ProUI

CHENNAI: Describing the revision of railway fares as unjustifiable, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today said the latest proposal would put an additional financial burden of about Rs 1,150 crore on the people and demanded its immediate 'rollback'.The Railways has decided to increase the passenger fare and freight tariff by about two per cent from tomorrow to offset the financial burden arising out of increased input cost."For the next six months about Rs 1,150 crore financial burden has been placed on people through the revision of railway fares. Through this, low and middle income groups will suffer more. I strongly condemn the proposal to increase the fares and urge the Centre for its rollback", she said in a release.Referring to the early practice of revising fuel prices every six months, she said the Union Government has subsequently led (the oil marketing companies) to revise it every month.Similarly, the practice of hiking railway fares every two years has been revised to every six months, she said, adding, "This is a betrayal to the common man".She alleged that if the UPA government had prevented various scams like the 2G Spectrum scam, Coal scam and Commonwealth Games scam, revising fuel prices for every month may have been "avoided".

"At a time when the price of essential commodities are increasing and fuel prices have been hiked, how far is it justifiable for the Centre, to revise the price of Railway fares?," she asked

Pune based Bharat Forge is targeting to get 60% of its revenue from the non-automotive business, especially power, oil and gas and railways.Mr Amit Kalyani executive director of Bharat Forge said the company was in talks with all major foreign players in the railway sector for a possible partnership to tap potential business in Indian Railways.Mr Amit Kalyani son of group promoter Baba Kalyani, looks after strategy and finance in the company and is part of the group’s core management team. Speaking to Business Standard said that when the company forayed into the non-automotive business about eight years back, it was less than five per cent of the company’s sales. But this very same segment gave INR 1,500 crore in revenue last year.Besides power, oil and gas, and railways, non automotive business comprises general, marine and aerospace engineering, construction and mining equipment, and defence. It is currently 40% of Bharat Forge’s revenue but is expected to grow to 60%. He said that “We understand metallurgy, forging and design engineering and systems and quality and we have used these skills by working with our customers to create products and solutions to meet their needs. And that’s how we have grown our business.”The company recently bagged its first railway order of crankshafts for locomotives. These would be manufactured at the Baramati (Maharashtra) plant where between forging and machinery, the company has invested INR 200 crore to INR 250 crore. This facility would be used for manufacturing components for railways as well as big marine engines.Kalyani said that “Our strategy was to prove to the Indian Railways that an Indian company can do it right the first time and do it well. Using this breakthrough, we want to broaden our product portfolio, deepen it and work a lot more with the Railways. We are focusing on creating a technology product solution strategy to support Indian Railways.”

Railways will use natural gas as fuel, Railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge has said.Railways have taken up various projects for the development of required technology to be used in locomotives, he said.“In a move to adopt environment friendly and cost effective alternate fuel, the Indian Railways has taken up various projects on utilization of natural gas as fuel for its fleet of diesel locomotives,” he said while addressing International Rail Conference organised by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).He added that the Research Design and Standard Organisation (RDSO) is also actively working on developing highly fuel efficient diesel locomotives. “Indian Railways has taken a global lead in starting development of the Common Rail Electronic Direct Fuel Injection system for its fleet of diesel locomotives,” he added.Kharge invited industrialists for big investments and welcomed FDI. He elaborated how Railways is working towards modernising its core sectors. He referred to Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and High Speed Corridors and new generation locomotives.

“Freight terminals, parts of the DFC, re-development of stations and elevated Rail Corridor in Mumbai are areas proposed for private investment during the 12th Plan period,” he said.

CHENNAI: Describing the revision of railway fares as unjustifiable, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today said the latest proposal would put an additional financial burden of about Rs 1,150 crore on the people and demanded its immediate 'rollback'.The Railways has decided to increase the passenger fare and freight tariff by about two per cent from tomorrow to offset the financial burden arising out of increased input cost."For the next six months about Rs 1,150 crore financial burden has been placed on people through the revision of railway fares. Through this, low and middle income groups will suffer more. I strongly condemn the proposal to increase the fares and urge the Centre for its rollback", she said in a release.Referring to the early practice of revising fuel prices every six months, she said the Union Government has subsequently led (the oil marketing companies) to revise it every month.Similarly, the practice of hiking railway fares every two years has been revised to every six months, she said, adding, "This is a betrayal to the common man".She alleged that if the UPA government had prevented various scams like the 2G Spectrum scam, Coal scam and Commonwealth Games scam, revising fuel prices for every month may have been "avoided".

