CR installs safety device to check on engine driver

Manoj Badgeri TNN

Mumbai: The Central Railway (CR) officials are installing safety devices “programmed to stop a running train in case there is no response from the staff ”. This comes in the wake of a longdistance train which missed its scheduled halt at Thane recently.
The device—Vigilance Control Device (VCD)—will be fitted in around 350 diesel and
electric-powered CR locomotives. Once installed, the driver “will have to register his presence” by increasing or decreasing the train’s speed and blowing the whistle once every 10 minutes. If this doesn’t happen, the device will try to alert the driver or his assistant by setting off an alarm, that will have to be manually deactivated, said a CR official. However, if there is still no response, the device will halt the train, added the official.
Each VCD will cost Rs 1 lakh and CR officials said they have been approved by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation and the installation will be completed by March 2012.
“We have already fitted these devices in around 24 diesel-powered rakes,” said V A Malegaonkar, CR’s chief pub-

WR, CR to go green with fuel from plants

Simit Bhagat TNN

Mumbai: The Western and Central railways have decided to go green in order to reduce its carbon footprint. They have been planting saplings of jatropha, a major source of biodiesel, on pilot basis.
‘‘Running trains on bio-fuel will help cut down the cost of operations and also cause less pollution. We have sucessfully conducted trial runs using biodiesel. We will gradually include more bio-diesel-run services, said Sharat Chandrayan, chief PRO, WR.
At present, the railways are using alternative forms of fuel for selected trains. The Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi Express, for example, runs on a mixture of conventional diesel and biodiesel.
Central Railway has also planted around 7.50 lakh jatropha trees along the tracks. According to experts, around half-a-liter of oil can be generated from one japtropha tree.
‘‘The target for the 2010-11 is to plant around seven lakh saplings in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. We haven’t begun extracting oil yet. But we plan to begin the process by this year,’’ said A K Singh, PRO, CR.
According to the bio-fuel policy of the National Planning Commission, a target of 20% use of bio-fuels has been proposed by 2017. Officials said the Indian Railways consumes over 20 million litres of diesel every year. Since the price of conventional fuel has been increasing, we have to use alternatives, said a railway official.
Also, tests done by the Canadian Railways have suggested that trains can be run on biodiesel without making any major technical changes.

TREES OF HOPE

The oil from Jatropha curcas seeds is used for making bio-diesel. Experts claim that jatropha can be easily grown on wetlands in India. Jatropha has been planted extensively throughout the country. The plant produces seeds containing 27% to 40% of oil. However, jatropha seeds could be highly toxic and just four seeds from its plum-sized fruit is enough to kill, while the sap from its bark can cause rashes.

NWR to start direct route between Bikaner and Delhi

The North Western Railway (NWR) will soon start a new railway route from Bikaner to Delhi without passing through Jaipur. If all goes well, then by the end of the current financial year, the Bikaner-Ratangarh-Delhi route will be ready for passengers.

It will be a shorter route, which will save time and money of the passengers. The work on the track is on and the NWR engineers are giving it final touches.

Ratangarh and Delhi were already connected by railway tracks. Now, the engineers have completed the work of laying railway tracks between Bikaner and Ratangarh, which will eventually connect Bikaner with Delhi. Earlier, Bikaner and Ratangarh were connected through metre gauge but now the NWR has converted the metre gauge into broad gauge.

Informing about the project, NWR chief public relations officer, Lalit Bohra said, "The work on signals and at loop lines at stations is in progress and it would be completed soon."

Earlier, the residents of Bikaner have to travel to Delhi via Ajmer and Jaipur, which is a longer route. "The new route would be around 80-100 kilometres shorter in comparison to Bikaner-Ajmer-Jaipur route," Bohra said.

A new train on the Bikaner-Ratangarh-Delhi route is also proposed in the railways budget 2010-11. Soon, the train will be flagged off on the route, which will benefit the people of Bikaner and Ratangarh.
The work was done by the NWR on a priority basis as the proposed train is to be flagged off on the track.

Besides, the NWR is also eyeing to complete the work of laying tracks between Ajmer and Pushkar by the end of the current financial year.

The NWR has also set a target to complete all the work of converting metre gauge into broad gauge by the end of this financial year.

The NWR will start the work of laying down new railway line between Dungarpur and Ratlam soon.

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/nwr-to-start-direct-route-between-bikaner-and-delhi-1661649.html?PRV=

Top executive meeting with Bangladesh Railway

A high-level railway delegation from India and Bangladesh have agreed to expedite work on Tripura’s railway connectivity with the rest of India across Bangladesh.

State transport commissioner R.K. Sharma, who attended the meeting in Delhi from May 3 to 6, said the agenda was to review the progress made in setting up railway connectivity between Agartala and the Akhaura junction in Brahmanbaria district.

The Centre agreed to bear the entire cost of Rs 25 crore for the project.

The members of the Indian Railways Board represented the Indian delegation while the Bangladesh side was represented by their railway and transport officials led by Nazimul Haq, a top executive of Bangladesh Railway.

The meeting took note of the fact that the survey, which the Indian Railways authority were to carry out, had been completed and now Bangladesh Railway would prepare a detailed feasibility report said Sharma, adding that the Bangladesh Railway authority will also simultaneously conduct another survey.

According to the alignment of railway tracks finalised by both the countries, the train from Agartala to Akhaura junction will have a 14km route throughGanga-sagar in Bangladesh opposite to Belabor-Gazaria area in south-west Agartala.

The issue of connectivity had been finalised in the discussion between visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January last year which was accepted by the Bangladesh government.

