ProUI

Nagercoil junction is the busiest one which served for both Tamilnadu and Kerala.So Southern railway authorities should fill-up all essential shunting workers vacancies to avoid frequent traffic disturbances.Moreover new Tirunelveli railway division have to be created for Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts

VADODARA: Over 10,000 visitors, including groups of students from 20 schools, visited the Science Express: Biodiversity Special (SEBS) to see innovative exhibits on biodiversity in the country. The express is a unique exhibition on wheels that uses rail coaches for the educational exhibition.The exhibition has 16 coaches, eight dedicated to the geographical zones of the country, namely Trans-Himalaya and the Himalayas, the Gangetic plain, North-East India, the desert and semi-arid zone, the Western Ghats, the Deccan Peninsula, the coasts and the islands. The exhibition also covers the linkage with livelihoods and challenges of conservation.SEBS 2013 edition was inaugurated and flagged-off from Delhi Safdarjung station on April 9, 2013. Since its launch in October 2007, the Science Express exhibition train has travelled over 98,000 km across the country.

MANGALORE: V Narayanasamy, Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions will flag off the inaugural special train 06858 Mangalore Central - Puducherry express at Mahe Railway station at 4.30pm on Saturday.This special train will leave Mangalore central at 1.45 pm on September 28 and will reach Puducherry at 10am on September 29.Regular service of Train 16857 Puducherry - Mangalore Central will start at 4.35pm on September 28 reaching Mangalore Central at 9.50am on Sunday. Departure time of this train at Mahe is 6.07am on Sunday. Regular service of Train No.16858 Mangalore Central - Puducherry will be from September 29 leaving Mangalore central at 4.50 pm on Sunday. It will reach Puducherry at 10am on Monday. Departure timing of this train at Mahe is 7.40pm.These trains will stop at Villupuram, Vridhachalam, Ariyalur, Srirangam, Tiruchchirapally,Karur, Erode, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Palakkad, Shoranur, Tirur, Kozhikode, Mahe, Thalasserry, Kannur, and Kasaragod.

KOLKATA: Alok Kumar Roy still feels the pain at the base of his spine. His daughter hasn't yet overcome the trauma she suffered four years ago and every time he leaves home to join duty at Howrah, his child asks: "GRP'r lok e ra aar tomake maarbe na to (Make sure that you are not beaten up again by the GRP men)."The Government Railway Police (GRP) wasn't involved in what happened to Roy on May 2, 2009. The miscreants who threw him out of the Howrah-Hatia Express and thrashed him merely claimed that they were GRP personnel but for the child, who saw her father suffer for four long months, this made little difference. The worst part is that Roy's effort has remained unrecognized by the railways. Roy's wife has sent several letters, even to railway ministers, but he has not been considered for an award.Roy was the train superintendent on the Howrah-Hatia Express and knew that a marriage party of 47 from Burrabazar in Kolkata was travelling in the B1 and B2 coaches. He later came to know that it was an affluent family of goldsmiths from Burrabazar travelling on the train.When the train reached Tatanagar at 2.15am that dayon May 2, 2009, six persons approached the two compartments. Roy could make out that they were not passengers from Tatanagar. One of them wore a khaki shirt and trousers and the rest wore normal clothes. All of them had gamochhas tied around their heads and also on their shoulders.

When Roy the train superintendent wanted to know where they were headed, they replied that they were GRP constables. Roy asked them to move to the general class coaches but they tried to push through the door of the AC-III tier ones. Roy wouldn't let them through though. Suddenly, the miscreants pushed him out of the doorway. Fortunately, the train hadn't started moving as yet. He fell on his back on the platform and the six started beating him up. Roy's screams alerted ticket checking staff and coach attendants, who got off the train and intervened. Finding themselves outnumbered, the miscreants fled via the foot over bridge. Roy and the others gave chase but couldn't catch up.

"My husband's white shirt was covered in his own blood. He was bleeding profusely from injuries to his face. He had also hurt his spine and couldn't move normally.

Nobody attended to him till he reached Ranchi, nearly seven hours later.

