RailEnquiry

  Indian Railways News  / INCREASE IN FREQUENCY OF MUMBAI - NAGPUR DURANTO EXPRESS TRI-WEEKLY TO DAILY

Ministry of Railways have decided to increase the frequency of 12289 /12290 Mumbai - Nagpur - Mumbai "Duranto" Express from Tri-Weekly to Daily with effect from 16.6.2012.
The details are as under:-
12289 Mumbai-Nagpur Duranto Tri-weekly (Mon, Wed & Fri) will run Daily from 16.6.2012
12290 Nagpur-Mumbai Duranto Tri-weekly (Sun, Tue & Thu) will run Daily from 17.6.2012
Reservation: Bookings for services of increased frequency will be open from 9.6.2012.

  Indian Railways News  / ‘Setting up of PPAC being expedited'

Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik has asked Commerce and Transport Department to prepare detail project report for construction of railway siding for establishment of Plastic, Polymer and Allied Cluster (PPAC) in Balasore within two weeks.“Target has been set to complete the constructions by end of December, 2012. The construction of railway siding will start after getting formal approval from railway authorities,” Mr. Patnaik said in a statement after reviewing the progress of project here on Friday. The DPAR would be submitted to South Eastern Railway.The PPAC cluster is coming up on the outskirts of Balasore town involving three areas such as Ganeswarpur, Somnathpur and Balgopalpur. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been formed for the purpose, accordinf to a release.

  Indian Railways News  / 5-minute Metro

Calcutta : Metro Railway will run trains at an interval of five minutes in the morning and evening peak hours from tomorrow.According to the new schedule, trains starting from Tollygunge station between 8.45am and 9.15am will run at an interval of five minutes. The frequency will be the same for trains from Kavi Subhash station (New Garia) from 10.56am to 11.56am and 6pm to 7pm.Metro trains starting from Dum Dum between 10.02am and 11.02am and between 5pm and 6pm will also be available at five-minute intervals. The five-minute facility will be availlable from Monday to Friday.“For the convenience of Metro passengers and to tackle the rush of commuters, it has been decided that three trains will be run directly from Mahanayak Uttam Kumar (Tollygunge) to Dum Dum rather than from Kavi Subhash to Dum Dum at 8.50am, 9am and 9.10am on weekdays,” said Protyush Ghosh, the DGM (administration) of Metro Railway.At present, the interval between trains from 9am to 8pm is six minutes. At other times, the frequency varies from eight to 15 minutes. Ghosh said that from August, peak-hour frequency would come down to four minutes.

  Indian Railways News  / A railway resthouse and a train of thought

After Faridabad, the Tughlakabad railway resthouse holds a special place of interest for those nostalgic about times past. One may doubt the story of the Bhawal Sanyasi having visited it in the course of his wanderings for justice, which he eventually got when Sir Dingle Foot, Q.C. (Queen's Counsel) proved before the Privy Council in London that he was indeed the Kumar of Bhawal State (now in Bangladesh). He had been poisoned by his rani (the wife of his elder brother, whom he had married as per custom after the former's death). But as fate would have it, his funeral pyre was doused by a sudden thunderstorm and a group of sadhus passing by, seeing signs of life in him, rescued the Kumar. The grateful prince accompanied the sadhus through jungles and towns for 12 years, until he was in a position to stake his claim in the Calcutta High Court and provide proof of his royal identity at the Privy Council.

Why he came to Tughlakabad is not known but, according to the grapevine, he had come to seek the blessings of an Armenian seer in his quest for justice. The holy man had once been a railway employee, but a dream and a meeting with a wizard made him adopt monastic life. But why did this Armenian sadhu decide to make his home in that suburb of Delhi? There are no clear-cut answers available, though it was once believed that some Armenians had settled down in that place after the massacre of Armenians in 1739 during the invasion of Nadir Shah.

Kishanganj, between Old Delhi and Sarai Rohila stations, has a cemetery where some Armenians and Dutch, who at one time were notable members of the royal court at the Red Fort, are buried. Like the Bourbons, these Armenians also bade goodbye to Delhi in the reign of Mohammad Shah Rangila. The Bourbons were worried about their women being forced by the pleasure-loving emperor to join his harem.

They found refuge with the Raja of Narwar, where one night several of them were murdered by the raja's men for some unknown reason in 1778. The rest escaped to Bhopal where they earned the patronage of the Nawab, who made them his courtiers and one of them (Salvadore) even became Prime Minister and his wife came to be known as Madame Dulhan. The Armenians did not find a godfather after their ouster from Delhi. Whether you believe the story of the Armenian seer and the Bhawal Sanyasi is a moot point. He may have travelled this far, certainly not on foot but by train, for Tughlakabad has always been an important railway link.