Sharma said that the just-concluded meeting in Delhi had taken up two others issues, inordinate delay faced by the passengers on Calcutta-Dhaka Maitri express at transit points and the trouble faced by passengers in booking tickets. “The delegations agreed to opening more ticket counters in Calcutta and Dhaka as well to decentralise work in transit points to provide relief to the passengers” said Sharma. The Telegraph

Bogibeel bridge to be ready by 2015

If the general manager (construction) of Northeast Frontier Railway, Ms Vijaya Kanth is to be believed, the Bogibeel rail-cum-road bridge should be ready by 2015, if the current pace of construction work continues. She clarified this in an informal chat with this newspaper today at the Bogibeel Project Officers’ Guest House here, and denied that the bridge superstructure is in for a re-tender. She claimed that the existing global tender stands valid, and only the work awardee remains to be finalised.
She informed that there is every likelihood that the bridge superstructure contract would be awarded in the next seven to ten days by the Railway Board, and that she too is pressing for this at both the Railway ministry and the Railway Board.

In the interaction with the railway official here today, former Dibrugarh MP, Sarbananda Sonowal asked the officials to beautify the bridge and its approaches with suitable tree plantation and measures that would attract visitors and tourists.

Sonowal also suggested that the railways construct a guest house at the Bogibeel area for the benefit of tourists, as the place has vast potential for growth of tourism, given the majesticity of the Brahmaputra (the river is about 8 kms wide there) and the awe-inspiring views of the Himalayas from the place.

He briefed the railway general manager of the railway history of Dibrugarh, and how citizens here crave for an appropriate railway museum. The nation’s second railway line was constructed from Mohanaghat to Dinjan more than a hundred years ago.

Bogibeel project deputy chief engineer, Mohinder Singh said that the Bogibeel site was selected way back in 1927 for a bridge across the Brahmaputra by the then British and Indian railway engineers. The plan then went to the backburner, and survey work on the site was resumed by RITES (Rail India Technical & Engineering Services) in 1967, following persistent demand for a bridge there since 1962 by the Dibrugarh Nagarik Sangha.

As for the bridge construction proper, Ms Vijaya Kanth said all the 47 pillars of the bridge would be ready for the superstructure by the middle of 2013. However, as several pillars towards the north and south banks would be ready in the coming months, work on the superstructure would begin this winter, she said. She said the design of the bridge is the latest in bridge building anywhere in the world. The length of the bridge has been modified and will now be almost five kms long.

Earlier, the length of the bridge was designed to be 4.3 km. The bridge itself would be double decked, with the lower deck having two BG railway tracks and the upper road deck would have three carriageways, with footpath on either side.

Meanwhile, work on the Rangiya – Murkong Selek railway gauge conversion has also commenced. Along with this gauge conversion, Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh would have broad gauge rail connectivity from Harmutty station in Assam. The gauge conversion work on the north bank of the Brahmaputra is likely to be completed by 2014.

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=may0811/at092

DNA (http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_mumbai-locomotive-power-heritage-train_1541437)
Mumbai locomotive power heritage train

The city’s railway workshop at Parel has had the honour of manufacturing four diesel narrow-gauge locomotives for the UNESCO-listed world heritage railway at Kalka-Shimla.
The Central Railway workshop at Parel begun manufacturing locos in 2008 and has sent Mumbai-made locomotives to a number of public bodies across the country, including Tata steel, the Bokaro steel plan and our very own Neral Matheran Railway.

The Kalka-Shimla railway was included in the UNESCO list of Mountain Railways of India in 2008. Narrow-gauge locomotives were being manufactured by Indian Railways at the Chittaranjan Locomotives Works till 1984. Parel workshop’s chief works manager Sumeet Sharma said that the workshop had manufactured four locomotives for the heritage line.

“The locos have features like a dual cab with a walkway between and sturdy panels used for aircraft with strong motors to climb steep mountains. The planning and designing was done by the workshop staff and they are proud to be associated with the world heritage railway,” said Sharma.

The Kalka-Shimla Railway is a 96-km long, single track working rail link built in the mid-19th century to provide a service to the highland town of Shimla.

The UNESCO listed the site in world heritage of mountain railways as it represents an exceptional technical achievement of rail engineering in the Himalayan Mountains because of its length, its altitude and the difficulty of the terrain through which it runs in difficult tropical climaticconditions.

Flyover track: Railways starts civil work

The railways has started civil work on the proposed flyover track between Bakhtiarpur and Barh on the mainline section under Danapur division of the East Central Railway (ECR).

The project is to cost about Rs 76 crore to the railways and will be completed phase-wise to increase the line capacity of the railways. According to ECR CPRO Dilip Kumar, the railways has almost finalized the design and structure pattern of the flyover track. The project is the joint venture of the railways and the NTPC.

The completion of this project would facilitate uninterrupted supply of coal to the power station being built at Barh located under Danapur division. The railways intends to carry coal wagons directly from Tilaiya (Jharkhand ) to the Barh power station via Rajgir-Bakhtiarpur route of the division, Kumar said.

Under the proposed plan, the railways would segregate completely coal goods traffic line between Bakhtiarpur and Barh so that mainline traffic on Patna-Howrah route is not encroached due to movement of coal wagon goods trains, the CPRO said. This ambitious project was sanctioned by the Railway Board during Nitish Kumar`s tenure as the railway minister. The railways can maintain smooth flow of traffic on the mainline route, particularly between Bakhtiarpur and Barh stations.

The railways would run at least four to five coal laden rakes daily from Tilaiya to Barh via Rajgir-Bakhtiarpur section of Danapur division. The sanctioned flyover track, a 20 km stretch between Bakhtiarpur and Barh, is bound to increase the number of lines between Bakhtiarpur and Barh, sources said.

