ProUI

BHUBANESWAR: In order to meet the demand of electricity consumption to operate railway signals, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has hit upon an idea to generate electricity by installing solar panels at the 47 railway stations under Sambalpur division. The identified railway stations still do not have tracks run by electricity, said sources. The ECoR sources said this is part of the massive modernization drive being undertaken for streamlining the signal system. "We were depending on diesel generators or local electricity to operate the signals in railway stations under Sambalpur railway division. But we were facing difficulties to ensure uninterrupted electric supply by using the generators," said S H Safdar, the chief signal and telecom manager of ECoR. He said solar panels are expected to compensate the shortfall of electricity supply to the signal channels. The railway is also planning to install Electronic Gate Technology (EGT) at stations where there are more than four level crossings. This will enable all level crossings to record information of train movements at a time. Earlier, at a time only one LC point could be informed about the movement of a train.

"EGT functions like a cockpit voice recorder. It can record the communication between the station master and the gateman at the level crossing. It can keep the message of all incoming and outgoing trains stored so that there is no confusion later in case of a mishap," said an ECoR spokesperson.

Similarly, the Data Logger Networking (DLN) has been developed by ECoR to monitor the incidences related to signal failure. This device will be installed at the zonal and divisional control rooms.

"This device can help generate input related to signals automatically through management information system (MIS), enabled in the device. Anybody manning the signal system can generate an alert through MIS," said an ECoR official. This device has been created to check frequent manipulations occurring at the railway signals.

Also, the ECoR has developed an SMS alert system at the signal points to help all officials engaged in signal under a division to know about any human intervention into signal machineries. "Once the signal apparatuses are operated by the individuals in charge of operation of the signals, SMS will automatically be generated. The messages will reach the higher officials for further action," said an official.

Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, president, Indian Railway Board (Passenger Services), has said that the Railway Department would take measures to complete the ongoing electrification works of the Bangalore–Mysore line by 2014.Accompanied by officials, Mr. Narayanaswamy inspected the facilities available for commuters at the Mandya railway station here on Wednesday and listened to the grievances of passengers.Speaking to The Hindu during a press conference held at the railway station, he said the electrification works has been completed between Bangalore and Ramanagaram.“The department will initiate measures to complete the project by 2014. The department will also take measures to complete the ongoing Bangalore–Mysore track doubling project,” he said.Mr. Narayanaswamy directed the railway officials to maintain cleanliness at the railway station, besides providing water, toilet and other basic amenities to passengers. Stressing the urgency of preventing crime in railway stations, Mr. Narayanaswamy said the Railway Ministry will take steps to strengthen the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF).

He also stressed the need of preventing deaths on railway tracks.

Demands

Meanwhile, the former Minister M.H. Atmananda demanded better facilities for railway commuters. He demanded an underpass near Jain Street, an additional ticket counter at Mandya station, a waiting hall for commuters, direct trains from Mysore to Mumbai and New Delhi, train services between Bangalore and Mysore between 11.30 p.m. and 1.30 a.m., a multi-storey parking lot at Mandya railway station and a foot-over bridge near Bandi Gowda layout here.

The former Minister, who submitted a memorandum to the Indian Railway Board, also requested the Board to take measures to reduce the vehicle parking fee from Rs. 15 to Rs. 10 a day.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike district president H.D. Jayaramu had urged the Railway Ministry to withdraw cases registered against people who participated in the Cauvery agitation.

Also, a few residents from Srirangapatna demanded regular stopping of all trains at the station. Mr. Narayanaswamy promised that the department would consider their demands.

Land

The Railway Board president said the Railway Ministry will cooperate with the State in completing the ongoing/pending railway projects, if the local administrations provided land.

Mandya City Municipal Council president B. Siddaraju was present.

While the Chief Minister has stoked a debate on the bullet train, the outcome of a technical seminar on high-speed rail services (HSRS) organised by Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE) will be worth studying.The SJCE had organised the seminar in association with the Transportation Research Group (TRG) of India, which saw a wide-range of issues related to the HSRS.B.G. Sangameshwar, principal, SJCE, told The Hindu that the seminar held in May this year had covered the entire gamut of issues that are related to HSRS, including advantages and disadvantages, lessons that can be learnt from other countries for developing HSRS in India, the engineering skills and technological transfers that the project may require, among others.The participants were professionals and technical experts from Germany, Spain, USA, and India, said Prof. Sangameshwar.

