RailEnquiry

  Indian Railways News  / 160 MW needed to run metro

Chandigarh : For the ambitious Metro rail project, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has asked the UT Administration and neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana to arrange 160-MW power supply to run the metro rail in the tricity.Out of this 160-MW power supply, the UT Administration has to arrange 80 MW of power. For the first corridor, which will be from Mullanpur to Sector 20, Panchkula, the DMRC has demanded 100-MW power supply and to supply so much of power, two sub-station need to be set up. Similarly, the DMRC has sought 60-MW power from Sector 1 to Sector 62, Mohali, and for this corridor as well two sub-stations will be set up.Sources added that out of the 160 MW, 80-MW power supply is required to run Metro and 80 MW required for back-up in case of any fault in supply lines and power failure. A senior official of the UT Administration said that the DMRC had demanded a sub-station in Sector 9 and Sector 51-52. Besides, one sub-station each will be set up in Mohali and Panchkula.But providing required power to the DMRC for running metro will be a difficult task for the UT Administration. At present, Chandigarh has no power generation capacity of its own and the city gets power supply from various central power generating stations in the region. While 280-MW power is supplied from different power stations in the region everyday, nearly 30-MW power is channelised through Jammu and Kashmir as per a bilateral agreement.The sources said that as the UT had no power generating station of its own, extra power supply would be sought from various central power generating stations in the region. Subsequently, the power supply would be routed through these four sub-stations to run the metro rail in the tricity.Recently, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) preparing detailed project report (DPR) for the tricity metro project had asked the administration to make arrangements for extra power supply to run the metro rail. The DMRC is likely to submit the DPR by the end of this month.

  Indian Railways News  / Hat-trick by Vigneshwar

R. Vigneshwar's six for 16, including a hat-trick, helped Railways CA to a six-wicket win over Jain Juniors CA in the Friends under-16 inter-academy cricket tournament here on Tuesday.

The scores:
Little Star CA 129 for five in 20 overs (Karthick Sriram 60, Dilip Kumar 30, Akshay three for 9) bt Avaas C.A. 98 for seven in 20 overs (K.R. Abhishek 30, Benjamin three for 24).Jain Juniors CA 114 in 13.5 overs (Naveen kumar 31, Lloyd Fernandes 30, R. Vigneshwar six for 16 (including a hat-trick) lost to Railways CA 118 for four in 14 overs (Adithya 30, R. Shailesh three for 15).VBCA 259 for five in 20 overs (Vignesh 80 n.o., S. Siddharth 43, Shyam Sundar 36, Varun Vamsi 30, Rishi Ravi three for 30) bt Jain Juniors CA 71 for nine in 14.2 overs.Railways CA 79 for eight in 20 overs (Vijay three for 18, Surya three for 21) lost to Roshan CA 82 for no loss in 7.5 overs (Surya 53 n.o.).

  Indian Railways News  / Govt review revives hope for justice to DDA ex-official

New Delhi -- It's a rare exception to an employee's fight for his rights against a government department. Despite the Supreme Court dismissing a retired DDA junior engineer Rajeshwar Nath Dhawan's plea, the government is considering his grievance regarding pension, gratuity and other post-retirement benefits. When Dhawan retired in 1994 after 13 years of service in the DDA, all he expected was a quiet and relaxed life. But what ensued over the next 20 years shows nothing but his relentless grit to take on an insensitive system. The DDA was his last employer but not the first one. Before that he had worked with the Railway Ministry for 24 years. Although he was given the benefit of pay protection in 1991, but his pension is still being calculated on the basis of only 13 years of service with DDA and not on the combined service of almost 38 years, including his stint in the Railway Ministry. Fed up with the non-responsive attitude of the DDA, Dhawan moved the Delhi High Court in 1990. The court ruled that the DDA should give Dhawan all pensionary benefits based on his combined service in the Railway Ministry and the DDA. But the DDA challenged the order before a Division Bench leading to a protracted legal battle. Finally, the Supreme Court dismissed Dhawan's plea in 2010. But even after the dismissal of his plea, 75-year old Dhawan refused to relent and approached the Ministry of Urban Development. The ministry has now directed the DDA to take necessary action to resolve the issue. It even asked the DDA to take up the matter with the Department of Personnel and Training in case, it was unable to resolve the same. "My claims are supported by Office Memorandums of 1984 and 1987 issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions relating to the term of combined service," Dhawan says, holding up the directives among his carefully kept archives of the continuing legal battle. Complaining that he had been discriminated against, he pointed out that two other similarly-placed DDA employees got the same benefits of pay protection and retirement dues. At 75, Dhawan spends much of his post-retirement time making representations to DDA and other government departments and attending court hearings for receiving his rightful pension and benefits. "I have got several judgments but no justice. But this time I hope to get justice," says Dhawan