He received four stitches to his lips there. He took charge of the return train back to Howrah.

He was later admitted to the South Eastern Railway's central hospital at Garden Reach for 17 days and was declared unfit by doctors for the next four months. He protected the property of so many passengersand may have also saved them from possible injury. We had expected the railways to recognize his effort. I even wrote to senior officers and railway ministers but to no avail," said Roy's wife Monideepa.

Senior South Eastern Railway (SER) officials said that Roy had performed a commendable feat and deserved an award. Though his name was recommended, it failed to make the list of those who receive awards on the occasion of Railway Week every year. This hasn't changed Roy's attitude towards life though. A TS on the Howrah-Mumbai Duronto Express, he took charge of 19-year-old Shamima Yasmin on Thursday after coming to know that she had lost her way while on her way to college in Balurghat from Kushmundi in South Dinajpur. He escorted her back to Howrah and handed the girl over to her parents.

SURAT: Even though rains and flood fury in south Gujarat and Vadodara are almost over, passengers travelling towards Mumbai and Ahmedabad continue to face long delays in the running of the trains.Western Railway (WR) cancelled Kutch Express and Sayajinagri Express trains on Saturday due to floods in Gandhidham following heavy to heavy rains on Friday.

WR has announced a jumbo block between Goregaon and Borivali stations on the up and down fast lines on Sunday for carrying out the maintenance work of track, signaling and overhead equipment.This would result in fast line up and down trains to run on local lines between Goregaon and Borivali Station. Thus many local trains were cancelled.Meanwhile, some of the trains between Ahmedabad and Mumbai like Karnavati Express, Gujarat Express and Navjivan Express etc. were running late by 1.5 to 2 hours. The double-decker trains between Ahmedabad and Mumbai was running late by around 2 hours.Area manager, Surat railway station, Rais Mirza said, "Only a few trains are running late as they had started late from their destinations. Traffic has improved a lot since Friday."

LUDHIANA: The railway over-bridge (ROB) being constructed in place of the Lakkar-Pul will be completed by November this year.The ROB construction was delayed as some part of it was to be constructed by the state government through Ludhiana Municipal Corporation.This was disclosed in a letter by the Union Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge to the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, who had sought his personal intervention for the early completion of the overbridge.The Railways were supposed to construct two spans, one straight and another curved, while the approach roads were to be completed by the Municipal Corporation.The Minister said, while the work on the Straight Span was expected to be completed by the month of October this year, the work on the curved span will likely be completed by November this year and the ROB will be fully operational by that time.The Railway bridge portion consists of two separate legs in Y shape and each leg is of two road-widths and another leg is on a curve having two spans.The foundation and sub-structure of the straight span has been completed. The super-structure girder for one span has been fabricated, tested and brought to the site for launching and the girder for another span has also been fabricated and is undergoing testing. The work on this span is expected to be completed by October 2013.Foundation and sub-structure of the curved span has been completed while design of the pier cap is in progress and is expected to be completed by November 2013.The ROB pending completion for some time will facilitate the smooth movement of vehicular traffic between the parts of the Old and New city divided by a railway line.

Three critical rail links being fast-tracked at the highest level will ensure transportation of 300 million tonne (MT) additional fuel to consumers amid shortages being faced by the country, Coal Ministry has said.Coal India Ltd (CIL) has maintained that it has potential for incremental supplies which can't be done at present in the absence of rail connectivity to transport the dry-fuel.Three rail corridors are: Tori-Shivpuri-Kathotia in North Karanpura, Jharkhand; Bhupdeopur-Korichhaapar to Mand Raigadh mines in Chhattisgarh; and Barpali-Jharsuguda in IB Valley, Odisha. On completion, they "can help transport 300 MT of coal annually, enabling Coal India to meet the demand of the nation", the Coal Ministry has said in a note.It said that production build up is a big challenge. Besides, it added, the movement of coal from producing centres to the consuming centres is a challenge and a number of potential coalfields are suffering from lack of rail infrastructural facilities for coal evacuation."To match the movement of coal with the projected production levels, a number of critical rail links have been identified" and a "high-level Inter Ministerial Committee constituted by PMO is addressing the issue of faster implementation of critical railway projects in potential coalfields," it added.