Advantages

The advantages included safety, comfort and reduction in commuting time, addressing issues of regional imbalance, reducing pressure on growing urban areas (Chief Minister mentioned decongestion of Bangalore as one of the reasons for the bullet train), and so on.

Disadvantages

But the disadvantages, as expressed by the expert group, included high capital cost, operation and maintenance cost, and need to change alignment.

But the most important dissuading factor was the observation that planning and implementation could take a long time, while change of government could upset the project, said Prof. Sangameshwar.

The crisis plaguing power sector was also an issue, as experts wondered if the high-speed train service could be viable in India under the present conditions.

Prof. Sangameshwar pointed out that micro-issues, including land acquisition process, environmental cleaning, pricing, choice of speed and gauge, minimum length of the route for the viability of the project, and lessons from Spain which incorporated the best of technologies from other countries were discussed.

Also, it was the considered opinion that India could not emulate China and the project could get bogged down with land acquisition and compensation issues.

The papers presented and the detailed analysis offers insight on the subject and could assist the planners, said Prof. Sangameshwar.

The outcome of SJEC’s seminar will be worth studying

Fishermen in Rameswaram, Mandapam and Pamban have come under one umbrella to stage a rail roko agitation at Pamban on Thursday, demanding the release of 41 fishermen from Rameswaram and 35 from Pamban lodged in Sri Lankan prisons for more than a month.Leaders of 11 associations in Rameswaram, seven in Mandapam and three in Pamban met on Saturday and decided to launch the agitation in Pamban at 3 p.m. on Thursday and block the Tirupathi Express, scheduled to leave Rameswaram at 4 p.m., P. Sesu Raja, district secretary, Tamil Nadu Coastal Mechanised Boat Fishermen Association, said.“The agitation is to draw the attention of the Central and State governments to secure the release of fishermen from Sri Lankan’s jails and to protect the livelihood of the island’s fishermen,” he said, adding the entire fishing community, including women and children, would take part in the agitation.He said fishermen of both Rameswaram and Pamban had been on an indefinite strike for more than a week protesting against the extension of the judicial remand of the fishermen, arrested by the Lankan Navy for alleged illegal fishing in their waters, but Indian authorities took no efforts to secure their release.

Traditional rights

The agitation would also demand their traditional rights to fish in the Palk Bay, he noted.

As the fishing activities came to a standstill, a section of the fishermen moved to Kerala, Mangalore and other places, while others were pledging their jewellery to meets both ends meet, he said.

Mr.Raja said the leaders would announce the next course of agitation if the fishermen were not released.

The Lankan courts extended the remand of the Rameswaram fishermen till September 20 and Pamban fishermen till September 23.

Meanwhile, country boat fishermen in Mandapam abstained from fishing on Monday, expressing solidarity with Rameswaram and Pamban fishermen.

Keywords: Ramanathapuram fishermen, Sri Lankan prisons, Pamban, fishermen arrest, Pamban fishermen

Stoppage of Delhi Sarai-Sujangarh-Delhi Express at Talchhaper Station

Jammu:
The Northern Railways Men Union (NRMU) today organised gate meeting in front of SS Jammu Tawi office to finalise the arrangements for participation in 45th annual martyrs’ day at Pathankot.Union president and branch secretary,Jammu branch, Subhash Dogra and Vijay Singh apprised about the programme to be followed by the delegates of Jammu branch.Around 1,000 members are expected to participate in the celebration at Pathankot. Martyrs’ Day is celebrated on September 19 every year in memory of those who sacrificed their lives fighting for the cause of railway employees.Others who participated in the gate meeting included Balbir Singh, KK Sharma, Ashwani Kumar, Ram Pal Sharma, Raj Kumar and Rajeev Sabarwal.

