ProUI

Ferozepur:
The district administration has slapped a legal notice against the Northern Railways for alleged unauthorised possession of government land measuring over 91 kanals in Ghulam Hussainwala village and 9 kanals in Bareke village along the Indo-Pakistan border.In the notice, the Revenue Department has asked the Railways to hand over the possession of said land back to the state government and also pay a penalty against its illegal occupation. This chunk of the land situated in Gulam Hussainiwala bears immense significance for the railways as the Ferozepur-Lahore rail track, which today stands terminated short of the twin canals near Hussainiwala, is situated on it.Ironically, the district administration and the local military authorities had earlier been approaching the railway authorities to grant permission to use a portion of this land for the construction of a road overbridge (ROB) near the twin canals believing that the land belonged to the railways. "However, when the administration checked its revenue records, it was found that the land belonged to the state government and not the railways," said Border Road Organisation (BRO) officials who had been moving from pillar to post to get permission to use a portion of this land for the ROB.

As per the information, after the completion of 15 days notice to the railways for filing a reply, Deputy Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang has now given the go ahead to the BRO to resume construction.

"In this era of satellite imagery, the construction of the bridge which was sanctioned a long time back, assumed great strategic significance for the armed forces from the operational point of view," said defence officials, adding that it was unfortunate that such an important project got delayed inordinately over the status of ownership of land for more than two years.

Earlier, railway officials had maintained that since an old track existed on this land, therefore, if the land was given to the Army for the construction of a bridge, any possibility of extending the railway track towards Pakistan in case of reopening of this border, will not be feasible in future.

Half-a-dozen pending rail projects in Karnataka would be expeditiously completed in the 2013-14 fiscal with additional funds and early acquisition of land, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said Monday."We hope the state government will soon allot lands required for projects pending for long and sanction its share of the cost in its ensuing 2013-14 state budget," Kharge told reporters after reviewing the status of some projects that got delayed due to various factors.

On his first visit to the city after becoming the fourth railway minister in the second UPA government last month, Kharge, who hails from north Karnataka, said he had instructed the officials to take up all pending projects on a war-footing to complete them in nine months before the next general elections.

"In addition to the Rs.900 crore allocated in the railway budget for the projects in the state, including laying of new tracks, doubling of single line and electrification, Rs.600 crore will be spent to ensure their completion, with the central and state governments contributing equal amount (Rs.300 crore each)," he said.

Among the pending projects are: the 45-km Kadur-Chikmagalur new line; the 97-km Kolar-Chikballapur gauge conversion; the 58-km Gadwal-Raichur new broad gauge line; doubling of the 17-km Hubli-Dharwad line and 140-km Bidar-Gulbarga new line at a revised cost of Rs.881 crore.

The Kadur-Chimagalur line project, which has been pending since 1978, is estimated to cost Rs.170 crore and the original estimate of the Gadwal-Raichur project was Rs.109 crore a decade ago, while that for the Gadwal-Raichur section was Rs.320 crore.

"Laying of track has been completed from Bidar to Humnabad and from Gulbarga to Humnabad is underway. The state government has agreed to allocate Rs.60 crore this fiscal as its share of the project," Kharge said.

Kharge said doubling of tracks between Bangalore and Tumkur (70 km) and new line between Bangalore and Hassan via Arasikere (200 km) would be stepped up for direct route to Mangalore.

"Similarly, doubling of line between Bangalore and Mysore (140 km) will be speeded up after relocating the Tipu Sultan's armoury at Srirangapatnam between Mandya and Mysore. Global tenders will be called soon for shifting the armoury from the route," Kharge added.

NEW DELHI: Amid indications of DMRC likely to take over the operation of Airport Metro Express from next month invoking "large public interest", there is no clarity on who would repay the debt of at least Rs 2,000 crore in case the present contract gets terminated. According to senior Union urban development ministry officials, the DMRC has proposed that the debt can be repaid by both Government of India and Delhi government, the promoters of the "hybrid" public-private-partnership (PPP) project. But the ministry maintains that the Centre should not be made to bear this burden since the contract is between DMRC and Delhi Airport Metro Express Line (DAMPEL). Officials told TOI that the corporation should arrange fund for such take over of the project.

The logic behind this argument is that the project was bid out based on certain projects and conditions, particularly high daily ridership of 40,000 passengers. However, till now the maximum ridership was hovering around 20,000 to 21,000. It has nearly halved to around 10,000 per day since the line was reopened after six months suspension. This is nowhere close to the projects made in the detailed project report (DPR). "Responsibility of preparing a faulty DPR should be fixed. However, considering the public interest we have supported that DMRC should immediately take over the project after DAMPEL exits," said a ministry official in condition of anonymity.

Significantly, everyone in the ministry seemed tightlipped over the huge debt issue. Even the UD secretary Sudhir Krishna did not comment on this issue, though he said that the DMRC board has asked the private company to continue operation. "We have said that DMRC would take over operation in case the company stops work. We have nothing more to add," he said.

