College near Charbagh to the district magistrate's residence near K D Singh Babu stadium will be underground.

The financial model of 50:50 fund sharing between the central and state government was also approved. However, at the same time, it was decided to seek loan from either World Bank or Japanese International Cooperation Agency through the Union Ministry of Economic Affairs. The first phase of the project is expected to cost around Rs 7,000 crore.

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"We had promised to bring the project and also brought the issue to the Vidhan Sabha. The first step in the direction has been taken today," Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said after the cabinet meeting.

Sadakant, Principal Secretary of Housing, said, "We had studied various models, including the PPP model adopted by Andhra Pradesh which is not seeing success. Then, developers were also demanding large chunk of land for development to cover the losses, which was not feasible in a city like Lucknow. Thus, the financial model adopted by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was found to be more practical."

The state government will seek approval of the Union government for adopting their two acts for construction and maintenance of the Metro rail — the Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978, as amended in 2009, and the Metro Railway (Operation and Maintenance) Act, 2002, for implementation of Lucknow Metro.

"We plan to start the work on the ground by November-December this year after planning traffic diversions to be undertaken during the construction period, shifting of sewage and drinking water pipelines, etc. The government has agreed to give Rs 50-100 crore of funds to start the initial work till other sources of finance are finalised," said Sadakant.

For implementation of the project, a special purpose vehicle will also be formed.

Rajiv Aggarwal, Secretary of Housing, who headed the committee that proposed the alignment and financial structure, said the Metro cell of the state government would also have to coordinate with Indian Railways because about 96 m of North Eastern Railway tracks in Mavaiya will fall under the proposed alignment.