ProUI

KOLKATA: After the power shift, now comes the renewed urgency from the state to strengthen the river transport to ease pressure off both road and railways.Ever since Mamata Banerjee became the chief minister, she has been insisting on the development of waterways to take some pressure off the road and rail transport. The move, according to officials, is also aimed at promoting tourism in the state.The CM has prepared a plan to develop Hooghly waterway of greater Kolkata on the lines of the Thames in model that of London. The Thames is a vital transportation route for accessing London from its suburbs, said transport minister Madan Mitra.The transport department is planning to utilize 57 gangway-pontoon jetties along a 324-km stretch upstream from Tribeni in Hooghly, which were built by West Bengal Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBTIDC) with 90% funding from the Centre and 10% from the state under a water transportation development project.

It may be noted that the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system from Allahabad to Haldia has been declared the National Waterway No.1 under the National Waterway Act.

At present, there is hardly any launch service beyond the city limits to connect the farthest part of the suburbs with the heart of the city. "The beauty of the Hooghly can now only be enjoyed from the ferry ghat, one can just walk up to his or her office in Dalhousie. The river transport never got its due importance," added Mitra. At present, regular launch services are confined to the city core area. Mostly they crisscross the river along its breadth.

A study by the transport department shows a huge potential for extended launch services beyond the city since both road and rail transportation have exceeded their saturation level.

Initially, the West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation (WBSTC) will run the ferry services. The government will seek the participation of private players and the big cooperative societies that have the expertise in running launch services on the Hooghly. A few private players have also shown interest in running these longer versions of launch service. Already, the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation has shown interest in running a cruise between Kolkata and Malda.

The Hooghly is not only free of congestion, it is also a strong viable alternative for passengers who can have a pleasant journey along the river. "Since the European Colony - French, Dutch, Portuguese, Armenian - had settled along the river, the Europeans have great interest in visiting these places. Such river cruise will also be introduced in the Sunderbans," said state tourism minister Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury.

If things go according to plans, cruising along the river would never be the same again. The project will help tourists visit several a lot of the otherwise sites, which can't be accessed now.

Besides the tourism boost, the project will also facilitate economic growth in these areas. Strategically located on both banks of the Hooghly, most of the places are inaccessible by steamers and launches, thanks to lack of infrastructure. There are ferry services, but they operate in a primitive way. People often have to wade through hip-deep water to access the land after disembarking from the boats. Often, boats overturn because of overloading. Life across the river gets severely hindered, thanks to the underdeveloped river transportation system.

14 key jetties were constructed at on both sides of Plassey, Nabadwip, Agradwip, Daihat, Katwa, Shaktipur and Kalna. Among them, at Katwa and Kalna, even vehicles can be accommodated on the launches, said officers. The Centre bore 90% of the project cost, only 10% was borne by the state.

"Not only transportation and tourism, a lot of trading and business activities will receive a shot in the arm. Thanks to overdependence on river-transportation, the project would replenish new blood to local trade and as well as daily life," added the official.

"Since these locations covered almost the entire tourism circuit along the Hooghly, we will be at a most advantageous position for promoting tourism in these areas. We have Hooghly cruises. But the cruise loses its sheen considerably as tourists have to make a great effort to access the land. Often, may areas cannot be accessed at all. Because of the infrastructure problem, the area remained a largely untapped tourism destination," said a senior West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation officer.

Southern Railway has cancelled a number of trains between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for tomorrow due to the agitation by some workers of Andhra Pradesh Power Transmission Corporation over the Telangana issue.

The Jan Shatabdi Express running between Chennai Central and Vijayawada, scheduled to leave the city tomorrow, has been cancelled, a Southern Railway release said.

Similarly, tomorrow's Chennai Central-Gudur Passenger, Vijayawada-Chennai Central Pinakini Express and Bitragunta-Chennai Central Passenger have also been cancelled, the release said.

24/2013-2014 07-10-2013
chennai
TEMPORARY STOPPAGE AT VAITHISVARANKOIL

The following trains will stop at Vaithisvarankoil, between Chidambaram and Mayiladuthurai, on an experimental basis.

