RailEnquiry

  Indian Railways News  / અફવાની અસર ઃ પૂર્વોત્તરનાં 6000 લોકોએ બેંગ્લોરથી પલાયન કર્યુ

બેંગ્લોર, તા.16 ઓગસ્ટ, 2012

બેંગ્લોરમાં એક અફવાએ એવી અસર ફેલાવી કે પૂર્વોત્તરનાં 6000 લોકો બેંગ્લોર છોડીને પલાયન કરી દીધું.

આ અંગે મુખ્યમંત્રી જગદીશ શેટ્ટારે એક મહત્વની બેઠક બોલાવી અને આ સ્થિતિ ત્યાં સુધી બગડી કે પ્રધાનમંત્રીએ પણ કર્ણાટકનાં મુખ્યમંત્રી સાથે વાતચીત કરીને સ્થિતિની જાણકારી મેળવી હતી.

પ્રાપ્ત વિગતો અનુસાર એસએમએસ દ્વારા એવો સંદેશો ફેલાયો હતો કે પૂર્વોત્તરનાં લોકો ઉપર હુમલાની શક્યતા છે. આ એસએમએસની અફવાને કારણે પૂર્વોત્તરનાં લોકોએ બેંગ્લોર શહેર છોડી દીધું હતું.

સ્થિતિ એવી થઇ હતી કે સરકારે બેંગ્લોરથી ગુવાહાટી સુધીની ખાસ ટ્રેનની વ્યવસ્થા કરવી પડી હતી.

  Indian Railways News  / Konkan Rly introduces 28 extra special trains for Ganpati fest

In addition to 80 Ganpati Special Trains announced earlier, the Konkan Railway (KR), in co-ordination with Western Railway (WR), will run additional 28 Special Trains between Ahmedabad-Madgaon and Bandra Terminus for the convenience of the passengers.

The 09416 Ahmedabad-Madgaon Weekly Special will depart from Ahmedabad at 1635 hrs and arrive Madgaon at 1630 hrs next day. This train will run from September 17 to 24. While, in return journey, the 09415 Madgaon-Ahmedabad will depart from Madgaon at 2000 hrs and arrive Ahmedabad at 1920 hrs next day. This train will run from September 18 to 25. These trains will halt at Nadiad, Anand, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Navsari, Valsad, Vapi, Vasai Road, Panvel, Roha, Mangaon, Khed, Chiplun, Sangameshwar, Ratnagiri, Adavali, Rajapur, Vaibhavwadi, Kankavali, Sindhudurg, Kudal, Sawantwadi, Madure, Pernem, Thivim and Karmali stations, a KR release here today said.

The train will have 18 coaches with composition of seven Sleeper Coaches, two AC 3-Tiers, one AC 2-Tier, six General and two SLR/SLRD coaches.

The 09418 Ahmedabad-Madgaon Bi-Weekly Special will depart from Ahmedabad at 1635 hrs and arrive Madgaon at 1630 hrs next day. This train will run on September 11, 15, 18, 22, 25 and 29. While, in return journey, the 09417 Madgaon-Ahmedabad will depart from Madgaon at 2000 hrs and arrive Ahmedabad at 1920 hrs next day. This train will run on September 12, 16, 19, 23, 26 and 30. These trains will halt at Nadiad, Anand, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Navsari, Valsad, Vapi, Vasai Road, Panvel, Roha, Mangaon, Khed, Chiplun, Sangameshwar, Ratnagiri, Adavali, Rajapur, Vaibhavwadi, Kankavali, Sindhudurg, Kudal, Sawantwadi, Madure, Pernem, Thivim and Karmali stations.

These train will have 17 coaches with composition of eight Sleeper Coaches, five AC 3-Tiers, two General and two SLR/SLRD coaches. The 09009 Bandra Terminus-Madgaon Bi-Weekly Special will depart from Bandra Terminus at 2350 hrs and arrive Madgaon at 1630 hrs next day. This train will run on September 12, 16, 19, 23, 26 and 30. The 09010 Madgaon-Bandra Terminus will depart from Madgaon at 2000 hrs and arrive Bandra Terminus at 1325 hrs next day. This train will run on September 13, 17, 20, 24, 27 and October one. These trains will halt at Andheri, Borivali, Vasai Road, Panvel,Roha, Mangaon, Khed, Chiplun, Sangameshwar, Ratnagiri, Adavali,Rajapur, Vaibhavwadi, Kankavali, Sindhudurg, Kudal, Sawantwadi,Madure, Pernem, Thivim & Karmali stations.

The train will have 18 coaches with composition of eight Sleeper Coaches, four AC 3-Tiers, two Composite AC 2-Tier/ 3-Tier, two General and two SLR/SLRD coaches.