The CPRO said that the proposed flyover track will be the first of its kind in the railways. It will be the only flyover track carrying coal wagons in such large numbers from Tilaiya to Barh to cater to the needs of the power station. The railways, however, intends to segregate a separate line from the Bakhtiarpur yard to the power station for the time being to maintain uninterrupted supply of coals. Since completion of the flyover track will take time, the railways proposes to build a separate line from Bakhtiarpur to Barh, sources said, adding the railways will thus have a direct connectivity with Tilaiya-Rajgir-Bakhtiarpur-Barh route for the coal wagon goods trains. TNN

Indian Railways to modernise Delhi station retiring rooms

Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 12:00 Hrs [IST]
By HBI Staff | Mumbai

According to a PTI report, to provide better facilities to passengers in retiring rooms at stations in the national capital, Indian Railways has decided to privatise its operation. Modern amenities including TV sets and room service will be also introduced in the retiring rooms as per the plan finalised by Northern Railways. “The maintenance of retiring rooms at New Delhi Station and Old Delhi Station is to be outsourced to offer modern amenities to customers,” said a senior official of Northern Railways.

There are a total of 33 rooms, including 22 at New Delhi Station and 11 at Old Delhi Station, available for passengers. Till now the maintenance responsibility was with the Indian Railways. However, there will be no change in the tariff of retiring rooms, said the official. While the tariff of an AC retiring room is Rs 750, that of a non-AC room is fixed at Rs 450 for 12 hours. A person can stay for a maximum of three days. The rates are cheap considering the prevailing rate in the area, he said.

A tender was floated for providing modern facilities in the retiring rooms and two players have evinced interest. “We will select one for the job shortly and whoever will be selected will be given the contract for 10 years,” said the official, adding “the contract will be on revenue sharing basis. While the contractor will earn 20 per cent, Indian Railways will be given 80 per cent of collection.”

As per the arrangement, the private players will provide clean toilets, bedsheets, towels and keep the rooms clean. “Besides the housekeeping job, catering facility including room service will be also provided. There will be TV viewing facility in the retiring rooms,” said the official.

Indian Railways will soon launch online booking of retiring rooms to make it more user-friendly and transparent.

http://www.hospitalitybizindia.com/detailNews.aspx?aid=10740&sid=1

Low cost coaches developed by RCF Kapurthala
14 September 2009
INDIA: RCF Kapurthala has developed a range of stainless steel coaches which it says are 40% cheaper than the previous designs offered under a 2001 technology transfer agreement with LHB. The high cost of stainless steel cars has previously limited their use to the main Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express services.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/typo3temp/pics/2ddc09274f.jpg

The initial batch of 28 low cost coaches includes six types for Shaheed Express services. RCF plans to produce 369 of the cars in 2009 -10, with a view to Indian Railways switching its entire production to this model.

RCF has also supplied Western Railway with 21 stainless steel coaches with a nano-coating finish derived from automotive technology, which RCF says will be easier to keep free of dust and ‘spoiling by antisocial elements’.
CC:Railway Gazette
http://www.railwaygazette.com/nc/news/single-view/view/low-cost-coaches-developed-by-rcf-kapurthala.html

Low cost coaches developed by RCF Kapurthala
14 September 2009
INDIA: RCF Kapurthala has developed a range of stainless steel coaches which it says are 40% cheaper than the previous designs offered under a 2001 technology transfer agreement with LHB. The high cost of stainless steel cars has previously limited their use to the main Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express services.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/typo3temp/pics/2ddc09274f.jpg

The initial batch of 28 low cost coaches includes six types for Shaheed Express services. RCF plans to produce 369 of the cars in 2009 -10, with a view to Indian Railways switching its entire production to this model.

RCF has also supplied Western Railway with 21 stainless steel coaches with a nano-coating finish derived from automotive technology, which RCF says will be easier to keep free of dust and ‘spoiling by antisocial elements’.
CC:Railway Gazette
http://www.railwaygazette.com/nc/news/single-view/view/low-cost-coaches-developed-by-rcf-kapurthala.html

Well, it's 2011 now, has this happened?

Low cost coaches developed by RCF Kapurthala
14 September 2009
INDIA: RCF Kapurthala has developed a range of stainless steel coaches which it says are 40% cheaper than the previous designs offered under a 2001 technology transfer agreement with LHB. The high cost of stainless steel cars has previously limited their use to the main Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express services.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/typo3temp/pics/2ddc09274f.jpg

The initial batch of 28 low cost coaches includes six types for Shaheed Express services. RCF plans to produce 369 of the cars in 2009 -10, with a view to Indian Railways switching its entire production to this model.

RCF has also supplied Western Railway with 21 stainless steel coaches with a nano-coating finish derived from automotive technology, which RCF says will be easier to keep free of dust and ‘spoiling by antisocial elements’.
CC:Railway Gazette
http://www.railwaygazette.com/nc/news/single-view/view/low-cost-coaches-developed-by-rcf-kapurthala.html


Jeez! Its a terrible news i would say as existing locos are already terrible, i cant even think of the the new low cost coaches....

Rlys to tackle glitches in online ticketing system
Anil Sinha, New Delhi, May 12, DHNS:

Inaccessibility or difficult access to the Railway’s online ticket booking facility will soon be a thing of the past, if everything goes as planned by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

According to sources in the Railway Ministry, efforts are being made to expand the capacity of the server. The slowdown of the server and sometimes, a crash result deny access to the online ticket booking system. The server becomes slow or crashes when the number of people exceeds the capacity, especially during summer vacations or festival seasons.

A senior IRCTC official said even on Monday, the online booking system remained non-function from morning to evening. However, the official attributes the failure to a technical snag.

“On an average, about 2.65 lakh people avail of this facility. Sometimes it becomes slow,” said the spokesperson of the IRCTC. The IRCTC has the responsibility of running the passenger reservation system (PRS). The railways computerised the reservation systerm, which currently operates from five regional centres in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Secunderabad.

In addition to the technical problems, the IRCTC has been facing problems like lack of transparency and corruption in ticket booking.

Black-marketing

In a bid to check the black-marketing of tatkal tickets by touts, the IRCTC has barred e-ticketing agents from using the system from 8 am to 9 am.

This system came in the wake of a large number of complaints regarding the IRCTC website not becoming accessible to common users at the time of the commencement of reservation booking in the morning.