Meanwhile, senior officials that since huge debt of the consortium of lenders led by Axis bank is caught in this project ideally they should be allowed either to bring back DAMPEL to operate the line or find a substitution of the present operator, which usually happens in a PPP infrastructure project.

Officials admitted that the project would never be financially viable until the cost of tickets is reworked on this premier line. "Why will people use this line for regular commuting when they have to pay very high price? It has to be somewhere close to the normal Metro tickets on other lines," one of them said. He added that no matter who replaces as the operator with the present level of ridership the project would never become "viable".

Ferozepur:
The district administration has slapped a legal notice against the Northern Railways for alleged unauthorised possession of government land measuring over 91 kanals in Ghulam Hussainwala village and 9 kanals in Bareke village along the Indo-Pakistan border.In the notice, the Revenue Department has asked the Railways to hand over the possession of said land back to the state government and also pay a penalty against its illegal occupation. This chunk of the land situated in Gulam Hussainiwala bears immense significance for the railways as the Ferozepur-Lahore rail track, which today stands terminated short of the twin canals near Hussainiwala, is situated on it.Ironically, the district administration and the local military authorities had earlier been approaching the railway authorities to grant permission to use a portion of this land for the construction of a road overbridge (ROB) near the twin canals believing that the land belonged to the railways. "However, when the administration checked its revenue records, it was found that the land belonged to the state government and not the railways," said Border Road Organisation (BRO) officials who had been moving from pillar to post to get permission to use a portion of this land for the ROB.

As per the information, after the completion of 15 days notice to the railways for filing a reply, Deputy Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang has now given the go ahead to the BRO to resume construction.

"In this era of satellite imagery, the construction of the bridge which was sanctioned a long time back, assumed great strategic significance for the armed forces from the operational point of view," said defence officials, adding that it was unfortunate that such an important project got delayed inordinately over the status of ownership of land for more than two years.

Earlier, railway officials had maintained that since an old track existed on this land, therefore, if the land was given to the Army for the construction of a bridge, any possibility of extending the railway track towards Pakistan in case of reopening of this border, will not be feasible in future.

Ferozepur:
The district administration has slapped a legal notice against the Northern Railways for alleged unauthorised possession of government land measuring over 91 kanals in Ghulam Hussainwala village and 9 kanals in Bareke village along the Indo-Pakistan border.In the notice, the Revenue Department has asked the Railways to hand over the possession of said land back to the state government and also pay a penalty against its illegal occupation. This chunk of the land situated in Gulam Hussainiwala bears immense significance for the railways as the Ferozepur-Lahore rail track, which today stands terminated short of the twin canals near Hussainiwala, is situated on it.Ironically, the district administration and the local military authorities had earlier been approaching the railway authorities to grant permission to use a portion of this land for the construction of a road overbridge (ROB) near the twin canals believing that the land belonged to the railways. "However, when the administration checked its revenue records, it was found that the land belonged to the state government and not the railways," said Border Road Organisation (BRO) officials who had been moving from pillar to post to get permission to use a portion of this land for the ROB.

As per the information, after the completion of 15 days notice to the railways for filing a reply, Deputy Commissioner Manjit Singh Narang has now given the go ahead to the BRO to resume construction.

"In this era of satellite imagery, the construction of the bridge which was sanctioned a long time back, assumed great strategic significance for the armed forces from the operational point of view," said defence officials, adding that it was unfortunate that such an important project got delayed inordinately over the status of ownership of land for more than two years.

Earlier, railway officials had maintained that since an old track existed on this land, therefore, if the land was given to the Army for the construction of a bridge, any possibility of extending the railway track towards Pakistan in case of reopening of this border, will not be feasible in future.

Mohammad Sultan’s 30-year-old dream came to fruition, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged off the train between this highway town in Jammu region to Qazigund in Kashmir.Mr. Sultan, 80, whose wrinkled face bears testimony to his hard life, was among hundreds of eager residents of Banihal who had assembled at the railway station way before the scheduled time for the first passenger train to chug towards Qazigund.“The first time I heard that there is a possibility of a train coming to our town was back in 1983. I thought, if the tracks could be extended from Jammu to Udhampur, why not up to Banihal,” Mr. Sultan told PTI during his journey to Qazigund.The Prime Minister, accompanied by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and a host of other dignitaries including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, inaugurated the 18 km long Banihal-Qazigund rail section last Wednesday. The rail link will provide an all-weather connectivity between Banihal and Qazigund.The octogenarian said he had lost hope of ever stepping on a train, as the project was getting delayed.“At my age, hopes are not fulfilled very often. But, I kept hoping that one day I will board a train here,” he said.It was not the first travel to Kashmir for Mr. Sultan, but as he puts it, “this is royal-class“.“Whenever we would step out of Banihal, we had to look skyward for impending weather changes. While winters are harsh due to snowfall, summers can get tricky owing to landslides triggered by rains. One was sure of leaving the town but not about the date of return,” he said.Mr. Sultan is happy that travel to Kashmir will be a lot safer now than the treacherous bus journey.