With these additional train services, the total number of Ganpati Special Trains being run on Konkan Railway route during the upcoming Ganesh Festival rises to 108, the release added.

  Indian Railways News  / Metro rail in tricity to cover 37km

CHANDIGARH: Metro rail has been planned with an initial traffic forecast of 3 lakh riders and the number will go up with time. On completion, the project will have a total 37 km of Metro Rail in the Tricity and the total project cost, including land cost and taxes, will be Rs 10,900 crore.This was pointed out by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in the detailed project report (DPR), which was officially handed over to UT administration on Thursday.The proposed North-South corridor for UT Chandigarh will include 8.04 km underground and 4.43 km elevated track and the East-West corridor has a proposed length of 6.04 km underground track and 19.04 km of elevated track.Total length of the track running into Punjab will be 7.8 km and Haryana will have a total track length of 6.41 km running through its territory under this project. In total, about 30 stations have been earmarked, each at an average distance of 1.210 km on the North-South corridor and at an average distance of 1.206 km on the East-West corridor.The Detailed Project Report, Chandigarh Metro Project was presented to UT administrator Shivraj Patil by a team headed by Mangu Singh, Managing Director, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Copies of the Detailed Project Report were also presented to the Chief Secretary Punjab and Director Town Planning Haryana for the Chief Ministers of the respective states.

  Indian Railways News  / Pak Hindus adopt wait-and-watch approach - The Times of India

Attari: Even as protests were held in Jammu over the alleged atrocities on Hindus in the Pakistan, the inflow of members of the community from across the border abated on Thursday. Even those who chugged in at Attari on board the Samjhauta Express were undecided over not going back.

There were only seven Pakistan Hindu nationals -- two families-- out of the 118 passengers on board the train.

Anil Kumar, who had come with his wife and three children and three trolleys of luggage, was unsure whether he would return to his country or stay back.

Kumar, a resident of Quetta city in Balochistan, said he was here for relative's wedding in Indore. "We will stay here for a month. If we like it, we might stay back," he added.

He also refrained from answering questions on alleged atrocities against Hindus in Pakistan.

Sources said many Pakistan Hindus went back from Wagah (Pakistan) railway station as they didn't want to give any written undertaking to Pakistan immigration officials, assuring them of their return.

Amidst rumours of atrocities and exodus of Hindus from Pakistan to India, several members of the community arriving at Attari had last week said that Pakistani authorities were forcing all Hindus visiting India to give an undertaking that they would return within 30 days.

Sources said that Hindus arriving from Pakistan were carrying gold ornaments and lot of luggage, indicating that they may be planning to stay back.

Over 550 Pakistani Hindus have entered India via Attari border since last Friday and most of them claimed to be on pilgrimage.

But Manohar Lal said he had come to India for an eye operation. His wife Kamlesh Rani said, "Of course Pakistan is a Muslim majority country. Sometimes we do get scared, but that doesn't mean we won't go back."

  Indian Railways News  / Rail safety under spotlight

You are here: Home » Sunday Spotlight » Rail safety under spotlight Rail safety under spotlight M R Venkatesh, Aug 5, 2012 Without augmenting and modernising infrastructure, such disasters are waiting to happen After the First Death, there is no other,” mused a modern poet. Never before in recent years has this insight so painfully sunk in as it did for bereaving relatives and friends of the 32 persons killed in a deadly fire at Nellore last Monday in the ‘S-11’ coach of the New Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu Express. In hospitals, 26 other passengers are struggling to recover from a combination of burn injuries – ranging from 5 per cent to over 30 per cent, and carbon monoxide-induced inhalation problems that could directly affect their lungs, victims of one of the worst train disasters for the Indian Railways (IR).Whether it be the haunting, macabre images of the charred 28 bodies recovered from the terribly gutted coach, its twisted remains or the tremulous memory snaps of the critically injured on ventilators, this accident cannot be reduced to just another piece of cold statistic.For the IR, this is a deep self-reflexive hour, with the searchlight having been turned intensely on its safety systems, procedures - individual, systemic et all, and the larger work-ecology required to reasonably ensure them.

And this is the ‘core issue’ the heartburns at Nellore directly lead us collectively to ponder upon. The grim mood at ‘ground zero’, which is otherwise a bustling district headquarters in agriculturally robust south coastal Andhra Pradesh, was perhaps ominously presaged by none other than the ‘High Level Safety Review Committee (HLSRC)’, constituted by the Railway Ministry, which submitted its report to the UPA-II Government recently.

A quick look at the staggering numbers reveals that the IR, as mentioned in the report submitted in February 2012 to the former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, on an average handles about 20 million passengers daily, and 2.45 million tons of freight. It runs about 11,000 passenger trains a day, including its brand-worthy ‘Rajdhanis’ and ‘Shatabdis’.