The IRCTC has also disabled over 15 lakh email IDs and suspended 200 agents registered with the railways. To curb misuse of online facility of booking tatkal tickets, booking has also been limited to two tickets a day for a single user ID.

Can Indian Railway move from West Bengal ?

who will be the next railway minister

Can Indian Railway move from West Bengal ?

who will be the next railway minister

Hard to imagine a person in this chair who is not from Bihar/Bengal :lol:

^^ It will be KH Muniyappa from karnataka :banana2: who is currently minister of state for railways.

Congress is taking over all the infrastructure portfolios from its allies as they have taken civil aviation from NCP, road transport from DMK now its the turn of TMC.

While TMC will be offered some other ministry.

Jeez! Its a terrible news i would say as existing locos are already terrible, i cant even think of the the new low cost coaches....

What is wrong with the locos?

Mom "Tata" Ban Her Jee is gone from Railways Ministry! Now she can practice her idiotic policies on W. Bengal (god help the good people of West Bengal).

^^

:lol: I like the breakdown

Mom "Tata" Ban Her Jee is gone from Railways Ministry! Now she can practice her idiotic policies on W. Bengal (god help the good people of West Bengal).

well TMC is still on dictating terms to the congress. RM in all likelihood is going to remain with the party.

Mamata will be remembered for her highly successful Duronto service :cheers:

+1

it was something nice she did....

Hi,

Sorry for a non-project related comment. I was looking for an answer to this question below, which might be helpful in one of the projects that I am doing.

What do Indian Railways do in the event of a line obstruction on opposite track. In particular, I mean what is the protocol/procedure or how do drivers warn the Signallers other staff in order to block trains on the opposite lines. Consider a scenario where a train has derailed and is blocking a section on the opposite line. How can the trains in the opposite direction be stopped or warned?

Thanks

cc: Star Ananda

Mamata Banerjee will be resigning from her Railway Minister post on 19th May, 2011, a day before her swearing in as CM of WB!...According to sources the Railway Ministry will remain under TMC, but the name has still not been disclosed!
However, Mukul Roy, is leading the race in the probable RMs!

Didi’s farewell gift for elite trains’ passengers

Rail Bandhu, the country's maiden on-board train magazine, was launched by railway minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday — her last day in Rail Bhavan before being sworn in as West Bengal chief minister on May 20.
The magazine, a brain child of Mamata, will be available free of cost for the passengers of elite trains like Duranto , Rajdhani and Shatabdi.

In her message for the inaugural issue, the outgoing minister said, "India's heart would have stopped beating if Indian Railways wasn't there. Rail Bandhu is another attempt to show that we care as much about your well-being and comfort as we do about empowering your thoughts."

The magazine, which has an initial circulation of one lakh copies and published in English and Hindi, is for onboard reading only.

This bilingual monthly will cover heritage in detail in each issue to raise the awareness of the rail passengers, dwelling on both the history, heritage and modern aspects of the state-run mass transporter .

It will connect readers to the one big rail parivar, delineating its appeal in popular culture. The magazine will also have a Railways and Cinema section, where film personalities would narrate their memorable rail journeys. TNN

Well recently i travelled in train.Our railway stations are the best in the world.Shit all around.You cant breathe.More worse than a local toilet where people dont flush after using.

Didi’s farewell gift for elite trains’ passengers

Rail Bandhu, the country's maiden on-board train magazine, was launched by railway minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday — her last day in Rail Bhavan before being sworn in as West Bengal chief minister on May 20.
The magazine, a brain child of Mamata, will be available free of cost for the passengers of elite trains like Duranto , Rajdhani and Shatabdi.

In her message for the inaugural issue, the outgoing minister said, "India's heart would have stopped beating if Indian Railways wasn't there. Rail Bandhu is another attempt to show that we care as much about your well-being and comfort as we do about empowering your thoughts."

The magazine, which has an initial circulation of one lakh copies and published in English and Hindi, is for onboard reading only.

This bilingual monthly will cover heritage in detail in each issue to raise the awareness of the rail passengers, dwelling on both the history, heritage and modern aspects of the state-run mass transporter .

It will connect readers to the one big rail parivar, delineating its appeal in popular culture. The magazine will also have a Railways and Cinema section, where film personalities would narrate their memorable rail journeys. TNN

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=TOIKM/2011/05/19/2/Img/Pc0021000.jpg

Okay, so now Manmohan Singh is the new railway minister :)

Three Ministers of State, Mukul Roy(who was already MoS for some other portfolio), Muniyappa and Ahmed. Railway portfolio will remain with MMS. Thats a good move. But before next budget they will have to make a Railway minister, let us see how the politics will turn out.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7774/rabiz.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/10/rabiz.jpg/)

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/1264/rabi2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/rabi2.jpg/)

Mamata Banerjee chose this design for Rabindra Bhavan because it symbolises the waves of the Hooghly and has a snazzy look to connect with the younger generation. The boat-like rooftop structure represents the boat used by Rabindranath Tagore in Bangladesh.

