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  Indian Railways News  / Stories of love, courage and hope from the railways

In the 1980s, an announcer at Dadar station noticed that a woman used to come 20 minutes early to take a train to Victoria Terminus every time he was on duty. She approached him one day and told him that his voice was beautiful and she felt like listening to it forever. Surprised, he simply said “thanks”. He thought he would propose to her the next day but she never came back.Small, interesting trivia and anecdotes like this have been stringed together in a book written by a retired railway controller, Venkatesh Borgikar. Rail Chakra, written in Marathi, gives an insight into the behind the scenes of the Mumbai railway.“I worked with the railways for 39 years, of which, I have spent 20 years in Mumbai. Thereare a lot of interesting experiences about running the Mumbai suburban railway which I have compiled in the book,” said Borgikar, 73, a resident of Mulund.He said there were no railway announcers before Independence.“The post was created in 1950. JS Brownson was one of the most popular announcers back then and big names of the Marathi theatre industry used to come to Dadar station to listen to his voice,” he recalled.Once an unclaimed parcel – the name on it was Deepa Shekhar with a hostel address in Nainital — was carefully opened in the presence of the police, only to be found containing trophies, medals and certificates.The chief parcel supervisor SP Joshi shot a letter to the hostel and got a reply that the girl had left for America. He sent her a letter in the US.The girl’s father rushed to India to reclaim his daughter’s trophies. The parcel had got lost in transit and a complaint had been filed elsewhere. “I have been looking for it all over Indian Railways,” the father had said while profusely thanking Joshi.There was a case of another parcel of reptiles addressed to Haffkine Institute. A snake escaped, creating utter chaos. Officials of Haffkine came to the station, caught the snake, put it back into the box and left with the parcel.Railway gang man Ambaji Dhanaji Dhamdhere too finds his name in the book for putting up a name plate with GM written beside his name. When the writer asked him the reason, he said: “I am a GM -- gang man.”There is a heroic tale of motorman Jayant Nimsudkar, who was driving a CST-Ambernath local when he saw that the Deccan Express had derailed in front of his speeding local. “Nimsudkar braked and saved thousands of passengers,” said Borgikar.

  Indian Railways News  / `110cr allocated to check rail track deaths

The alarming rise in the number of deaths due to crossing of railway tracks has forced the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) to take notice, and earmark a hefty budget of `110 crore to curtail such incidents. The measure is a first-of-its-kind for the city, and will involve construction of escalators, foot overbridges (FOBs), boundary walls and green patches at six stations of both the WR and CR. The project is expected to be ready by 2014. The decision was taken in a meeting with the board of directors of the MRVC chaired by T.C. Benjamin, additional chief secretary of the State Urban Development Department on Monday. The World Bank, which funds railway projects in the city, has repeatedly raised concerns over the deaths on tracks. “For the first time, such a huge amount has been earmarked by the MRVC to reduce the number of deaths on tracks. The JJ School of Architecture has conducted a study on locations where major deaths are reported and has suggested remedial measures that need to be undertaken. Subsequently, 12 such stations were identified,” a senior MRVC officer, who was part of the meeting, said. The stations on WR, where the plan will be implemented include Dadar, Kandivali, Borivali, Bhayendar, Vasai Road and Nallasopara, while the stations on the CR include Dadar, Kurla, Kanjurmarg, Thane, Thakurli and Kalyan. The MRVC will construct 31 FOBs, six escalators, five elevators, one subway at Khar and a road overbridge at Thakurli. This project is over and above the development measures undertaken by the WR and CR administration. The officer pointed out that the MRVC signed a loan agreement with the World Bank for $430 million to upgrade rail infrastructure projects. The funds for this project will be used from this amount. “The idea is to provide convenient means to passengers to desist them from crossing tracks. It has been observed that at certain locations the FOBs are very far. Hence, measures such as escalators at certain FOBs, additional FOBs, building green patches, construction of boundary walls and track dividers will be undertaken with the money,” the officer said.