1)Train No.16183 Chennai Egmore – Thanjavur Uzhavan Express leaving Chennai Egmore from 09.10.2013 to 29.06.2014. -Arrival / Departure at Vaithisvarankoil - 04.32 hrs. / 04.33 hrs.
2)Train No.16184 Thanjavur - Chennai Egmore Uzhavan Express leaving Thanjavur from 10.10.2013 to 30.06.2014. – Arrival / Departure at Vaithisvarankoil - 22.46 hrs. / 22.47 hrs.
3)Train No.17407 Tirupati – Mannargudi Pamani (Tri-weekly) Express leaving Tirupati from 10.10.2013 to 28.06.2014. – Arrival / Departure at Vaithisvarankoil - 19.14 hrs. / 19.15 hrs.
4) Train No.17408 Mannargudi - Tirupati Pamani (Tri-weekly) Express leaving
Mannargudi from 11.10.2013 to 29.06.2014. - Arrival / Departure at Vaithisvarankoil -
07.34 hrs. / 07.35 hrs.





(M. Boopathy)
Sr.PRO

If it were not for the modern convenience of sound-proof rooms, one would hear the constant rumble of trains at the Egmore railway station, as Noel Thomas, editor of a book on Anglo-Indian railway memories, passionately spoke about how the railway platform was their performance stage.

“We were in every act and in every scene and we gave a sterling performance,” he said on Monday evening, at the launch of ‘Footprints on the track – Anglo Indian railway memories’, a compilation of 35-odd articles by various contributors published by Anglo-Ink.

The compilation is a warm and passionate recollection of Anglo-Indian engine drivers who would never desert their engines, about the riotously vibrant life at the railway colonies and institutes, and stories of courage and deep knowledge about the railways.

From engine drivers to railway guards to signal inspectors, the community dominated the profession until well into the 1960s.

“Anglo-Indians have been part of the railways from very early on, right from when the tracks were being laid,” Mr. Thomas said. A railway man himself, Mr. Thomas joined the railways as an apprentice at the age of 17 and retired as a divisional mechanical engineer after serving in the railways for 42 years.

Harry Maclure, publisher, Anglo- Ink, who has also contributed to the book, has written about the ‘dancing driver’, the Fuller family in Chennai whose five generations have been employed in the railways. He has also written about the ‘Trichinopoly junction and Golden Rock’, a chapter which Mr. Noel said Mr. Maclure wrote at ‘the speed of his father’s mail train’.

Mr. Maclure said the book also had material from various other sources. 

Historian S. Muthiah, who released the book, said it was not just a good read, but the history of a forgotten era.  “Anglo-Indians were found in other government services as well, but the Railways served as the lifeline of the community,” he said.  They took pride in their engines, and ensured that they were gleaming, he added.

However, the book is not just about nostalgia. “It is nostalgia with a message,” said Mr. Thomas.  “ I think that Anglo-Indians have been misunderstood as a happy-go-lucky people. But we put duty first. What the outsiders did not see were the struggles and sacrifices,” he said.

The book delves into the sacrifices made by those such as Percy Carroll, driver of the Bombay-Calcutta Mail, who lost his life while saving the lives of the passengers on his train one fateful morning, Mr. Thomas said. 

Mike Nithavrianakis, British Deputy High Commissioner who received a copy of the book, recalled his two eventful train journeys in India.


From engine drivers to signal inspectors, the Anglo-Indian community dominated the Railways until well into the 1960s

Exactly two years after it began to run, Metro has not reduced traffic, and remains a joy ride

In the two years since the inauguration of Reach One of Metro Phase One, connecting Byappanahalli and M.G. Road, life has remained largely unchanged for the average commuter.Given that the service presently covers only six kilometres, the Metro is yet to become the preferred mode of transport for people who live in East Bangalore neighbourhoods of Indiranagar, Ulsoor, Old Madras Road and Byappanahalli. The impact of the line on vehicular traffic is negligible.“Right now it’s just a joy ride. It feels like the Namma Metro authorities have put this line just to give people an idea of how things might be when the full project becomes functional,” says D.R. Narendra Kumar, a Kannada professor who lives in Jogupalya.The professor’s assertion is borne out by the hordes of tourists who ride the Byappanahalli line just for thrills – cameras and all. “Earlier people used to go to Cubbon Park for a toy train ride. Now they take the Metro,” laughs Mohan Raj, a cellphone shop owner in Indiranagar.

When Reach One was inaugurated in October 2011, elected representatives as well as bureaucrats promised that Underground Two (M.G. Road-Magadi Road) would be inaugurated within a year. Owing to several technical problems, particularly resistance to land acquisition, this stretch is still some distance from completion.