"At a time when the price of essential commodities are increasing and fuel prices have been hiked, how far is it justifiable for the Centre, to revise the price of Railway fares?," she asked

Railways will use natural gas as fuel, Railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge has said.Railways have taken up various projects for the development of required technology to be used in locomotives, he said.“In a move to adopt environment friendly and cost effective alternate fuel, the Indian Railways has taken up various projects on utilization of natural gas as fuel for its fleet of diesel locomotives,” he said while addressing International Rail Conference organised by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).He added that the Research Design and Standard Organisation (RDSO) is also actively working on developing highly fuel efficient diesel locomotives. “Indian Railways has taken a global lead in starting development of the Common Rail Electronic Direct Fuel Injection system for its fleet of diesel locomotives,” he added.Kharge invited industrialists for big investments and welcomed FDI. He elaborated how Railways is working towards modernising its core sectors. He referred to Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and High Speed Corridors and new generation locomotives.

“Freight terminals, parts of the DFC, re-development of stations and elevated Rail Corridor in Mumbai are areas proposed for private investment during the 12th Plan period,” he said.

GORAKHPUR: The Gorakhpur railway station became the proud owner world's longest home platform on Sunday after GM, NER, KK Atal inaugurated the remodelled Gorakhpur Yard.The remodelling work was completed on war-footing within the scheduled time. With the inauguration of the remodelled yard, Gorakhpur now has a platform measuring 1366.33 metres with ramp and 11355.40 metres without it. With this achievement, the NER has also secured a place in the Limca Book of Records. The certificate for the same would be issued soon. The achievement of the Gorakhpur station would also be incorporated in the Guinness Book of World Records. The postal department too is likely to release a special cover to mark the achievement.After inaugurating the newly installed route relay interlocking system, the GM also flagged off 12555 Gorakhdham Express (Gorakhpur to Hisar). Later, talking to reporters, Atal, said, "I congratulate the people of Gorakhpur on getting the privilege of world's longest railway platform in the city. I also appreciate the cooperation of the people of Gorakhpur as more than half of the work was completed within 11 days. I also appreciate the dedication of rail employees and officers who worked day and night for to ensure completion of work within the time limit."On the occasion, the GM announced award of Rs 1 lakh each for the construction department, signal construction department and Lucknow division and an award of Rs 50,000 for the headquarters.

Chief operating manager, RV Singh, chief signal and telecommunication engineer, HK Agarwal, chief administrative officer, Onkar Singh, chief signal telecommunication engineer, HK Agarwal, DRM Lucknow, Anoop Kumar, ADRM (Lucknow), chief engineer (construction), ON Verma, chief signal telecommunication engineer (construction) SN Sah, SDGM, PN Rai, CCM, Arvind Kumar, CPRO, Alok Kumar Singh, secretary to GM, Amit Singh along with senior railway officials were also present at the inaugural ceremony.

ALLAHABAD: Incessant rain severely affected the movement of trains at Allahabad railway station. With the railway yard heavily waterlogged and signal failure reported early in the day, several trains were delayed.

The problem was worse on platform number 1 and 2 of the railway junction where the movement of severak New Delhi-bound trains was affected. The trains which arrived late at the station included Kalka Mail and North East Express. Due to the non-functioning of signals for a certain period, train traffic was handled through log books until the signal failure was rectified.

VISAKHAPATNAM, OCT 6:   The two-month-long agitation against the proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh by the UPA Government has turned violent in Vizianagaram, 60 km from here, a historical town from where the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee President, B. Satyanarayama, hails.