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) in July agreed to monitor the progress of the three rail links critical for transporting coal from CIL mines located in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The difficulties faced in execution of these three projects, entailing Rs 7,500 crore expenditure relate to forestry and environment clearances besides land acquisition, rehabilitation/resettlement as well as law and order problems.

The government had earlier said that two rail projects, including Tori-Shivpur, are likely to be completed by the end of 2017 and will facilitate coal evacuation besides pushing up production of the fuel.

Coal India CMD S Narsing Rao has said these three coalfields require only about 300-odd km rail connectivity to provide at least 300 MT of additional coal production per annum to fulfil the thermal power requirements of the country.

Rao has said that these railway lines are essential to meet 12th Plan power capacity addition as CIL was unable to evacuate coal in absence of transportation facilities.

The demand-supply gap of coal is likely to widen to 185.5 MT in 2016-17. The country had to import a record 135 MT coal last year to meet domestic requirement.

Kochi: To rehabilitate families staying at the railway quarters, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) plans to construct a multi-storey building on railway land.  The purpose is to enable the commencement of metro construction activities at the south station.The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) was striving to resolve the rehabilitation crisis, after an earlier, similar proposal, was shelved. Plans to construct a flat for the families at Karshaka Road on the Eastern Entrance side were put on the backburner, due to the high land acquisition cost.Also, action had to be stalled as one of the conditions of the French Agency Agence Francaise Developement (AFD) for extending loans was non-existence of rehabilitation issues.“KMRL has promised to construct multi-storey buildings on suitable railway land to rehabilitate the remaining 65-odd families from the staff quarters. We’ve identified the land at the northern end of the south station premise itself,” Area Manager P.L. Ashok Kumar said.18 families will be relocated from the staff quarters before Oct 15 so as to hand over a portion of property to KMRL immediately. While the rlys provided the accommodation for 12 families, the KMRL agreed to rehabilitate the rest of them.

A metro station would be set up at the Ernakulam Jn station premise to provide commuters the interchange facility. 

MG Road piling: Road caves in

Kochi: One-way traffic was enforced in the stretch between Madhava Pharmacy Junction near Chennai Silks and Padma Junction for several hours on Saturday after a small portion of road caved in near the piling site.

“It was filled with concrete and the traffic was allowed on both directions No work was affected,” an official said. Meanwhile, works on the North Railway over Bridge is almost done with the installation of the last girder above the railway line .

It may be a place for yourself or your heavy luggage, but space in passenger trains has become dearer with the hike in ticket prices. The Railways have also introduced Tatkal for passenger trains, much like the process for superfast trains, in a bid to increase revenues.

As of 1st October, all ticket, luggage and parcel rates for Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi express trains stand higher by 25%. Parcel charges for birds, pets or wild animals are also hiked by at least 25%. The minimum parcel charge is Rs 30.

Tatkal is introduced for those passenger trains which have 60% occupancy on an average in the previous financial year. Identification of these trains will be handled by the zonal railways. Charges on Tatkal tickets is uniform for all trains and tickets will be given out using the same process.

Parcels of birds and animals are charged more in all categories of trains. Only recently freight charges of commodities was raised 15% on account of a busy season. Looks like there will be no light or heavy seasons for the current hike in charges.

Close Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs) would now keep constant watch on the entry/ exit points of toilets, civic entries and blind spots at all metro stations.Following a recent sting operation by a television news channel alleging metro staff of renting out rooms and toilets in the premises to couples for sharing ‘intimate moments’, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Saturday directed all station staff for strict compliance of the order.As per the order, the on duty station controllers and managers will inspect Sulabh/Civic toilet area at least twice during their shifts. Any abnormality noticed will be immediately reported, said Anuj Dayal, chief spokesperson, DMRC.It has also been decided that toilets for the physically challenged would remain locked and will be opened for limited time period on need basis.Besides, the public toilets would remain locked during non-revenue hours unless being used by the staff, the order stated.