मुंबई

मध्य रेल्वेवरून धावणाऱ्या मुंबई-मडगाव मांडवी आणि मुंबई-पुणे डेक्कन एक्स्प्रेस या दोन एक्स्प्रेसच्या वेळांमध्ये बदल करण्यात आले आहेत. मडगाव एक्स्प्रेस ही आधीच्या सायंकाळी ६.५५ या वेळेऐवजी सायंकाळी ७.१० वाजता सुटणार आहे. तर, डेक्कन एक्स्प्रेस सायंकाळी ७.१० ऐवजी ७ वाजता सुटणार आहे. या गाड्या बदललेल्या वेळेनुसार धावण्यास सुरुवात झाली आहे.

A 60-year-old woman was killed, and five others, including an eight-year-old child, were injured after a goods train rammed their small bus at an unmanned level-crossing at Adyar on the outskirts of the city on Sunday.The Government Railway Police have identified the deceased as Zulaika. Her relatives Thahira (40), Noor (8), Hussain (25), Mumthaz (35) were injured. Driver Harish (51) suffered minor injuries.According to Adyar resident Harish Kumar Shetty, the private bus was travelling from National Highway 75 towards Neermarga, when it came across the unmanned level crossing around noon. “Some people had shouted at the driver telling him not to cross. He did not seem to have heard them,” he said.Just as the bus was crossing the tracks, a goods train coming from Mangalore rammed the back of the bus. The collision was such that the bus spun, and fell into a ditch. “It was kicked like a football,” said Mr. Shetty.With hardly anyone nearby, it took an hour for the few residents to pull out the passengers. “One mother was screaming ‘Save my daughter’. There were not many of us. It took us time. And, as the goods train had stopped at the crossing itself, no car could come for the rescue,” he said.

Mr. Shetty said the 60-year-old woman was the last to be pulled out. “Her thigh bone was shattered, and with only a few of us there, it took us time to get her out. Her face was turning blue, and she complained that her chest was hurting. It was only after an hour of the incident that she was taken to a hospital in a police jeep,” he said.

While the goods train moved out in an hour, train services on the tracks were stopped till around 5 p.m.

Mohammad Sultan’s 30-year-old dream came to fruition, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged off the train between this highway town in Jammu region to Qazigund in Kashmir.Mr. Sultan, 80, whose wrinkled face bears testimony to his hard life, was among hundreds of eager residents of Banihal who had assembled at the railway station way before the scheduled time for the first passenger train to chug towards Qazigund.“The first time I heard that there is a possibility of a train coming to our town was back in 1983. I thought, if the tracks could be extended from Jammu to Udhampur, why not up to Banihal,” Mr. Sultan told PTI during his journey to Qazigund.The Prime Minister, accompanied by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and a host of other dignitaries including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, inaugurated the 18 km long Banihal-Qazigund rail section last Wednesday. The rail link will provide an all-weather connectivity between Banihal and Qazigund.The octogenarian said he had lost hope of ever stepping on a train, as the project was getting delayed.“At my age, hopes are not fulfilled very often. But, I kept hoping that one day I will board a train here,” he said.It was not the first travel to Kashmir for Mr. Sultan, but as he puts it, “this is royal-class“.“Whenever we would step out of Banihal, we had to look skyward for impending weather changes. While winters are harsh due to snowfall, summers can get tricky owing to landslides triggered by rains. One was sure of leaving the town but not about the date of return,” he said.Mr. Sultan is happy that travel to Kashmir will be a lot safer now than the treacherous bus journey.

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention and the same goes for innovation. And so, some imaginative engineers from Signalling and Telecom wing of the South Central Railway (SCR) have come up with a ‘Hooter’ to warn locomotive pilots (engine drivers) if they beat a ‘red signal’.As most innovations that attract the spotlight go, this one too appears rather simple and tests conducted between Cherlapally and Moulali stations between June 10 and 15 turned out to be pretty successful. Going by the description, the device consists of two track circuits installed on the tracks two km before what’s called the ‘home signal’ before an approaching station.As soon as the locomotive approaches the two-km mark before a station and there is a red signal ahead, a shrill warning erupts from the ‘Hooter’ located 800 metres away from the station, in the form of a noise that lasts a full one minute. There is a default setting though. The ‘Hooter’ makes a noise only if the train is travelling over a speed of 40 km per hour. If it is well within the speed limit, it means the pilot is anyway alert and there is no noise.“This is just an imaginative, intelligent thought by our engineers that was taken forward. We will soon be sending across the details of the prototype to the Railway Board for further tests and approval. Once it is fine-tuned and standardised, it might well be used across the country,” says D.P. Pande, General Manager-SCR. He described it as an innovation that did not require any great technology but only the fundamentals. “The device just provides a warning to the loco pilot. It does not have the ability to shut off the locomotive on its own but only serves as an added safety mechanism in a worst-case scenario. After all, there can be no compromise on safety.