  Indian Railways News  / Maoists dangle bomb in train

ROURKELA/JAMSHEDPUR: After lying low for a while in Saranda area, Maoists struck terror on Monday night. The rebels detained a passenger train in neighbouring Jharkhand, dangled a can bomb in the engine, killed a village man and then engaged the security forces triggering an intense exchange of fire.
No casualty has been reported from either side in the firing, which took place on Tuesday, about 20 km from Jareikela in Sundargarh district.
Armed Maoists detained the Bilaspur-bound Tata-Bilaspur passenger train around 9.30 pm at nondescript Posoita station in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district. They took the train driver and guard hostage, pasted posters in the train and placed a can bomb in the engine to terrorise the railway employees.
West Singhbhum district SP A K Singh said the train ran for some time with the can bomb dangling from the engine till it reached Manoharpur station, where the bomb was removed and defused.
Chakradhar-based divisional spokesperson of South Eastern Railway (SER) K N Biswas said some ‘miscreants’ had detained the train and pasted posters. Reports said the passengers of Tata-Bilaspur train were disembarked at Manoharpur station and accommodated in Howrah-Kurla Express. Suspecting the detention of the train to be the handiwork of the Habil Charwa and Sandip squad of the Maoists, a quick response team of CRPF launched a massive hunt and came across the ultras at Saranda forest near Salai village this morning, Singh said.
An encounter lasting 45 minutes followed before the ultras fled, the SP said, adding there was no casualty on the police side. A combing operation is underway.
Last night, the Maoists had beheaded a villager, Ramlal Kayam, at Kudaburu under Sonua police station suspecting him to be a police informer, Singh said.
ASP (Operation) Shambhu Kumar said ahead of their 24-hour shutdown call beginning Tuesday midnight, the Maoists resorted to the publicity tactics to draw attention towards them. On Sunday night also posters were pasted at Jharkhand’s Derua, Goilkera and Posoita stations.

  Indian Railways News  / KERALA-RAIL 3 LAST

"Its mission is to showcase the potential and "Its mission is to showcase the potential and opportunities of Kerala as an investment destination and to create awareness of it among all stakeholders and my government aims to create the right environment, to facilitate the transformation of Kerala into a business hub and a preferred investment destination," Chandy said. The summit focuses on 10 key sectors in the state such as IT and ITeS, tourism and medical tourism, healthcare, food and agro processing, knowledge/education sector, ports, ship- building and logistics, energy/energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other sunrise sectors, water technologies and inland waterways and infrastructure development (roads, rail, waterways water supply and sewage. The state has already lined up series of mega and medium projects such the high speed rail corridor (Rs 1,18,000 crore) two national investment and manufacturing zone worth Rs 52,000 crore, Vizhinjam International Sea Port (Rs 3,000 crore) Kochi Metro (Rs 4,500 crore) and a petroleum chemicals and petro- chemicals investment region in Kochi for Rs 6,000 crore, the Smart City project worth Rs 21,000 crore. The projects in the pipelines also include the mono rail projects in Thiruvananthapuram and and Kozhikkode involving Rs 5,000 crore, gas-based power plants involving Rs 8,000 crore, Kannur international airport with an investment of Rs 4,500 crore and the capacity addition at the Titanium Sponge Plant worth Rs 3,500 crore. State Industries and IT minister P K Kunhalikutty said the state is creating an enabling environment that allows industries to establish and thrive in the state. PPP, with a single window clearance, would be the model for all mega projects in the state. An independent, high-level body has also been proposed to expedite clearance and approval for projects and to settle investors grievances. "The state is willing to give incentives and concessions to any project that provides long-term value for its people. We have big plans for sectors that have been our strong points, such as IT, tourism and medical tourism, food and agro processing, ports, shipbuilding and logistics, education and infrastructure development," he added. Chandy will meet with top industrialists in the city tomorrow. Some of the leading names who will meet the chief minister include the chairmen/heads companies like Bharat Petroleum, Godrej Group, Kotak Mahindra, Videocon, Marcio, Welspun Group, HCC, M&M among others.

  Indian Railways News  / Anti- Terrorism Day observed

East Coast Railway observed the Anti- Terrorism Day at its headquarters, Rail Sadan, Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar and all Divisional headquarters at Khurda Road, Sambalpur and Visakhapatnam by taking pledge on non-violence and tolerance.On the occasion of observance of anti-terrorism day, Indra Ghosh of General Manager of East Coast Railway administered oath to the employees to oppose terrorism, violence and to promote peace and social harmony.