RailEnquiry

  Indian Railways News  / Railways wakes up to eliminate 80 unmanned crossings

Thiruvananthapuram/Alappuzha: The public ire over the mishap that snuffed out five lives on Sunday at an unmanned level crossing (ULC) near Aroor railway station seems to have forced the railways to spring into action.
    Not only has the railways deployed a temporary guard at the level crossing, it has also decided to eliminate all the 80 ULCs under the Thiruvananthapuram division by 2013. Divisional railway manager (DRM) Rajesh Agarwal said at the state capital that out of the 80 ULCs, 30 will be converted into manned ones. “The rest will be closed as no construction works can be carried out in many places,” he said.
    Meanwhile, the swift action by the railways to convert the ULC near Aroor station into a manned one on Sunday itself has raised many eyebrows. But the DRM quickly pointed out that the railways had already plans to convert this ULC into a manned one. Two years ago, the authorities set up a building for the gatekeeper and even brought the required equipment to make the level crossing a manned one, but the plan did not take off as the state government failed to provide with water and power supply. “On Sunday night, the government provided us with both power and water,” Agarwal said.
    He said that in Alappuzha out of the 22 ULCs, the railways will close 12 and convert the remaining 10 into manned railway gates. “Based on a consensus with the local bodies, we have also decided to close ULC number 108 and 16,” he said.
    Pointing out that the sudden closure of ULCs may discomfort the locals, he said that an opinion of the local authorities will be sought before closing them down. “If needed, the railways will provide land to construct alternate roads near these crossings,” he said.
    He also criticized the state government for going slow on the construction of road overbridges to avert mishaps at ULCs. “We are willing to share up to 50% of the construction cost if the government comes over to build ROBs, provided they use latest technologies. Talks are on with the government on this issue,” he said.
    The DRM made it clear the railways will not compensate the kin of the accident victims as it was not the mistake of the loco-pilot. Meanwhile, the dawn-to-noon hartal called by LDF in Aroor grama panchayat on Monday was total. District panchayat president Prathiba Hari said though the district has three Union ministers, ULCs continue to death traps. “After this accident, the railways quickly converted it into a manned one. It shows that railways is waiting for a mishap to act” she said.
Three-member panel to probe accident
Kochi: The railways has appointed a three-member committee to probe into the accident at an unmanned level crossing near Aroor railway station. It will be headed by Ernakulam railway area manager Ashok Kumar and will have a member each from electrical and engineering wings from Thiruvananthapuram railway division.
    “The panel will start the probe on Tuesday and complete it in seven days,” said S Anantharaman, chief safety officer, Southern Railway, Chennai.
    Meanwhile, Satheesh Kumar Mittal, commissioner of railway safety, said he had sanctioned the manning of the railway gate near Aroor station on July 30. GREEN SIGNAL TO END LEVEL CROSSING MISHAPS
All 80 ULCs under TVM division to be eliminated by 2013 30 ULCs to be converted into manned ones In Alappuzha, 12 ULCs will be closed Remaining 10 to be made manned gates Railways ready to foot up to 50% of ROB construction cost
KEY FINDINGS OF RAILWAY SAFETY COMMITTEE
Level crossing accidents contribute to 65% deaths & 38% injuries of the total rail mishaps of all types
There are 14,896 unmanned level crossings in the country
RECOMMENDATION TO RLY MINISTRY
Eliminate all 32,735 level crossings in the country by creating a Rs 50,000-crore special purpose vehicle to build overbridges & underpasses

  Indian Railways News  / Skip the queue with Western Railway’s ticket kiosks

MUMBAI: Western Railway (WR) commuters won't need to stand in long queues at Churchgate station to buy tickets or renew their passes. WR on Friday installed two Automatic Ticketing Kiosks (ATKs) that allow commuters to buy tickets, recharge smart cards and renew season tickets in a matter of seconds. The machines, however, require commuters to tender exact fare, including currency notes and coins.

The machines have been installed on a pilot basis and will be installed at other WR stations if they are a hit with commuters. WR officials said they will observe the machines' performance for a month.

These user-operated machines have been approved by the Centre for Railway Information, an information and technology arm of the Indian Railways. Till Friday evening, around 90 commuters had used the ATKs. A senior WR official said, "The ATKs will accept currency notes from Rs 5-500. We have requested commuters not to use the new Re 1 coin and the Rs 2 coin. The software has been designed in such a way that it will discard currency notes that are old, fake, wet, moist or mutilated."

WR has deployed personnel with technical expertise at the kiosks. "They will guide commuters and give them step-by-step instructions on how to use the machines," said the WR official. "There is a time out of 60 second. Each transaction must be completed within this time."

Commuters have welcomed the move. Virar resident Vivek Pandya said, "It is good initiative but the exact fare condition can turn out to be drawback."

  Indian Railways News  / Bengal asks railways to refund investment in new metro project

With Mukul Roy's exit from Rail Bhavan, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee seems to be in a hurry to get all the state's dues cleared by the railways.

This is evident in the fact that West Bengal government has written to ministry of railways to refund its investment of Rs 146.50 crore in East-West metro project, which railways agreed to take over from the state during Roy's regime.

According to officials, a letter has already been sent to railway ministry asking for the refund. Incidentally, state has gone slow on releasing fund for the project, as the stake hand over talks were on for the last one year. While urban development ministry has earmarked Rs 234 crore for the project, state's contribution has been only 146.50 crore.

Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), a joint venture between the Union urban development ministry and the West Bengal government, is developing the East-West metro project that will connect Salt Lake to Howrah. Both West Bengal government and the Union urban development ministry originally had 30 per cent and 25 per cent stake in KMRC, respectively, while the balance 45 per cent of the project cost was taken as loan from the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC).

There was in-principle understanding last year that both the state government and the union urban development ministry will hand over their stakes in the project to the railway ministry. Later, following Mamata Banerjee's  request Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured cabinet approval for the stake hand over.

  Indian Railways News  / Rail projects announced for WB will be implemented in time bound manner: C.P.Joshi.

Railway Minister C P Joshi said on Tuesday that the rail projects announced for West Bengal by the UPA government, will be implemented in a time bound manner. A six member Congress delegation led by former Bengal Minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia met Mr. Joshi in New Delhi.
During the meeting, the Minister assured the delegation about timely implementation of the rail projects in the state.

He said, the projects will not be affected due to change of guard in Railway Ministry. The delegation also submitted a memorandum to the Minister, seeking assurance on the continuation of all rail projects announced for the state.

  Indian Railways News  / L and T Construction wins Rs 1241 cr orders

L and T Construction on Wednesday said it has secured new orders valued ` 1241 Crores across various business segments in September.The Buildings and Factories IC of L and T Construction has bagged new orders worth ` 697 Crores for the construction of residential towers, cement plants and factory structures across the country.In the Railways Business sector, the Company has won orders aggregating ` 544 Crores from Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).The scope of work includes Railway electrification works between Guntakal –Raichur -Wadi stations of South Central Railway and another order for railway construction, track work, signaling and telecommunication in the Lucknow and Izatnagar divisions of North Eastern Railway.Larsen and Toubro (L and T) is a USD 12.8 billion technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services conglomerate, with global operations. (IBNS)