So much so, without augmenting and substantially modernising its infrastructure, including tracking and signal systems, such disasters in the IR are proverbially waiting to happen. This big picture has been drawn by none other than the HLSRC itself, headed by the former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Anil Kakodkar.

Just flavour the tone and tenor of some of the report’s outlandishly candid observations and suggestions, which warned against introducing so many passenger trains on existing overloaded infrastructure. “This has strained the infrastructure way beyond the limit and all the safety margins have been eaten up, pushing Indian Railways to a regime of adhocism in infrastructure maintenance,” the HLSRC asserted and urged no new trains “without commensurate inputs to infrastructure.” 

Juxtapose the report's hard findings with this gruesome rail mishap at Nellore, some of the complex strands of the rope get a little clearer. “Within 20 minutes of being informed of the fire, I was there at the spot and two fire engines were already there on their job,” recalled the Nellore District Collector, B Sreedhar. The fire had been noticed by the gateman at the level crossing just after Nellore station around 0420 am that fateful day, who first alerted the station master.  

Sreedhar, in emphasizing how quickly they not only put out the fire, but also detached the ill-fated compartment, stopped the fire from spreading to other bogies and retrieved the 28 dead bodies from the burnt coach and ensured medical treatment to the victims, was driving home that the district administration- the first crucial link in any Disaster Management/Response logistics- was not found wanting.

This, yet raised larger issues of whether the fire was already simmering inside the S-11 coach before sparks flew out, what caused it and related questions. “The district administration’s role is limited. These are issues the Railways will have to come out with the full facts in the Statutory Enquiry ordered,” the Collector reasoned.

While an electrical short-circuit in the coach is widely believed to be the trigger, several Railway officials, who deposed before the Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS), D K Singh, over a two-day enquiry from August 2 at Nellore, confided to this correspondent that a mere short-circuit could not cause such a devastating fire.

“A short-circuit at best breaks power supply to other parts of the coach, but this fire seems to be much more than that,” said an exasperated senior officer of the Electrical Engineering Department from Northern Railway in Delhi, the point of origin for this prestigious superfast train. Other feedback from passengers spoke of a “plastic can found inside the coach”, said a station master close to Nellore.

There have also been feedbacks that “conflagration in S-11 coach was short-lived, but intense”, alluding to the possibility of some other inflammable substance inside the coach that could have aggravated the fire’s intensity and spread.

Access safety to trains at various boarding points and en route, particularly long-distance routes, and ways to “check” materials carried by passengers, have thus acquired an urgent dimension. This is notwithstanding the fact that “such fires in our trains are very rare occurrences,” said another railway official of Chennai, from where too officers were summoned for the CRS enquiry.

Glaring violations

In a huge country with lakhs of people travelling by rail every day, “it is not practically possible” to keep a tab on all the luggage though big railway stations have metal-frame detectors, said another railway staff. Yet, the Kakodkar panel has found the present precautions taken against fire hazards in trains to be far from adequate, amid glaring instances of using LPG cylinders in Pantry cars despite its use being banned on trains.The panel wants the Railways to massively implement a “Flame Detection System” in coaches, as fire alarms based on ‘smoke detection’ have been unsuccessful. The coaches should have “hooters” at many places to warn passengers.

The present design of the coaches itself is unsuited for fast, long-formation trains and Railways need to massively invest in modern anti-climbing coaches to enhance safety, recommended the panel and estimated a total funds infusion of a staggering order of Rs 1,00,000 crore over five years.All these not only needs lot more money and political will to push reforms, but an attitudinal change in users too in favour of greater vigilance and negating the narcistic tendencies to have all home facilities on a moving train. Or else, every rail tragedy may at best stop with a touching ode to the dead. 

When small was big!

The quiet road, lined by shady trees, leading to the Railway Officers Rest House at Nellore, where the Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS), D K Singh, held a two-day statutory inquiry into the Tamil Nadu Express fire tragedy, could well be a page from any of R K Narayan’s memorable novels set in Malgudi.

As D K Singh played the jury for two days from August 2, among the first to catch the public eye was D Srinivas, the gateman in ‘khaki’ at the Vijayamahal gate crossing, a stone’s throw from Nellore railway station, who first alerted the station master about the fire. He appeared before the panel unruffled, his deep eyes exuding a human feel for the value of life that night watchmen know better.

Soon, scores of similar humble ground-level staff, including points-men between Bitragunta-Nellore section, lined up to testify, followed by the ubiquitous station masters, travelling ticket examiners, fire fighters et al, who have to burn the midnight lamp day after day. In the normal course, they hardly catch the media’s fancy, but before the panel were ‘Truth-Speaking Heroes’ to help it unravel the mystery behind how ‘S-11 coach’ turned a killer smoke-chamber.