“Had this stretch been commissioned, the Metro would actually have had some value as it would have connected us to the [Majestic] Railway Station,” says Parakram Chetri, a security guard who works in C.V. Raman Nagar. Aruna Prakash (46), a bank employee, shared, “I live in Indiranagar and Metro serves only 20 per cent of my travel due to its limited connectivity. How can anyone completely rely on it as a staple mode of transport everyday?”

Lakshminarasimhaiah, a Cubbon Road traffic sub-inspector, says, “On M.G. Road, there has been a small but significant reduction of traffic [after the Metro line was commissioned]. But this might also be because BMTC buses are no longer allowed in that stretch.”

Bangalore’s Additional Commissioner of Police, B. Dayanand, said that while there has been no formal assessment of traffic increase or decrease after Metro, “due to its limited coverage area, we assume it has not made much difference”. Even a layman with a vague analysis can decipher that there is no change on the roads and the dependence on others modes of transport viz., buses, autos, private vehicles, continues to infest these areas.

However, the present service is still beneficial to a lucky few. Rajeshwari Ganesh, a homemaker who resides near Byappanahalli, said, “I am lucky, the Metro does help me. I take it to drop my son everyday at his school but I don’t generally see many students and corporate employees as regular commuters.”

The BMRCL claims that with a limited reach of six km, the daily ridership in Metro is about 20,000. “With the completion of Phase 1 the ridership is expected to touch one million per day,” B.L.Y. Chavan, Public Relations Officer of BMRCL, said.

Emissions down

However, as per statistics shared by BMRCL, there has been considerable reduction in emission of carbon monoxide and automobile exhaust. The energy required to transport people for the distance through Metro is less than one-tenth of that required in transporting the same number of persons by bus. Indeed, energy efficiency appears to be the only positive of the Metro facility servicing a meagre percentage of commuters.

After the baneful acquisition of land, demolition of buildings, felling of trees and narrowing of roads, residents see no purpose in having the prestigious mega-transport structure which provides no relief in any form.

Jayanthy Bhagatha (32), a resident of Indiranagar, said, “Living in this area, I have seen an increase in noise pollution, chaotic traffic jams and vehicles squeezing through roads narrowed by Metro construction. Many residents and private businesses have suffered immensely.”

Palanivelu (54), a resident of Halasuru, said, “My house collapsed during the laying of the foundation for the Metro station. I couldn’t expect any help or compensation from the BMRCL. The road gets very dusty due to constant vehicular movement and people have a hard time maintaining their houses. But, the division of road has kept traffic at bay. It is the only consolation.”

Will the Metro impact be truly felt once its reach expands?

MUMBAI: The Western Railway has banned illegal advertisements carrying messages of tantriks, black magicians and occultists inside the coaches of suburban trains, an official said on Monday.

The ban has been enforced under the new Maharashtra Black Magic Act which seeks to eradicate human sacrifice, inhuman, evil and aghori practices.

The WR warned that the law stipulates a jail term of up to seven years if anybody is found pasting such advertisements in the suburban trains and thereby propagating superstitious practices and witchcraft.

The WR is continuing a drive to clean out coaches of such advertisements and has detected 156 cases of illegal pasting of stickers, the official said.

While six people have already been sent to jail, the WR also recovered penalties of Rs 152,300 for the offences.

The coaches of the trains on WR's suburban section between Churchgate-Dahanu, used by over four million commuters daily, are a favourite site for display advertisements and stickers of various products and services, including black magicians.

The issue of such evil practices suddenly came to the fore after the killing of prominent anti-superstition campaigner Narendra Dabholkar in Pune August 20. His killers are yet untraced and on the run. Post a comment

If it were not for the modern convenience of sound-proof rooms, one would hear the constant rumble of trains at the Egmore railway station, as Noel Thomas, editor of a book on Anglo-Indian railway memories, passionately spoke about how the railway platform was their performance stage.

“We were in every act and in every scene and we gave a sterling performance,” he said on Monday evening, at the launch of ‘Footprints on the track – Anglo Indian railway memories’, a compilation of 35-odd articles by various contributors published by Anglo-Ink.

The compilation is a warm and passionate recollection of Anglo-Indian engine drivers who would never desert their engines, about the riotously vibrant life at the railway colonies and institutes, and stories of courage and deep knowledge about the railways.

