ProUI

The Indian Railways has formed a new entity — Renewable Energy Management Company — to handle its renewable energy portfolio.

The Railways has an installed capacity of 5 MW of solar and 10.5 MW of wind power. Plans are afoot to install another 8 MW of solar power, according to Anil Kumar Saxena, Additional Director-General, Indian Railways.

Given its size and presence across the country, the Railways has been asked by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to evaluate the potential of solar power generation, sources said. This, according to the Ministry, will help save on power consumption and help it get the electricity at stable rates over the next 25 years.

RISING BILL

The Indian Railways spent Rs 24,130 crore on fuel in FY12. This includes over Rs 3 crore for coal, Rs 10,628 crore for diesel (2.71 million Kilo litres) and about Rs 13,500 crore on power bills for locos, suburban locals and other needs.

Locos and EMU services alone consume 12,762 million units. The Railways still burn 1,000 tonnes of coal a year to run steam locomotives on some sections in the Southern and the Northeast Frontier Railway.

Estimates indicate that there is potential to harness 193 MW of solar power alone through rooftop application on rail land and buildings.

The Ministry also wants the Railways to participate in the bidding of 750 MW grid-connected projects under the National Solar Mission, slated to come up shortly.

The sources said tenders for installation of solar units at 200 stations and 21 office-buildings are in progress. The Railways will also float bids for setting up solar units at 1,000 level-crossings. It will identify about 10 locations to install off-grid solar thermal systems for use in cooking and laundry.

A detailed project report for this will be sought from consultants in a couple of months. Going forward, workshops, manufacturing facilities and training centres may also be equipped with solar and solar thermal plants.

VACANT LAND

Last week, the Rail Land Development Authority said it had tied up with global property consultant Knight Frank India to monetise vacant railway land at 53 locations across the South and West. This again would enhance the rooftop coverage of solar panels for the Railways.

Knight Frank will solicit ‘expression of interest’ from developers, retailers and hoteliers and manage the bidding process.

The rail authority has over 120 sites across the country, which it intends to lease out through competitive bidding.

The plan is to develop multi-functional complexes to provide amenities to commuters, including budget hotels at stations, while generating additional revenue for the Railways in the process.

PUDUCHERRY: Railways will construct road overbridges at all the identified level crossings that have more than one lakh train-vehicle unit (a unit obtained by multiplying the number of trains with road vehicles and is indicative of traffic at the level crossing), said Union railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday.The minister was in the Union territory to lay the foundation stones for road overbridges at Arumpathapuram and 100 feet road at an estimated cost of more than Rs 30 crore and to flag off the Puducherry-Tirupati weekly express train. He said the ministry would construct road over bridges at the five identified level crossings in Puducherry-Villupuram region. "Two road overbridges will be ready within one year and rest within two years," he assured.He said the ministry would entrust construction of approach bridges to the road overbridges to the Puducherry public works department. He said the ministry fulfilled two of its three promises made in the last budget and assured that Mangalore-Trichy train would be extended up to Puducherry soon. The ministry introduced Puducherry-Kannyakumari express and Puducherry-Tirupathi express.He stressed that Puducherry need to be connected with all state capitals and sought the Union minister of state in PMO V Narayanasamy, who attended the function, to seek more funds from the Union finance ministry for more railway projects for Puducherry.

Narayanasamy said the beneficiary states shares 50% of the expenses for railway projects and added that Union government liberally funded railway projects in Puducherry even though the government did not come forward to share the project cost.

Gauge conversion was progressing at full swing at Karaikal and more train services would be introduced after the work is completed.

Narayanasamy sought the ministry to introduce a Puducherry-Ajmer train. He also sought the ministry to upgrade the Puducherry railway station as a model railway station and earmark adequate funds for upgradation.

In an ambitious step towards diversification, State owned CIL has ventured into the infrastructure sector with a 350 kilometer long rail network project which would interconnect three of its key reserves in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.The network, slated to be completed in the next three years, is expected to cost around INR 6,000 crore and will be in collaboration with the Railway Ministry.Apart from better inter connectivity, the Maharatna company also hopes that the project would help augment its production capacity in the long run.CIL plans to levy haulage charges on its customers for the coal transported on these lines in order to recover its costs for the projects.Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha together house around 300 million tonnes worth of coal and by providing smoother transportation to the coalfields situated in these States, CIL aims to address the problem of inadequate coal supply to thermal power generators by expediting the critical fuel’s supply to them across the country.Mr S Narsing Rao chairman of CIL said that the coal behemoth would be floating a special purpose vehicle in collaboration with Indian Railways and Chhattisgarh Government for laying a 200 kilometer long rail network connecting its coalfields in Mand to Raigarh region of that State.

Mr Rao said that the plan was finalized in a meeting held between Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Mr Pulok Chatterjee, Rao, Railway Board Chairman Mr Vinay Mittal and top officials of the Coal and Environment Ministries on January 8th. CIL would have a 64% stake in the SPV for the INR 4,500 crore project, while Railway Ministry’s construction wing IRCON and the Chhattisgarh Government would jointly hold the remaining portion.