Dehradun: Accusing the Centre of failing to address their concerns, members of the Northern Railway Men's Union (NRMU), Dehradun, staged a dharna at the railway station here yesterday.The protesters alleged that the new pension scheme introduced by the Centre was not employee friendly and must be scrapped. They demanded reinstatement of the old pension scheme.They also resented reduction in bonus.The union members resorted to sloganeering against the Centre. Ugrasen Singh, Hari Om Singh, PK Chaubey, RC Yadav, Mukesh Chaturvedi and Prem Kishore Raturi were prominent among the protesters.

BHUBANESWAR: In order to meet the demand of electricity consumption to operate railway signals, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has hit upon an idea to generate electricity by installing solar panels at the 47 railway stations under Sambalpur division. The identified railway stations still do not have tracks run by electricity, said sources. The ECoR sources said this is part of the massive modernization drive being undertaken for streamlining the signal system. "We were depending on diesel generators or local electricity to operate the signals in railway stations under Sambalpur railway division. But we were facing difficulties to ensure uninterrupted electric supply by using the generators," said S H Safdar, the chief signal and telecom manager of ECoR. He said solar panels are expected to compensate the shortfall of electricity supply to the signal channels. The railway is also planning to install Electronic Gate Technology (EGT) at stations where there are more than four level crossings. This will enable all level crossings to record information of train movements at a time. Earlier, at a time only one LC point could be informed about the movement of a train.

"EGT functions like a cockpit voice recorder. It can record the communication between the station master and the gateman at the level crossing. It can keep the message of all incoming and outgoing trains stored so that there is no confusion later in case of a mishap," said an ECoR spokesperson.

Similarly, the Data Logger Networking (DLN) has been developed by ECoR to monitor the incidences related to signal failure. This device will be installed at the zonal and divisional control rooms.

"This device can help generate input related to signals automatically through management information system (MIS), enabled in the device. Anybody manning the signal system can generate an alert through MIS," said an ECoR official. This device has been created to check frequent manipulations occurring at the railway signals.

Also, the ECoR has developed an SMS alert system at the signal points to help all officials engaged in signal under a division to know about any human intervention into signal machineries. "Once the signal apparatuses are operated by the individuals in charge of operation of the signals, SMS will automatically be generated. The messages will reach the higher officials for further action," said an official.

The Malabar Rail Users’ Association (MRUA) has appealed the Southern Railway authorities to make alternative arrangements for alleviating the struggle of passengers ahead of beginning the proposed track renovation works from September 15. The renovation work will result in the closure of Shornur junction for nearly 22 days amounting to the cancellation of 14 passenger train services and the rescheduling of several other trains, they pointed out. The association leaders headed by MRUA chairman U.K. Damodaran also submitted a memorandum to the railways on the issue. —Staff Reporter

New Delhi : In a bid to ensure that there would be no legal tangles with regard to creating a tariff authority which would periodically review the conditions under which the Indian Railways works and whether there was a need to alter the fares and freight, the government has sought legal view for setting up the Rail Tariff Authority (RTA).Reports said the Railway Ministry has written to the Law Ministry seeking its views on the setting up of the authority through an executive order without taking the due course of legislation.The government wants to know whether the methodology adopted would stand constitutionally. Besides, the proposal, given an in-principle clearance by the Union Cabinet, has a clause that the government must seek a legal view from the Ministry of Law before setting up the tariff authority.The Railway Ministry wants to be sure that setting up such an authority would stand in the court of law and is constitutionally sound.Further move on the setting up of the authority would only be made after a clearance is received from the Law Ministry.The Rail Tariff authority would be a five-member body. The four members would be employees of the Central Government and the chairman cannot be from the central government unless he has served at the Secretary level.The selection committee for the Rail Tariff Authority would consist of Cabinet Secretary, Chairman, Railway Board, Finance Secretary and one expert by Railways.Setting up of the tariff authority became essential for the government due to the falling financial health of the Indian Railways in the wake of successive Railway Ministers toeing the populist agenda refrained from raising the passenger fare even though the 'full coffers' of the public sector organisation continued to bleed.

For almost a decade, the successive Railway Ministers did not raise the passenger fares leading to a skewed operating ratio for the railways.

The main job of the RTA would be to frame tariffs considering the Central Government projection of plan and non-plan requirement of funds.