From engine drivers to railway guards to signal inspectors, the community dominated the profession until well into the 1960s.

“Anglo-Indians have been part of the railways from very early on, right from when the tracks were being laid,” Mr. Thomas said. A railway man himself, Mr. Thomas joined the railways as an apprentice at the age of 17 and retired as a divisional mechanical engineer after serving in the railways for 42 years.

Harry Maclure, publisher, Anglo- Ink, who has also contributed to the book, has written about the ‘dancing driver’, the Fuller family in Chennai whose five generations have been employed in the railways. He has also written about the ‘Trichinopoly junction and Golden Rock’, a chapter which Mr. Noel said Mr. Maclure wrote at ‘the speed of his father’s mail train’.

Mr. Maclure said the book also had material from various other sources. 

Historian S. Muthiah, who released the book, said it was not just a good read, but the history of a forgotten era.  “Anglo-Indians were found in other government services as well, but the Railways served as the lifeline of the community,” he said.  They took pride in their engines, and ensured that they were gleaming, he added.

However, the book is not just about nostalgia. “It is nostalgia with a message,” said Mr. Thomas.  “ I think that Anglo-Indians have been misunderstood as a happy-go-lucky people. But we put duty first. What the outsiders did not see were the struggles and sacrifices,” he said.

The book delves into the sacrifices made by those such as Percy Carroll, driver of the Bombay-Calcutta Mail, who lost his life while saving the lives of the passengers on his train one fateful morning, Mr. Thomas said. 

Mike Nithavrianakis, British Deputy High Commissioner who received a copy of the book, recalled his two eventful train journeys in India.


From engine drivers to signal inspectors, the Anglo-Indian community dominated the Railways until well into the 1960s

Exactly two years after it began to run, Metro has not reduced traffic, and remains a joy ride

In the two years since the inauguration of Reach One of Metro Phase One, connecting Byappanahalli and M.G. Road, life has remained largely unchanged for the average commuter.Given that the service presently covers only six kilometres, the Metro is yet to become the preferred mode of transport for people who live in East Bangalore neighbourhoods of Indiranagar, Ulsoor, Old Madras Road and Byappanahalli. The impact of the line on vehicular traffic is negligible.“Right now it’s just a joy ride. It feels like the Namma Metro authorities have put this line just to give people an idea of how things might be when the full project becomes functional,” says D.R. Narendra Kumar, a Kannada professor who lives in Jogupalya.The professor’s assertion is borne out by the hordes of tourists who ride the Byappanahalli line just for thrills – cameras and all. “Earlier people used to go to Cubbon Park for a toy train ride. Now they take the Metro,” laughs Mohan Raj, a cellphone shop owner in Indiranagar.

When Reach One was inaugurated in October 2011, elected representatives as well as bureaucrats promised that Underground Two (M.G. Road-Magadi Road) would be inaugurated within a year. Owing to several technical problems, particularly resistance to land acquisition, this stretch is still some distance from completion.

“Had this stretch been commissioned, the Metro would actually have had some value as it would have connected us to the [Majestic] Railway Station,” says Parakram Chetri, a security guard who works in C.V. Raman Nagar. Aruna Prakash (46), a bank employee, shared, “I live in Indiranagar and Metro serves only 20 per cent of my travel due to its limited connectivity. How can anyone completely rely on it as a staple mode of transport everyday?”

Lakshminarasimhaiah, a Cubbon Road traffic sub-inspector, says, “On M.G. Road, there has been a small but significant reduction of traffic [after the Metro line was commissioned]. But this might also be because BMTC buses are no longer allowed in that stretch.”

Bangalore’s Additional Commissioner of Police, B. Dayanand, said that while there has been no formal assessment of traffic increase or decrease after Metro, “due to its limited coverage area, we assume it has not made much difference”. Even a layman with a vague analysis can decipher that there is no change on the roads and the dependence on others modes of transport viz., buses, autos, private vehicles, continues to infest these areas.

However, the present service is still beneficial to a lucky few. Rajeshwari Ganesh, a homemaker who resides near Byappanahalli, said, “I am lucky, the Metro does help me. I take it to drop my son everyday at his school but I don’t generally see many students and corporate employees as regular commuters.”

The BMRCL claims that with a limited reach of six km, the daily ridership in Metro is about 20,000. “With the completion of Phase 1 the ridership is expected to touch one million per day,” B.L.Y. Chavan, Public Relations Officer of BMRCL, said.