^^Didi Keen To Involve Gen-X In Tagore Museum at Howrah Station

When Mamata B a n e r j e e takes over as chief minister of West Bengal on Friday, she will already have something to show for her assurances to change the image of Kolkata's and its surroundings. For a long time now, even before her party's fate in the assembly elections became clear, Mamata had been making efforts to change things.
On Tuesday, when she laid the foundation stone for Rabindra Museum at Howrah, not many were aware of what actually lies in store. TOI got
a look at its design blueprint - it is swanky, unlike any that the city has seen, and unlike any built by the railways or any government department.
Mamata herself picked the design out of a selection. It looks sure to brighten up the skyline of the western bank of the Hooghly.
An old structure on the riverbank — across the road to the Howrah station's new complex — has already been demolished to make way for the new-age four-storied structure that will straddle an area of 9,684 square metres.
“The basement will have parking space for about 150 cars. The superstructure will be in two parts. One faces the river, and the half on the right will be the auditorium with a seating capacity of 650. The left half will house the administrative section and the museums. There will be a boatshaped structure on top to symbolise the barge used by Rabindranath Tagore in Silaidaha, Bangladesh,” said D C Mitra, project co-coordinator, RITES.
The ground-floor of the lefthalf will house the research wing and administrative offices. Initially, a restaurant was planned in a glass prismshaped structure inside the boat on the roof. But then, it was decided to have a conference room there and shift the restaurant downstairs.
“A lot of planning has gone into the design. The basic philosophy was to give a wave-like finish to the building as it is on the riverbank. It has also been designed to look good for at least 150 years. The roofing and walls have been designed to reduce the need for electric lighting. The structure will diffuse the light and from a distance — even from the Kolkata riverbank — it will look like an illuminated structure," Mitra said.
According to officials, several designs were prepared and presented to Mamata. Some of them had the Jorasanko Thakurbari. Mamata, however, wanted something more modern that would be in keeping with the times. She wants the younger generation to connect with the structure and be a part of the events that would be organised there.
According to Mitra, Rabindra Bhawan will take one and a half years to build and cost Rs 32 crore. It will be one of two such institutions planned by Mamata. The other one, Gitanjali, will come up at Santiniketan. Apart from exhibits on Rabindranath Tagore, these museums will provide scholars with the opportunity to research the bard's life and work. TNN

Enhanced National Train Enquiry System(Indian Railways) has won National Award for e-Governance 2010-2011 for Innovative use of ICT by PSUs for customer's benefits

source:- http://www.indianrail.gov.in/

Rs 251 crore approved for railway track between Agartala-Akhaura

AGARTALA: Union Railway Ministry has approved an outlay of Rs 251 crore for laying 14 km railway track to connect Agartala with Akhaura (via Gangasagar) in Bangladesh, official sources said today.

Northeastern Frontier Railway (NFR) is likely to undertake work for laying tracks by October next year, Kishore Ambuly, Special Secretary to Transport department said here.

While the Department of North Eastern region (DoNER) ministry would pay Rs 105 crore for construction rail link on the Indian side, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will provide Rs 146 crore to carry out the project on the Bangladesh side.

He said that another round of joint survey would be conducted next month to officially notify the proposed alignment. Earlier, a joint team comprising representatives from both sides had conducted joint survey in November last year.

Sources in the NFR said, the Detailed Project Report (DPR) was almost ready and would be submitted to the Ministry of Railways and Railway Board for final approval.

The railway extension work from Agaratala to Udaipur in South Tripura district is expected to be completed by December 2012.

The conversion of Broad-Gauge (BG) line from Lumding to Badarpur in Assam has already started and after that BG line would be extended from Badarpur to Agartala.

The NF railway is also conducting a survey to extend railways up to Sabroom, southern border town of Tripura for setting up connectivity with Chittagong Port in Bangladesh, which is just 70 k.m from there.

source http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/railways/rs-251-crore-approved-for-railway-track-between-agartala-akhaura/articleshow/8489844.cms

Source (http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_life/2011-05-18/steam-powered-trains-brought-back-to-life-in-india.html)
Steam Powered Trains Brought Back to Life in India

In northern India, the old steam locomotive has been brought back to life.

Spurred by childhood nostalgia and a love for old-world charm, a small team of technicians has painstakingly restored eight steam locomotives.

Located in Rewari, outside New Delhi, this 100-year-old heritage shed comes alive to the sound of whistles and chug of steam engines every weekend.

Vikas Arya from Indian Railways says the group wanted to preserve the black beauties for future generations, and show them what it was like to travel in a steam-powered train.

[Vikas Arya, Indian Railways]:
"The way it whistles and they have fire in their belly, and that fire is visible. I believe, for a common man, that it's fascinating to see a huge 120-ton engine, which can move just on steam. They are the most beautiful machines you can find in the world."

The renovation was easier said than done, with the steam trains dating back to 1853.

The factories that made the spare parts had shut down, while engineers specializing in locomotive maintenance and repair had long since retired.

[Vikas Arya, Indian Railways]:
"Main concern is that with the phasing out of steam locomotives from Indian Railways, we are not inducting people who would come as trained steam engine maintainers. So, these few people - 20-25 left here - are from the old age of steam trained. We need to preserve these skills, so our biggest challenge is to have people who have the skills, who have the know-how to maintain the steam engines."

Looking to the future, the Indian Steam Railway Society has earmarked 53 routes for heritage train journeys in India, with the view to restoring the black beauties to their former glory.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7774/rabiz.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/10/rabiz.jpg/)

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/1264/rabi2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/rabi2.jpg/)

Mamata Banerjee chose this design for Rabindra Bhavan because it symbolises the waves of the Hooghly and has a snazzy look to connect with the younger generation. The boat-like rooftop structure represents the boat used by Rabindranath Tagore in Bangladesh.

i already foresee the intelligentia of Bengal comparing it with the newly built Pyramid structure in Louvre and how its an eye sore

Source (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/firm-borders-acrosstracks/436453/)
Firm borders across the tracks

Trains to Pak and Bangladesh have too long a hold-up for immigration formalities.

It was meant to help heal the wounds of partition. But patronage needs to pick up on Indian Railway's border services.

Neither the Kolkata-Dhaka ‘Maitree Express’ or the ‘Samjhauta Express’ connecting India and Pakistan are seen as desired options because of the long hours taken to complete the border crossing formalities.

The bi-weekly Maitree Express was launched on April 14, 2008. Even now, though, “Total capacity is 275, while it carries about 70 to 75 passengers,” Samir Goswami, spokesperson of the Eastern Railway said.

The total journey time in the train for a distance of about 538 km (120km in India, 418 km in Bangladesh) from Kolkata to Dhaka is about 11 hours. Passengers have to spend about four hours for completing customs and immigration formalities on both sides of the border — two hours at Gede, the last station in India, and another two hours at Darshana, the first in Bangladesh.