He said that the work on the project would start once environmental clearances as well as land acquisition works are completed.

Apart from this, a 100 kilometer rail track would also be laid for connecting CIL’s North Karanpura coalfields in Jharkhand and another line would be constructed for the PSU’s reserves situated in Odisha’s Ib Valley. This line would be around 60 kilometer long.

For both these lines CIL has formed an SPV with the Railway Ministry where the funding would be done wholly by the coal behemoth while the Railway Ministry would execute the projects.

CIL officials said that of all the three lines, the North Karanpura railway line would be the first one to be ready for use by 2015. Work on this line as well as the one in Odisha has already begun.

The mega diversification plan of CIL is in line with the PMO’s directive to it last year that being a cash rich entity, it should expand its operations in order to fulfill the needs of the power sector.

Official sources said that with the PMO taking special interest in the project, CIL too is keen to implement it quickly, as it would not only increase its production capacity in the long run, but would also improve extraction of coal from areas which are considered Naxal-infested.

Mr Rao said that CIL’s production target for the current fiscal is 464 million tonnes, which it hopes to achieve. In addition to this, CIL is also confident of achieving its target for 2013-14, which is 487 million tonnes.

He said that “With the completion of these three lines in the next two to three years, we would be able to increase our production capacity considerably.”

While the Pulakeshi Nagar police have booked a case of negligence against the railway authority following the death of a nine-year-old boy in a trench dug up adjacent the Banaswadi Railway station, railway authorities deferred stating it as a case of trespass.

Preliminary investigations by the police confirmed that a trench was dug up to store rain water for construction activities, and the authorities had not fenced the area, leading to the mishap.

According to an official press release from South Western Railway, the officials claimed that the Railway land near Banasawadi station is fenced off by a compound wall on all four sides. Inside the compound wall, a seven-foot-deep Ground Level Reservoir (GLR) was under construction for augmenting the supply of water at Railway Station and the adjoining railway quarters. Further, the officials blamed the boys for trespassing, stating that the three boys jumped the boundary wall and went to the GLR construction site for swimming, which can be proved by the fact that the boys’ clothes were outside the construction site.

“This is a clear case of trespass, and since the railway premises is covered by a boundary wall on all four sides there was no need for extra protection for the GLR,” the release said.

“Railway land is being misused for all sorts of activities. Roads are built by people, boundary walls are broken, garbage is dumped and illegal constructions taken up, preventing railway staff from doing their duties,” the release said. The officials demanded that the police file an FIR against all those trespass on railway land.

However, the Pulakeshinagar police said it was clear that it was negligence of railway authorities, who left the trench without covering it properly, which led to the incident. “We have booked a case of negligence and are investigating the matter,” the police said.

PUDUCHERRY: Railways will construct road overbridges at all the identified level crossings that have more than one lakh train-vehicle unit (a unit obtained by multiplying the number of trains with road vehicles and is indicative of traffic at the level crossing), said Union railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday.The minister was in the Union territory to lay the foundation stones for road overbridges at Arumpathapuram and 100 feet road at an estimated cost of more than Rs 30 crore and to flag off the Puducherry-Tirupati weekly express train. He said the ministry would construct road over bridges at the five identified level crossings in Puducherry-Villupuram region. "Two road overbridges will be ready within one year and rest within two years," he assured.He said the ministry would entrust construction of approach bridges to the road overbridges to the Puducherry public works department. He said the ministry fulfilled two of its three promises made in the last budget and assured that Mangalore-Trichy train would be extended up to Puducherry soon. The ministry introduced Puducherry-Kannyakumari express and Puducherry-Tirupathi express.He stressed that Puducherry need to be connected with all state capitals and sought the Union minister of state in PMO V Narayanasamy, who attended the function, to seek more funds from the Union finance ministry for more railway projects for Puducherry.

Narayanasamy said the beneficiary states shares 50% of the expenses for railway projects and added that Union government liberally funded railway projects in Puducherry even though the government did not come forward to share the project cost.

Gauge conversion was progressing at full swing at Karaikal and more train services would be introduced after the work is completed.

Narayanasamy sought the ministry to introduce a Puducherry-Ajmer train. He also sought the ministry to upgrade the Puducherry railway station as a model railway station and earmark adequate funds for upgradation.

PUDUCHERRY: Railways will construct road overbridges at all the identified level crossings that have more than one lakh train-vehicle unit (a unit obtained by multiplying the number of trains with road vehicles and is indicative of traffic at the level crossing), said Union railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday.The minister was in the Union territory to lay the foundation stones for road overbridges at Arumpathapuram and 100 feet road at an estimated cost of more than Rs 30 crore and to flag off the Puducherry-Tirupati weekly express train. He said the ministry would construct road over bridges at the five identified level crossings in Puducherry-Villupuram region. "Two road overbridges will be ready within one year and rest within two years," he assured.He said the ministry would entrust construction of approach bridges to the road overbridges to the Puducherry public works department. He said the ministry fulfilled two of its three promises made in the last budget and assured that Mangalore-Trichy train would be extended up to Puducherry soon. The ministry introduced Puducherry-Kannyakumari express and Puducherry-Tirupathi express.He stressed that Puducherry need to be connected with all state capitals and sought the Union minister of state in PMO V Narayanasamy, who attended the function, to seek more funds from the Union finance ministry for more railway projects for Puducherry.

