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  Indian Railways News  / Four Express Trains to be Inaugurated From Secunderabad / Hyderabad on 11th July, 2012

The followingfour Express trains which were announced in the Railway Budget will be inaugurated o­n 11th July, 2012 from Secunderabad / Hyderabad.
1)Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam-SecunderabadTri-Weekly AC Duronto Express:
On its Inaugural run, Train No. 02204 Secunderabad-Vishakhapatnam Tri-weekly AC Duronto Express will depart Secunderabad at 11.30 hrs o­n 11th July, 2012 (Wednesday) and arrive Vishakhapatnam at21.30 hrson the same day.
This train will commence its regular services o­n 12th July, 2012 from Visakhapatnam,and from Secunderabad o­n 14thJuly, 2012. This is a point to point non stop Express and will not stop at intermediate stations.Accordingly, Train No. 22204 Secunderabad-Vishakhapatnam Tri-weekly AC Durontoexpresswill depart Secunderabad at 20.30 hrsonMondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and arrive at Vishakhapatnam at 06.05 hrs o­n the next day. In the return direction, Train no 22203 Tri-weekly AC Durontoexpress will depart Vishakhapatnam at 22.35 hrs o­n all Tuesdays,Thursdays and Sundays and arrive Secunderabad at 08.00 hrs o­n the next day.
This Train will have 15 coaches Viz.,one AC First class, three AC II Tier, nine AC III Tier and two break van cum power car coaches.
2)Hyderabad-Bellampalli-Hyderabad Daily Intercity Express:
On its Inaugural run, Train No.07011 Hyderabad-Bellampalli Intercity Express will depart Hyderabad at 11.30 hrs o­n 11th July, 2012 and arrive at Bellampally at 16.05 hrs the same day. In the return direction, Train No.07012 Bellampalli-Hyderabad Intercity Express will depart Bellampalli at 16.55 hrs and arrive Hyderabad at 21.50 hrs o­n the same day.
The regular service of this train will commence from 12th July, 2012 from both the directions. Accordingly, Train No. 17011 Hyderabad–Bellampalli Daily Intercity Expresswill depart Hyderabad at 05.15 hrsand arrive Bellampalli at 10.00 hrs o­n the same day.In the return direction TrainNo.17012 Bellampalli-Hyderabad Intercity Express will depart Bellampalli at 10.30 hrs and arrive Hyderabad at 15.45 hrs o­n the same day. Enroute this train will stop at Secunderabad, Bhongir, Aler, Jangoan Kazipet, Uppal, Jammikunta, Potkapalli, Odela, Kolanur, Peddampalli, Ramagundam and Manchiryal stations in both the directions.
This train will have 15 Coaches Viz., Ten Chair Car, o­ne AC chair Car,two General second class and two Second Class Luggage Cum Break Van coaches totaling to 15 coaches.
3)Secunderabad-Dharbhanga-Secunderabad Bi weekly Express Train:
On its inaugural run Train No.07007 Secunderabad-Dharbhanga Bi-weekly Express will depart Secunderabad at 11.40 hrs o­n 11th July, 2012 and arrive Dharbhanga at 01 15 hrs o­n the second day. In the return direction also, the train will run as a Special Train No.07008 Darbhanga-Secunderabad Express and will depart Darbhanga o­n 14th July 2012 at 07.00 hrs. and will arrive Secunderabad at 22.10 hrs. the next day.
This Train will commence its regular run o­n 14th July, 2012 from Secunderabad and o­n 17th bJuly 2012 from Dharbhanga. o­n its regular run,Train No 17007 Secunderabad Dharbhanga Bi-Weekly Express will depart Secunderabad at 22 00 hrs o­n Tuesdays and Saturdays and arrive Dharbhanga at 13 00 hrs o­n Thursdays and Mondays respectively. In the return direction, 17008 Dharbhanga- Secunderabad Bi-weekly Express will depart Dharbhanga at 07 00 hrs o­n Fridays and Tuesdays and arrive Secunderabad at 22 10 hrs o­n Saturdays and Wednesdays respectively.
Enroute, these Trains will stop at Kazipet, Ramagundam, Manchiryal, Sirpurkaghaznagar, Balharshah, Gondia, Durg, Raipur, Bilaspur, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Ranchi, Muri, Bokaro Steel City, Dhanbad, Chittaranjan, Madhupur, Jaisidih, Jhaja, Kiul, Barauni and Samastipur stations.
These Trains will have 18 coaches viz., o­ne AC Two Tier, two AC Three Tier, Seven Sleeper Class, Six General Second Class and two Second Class Luggage Cum Brake Van Coaches.
4)Hyderabad-Ajmer weekly Express Train:
On its inaugural run, Train No.07020 Hyderabad-Ajmer Weekly Express will depart Hyderabad at 11.40 hrs o­n 11thJuly, 2012 and arrive Ajmer at 23.45 hrs o­n the second day. In the return direction also, the train will run as a Special Train No.07019 Ajmer-Secunderabad Express and will depart Ajmer o­n 14thJuly 2012 at 17.40 hrs. and will arrive Secunderabad at 08.10 hrs. the secondday.
This Train will commence its regular service from 14th July, 2012 from Hyderabad and from 17th July 2012 from Ajmer. Accordingly, Train No 17020 will departHyderabad at15 00 hrs o­n Saturdays and will reach Ajmer at 03 05 o­n Mondays. In the return direction, Train No 17019 Ajmer-Hyderabad Weekly Express depart will depart Ajmer at 17 40 hrs o­n Tuesdays and reach Hyderabad o­n Thursday at 08 10 hrs.
Enroute these trains will stop at Secunderabad, Malkajgiri, Medchal, Kamareddy, Nizamabad, Basar, H S Nanded, Parbhani Junction, Jalna, Aurangabad, Manmad junction, Jalogaon, Bhusaval, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Harda, Itarsi, Bhopal, Ujjain, Ratlam, Mandasor, Nimach, Chittaurgarh, Bhilwara and Bijainagar stations.
These Trains will have 21 coaches viz., o­ne AC Two Tier, two AC Three Tier, 10 Second Class Chair Car, six General Second Class and twoSecond Class Luggage Cum Brake Van Coaches.
The timings of these trains have already been incorporated in the Southern Zone Railway Time Table-July 2012 issue.

