RailEnquiry

  Indian Railways News  / Rly help desk offers little help to accident chaos

Howrah: Relatives of passengers travelling on the Up Doon Express rushed to Howrah station on Thursday on getting the news of the accident. But the help desk set up by the railways could offer little information, leaving them confused and angry. While some managed to contact their relatives over the phone, most were clueless about the fate of their near and dear ones.
    Howrah resident Dinesh Mukherjee broke down at the helpdesk, unable to get any information about his father Basudeb, 69, mother Juthika, 55, and brother Subrata, 27. Mukherjee tried to get in touch with his family members, but when their numbers were unreachable, he went to the station. “I had spoken to my father around 8am. He said that everything was fine. I have been trying to call them for a few hours now but none of the numbers they are carrying is reachable. With the help desk here having no information, I feel all the more helpless,” said Mukherjee.
    His parents and younger brother, from Ramkrishna Pukur Lane in Shibpur, were travelling in S9 coach to Haridwar. The coach was among the six derailed ones. Though the help desk had information that four persons had died and 15 were injured, it had no information on who the casualties were, adding to the woes of the relatives.
    Sheikh Javed and Mohammad Javed of Howrah’s Bankra were frantically trying to locate their uncle Sheikh Azim and four minor cousins – Neha, 10, Chhoti, 12, Salma, 16 and S Ladri, 8. Azim was on the ill-fated train and going to Dehradun to drop off the children who had come to Bankra for their summer vacation.
    “We had been trying to contact them since we heard about the accident. Luckily Salma picked up the phone. But she sounded nervous and said that uncle Azim was injured and in no position to speak. We are really worried,” said Mohammad Javed.
    For Sanjeev Rai, a resident of Bhopal, the joy of his daughter bagging a job, had turned into a nightmare. On Monday, Rai had come to the city with daughter Pamela, 24, after she got a job with an IT company in Salt Lake Sector V. He also saw Pamela off at the station when she, along with a team from the organization, left for Dehradun to attend a training programme. Rai was supposed to leave for Bhopal on Thursday night, but instead headed for Jaunpur by the relief train to meet his daughter.
    “I am a little relieved after I spoke to my daughter. She said a sudden jolt threw her off the seat, injuring her in the head and leg. Now I will have to spend an agonising night before I can see her for myself,” said Rai. The railways has arranged to take relatives of the passengers to Jaunpur by adding more bogies to the Doon Express for Thursday night.


Mohammad and Sheikh Javed enquire about their uncle Sheikh Azim at the Howrah station on Thursday after getting news of the accident

  Indian Railways News  / Science Exp to raise awareness on biodiversity

New Delhi: Science Express -- a 16-coach train for promoting scientific temper -- is all set to begin its fifth journey on Tuesday, this time to raise awareness about the country's unique biodiversity.

The 'Science Express - Biodiversity Special (SEBS)' will seek to reach out to over a million people and will be stationed at Hyderabad from October 9-19 when the city would host the 11th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The train will culminate for the year at Gandhinagar on December 22.

A collaboration between the Environment Ministry and the Department of Science & Technology, the train will be flagged off by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5 from Safdarjung Railway Station here.



Of the 16 coaches comprising the SEBS, eight are dedicated to showcasing biodiversity spread across the various bio-geographical zones -- the Trans-Himalaya and the Himalayas, the Gangetic Plain, North East India, the Desert and Semi-Arid Zone, the Western Ghats, the Deccan Peninsula and the Coasts and Islands.

Three other coaches have exhibits on climate change, energy and water conservation. During June-December 2012, the train will travel almost 18,000 km, halting for three to four days at each of the 52 locations.

According to the ministry, the exhibition is expected to draw more than 1.5 million visitors, while indirectly it is likely to engage over five million people.

The Science Express began as an Indo-German venture in 2007 and has toured the country four times.

  Indian Railways News  / Chhattisgarh to provide adequate security for rail project

Raipur  : Chhattisgarh authorities Saturday assured the railways of providing adequate security for the 95-km-long Dalli-Rajhara-Raoghat stretch, which falls in Naxal-dominated areas, and asked it to begin work on the crucial project.The stretch is part of the proposed 235-km Dalli-Rajhara-Jagdalpur line, for which a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in 2007.In a meeting May 15, railway general manager Arunendra Kumar had asked state Chief Secretary Sunil Kumar to speed up the land acquisition work and provide adequate security for the project.Divisional Commissioner Durgesh Chandra Mishra, who was reviewing the progress of the project, asked railway officials to first start construction of bridges and culverts on this stretch. He also asked the officials concerned to inform the affected families regarding the proposal for jobs to 463 farmers."On the proposed rail line project, the state administration will provide security as per requirement. We will deploy from a company to a battalion of security forces for safe execution of the project," Mishra told IANS.The Dalli-Rajhara-Raoghat stretch will cost Rs.631.78 crore and will help facilitate transportation of iron ore from Dalli mines.

  Indian Railways News  / CPI-M flays minister for rail accidents

New Delhi : The CPI-M Friday blamed Railway Minister Mukul Roy for the increasing number of railway accidents and said he appeared to be more engrossed in Trinamool rather than official work.After detailing the number of accidents in recent times, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said in a statement: “The responsibility for this shocking state of affairs lies with Roy.“He seems more preoccupied with the Trinamool Congress affairs and assignments in West Bengal.”It urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to “ignore the dereliction of duty by the railway minister and remain a hapless spectator”.In the latest accident Thursday, the Howrah-Dehradun Express derailed in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh killing five people.On May 22, the Hampi Express rammed into a goods train killing 25 passengers. On May 6, six coaches of the Ferozpur-Punjab Mail derailed in Rohtak.It said “the talk of sabotage by the railway minister and (West Bengal Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee cannot hide the fact that the railways are in a poor state with elementary safety standards being neglected”.

  Indian Railways News  / misbehabiour with woman tc - महिला टीसी की उस समय आ गई शामत जब वह ट्रेन में चढ़ी - www.bhaskar.com

भोपाल। भोपाल और विदिशा के बीच दक्षिण एक्सप्रेस में एक महिला टीसी के साथ मारपीट का मामला सामने आया है। जानकारी के मुताबिक भोपाल रेल मंडल के टिकट चेकिंग स्टाफ में पदस्थ आशा भुसाने शनिवार को 12722 दक्षिण एक्सप्रेस में टिकट चैक कर रही थीं। सलामतपुर और दीवानगंज स्टेशन के बीच कोच नंबर एस-5 तथा एस-6 में उन्होंने जनरल टिकट पर सफर कर रहे दो यात्रियों को पकड़ा।