ProUI

ALLAHABAD: Tension gripped Chota Baghara locality near Prayag railway station under Colonelgunj police station on Saturday afternoon when railway authorities along with GRP personnel used force to stop some construction work on a makeshift temple situated close to railway tracks.This was protested by temple priest and volunteers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) who staged a dharna on the railway track, forcing GRP personnel to resort to a mild lathicharge to disperse the protestors. The VHP leaders however accused the railway authorities of trying to demolish the temple and removing the idols from the spot.According to reports, a small temple existed near Prayag railway station level crossing where locals performed puja. On Saturday afternoon, railway officials along with GRP personnel reached the spot and asked the priest to refrain from undertaking any new construction at the temple. The team also chopped down the branches of a banyan tree underneath which the makeshift temple is housed.In the meantime, VHP leaders including Acharya Kushmuni and others reached the spot and entered into heated arguments with the railway staff and GRP personnel. The VHP leaders and volunteers thereafter sat on a dharna on the railway tracks forcing the police to resort to a mild canecharge to disperse the unruly crowd, after which the situation was brought under control.

Circle officer (CO) GRP, OP Singh told TOI, "Since the temple is constructed illegally on railway land, it was imperative on our part not to allow any further construction. This perhaps angered the protestors who were desperate to occupy the piece of land on the pretext of undertaking fresh construction for the temple."

On the other hand, VHP leaders accused the railway authorities of acting in an arbitrary manner and resolved to intensify the agitation.

Railway officials moot second entrance to ease congestion

The Tirupati railway station is all set to get a facelift. This was indicated during the visit of a five-member committee led by Chief Commercial Manager P. Ganeshwar Rao on Friday.Reviewing the developmental aspects and status of existing passenger amenities, the committee members from various departments went around and enquired about the changes that could be incorporated to make the station better. The plan to develop a second entrance to the station on the southern side got a boost with many members stressing its importance to ease congestion. “The steady flow of pilgrims can be efficiently managed if a second entrance can be opened on the south side. This would give access to the second and third choultries of the TTD on the DR Mahal road for which talks with TTD are on,” a senior official said. As the private landholders are quoting exorbitant prices, the Central government will have to step in to take up the acquisition process, a member opined.They felt that the existing capacity of waiting halls and lodgings were grossly insufficient to cater to the needs of people and that the RPF and RMS services would have to moved out to create additional space. Besides, the members coordinated the construction of two additional lines – platform and non-platform lines. The committee comprised Chief Engineer (Track maintenance) Achyuta Rao, Chief Communication Engineer Gandhi, Engineer S.K. Gupta and others.

GORAKHPUR: A tout was arrested from Gorakhpur railway station during an RPF drive to check rampant misuse of railway tickets on Saturday morning. Three tickets of tatkal reservation and a general ticket were recovered from him."Acting on a tip off, our team reached the reservation counter and nabbed the tout waiting for his turn at the reservation counter," said RPF inspector Rajesh Kumar. He was identified as Anup Kumar Mishra of Sidhdharth Nagar. "Anup runs a PCO near railway station. We recovered three tatkal tickets including Gorakhpur- New Delhi Vaishali Express, Gorakhpur- Bandra terminal, 2nd AC and Gorakhpur- Allahabad, 2nd AC. The general ticket was of sleeper class, Gorakhpur- Lucknow." Rajesh Kumar added.

INDORE: Inspection by the railway department officials carried out last week has confirmed that a portion of the Dhoswas-Ratlam diversion road was constructed on private land. Railway officials admitted to the encroachment while replying to an RTI query by owner of the private land.Earlier, a separate RTI filed by activist Manish Soni alleged that the construction of diversion road (road number 191-192) in Ratlam was in violation of the original map and a portion of it was constructed on private land. TOI had published a story on September 12 about the Dhoswas- Ratlam road being constructed on private land.Sources from the PRO office, Indore, said that a joint inspection was conducted last week following complaints of encroachment.When contacted, PRO of Ratlam division, Pradeep Sharma said, "Inspection has been completed and officials are looking into the matter. About 20 metre stretch was constructed on private land and we will rectify it. The road will be constructed inside the railway boundary itself."

"Both the maps available with me and the private land owner show the violation of norms. Pillars at the end of the diversion road also do not come under the land owned by railways. The road has been constructed sidelining the approved plan in December 2011 causing monetary loss to the railways," Soni added.

New Delhi: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is likely to lay the foundation stone for the modern rail coach factory in Bhilwara on September 22. The setting up of the Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) coach factory in Bhilwara, constituency of former Railway Minister C P Joshi, was announced in this year’s Rail Budget. Sources in Railways said Gandhi is likely to lay the foundation stone. Rajasthan government is providing about 800 acres of land for the factory. While Railways has signed a MoU with state-owned BHEL for setting up the factory to cater to the growing demand for more local and suburban trains, another MoU will be signed with Rajasthan government for acquiring land. The Rs 1000-crore factory is to manufacture about 400 coaches annually. MEMU trains equipped with higher acceleration capacity are expected to move faster on electrified tracks and would benefit daily commuters. They are required for faster connectivity with suburban areas. Each MEMU train with nine coaches can carry 1,800 passengers. BHEL is already into manufacturing of diesel and electric locomotives at its plant in Jhansi and has an annual capacity to make around 50 engines.