  Indian Railways News  / Nashik Road area cleared of hawkers

NASHIK: Continuing with its anti-encroachment drive, the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC)'s anti-encroachment department targetted the Nashik Road area on Friday, clearing important areas of congestion caused by the encroachers.Jail Road, Nashik Road and the Nashik Road railway station areas, which suffer from a chronic encroachment problem, were targeted once again by the NMC's anti-encroachment department on Friday. Encroachments at Ingle Nagar, Durga garden, around the Dr Ambedkar statue and in the railway station area were being cleared off from Friday morning.The Jail Road and railway station areas have always been congested. There are schools on Jail Road and the railway station area is always crowded with autorickshaws, buses and travellers. The Durga garden area, with Muktidham and shopping complexes, is always congested and the roadside vendors add to this chaos even more. With an aim to free the roads in these areas from congestion, the NMC squad began their work from these areas on Friday."We conduct surprise drives so that the encroachers do not get intimated and flee from the place before we can arrive. As it is when we begin in a particular area, the encroachers on the farther ends of the place manage to run away," said Dattatreya Gotise, deputy municipal commissioner of the NMC's anti-encroachment department.

Four handcarts, ironing boards, buckets, crates, weighing scales and stands were confiscated by 25 employees, with security being provided by 15 cops in three vans under the supervision of Nashik Road divisional officer, Meena Handore.

"The roads are pretty free of congestion now. The shops are visible and movement of traffic is quite smooth now," said Gotise. More areas of Nashik city will be cleared of congestion in the coming few days. Gotise said that the clearing process would be a step-by-step procedure, which will begin with clearing roads first.

  Indian Railways News  / Railway Board norm on promotion struck down

The Madras high court has struck down as unconstitutional the condition stipulated by the Railway Board that pay will not be stepped up if the employee has been promoted to the post of head clerk against quota reserved for SC/ST/OBC/ Sports, even before becoming eligible for the post carrying special pay.A division bench allowed the petition filed by A. Geetha, challenging the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal that rejected her plea to grant special pay on par with her junior. According to Geetha, she joined ICF as office clerk in 1986 and was promoted as senior clerk and head clerk. Ten per cent of senior clerks were privileged with special pay.Initially special pay extended to 10 per cent of senior clerks was not reckoned as pay for fixation of pay. However, by an award by the Board of Arbitration, special pay was sought to be reckoned as pay for fixation of pay and thereby an anomaly of junior drawing higher pay than seniors arose.Hence, the have made mandatory instructions providing for stepping up of seniors pay on par with juniors. However, this was denied to her by the ICF, she said. The bench said the petitioner’s representation to authorities for grant of special pay was rejected on the ground that when her turn came for posting against a special pay post, she was on maternity leave and was promoted as head clerk against a post reserved for SC community.

“It is not in dispute that right of promotion as per Article 16.4 (A) is guaranteed under the Constitution to the persons belonging to SC and ST and, therefore, the denial of stepping up of pay of the petitioner on par with her junior on the ground that she got promotion as head clerk and she belongs to SC community would amount to illegality,” the bench said.