Passengers say individually crossing the border is more practical, as that cuts the immigration time to a maximum of an hour. “I travelled by Maitree Express last year. It takes almost four hours to complete customs and immigration formalities, which is the most irritating part. Otherwise, it is a maximum eight-hour journey. So, next time I will prefer the Petrapole border, as I can reach Dhaka in seven to eight hours,” says Samiran, a resident of Kolkata with relatives at the Bangladeshi capital.

According to a study by Rail India Technical and Economic Services in 2006, passenger traffic was 1,159 people per day (both incoming and outgoing) at the Petrapole-Benapole border, 95 km from here, the land border point with Bangladesh in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district. The total passenger traffic was projected in the study as 3,924 people per day by 2029-30.

“It takes a maximum of an hour nowadays for immigration clearances. Once you reach Benapole, you can take a bus for Dhaka. It takes five hours from there and buses are always available,” says Brishti, a fourth-year student of Delhi's Indian Institute of Planning and Architecture, who uses the route to travel to her home in Bangladesh.

According to a spokesperson of Eastern Railway, they are in touch with Bangladesh Railway to address the problem of long hours taken for immigration. “We are always in talks with Bangladesh Railway to make the journey more attractive for passengers. We hope to sort out out all these issues in the near future,” he said.

The train had an increase in number of passengers since the schedule got changed on August 1, 2009. “It used to carry about 40 passengers when it started. The train used to run on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). The number of passengers have increased after the schedule got changed. Because of the changed schedule, people who come for a day's work are preferring the train, as they can come to Kolkata and leave for Dhaka the very next day,” he added.

The train now departs from Dhaka at 8:30 am (BST) on Tuesdays and Sundays and reaches Kolkata at 6.45 pm (IST) the same day. It leaves Kolkata at 7:10 am (IST) on Wednesdays and Saturdays and arrives in Dhaka at 7:30 pm (BST) the same day.

PAKISTAN SIDE

It is a similar story with the Samjhauta Express. The average occupancy since this January is about 30 per cent of the total capacity, an official of Northern Railway said. The Delhi-Attari link train that takes the passengers to Attari, from where they have to take Samjhauta Express to reach Lahore, has a total of 777 seats. The bi-weekly train carries about 250 passengers at a time. The total journey time from Delhi to Lahore is about 15 hours, which includes about four hours of immigration and customs clearances at Attari.

“There are a lot of restrictions. It has a major stop at Attari for the customs procedures. It took about over three hours for all these,” a traveller writes on a travel guide website.

“It’s a lot quicker and simpler to take a bus to the border, cross, and then a bus on to Lahore. Both Lahore and Amritsar are about 30 minutes from the Wagah border,” writes another person.

However, the weekly Thar Express seems quite a hit. “It has a capacity of 576 passengers and is running almost full.” said Lalit Bohra, spokesperson of North Western Railway. The train connects Bhagat ki Kothi near Jodhpur and Karachi. For six months in the year, the rake is an Indian one and for the other six months, it is a rake of Pakistan Railways. “Because of partition, a lot of people in this part of the country have relatives in Pakistan. They really prefer the train journey,” he said. It also takes three to four hours for immigration and customs clearance.

Agartala-Gangasagar rail link to cost Rs 2.51bn

Agartala, May 22 (bdnews24.com)—The rail link between Agartala, the capital of Indian north-eastern Tripura state, and Gangasagar in Bangladesh will cost Rs 2.51 billion, official sources have said.

The Indian Railways Northeastern Frontier Railway (NFR) sector was expected to undertake the work for laying the 10-km tracks by October next year, Kishore Ambuly, special secretary to transport department, said Saturday.

"India will bear the entire cost of the project," he added.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) would provide Rs 1.46 billion to construct the 5-km rail link on the Bangladesh side while the Department of North Eastern Region (DoNER) remaining Rs 1.05 billion for the 5-km railway on the Indian side, he added. (Rs 1 equals Tk 1.63)

The satellite map survey had already been completed to avoid densely populated areas in laying the tracks, Ambuly said.

Another round of joint survey would be conducted next month to officially notify the proposed alignment, he added.

Earlier, a joint team comprising representatives from the both sides had conducted a survey in November last year.

Initially, the two sides proposed a rail link between Agartala and Akhuara, but they later on finalised the link between Agartala-Gangasagar to avoid passing of the rail line through densely populated areas near the Akhuara junction.

M V Prasad, deputy chief engineer (construction) of NFR, said the detailed project report (DPR), being prepared by the Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON), was almost ready and it would be submitted to the Ministry of Railways and Railway Board for final approval.

The NF railway is also conducting a survey to extend railways up to Sabroom, southern border town of Tripura, for setting up connectivity with Chittagong Port in Bangladesh, which is just 72 km from there.

India and Bangladesh have agreed to restore railway links in a bid to enhance people-to-people contact and boost bilateral trade and investments.

The rail services were suspended after the 1965 India-Pakistan war when Bangladesh was then Pakistan's eastern wing.

TV soon on select Shatabdi trains

Passengers of Delhi-bound Shatabdi trains will now be able to watch their favourite programmes on television free of cost.

According to a plan finalised by the Northern Railway, passengers of select Shatabdi trains will be offered the live TV service as part of an infotainment package without being charged for it.

“As per the plan, an eight-inch LCD TV screen will be installed behind every seat in the Executive Class and Chair Cars in six Shatabdi trains originating from the capital,” said a senior Northern Railway official. The trains being considered for installation of TV sets are Shatabdis running to Amritsar, Kalka, Lucknow, Bhopal, Ajmer and Dehra Dun.

Envisaged on public-private-partnership model, the service providers will install the television sets and provide the manpower to run the system.

“The TV service will be operationalised by the service providers who will be allowed to air advertisements and share a part of the advertisement revenue with the Railways,” said the official.