Narayanasamy said the beneficiary states shares 50% of the expenses for railway projects and added that Union government liberally funded railway projects in Puducherry even though the government did not come forward to share the project cost.

Gauge conversion was progressing at full swing at Karaikal and more train services would be introduced after the work is completed.

Narayanasamy sought the ministry to introduce a Puducherry-Ajmer train. He also sought the ministry to upgrade the Puducherry railway station as a model railway station and earmark adequate funds for upgradation.

Work on the railway project connecting Manipur's Jiribam sub-division with Tupul in Tamenglong District near Imphal, is in full swing.It is expected to be completed within the next three years at an estimated cost of around Rs.4,445 crores.The length of Tupul-Imphal railway line is 26.925 kms.The Jiribam-Tupul railway line was included in the 2003-2004 budget by the Central Government in view of its Look East Policy.With improvement in connectivity, transit time will be reduced and costs will be brought down.Gulapi Singh, a local resident, said: "Nowadays, the price of essential commodities is very high.After completion of this railway project, their costs would come down, and many goods from Manipur also can be exported outside the state.It will benefit the people" ..ZWilliam, a student, said: "This will benefit in a different kind of development, like education and communication" .A majority of 107 minor bridges, seven major bridges and three road over bridges and two road under bridges have been constructed so far.The construction of four out of the 34 tunnels has also been completed.The railway line will also help the Indian Oil Corporation supply oil from its 'Rail Fed Oil Depot' in Manipur.K I Singh, IOC's Senior Retail Divisional Manager,said: "We are making good progress in construction of the Rail Fed Oil Depot at Malom Village which will be completed by December 2014.After completion of the Tupul railway line, it will resolve many problems of the state" .Better connectivity will give a fillip to the tourism industry in the region, and will also speed up industrialization of the region.It will also enhance trade relations with neighbouring states and ASEAN countries, besides ensuring an increase in people-to-people contacts.

AMBALA: The Ambala-Delhi express train was today flagged off by Union Minister and Member of Parliament from Ambala, Kumari Selaja, here.Speaking on this occasion, Selja, who also travelled in the train, said with the introduction of this service, demands of the people of Ambala, Barara, Jagadhari and Yamunanagar have been met.The Ambala-Delhi train will depart from Ambala 5:40 AM and reach Delhi at 11:40 AM.It will have 10 stoppages -- Barara, Jagadhari workshop, Yamunanagar, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Merut City, Modinagar, Ghaziabad and Shahdara.

While the Pulakeshi Nagar police have booked a case of negligence against the railway authority following the death of a nine-year-old boy in a trench dug up adjacent the Banaswadi Railway station, railway authorities deferred stating it as a case of trespass.

Preliminary investigations by the police confirmed that a trench was dug up to store rain water for construction activities, and the authorities had not fenced the area, leading to the mishap.

According to an official press release from South Western Railway, the officials claimed that the Railway land near Banasawadi station is fenced off by a compound wall on all four sides. Inside the compound wall, a seven-foot-deep Ground Level Reservoir (GLR) was under construction for augmenting the supply of water at Railway Station and the adjoining railway quarters. Further, the officials blamed the boys for trespassing, stating that the three boys jumped the boundary wall and went to the GLR construction site for swimming, which can be proved by the fact that the boys’ clothes were outside the construction site.

“This is a clear case of trespass, and since the railway premises is covered by a boundary wall on all four sides there was no need for extra protection for the GLR,” the release said.

“Railway land is being misused for all sorts of activities. Roads are built by people, boundary walls are broken, garbage is dumped and illegal constructions taken up, preventing railway staff from doing their duties,” the release said. The officials demanded that the police file an FIR against all those trespass on railway land.

However, the Pulakeshinagar police said it was clear that it was negligence of railway authorities, who left the trench without covering it properly, which led to the incident. “We have booked a case of negligence and are investigating the matter,” the police said.

Amritsar : Passengers of Chandigarh-Amritsar Superfast Express were peeved, as the authorities kept the train waiting for an hour at the Mannawala railway station, about 10 km from here, last night.A passenger Rachanpuneet said the train was parked on the outskirts of the city, adding that it was a wastage of time due to the lack of infrastructure at the railway station.He said the train was stopped at Manawala village's railway station at 9:45 pm. While the train was kept there for about 60 minutes, four other trains, including Sachkhand and Shatabdi, were allowed to pass. "It was really disgusting that the passengers were made to wait despite the train arriving on the outskirts of the city on time."Railways officials cited the disruption of power lines due to the high-velocity winds which struck yesterday. Besides, it has only six platforms, namely one to five and 1A.On the other hand, the railway station has been witnessing the departure and arrival of about 130 trains daily. The holy city receives tourists and pilgrims from across the country and all over the world. On an average, the daily footfall of passengers is about 30,000 at the railway station.