  Indian Railways News  / The Hindu : Cities / Thiruvananthapuram : Railways not to pay for treatment

The accidental firing from the service pistol of a Railway Protection Force constable at the Central Railway Station here on Friday night, injuring M. Manauf, 47, has focussed public attention on the rules governing disbursement of compensation by Railways.

Railway Protection Force personnel who accompanied Mr. Manauf to a private hospital in the city paid Rs. 10,000 as initial hospital charges.

Later, however, they told his wife, Y. Yasmin, that there was no legal provision to pay more as compensation.

Mr. Manauf, an employee of the University of Kerala, had gone to the railway station on Friday night to book a ticket to Madurai to take his four-year-old daughter there for medical treatment. A bullet entered his stomach and exited through the back.

To queries from The Hindu, a senior Railway official said here on Sunday that the Railway Act had no provision to provide monetary compensation in such an incident.

Unprecedented

“First of all, this incident, for us, is unprecedented. It should never have happened and our hearts go out to the injured person and his family. But then he was not a passenger and the incident was not an operational Railway accident as it is defined in our Act. Thus, as an organisation, we simply cannot offer any money for treatment, now. What we can do is send a report to New Delhi where the Railway Minister can authorise payment of money and decide how much we should pay. We will discuss that on Monday,” the official said.

K.J. Joy, Commandant of the Railway Protection Force here, said Mr. Manauf was taken to the private hospital by the personnel because he and his wife asked them to do so.

He agreed that there might have been a small delay in taking the injured man to the hospital because everyone, including Railway Protection Force personnel, was stunned into inaction when the gun went off.

“It took some minutes for our personnel to realise that the bullet had hit a person. Though we paid an amount initially at the hospital, we cannot officially pay any money for the treatment. This is why the Railway Protection Force Association members are frantically pooling money to be handed over to Mr. Manauf’s family. It may be only a small part of the hospital bill, though,” Mr. Joy said.

He denied that the Railway Protection Force was in any manner shielding Ishakiya Pani, the constable involved in the incident.

“We have suspended him from service and have launched our own inquiry. There is no question of shielding anyone,” he added.