New Delhi: Indian Railways has taken up various projects on utilisation of natural gas as fuel for its fleet of diesel locomotives. The move aims at adopting environment-friendly and cost-effective alternate fuel.The Research Design & Standard Organisation (RDSO), a research wing of the Ministry of Railways based at Lucknow, is working on development of a prototype of locomotive based on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).Once the prototype is proven on field, the Railways plans to build 20 LNG-based locomotives. The technology will help 50 per cent reduction in operating cost of locomotive even at the current enhanced LNG prices.In addition, there is an elimination of visible smoke from these locomotives and significant reductions in other regulated and unregulated emissions. Once Indian Railways switches over completely to natural gas as fuel for its diesel locomotives, it would amount to only 2.2% of India’s annual natural gas consumption of 81 million tonne and will, therefore, be commercially feasible.At present, Indian Railways is running its fleet of locomotives on predominantly two fuels — diesel and electricity. Prices of both these fuels have been rising rapidly due to increasing prices of crude oil/imported coal, devaluation of rupee.

Natural gas is emerging as a promising fuel of the future and LNG being available in the form of conventional natural gas, shale gas, gas hydrates, the introduction of economical processes of extraction of shale gas, exploitation of shale gas reserves has become a commercial reality. India also has substantial reserves of natural gas in the form of conventional natural gas, shale gas and gas hydrates. According to an estimate, India has 1,241 billion cubic metres of conventional gas, 7462.5 billion cubic metres of recoverable shale gas reserves and 1,890 trillion cubic metres of gas hydrates. The US and Canada have become the world’s highest exporters of natural gas on account of their shale gas reserves. To make use of global reserves of natural gas, India is setting up infrastructure for import of LNG into the country. Even LNG terminals are in various stages of set-up on the east and west coasts of the country, all with rail connectivity.

Ennore Port’s dream to have access to northern rail link is close to realisation after Indian Railways gave its in-principle approval for the Rs 170-crore project.The 26-km-long rail link will be on a single track connecting the port with the Chennai-Gudur mainline. It will terminate close to Minjur, said Ennore Port chairman and managing director M A Bhaskarachar.“We got the approval on Friday,” said Bhaskarachar during a function where Union Shipping Minister handed over benefits worth Rs 1.5 crore to those identified under corporate social responsibility.

Ennore Port’s dream to have access to northern rail link is close to realisation after Indian Railways gave its in-principle approval for the Rs 170-crore project.The 26-km-long rail link will be on a single track connecting the port with the Chennai-Gudur mainline. It will terminate close to Minjur, said Ennore Port chairman and managing director M A Bhaskarachar.“We got the approval on Friday,” said Bhaskarachar during a function where Union Shipping Minister handed over benefits worth Rs 1.5 crore to those identified under corporate social responsibility.

INDORE: Inspection by the railway department officials carried out last week has confirmed that a portion of the Dhoswas-Ratlam diversion road was constructed on private land. Railway officials admitted to the encroachment while replying to an RTI query by owner of the private land.Earlier, a separate RTI filed by activist Manish Soni alleged that the construction of diversion road (road number 191-192) in Ratlam was in violation of the original map and a portion of it was constructed on private land. TOI had published a story on September 12 about the Dhoswas- Ratlam road being constructed on private land.Sources from the PRO office, Indore, said that a joint inspection was conducted last week following complaints of encroachment.When contacted, PRO of Ratlam division, Pradeep Sharma said, "Inspection has been completed and officials are looking into the matter. About 20 metre stretch was constructed on private land and we will rectify it. The road will be constructed inside the railway boundary itself."

"Both the maps available with me and the private land owner show the violation of norms. Pillars at the end of the diversion road also do not come under the land owned by railways. The road has been constructed sidelining the approved plan in December 2011 causing monetary loss to the railways," Soni added.

GORAKHPUR: A tout was arrested from Gorakhpur railway station during an RPF drive to check rampant misuse of railway tickets on Saturday morning. Three tickets of tatkal reservation and a general ticket were recovered from him."Acting on a tip off, our team reached the reservation counter and nabbed the tout waiting for his turn at the reservation counter," said RPF inspector Rajesh Kumar. He was identified as Anup Kumar Mishra of Sidhdharth Nagar. "Anup runs a PCO near railway station. We recovered three tatkal tickets including Gorakhpur- New Delhi Vaishali Express, Gorakhpur- Bandra terminal, 2nd AC and Gorakhpur- Allahabad, 2nd AC. The general ticket was of sleeper class, Gorakhpur- Lucknow." Rajesh Kumar added.