One had to make a night halt there a long time ago when a passenger train to Delhi from Agra Cantt was stalled for several hours because of disruption on the track. A friendly off-duty train driver, who was to stay at the Tughlakabad resthouse before getting charge of a down train, took one to the resthouse, and the remainder of the night was spent in drinking endless cups of tea and listening to yarns, like the one about the Bhawal Sanyasi and the Armenian connection.

The Armenians came to India during the reign of Akbar and settled down mostly in Delhi and Agra. They held high posts at the court, and one of them, Abdul Hayee, even became Chief Justice. Notwithstanding their names, they were all Christians, some prefixing them with the honorific Khwaja or Khoja. In course of time the Armenian community dwindled in North India. Many of them found a new home in Kolkata, where the Armenian Church and Armenian Street are famous landmarks. The Armenians merged with the Anglo-Indians and became big names like the enterprising Arathoons. Mrs Gandhi during her first term as Prime Minister visited Yeravan, in Armenia, to review old links.

One such link in India was the Ceastan family. The name was derived from Siestan, a region of Armenia. The death of Aubrey Ceastan recently opened the floodgates of memory. His father was a big, burly mustached man, who resembled Dr. Watson of Sherlock Holmes stories and retired as driver of Mail and Express trains.

His uncle was an absented-minded, soft-spoken man, who looked like Robinson Crusoe and could speak impeccable Urdu with the grace actor Tom Alter does now. Aubrey, a fine athlete and good boxer, also joined the Railways (as a guard) and retired 18 years ago. His major achievement was volunteering to take an essential supplies train for the Army to the northern border during the second conflict with Pakistan, necessitated by the Bangladesh War. Imagine the train moving on endangered tracks with bomber planes flying around and Ceastan holding his nerve, as in the boxing ring. One heard a graphic account of his odyssey while once travelling with him to Delhi.

One's last meeting with him was two years ago. He had come up from Tughlakabad and was waiting for a bus at Shankar Road en route to R.K. Puram. Ceastan was proud that his son had become a teacher in the same school where he and his father had studied. It too had once been an Armenian institution, and thus an old link survives.

  Indian Railways News  / RPF dog squad gets a boost, 11 pups to join duty in year

Pluto is ‘decisive’, while Jelly is ‘calculative but cautious’, Rencho, China and Sem are playful. After a year’s training, they would be invaluable to their employers, but for now, tiny and chubby, they are busy playing with each other at the Railway Protection Force (RPF) dog squad facility, Matunga. The new bunch of 11 sniffer and tracker dogs will join the present force of 26 dogs with the Mumbai division of the Central Railway (CR) as part of the integrated security plan for the benefit of commuters. In October, these dogs will be sent to training centres in Coimbatore and Delhi.

From next month, the CR will start replacing or installing new security devices and hi-tech security equipment at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), as a tender of Rs 27 crore was awarded recently in this regard. Six major stations have been selected under the plan. The integrated security system will have five basic elements, including Internet protocol-based video surveillance system, access control system, personal and baggage screening systems, bomb detection and disposal system and system integration.

“From next month, we will start implementing the aspects under Integrated security plan. Door-frame metal detectors, luggage and parcel scanners will be installed at CST,” said Anil Sharma, Chief Security Commissioner, CR.

On April 19, the CR purchased 14 pups from breeding units in Sangli, Kolhapur and Pune. Of these, nine are sniffers (Labrador) and five are trackers (Doberman).

“On the same day, two sniffers were sent to Bhusawal and Solapur and one tracker was sent to Pune. At present, we have seven sniffers and four trackers in the new team for Mumbai division,” said Alok Bohra, Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, CR.

At present, there are 26 dogs— 16 in Matunga and 10 in Kalyan. Each sniffer is purchased at a cost of Rs 12,000 and a tracker for Rs 15,000. Each dog has a handler and an assistant handler.

“The dogs are given practice sessions. Sniffer dogs are given practice to smell explosives. Five bags are put before them with an explosive kept in one bag and the sniffer dogs were taught to detect the explosive. Similarly, trackers are being trained by giving them two handkerchiefs. One handkerchief is put near them and after making them smell it, the other handkerchief is hidden. After some practice, the tracker retrieves the handkerchief from its hiding place,” added Bohra.

In July, eight kennels will be commissioned at CST, where trained sniffer and tracker dogs will be on duty day and night. However, the newly acquired pups will join duty after a year of training.