  Indian Railways News  / PUNJAB’S LAWLESS ROADS

The fatality figure in road accidents in Punjab is nearly six times higher than the deaths caused in homicide cases. According to a report circulated by the Government of India, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, another disturbing trend has come to light. Punjab leads a majority of the states in the severity of road accidents. For every 100 accidents there are 64.3 fatalities in Punjab, which are two to three times more than the figures of Kerala (11.3), Karnatka (20.7) and Maharashtra (17.3). Ludhiana enjoys the dubious distinction of leading other major cities of India where accident severity stands at 52.8, taking the totality of dead and injured persons into account.It is, therefore, high time a revolutionary change was effected into the entire gamut of safety management on roads – covering its three cliché-ridden components – engineering, education and enforcement. At the moment there is an underperformance under all the three heads.An average Punjabi, given to conspicuous consumption, goes in for fast-running vehicles. With speed being the essence of driving there is a temptation to drive with impunity. The faster the vehicle and the better the road, the more dangerous is the road accident with a corresponding reduction in safety and survival quotient

User-unfriendly roads

One can begin by looking at engineering, which is the principal culprit in endangering road safety. Our roads compared to what we have seen in the better developed countries are not user-friendly. With rampant encroachments, the inadequacy of berms and hard shoulders, with approach roads cutting into highways at right angles and no separation between coming and going traffic, it is a challenge to drive on roads. Hitting the nail on the head, American TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey compared the driving in India to a ‘video game’.

Six-laning or at least four-laning of all the important arteries should be accorded due priority. Unfortunately, the Ludhiana-Chandigarh segment is arguably one of the most neglected areas in spite of such intense traffic between these two important cities. The Ludhiana-Ferozepur, Ropar-Phagwara and Chandigarh-Patiala-Bathinda roads need to be six-laned in the first instance. There is no harm if more roads are built on the BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis as some of our better roads already are. It is often said that there are vertical solutions to horizontal problems. The need for building more flyovers and under-bridges cannot be over-emphasised.

Poor rail connectivity

Punjab has the misfortune of having a primitive inter-city and no intra-city rail connectivity. One reason for the burgeoning increase in vehicular traffic on Punjab roads is that there is no efficient railway system between the main cities. Lately, there has been a realisation that Metro railways on the pattern of Delhi need to be introduced in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, which should have inter-city connectivity. It is necessary to connect all the passenger ‘catchment’ areas of one city with the diverse destinations in the other cities covering contiguous areas as well. There is a crying need for fast railway shuttle services between Amritsar and Chandigarh touching Jalandhar and Ludhiana. One should be able to cater to the passenger need in such a manner that a person starting at 7 am from Amritsar should be able to reach Chandigarh by 10 am to be able to attend state government offices or the high court and return home by 10 pm the same day. This will take a lot of traffic off the Grand Trunk Road, which is getting clogged at various places.A look at random vegetation along the main roads reveals a retrograde mindset. Gone are the days when slow-moving carts were to traverse the road looking for a shady cover on the protracted journey. With fast-moving and air-conditioned vehicles now becoming more a rule than an exception a clearer line of a sight is more important than getting shady patches on the way.

Trees along roads

The Forest Department puts most vegetation on the verge of berms and whenever a road has to be widened, it entails extensive deforestation, which often invites criticism from environmentalists. Government agencies involved in planting trees along the roads should take steps to put the green cover at the far end of the government land. Putting shrubs and hedges close to a road impedes the line of sight and leads to a frequent loss of human and animal life, especially after dark.

Road discipline
Traffic Education, which is the second constituent of security, is confined mainly to cities. In the countryside and on highways there is no attempt at educating road-users. There is need to address the student and farming community at greater length. Awareness of road discipline is inadequately practised both by youth as well as farmers, although for different reasons. Youth may be aware but less willing to be cautious due to sheer adolescence. Studies reveal that 32.4% of fatalities on roads in India are in the age group of 15 and 24. The farming and rural community accounts for 60.6% fatalities in a spatial distribution of road accidents. There are about half a million tractors on road in Punjab. It is necessary that a comprehensive education programme addresses the farming community.The enforcement of the traffic rules is not the job of the police alone. Scrapping the road enforcement powers of the police a few years ago was like throwing the baby with the bathwater. Corruption on the road was quoted as the solitary reason for withdrawing the police from the highways. Instead of detecting and punishing the erring police officers it was found easier to leave the roads alone to the potential violators of traffic rules. But a realisation has now emerged that unless you trust and empower the police and equip it with the latest gadgetry and interception vehicles, nothing tangible can be achieved. The ubiquitous and stealthily deployed traffic cop is highly dreaded in the western countries because of his unsparing professional commitment. We can have similar cops here as well if they are truly motivated and protected.Undetected ‘hit-and-run’ cases are a major concern impacting safety on the roads. In the absence of traffic check-posts it is difficult to report an offending vehicle on the run. Often the road-user is not aware of the police station or the district of jurisdiction where the offence is taking place. It is very important that the telephone and mobile numbers of the SHOs and their superior officers are displayed on roads so that an offending vehicle is easily reported and intercepted.