“The annual payment for service providers will range between Rs.13 lakh and Rs.18 lakh, depending on the number of seats and coaches in the train,” said the official. The Hindu

X posting from Kolkata Suburban Railway thread
Night trains likely in Maoist belt

High-Level Meeting At Writers’ To Lift Ban

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: Night trains --banned on Kharagpur-Tatanagar and Kharagpur-Adra sections after the Jnaneswari Express sabotage that killed over 160 passengers, are likely to be back on track. On Tuesday, a highlevel railways committee, that included newly appointed director general, Railway Protection Force, P K Mehta and South Eastern Railway general manager Vinay Mittal, met senior officials of the state government at Writers’ Buildings to review the situation. Mittal also called on chief minister Mamata Mukherjee. Another high-level meeting is scheduled on Thursday, when further decision will take place on the matter.
The railway delegation also spoke to the state director general of police, and explained the situation. “Even after the Jnaneswari disaster, Maoist activity at several places in Adra division has affected train movement. The Urma station in Purulia came under attack on several occasions. We can’t keep night trains suspended indefinitely… Senior police officers from these districts have been ordered by the state administration to hold urgent meetings and chalk out a strategy. They are to co-ordinate with the railways, which on its part will do whatever is required for the safe running of trains,” a senior SER official said.
According to him, the meeting was a positive step towards resumption of night services and revamping the overall security scenario along tracks in Maoist-affected areas.
Night passenger trains along these routes had stopped running after May 28, 2010, when the Mumbaibound Jnaneswari Express from Howrah was derailed by Maoists, resulting in the death of over 160 passengers. Since then, most westbound trains were rescheduled to leave Howrah early in the morning, causing inconvenience to passengers.
After the Jnaneswari disaster, a war of words erupted between the railways and the state government over who should take responsibility for the safe-running of trains along Maoist-affected stretches. While the railways maintained that law and order was the state’s responsibility, the government said it didn’t have adequate security personnel to protect railway assets. A request was made to the ministry of home affairs to depute more companies of central paramilitary forces to tackle the situation. When no additional forces arrived, the railways announced it wouldn’t take the risk of running trains along risky stretches at night unless the state gave the necessary security clearance. Even during the day, extremists have stopped trains for hours, inconveniencing passengers.

^^ :cheers:

:lol:

Hi,

Sorry for a non-project related comment. I was looking for an answer to this question below, which might be helpful in one of the projects that I am doing.

What do Indian Railways do in the event of a line obstruction on opposite track. In particular, I mean what is the protocol/procedure or how do drivers warn the Signallers other staff in order to block trains on the opposite lines. Consider a scenario where a train has derailed and is blocking a section on the opposite line. How can the trains in the opposite direction be stopped or warned?

Thanks

Sadly there is no way we can prevent oposite train from entering the block section in the event of train from other line derailing and obstructing the other line. The system does not provide any fail safe means of preventing such movement. The only possibility is that if this message is communicated to central control or station master, the movement authourity of train movement for the other train can be withheld till the line is clear of obstruction. The various possible means of the communication of this meassage are - call from emergency point through telephone, hand held walkie talkie, gangman etc. But these are not fail safe mode of communicating message.

How Mamata’s largesse backfired on Railways

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/2011052620110526045626582a2ebd2f8/How-Mamata%E2%80%99s-largesse-backfired-on-Railways.html

When former Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee - now the chief minister of West Bengal - sent out a circular in January this year allowing all 13.61 lakh railway employees, from Class I to Class IV, to travel in AC compartments, the move was hailed as one that would finally bring in equality in the hierarchy-conscious Indian Railways.

While 7,100 Class I and 6,700 Class II employees were enjoying AC travel till that time, 4,45,000 Class IV and 8,65,000 Class III employees were also upgraded, bringing at one sweep over 1.3 million new AC travellers.

Now the move is being criticised as having more heart than mind.

As per the first set of ticket statistics being prepared for April 2011, officials realise the move has begun to pinch the railways as well as the common commuter.

For starters, it has given the railways a 30 per cent bigger hole in the pocket than last year. Secondly, to the common railway commuter, the ‘AC for all’ order has made the period between April to mid-May the most crushing travel period ever experienced. Due to this, regular commuters are finding it difficult to get confirmed tickets.

Officials warn that the situation will only get worse during the Diwali holidays, when the next rush season comes.

“The problem is that almost all the trains that are running between important destinations are full length trains comprising 21 or 24 coaches, so adding extra coaches is not an option.

The number of AC coaches are not increasing since in the Railways scheme of things, bringing down the number of sleeper coaches to accommodate more AC coaches is seen as a very anti-poor move, and successive railway ministers have gone out of their way to ensure the railways has a pro-poor image,” said a senior Railways official.

Only in the Mumbai area statistics for both Central and Western railway show that in April 2,01,596 railway employees travelled AC class I, II and III, on free tickets, costing the Railways Rs 13.11 crores.

This was a huge thirty percent rise from figures of April 2010 when 1,67,940 tickets for railway employees drilled a hole of Rs 10,70,36,860 (Rs 10.7 crores).

Compare the number of people and the revenue generated.

In April, 2011, the total number of tickets - long-distance for AC and Sleeper - sold stood at 70,86,526 and the revenue generated from this sale was Rs 190,27,29,786 (190.27 crores).

Officials say that comparisons show that while railway employees were just 2.8 per cent of the total number of tickets sold (2.01 lakhs out of 70 lakhs), the money that the railways should have got but did not - since the tickets were free - stood at 6.8 per cent (Rs 13 crores out of Rs 190 crores), as all tickets purchased were AC tickets.