Curfew was imposed late on Saturday night. However, samaikhyandhra (united AP) agitators came out into the streets on Sunday, in spite of the prohibitory orders, and they made vain attempts to attack the properties of Satyanarayana.

PCC president Satyanarayana incurred the wrath of the public in his home town and his properties were attacked on Saturday and there were pitched battles between the police and the agitators. Rubber bullets were used to disperse the agitators. But the infuriated mobs were not deterred.

Satyanarayana had made statements in the past that there was nothing wrong if there were two states - Telangana and AP - for Telugu-speaking people and the public in Vizianagaram was also infuriated by his recent pronouncements. Even though he too had expressed his support for a united AP overtly, the public suspect him of striking secret deals with the Congress high command to divide the state.

Satyanarayana is perceived to be “a traitor to the cause of a united Andhra Pradesh” in sharp contrast to the AP Chief Minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, who came out openly opposing the Congress High Command's decision to bifurcate the State.

The Chief Minister publicly urged the High Command to reconsider the decision.

Power supply disrupted: Power supply was disrupted in the State as the joint action committee of the electricity employees began an indefinite strike from Sunday morning. The Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station at Vijayawada is presently generating only 200 MWs or so against its usual capacity of 1,750 MWs. Power supply to several coastal districts and other parts of AP was disrupted.

The movement of trains was also affected on the Vijayawada-Chennai, Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam routes. The railway authorities cancelled several goods trains and passenger trains. Some of the important trains were operated on diesel engines.

Temporary halt of trains at Mookambika Road Byndoor Station
for Navaratri Festival
Good news for passengers !! It has been decided to provide halt at Mookambika Road Byndoor Station for Navaratri Festival from 05.10.2013 to 14.10.2013 for the following trains.
Train no. 11097 Pune-Ernakulam “Poorna Express will arrive at Mookambika Road Byndoor Station at 16.42 hrs and will depart at 16.44 hrs.
Train no. 11098, Ernakulam -Pune 'Poorna' Express will arrive at Mookambika Road Byndoor Station at 10.40 hrs. and will depart at 10.42 hrs.
Train no. 22150 Pune -Earnakulam Express will arrive at Mookambika Road Byndoor Station at 10.20 hrs. and will depart at 10.22 hrs.
Train no. 22149 Ernakulam -Pune Express will arrive at Mookambika Road Byndoor Station at 14.48 hrs. and will depart at 14.50 hrs.
Train no. 12978 Ajmer – Ernakulam Marusagar Express will arrive at Mookambika Road Byndoor Station at 17.50 hrs. and will depart at 17.52 hrs.
Train no. 12977 Ernakulam – Ajmer 'Marusagar' Express will arrive at Mookambika Road Byndoor Station at 07.20 hrs. and will depart at 07.22 hrs.
Apart from this it has been decided to augment one 3 tier Ac Coach on temporary basis in train no. 12133 Mumbai CST – Mangalore jn. from 01.10.2013 to 15.10.2013 and train no. 12134 Mangalore jn. - Mumbai CST form 02.10.2013 to 16.10.2013
Passengers may note the same.

                                                                                      (Vaishali Patange)
(Chief Public Relations Officer)

The Konkan Railway that has been hit by a derailment will be fully restored by 8 pm on Sunday.

"The derailment of the locomotive and the brake van of train no. 10103 CST-Madgaon Mandovi Express between Diwankhavati and Khed stations occurred at 12:30 pm. On this account, only one train, namely 50106 Sawantwadi-Diva passenger train, has been regulated at Ratnagiri and there is no cancellation of any services. However, the trains may be running late due to this and the public may call 022-27587938, 27587939 for information," Vaishali Patange, chief public relations office of Konkan Railway said.

"There is no injury or casualty. The officers and staff from Corporate Office and Ratnagiri region have rushed to the spot of derailment for expeditious restoration of the traffic. The work is going on in full swing and the engineers and the staff are working on a war footing," she added.

"Commissioner of Railway Safety has also been apprised of the incident and as desired a senior administrative grade level enquiry into the incident has been ordered," she added.