Grant of licences

Obtaining a driving licence, especially of heavy vehicles, is perhaps the easiest thing in our country. A majority of the illiterate drivers do not have the volition to drive in the dedicated lane. They often block traffic on the fast lane, making it necessary for the faster traffic to overtake from the wrong side. Stricter qualifications of driving capability and road awareness needs to be prescribed for granting a licence to the drivers of heavy vehicles.Studies reveal that nearly 30% of accidents involve heavy vehicles on the roads. There is need to instill a fear of the law on the road, which at present seems to be supplanted by the ‘horsepower’ that a vehicle has behind its engine. Speed really thrills but kills. Some NGOs and private hospitals are doing a good job of emergency evacuation but it needs more uniform adoption all over the state.

Skewed excise logic
And now a word of caution against our skewed excise logic. Punjab roads are a tippler’s paradise. It is a joke in informed circles that it is easier to buy a bottle of liquor on the road than to get a tablet of aspirin. If you buy a bottle on the road, you are not expected to stay sober for very long. Even if it amounts to losing some excise revenue, liquor vends near the roads should be removed. The step may be in consonance with the Directive Principles of State Policy which are enshrined in the Constitution of India – the supreme law of the land.

Road Safety Board
The government can begin by taking the initiative of setting up a Road Safety Board on the pattern of what the Government of India is contemplating. It should not hold its deliberations in air-conditioned chambers only. Those involved should visit all traffic sectors in the state and carry out a holistic in-depth study of the shortcomings in road safety and study the causes of accidents in the accident-prone areas to do extensive accident mapping of the state.The board can consist of retired engineers, police officers and enlightened citizens who may give time-bound reports for the government to start acting without much delay. Some harsh decisions will have to be taken but they will be amply justified by a favourable social ‘cost-benefit’ analysis. There is need to save lives on the road: one does not know for whom the bell may toll next.

  Indian Railways News  / Pinki Pramanik Gets Bails After 25 Days in Custody

Asian Games gold medalist Pinki Pramanik, arrested after a woman charged that the athlete was a male and had raped her, was today granted bail by a court in North 24 Parganas district after spending 25 days in judicial custody.The bail was granted by the Barasat court to Pramanik, whose chromosome pattern test report to determine her gender was received by the SSKM Hospital yesterday.Pramanik was arrested on June 14 after she was accused of being a male by live-in partner, a 30-year-old estranged woman who also alleged she was raped.A PIL was moved in the Calcutta High Court on July 6 alleging inhuman torture on the athelete.The court has directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit within two weeks on the progress of the investigation.The West Bengal Human Rights Commission has also stepped in and directed the home, health and police departments to inquire into the allegations of 'torture' on the athlete in police and jail custody.Pramanik had won the 4x400m relay gold in the 2006 Doha Asiad and silver in the same event at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.Pinki had bagged three gold medals in the 2006 SAF Games in Colombo when she won the 400m, 800m and 4x400m relay events.

  Indian Railways News  / Odisha: Boy who lost his palm by recovering bombs from the railway track faces a grim battle with po

Bipin Sahoo (12) of Khilipanga village under Korei block in Jajpur  who save the lives of many railway passengers on 25th December last is now fighting a grim battle with poverty thanks to the slipshod attitude of the authority.Bipin  discovered 10 bombs packed in a packet on the railway track at Khilipanga village between Korei – Baitarani Road railway station . He suffered serious injuries when bombs exploded while he was removing the bombs from the railway track.He suffered serious injuries. The doctors of SCB medical college and hospital in Cuttack amputated his right palm to save his life. His right eye was also damaged.Bipin used to read in class eight last year. After his right palm was amputated , he stopped going to the school.Many persons including railway officials praised my son for saving the lives of many railway passengers and assured to provide him financial helps and bravery award  last year.. But the authority has yet to provide financial compensation to his son", said Sirish the father of Bipin. His life was saved by the doctors in SCB medical college and hospital . But his right palm was  amputated in the hospital."My son spent three months in the SCB medical college and hospital in Cuttack  , where his right palm  was amputated by the doctors. We urged doctors not to amputate his palm. But to save his life, doctors amputated his palm"  , said Sirish  the father of Bipin a poor farmer.

"I sold my three acres of land for the treatment of my son. Now , I am a landless man.  My son was a good student . But this incident forced him not to study", said Sirish.

When contacted Anil Samal  the district collector of Jajpur  told this paper "Recently I  provided some financial help to him from district red cross fund. The authority will also arrange an artificial limb for him and recommend his name for any national level bravery award".