Emissions down

However, as per statistics shared by BMRCL, there has been considerable reduction in emission of carbon monoxide and automobile exhaust. The energy required to transport people for the distance through Metro is less than one-tenth of that required in transporting the same number of persons by bus. Indeed, energy efficiency appears to be the only positive of the Metro facility servicing a meagre percentage of commuters.

After the baneful acquisition of land, demolition of buildings, felling of trees and narrowing of roads, residents see no purpose in having the prestigious mega-transport structure which provides no relief in any form.

Jayanthy Bhagatha (32), a resident of Indiranagar, said, “Living in this area, I have seen an increase in noise pollution, chaotic traffic jams and vehicles squeezing through roads narrowed by Metro construction. Many residents and private businesses have suffered immensely.”

Palanivelu (54), a resident of Halasuru, said, “My house collapsed during the laying of the foundation for the Metro station. I couldn’t expect any help or compensation from the BMRCL. The road gets very dusty due to constant vehicular movement and people have a hard time maintaining their houses. But, the division of road has kept traffic at bay. It is the only consolation.”

Will the Metro impact be truly felt once its reach expands?

As the Central Railway (CR) gears up to do away with 300 coupon validating machines (CVMs) after March 2014, colourful coupon booklets used by commuters on suburban railways will probably be a thing of the past. This will mark the end of the 15-year-old ticketing method.

CR is contemplating handing over extra booklets to Western Railway (WR), which plans to integrate the standalone box machines with unreserved ticketing system (UTS) to prevent fraudulent practices and improve the accounting of coupon tickets.

A senior railway officer said, "The WR has asked CR to hand over excess coupon booklets to them after March 2014. If the Board does not give another extension, CR will hand over the booklets after doing away with the machines."

Installed for the first time in 1998 on an experimental basis, CVMs were one of the most popular ticketing systems on CR till two years ago. In 2011, the contribution of CVMs to ticketing was twice that of Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs), since the latter were perceived to be less user-friendly. However, after the Railway Board issued the directive to discontinue non-networked systems, CR took several measures to popularise ATVMs.

Some of these measures were positioning facilitators at ATVMs to disburse tickets to non-smart card commuters, installing signboards on all machines to explain steps of purchasing tickets from the machines, and introducing queue system to purchase coupon booklets. In 2011 CR sold 3 lakh tickets daily through coupon booklets. Now it has come down to 50,000 per day.

Atul Rane, Chief Public Relations Officer, CR said, "Though CVMs were a popular mode of ticketing for commuters, the machines were non-networked. Resorting to fraudulent means was easy. So replacing thosr machines was considered necessary. We have taken steps to replace this mode by providing ATVMs, JTBS and new UTS, which are more user-friendly."Following the Railway Board directive in 2011, CR and WR have repeatedly asked for extensions in 2012 and 2013, saying that the machines were extremely popular among commuters.

With a bottle of water being charged Rs. 40 and an ordinary meal sold at Rs. 120, passengers of long-distance trains had a horrible time at stations in Srikakulam district.

The passengers were stranded for more than 10 hours in in Srikakulam, Palasa and Naupada stations from the early hours of Monday.

Chennai-Howrah Mail, Visakha Express, Bangalore-bound Prashanti Express and other trains were halted at stations in Srikakulam district as there was no power supply for the movement of trains.

Electricity employees went on strike in Seemandhra region in support of United AP movement.

No water

Passengers coming from West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand and other States were clueless. Those coming from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka also had the same bitter experience in Odisha, and West Bengal-bound trains.

The toilets had no water supply.

Likewise, food supply from pantry cars was not available from afternoon. Fans in the trains did not function and the problem was only compounded for travellers of AC compartments, which lacked open windows.

M.V. Krishnapppa, a passenger, alleged that petty vendors were looting passengers by hiking the rates of all food items.

“We were forced to pay Rs.40 per water bottle. A cup of tea is sold at Rs.15. Stale food was sold at Rs.120 per plate. Railway officials did not take any action on the sellers,” he added.”

A traveller Satish coming from West Bengal said that it was unfair to stop the trains at small stations where nothing was available.

The travellers were put to many hardships during the night.

They were worried about the entry of anti-social elements in the dark thanks to the absence of powerin the trains.

Petty vendors loot passengers of trains stranded in stations due to strike by electricity employees