RailEnquiry

  Indian Railways News  / Kataria sends protest letter to Roy

New Delhi : Former Punjab Congress chief Virendra Kataria has lodged a protest with the Railway Ministry for his “humiliation” at the inauguration ceremony of the Abohar-Fazilka rail line at the instance of senior state leaders.Kataria had worked hard to make the project a reality.He said despite directions by Railway Minister Mukul Roy that he be included in the list of those to be honoured on the occasion, his name had been dropped from the official list at the last minute on the ``instructions'' of certain leaders who wanted to deny him credit for the project.“I was humiliated... I strongly protest for this...”, he wrote in his letter to the Railway Minister.

  Indian Railways News  / Electric trains running along SE Rly to sport new hues

Electric trains running along South Eastern Railway routes will be re-painted with golden yellow, tele-grey and blue lilac to reduce corrosion. Earlier, these trains were painted with gulf red and pale cream.According to an SER release, all the Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) and Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) trains would be painted in the new colours at the time of periodical overhaul at its Kharagpur Workshop.These three colours would help in reducing peel-off, an SER spokesperson said.While two EMU trains and one MEMU have already been re-painted as per the new colour scheme, all the trains would be re-painted over the next 18 months.

  Indian Railways News  / Metro to link up with Rapid Rail

NEW DELHI: With a daily footfall of 44,000, the Sikanderpur Metro station on the HUDA City Centre-Jahangirpuri corridor is an important station on the Yellow line. Now, it's all set to provide greater connectivity after integration with the Rapid Metro in March next year.A Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson said this station will be connected to the Rapid Metro station through a 100m walkway. That's not all: for the first time, Delhi Metro will also integrate its ticketing system with that of the Rapid Metro through a common house in the backend. What this means is that your Delhi Metro card can also be used on the Gurgaon Rapid Metro."The Rapid Metro will have a flat rate for the 6.1km journey. Commuters travelling on the Delhi Metro can use their tickets or smart card to travel on the Rapid Metro," said an official from the IL&FS promoted Rapid Metro. Delhi Metro tickets or smart cards are yet to be integrated with other public transport in Delhi like DTC.With an expected ridership of over a lakh, the Rapid Metro will provide much needed access into areas like Cyber City, DLF phases II and III as well as NH8. The alignment for the corridor woll start from Sikanderpur and will go till NH8 and back. A single track metro system, the Rapid Metro will have three coaches and will be synchronized to match the Delhi Metro schedule.

To build the Rapid Metro, Delhi Metro changed the design of its alignment at Sikanderpur. "To enable the alignment to go under line 2 (HUDA City Centre-Jahangirpuri), we have simply changed the design of one of the spans at the location. Instead of the box type segmental girder, it's been converted into a U-girder," said the Delhi Metro official.

With a clearance of 5.5m between the two alignments, the Rapid Metro station is located diagonally across the existing Delhi Metro station. With a third rail instead of an overhead electrification (like the Delhi Metro), the Rapid Metro will be the first private metro in Delhi NCR.

Trial runs on the Rapid Metro are expected to start from mid-August. IL&FS is also planning to extend the line further to cover 20km in total. "The second phase of the Rapid Metro has already been sanctioned. It will cover 14km with 14 stations in another three-four years," said the Rapid Metro spokesperson.

  Indian Railways News  / Suburban trains change colours

The rakes of South-Eastern Railway’s suburban trains will change colour from the present Gulf red and pale cream in a bid to make the rakes brighter and more attractive while ensuring the paint lasts longer.All suburban trains — 32 Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) rakes and 16 Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) rakes — will gradually be converted to the new colour scheme. A rake is sent for a periodic overhaul every 18 months and eventually all the rakes will be painted in the new hues, South Eastern Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer Soumitra Majumdar said on Tuesday.In the new colour scheme, the rakes will be painted golden yellow and telegrey with horizontal band of blue lilac. According to a Press release issued by South Eastern Railway, the quality of paint being used is better to ensure there is less corrosion.So far two EMU rakes and one MEMU rake in the new colour scheme have been released, it added.

  Indian Railways News  / NIA to name Samjhauta bombers

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to file its second chargesheet into the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast at a Panchkula court in the next couple of days. The fresh chargesheet will name Kamal Chauhan and Amit Chauhan alias Hakla as the two bombers who along with Lokesh Sharma and Rajendra Pehalwan allegedly planted the four suitcase bombs in the train that killed 68 people, including 43 Pakistan nationals.While Lokesh and Kamal are currently in judicial custody, Amit and Rajendra are on the run.The NIA, which took over the probe in 2010, filed the first chargesheet in June 2011 against Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Sandeep Dange, Ramji Kalsangra and Sunil Joshi — who was found dead in 2007 in Dewas.The agency, however, has no evidence so far against RSS leader Indresh Kumar who will be not be named this time as well.The NIA arrested Kamal Chauhan in February this year and was able to identify the bombers. He also revealed the training session and planning for the blast. Kamal also led the NIA to Bagli near Indore where the bombers were trained in January 2006 by Dange, Kalsangra and Joshi.In its chargesheet, NIA will identify Amit Chauhan as the man who assembled the bombs along with Kalsangra and Dange at a rented apartment near Bengali Chouraha in Indore.According to the NIA, the participants were imparted training for assembling bombs and fitting them with timer devices in Bagli. Kamal also identified the photograph of a digital ORPAT watch model and claimed that the same model was used in the assembling of two IEDs in Bagli which were exploded late night during the training. The same watches were also found from the defused bombs on Samjhauta Express.Kamal also told NIA that a detailed lecture about three types of explosives was given during the training session in Bagli. The training was conducted for two days and handling of arms and ammunition was also taught. Former RSS member Joshi, Kalsangra and Lokesh Sharma were the main organisers of the training session.