Railways finances are already on thin ice with financial statements showing that while the average annual salary of a railway employee for the financial year 2008-09 was Rs 2.90 lakhs, it has risen this year to Rs 3.78 lakhs. This is despite the number of employees going down from 13.86 lakhs to 13.61 lakhs.

cc: http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/getpage.aspx?pageid=7&pagesize=&edid=&edlabel=TOIKM&mydateHid=28-05-2011&pubname=&edname=&publabel=TOI

The rail link between Kashmir valley and the rest of the country will be completed by December 2012 once Indias longest tunnel at 11 km connecting Qazigund with Banihal is constructed within a year.
The tunnel,one of the worlds largest and deepest,will pierce through the Pir Panjal range below snowline,which stands like a wall between the Valley and Jammu.
The engineering marvel,named T80,is strategically important for the country since the only road link via the Jawahar Tunnel,which connects both the regions in the border state,is often blocked due to heavy snowfall.
The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity between the two regions, said Chahatey Ram,chief administrative officer of Northern Railway.We are hopeful that Banihal-Qazigund rail link will be commissioned by December 2012, he added.
Hitesh Khanna,director (works) of IRCON,which is executing the project,said of the 11-km stretch,work has been completed in 10.40km.The distance between Banihal and Qazigund will be reduced to only 16km once the tunnel becomes operational,said R V Anand of IRCON.
Railways is also building an eight-feet wide service road along the T80 for any exigency.The Banihal-Qazigund project is part of the Katra-Qazigund (129 km) venture,passing through hostile terrain of young Himalayas that are routinely posing geological surprises to the engineers.The inhospitable terrain has forced IRCON to construct 67.5km of access road to reach the project site,which has also helped in providing connectivity to around 35 villages.
Railways is using state-ofthe-art Austrian tunnelling method to construct T80 that involves integration of surrounding soil formations into a ring-like support structure.
In 2002,then NDA government had announced a 345-km Jammu-Udhampur-Katra-Qazigund-Baramulla railway line,the biggest mountain rail project since the Independence.The 53-km Jammu-Udhampur section was opened to the public in 2005,and the 119-km Qazigund-Baramulla route has been operational since 2009.At present,the 6.5km Karbude tunnel of the Konkan Railway is the longest tunnel in India.

How Mamata’s largesse backfired on Railways

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/2011052620110526045626582a2ebd2f8/How-Mamata%E2%80%99s-largesse-backfired-on-Railways.html

Its really very tough to get confirmed ticket not only in peak season but also in lean season. This decision is going to further add to woes of railaway passengers. God help IR and passengers.

At 359 metres, rail bridge over Chenab will be world’s highest

The world's highest railway bridge -- five times the height of Qutub Minar and 35 metres taller than Eiffel Tower -- will come up over the Chenab river on the under construction rail link to the Kashmir Valley.

The bridge will rise 359 metres over the Chenab, 65 km from Katra, on the 73-km Katra-Dharam section of the ambitious Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project. This section alone will cost around Rs 5,005 crore.

Konkan Railway Corporation, with experience of building 179 major bridges on the path-breaking rail link through the Konkan region, will execute this particular section.

The 1,315-metre bridge will use up 25,000 million tonnes of steel and will be an engineering marvel. "Work is going on in full swing," said Rajesh Agarwal, general manager, Konkan Railways.

The world's tallest rail bridge is on France's Tarn river and its tallest pillar rises 340 metres while the actual height at which trains run on the bridge is 300 metres. "The Chenab bridge will be the highest in the world," Northern Railway chief administrative officer Chahatey Ram said.

Observing that wind speed at the height of 359 metres may go up to 266 kmph, the engineers have decided not to allow trains crossing the Chenab bridge if the wind velocity is more than 90 kmph. The railways has designed the signalling system at the bridge in such a manner that it shows the stop light automatically when wind speed is more than 90 kmph.

Considering the inaccessible terrain of the Himalayan mountains, the bridge will get a special coat of paint with a life span of around 35 years to protect it from the tough weather.

Besides the steep topography and fragile geology, engineers constructing the Katra-Dharam line also have to factor in security concerns. While Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force provide security to engineers and workers implementing the project, the support of locals is coming in handy. "Only two incidents of terrorists targeting the project have been reported since work was started," said Shovkat Malik, SSP, GRP, Kashmir Range.

The railways has constructed a helipad to transport construction material and equipment. For the 73-km section which involves construction of 63 km of tunnels and 7.5 km of bridges, Konkan Railways is constructing 176 km of roads to access the project sites. Railways has already constructed 104 km of roads which is giving connectivity to remote villages which were till now inaccessible. TNN

New version of Anti Collision Devices to be evaluated

An improved version of Anti Collision Devices (ACDs), the GPS-based equipment designed to prevent collisions in the Railway network, will be evaluated for validation of test results by September this year by an independent agency, following the successful completion of trials.

ACDs, an indigenous set of devices patented by the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL), have been designed for onboard deployment (loco engines) and track-side fitment (railway stations).

The technology uses a combination of GPS navigation and terrestrial radio communication (UHF signals) among a network of ACDs to activate automatic braking systems when two trains get within a radius of three km of each other on the same track.

The ACDs underwent a month-long trial on the 43-km Pattabiram-Arakkonam stretch in September 2010. Following a series of simulated on-field tests, the Railway Board commissioned a re-trial in January 2011 after incorporating several modifications in the ACDs software.

The important changes included fixing bugs in the original version and addressing the fairly large-scale unwarranted braking episodes and frequent generation of junk data.

“Version 2.0 of the ACDs that emerged out of the second round of trials is a significantly improved software design,” S. Manohar, Chief, Signal and Telecom Engineer, Southern Railway, told TheHindu. The Hindu

'Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion by 2013'

The Lumding-Silchar-Jiribam broad gauge conversion project of the railways is expected to be commissioned by December 2013. This was announced during a review meeting of the project in New Delhi on Thursday.

Union DoNER minister Bijoy Krishna Handique, during the review meeting, expressed concern over the delay in completion of the project which had started almost 15 years ago. The cost of this project was revised to Rs 3909 crores and is identified under category "Infrastructure in the North East" by Prime Minister's Office for special monitoring by the DoNER ministry. The railways told the DoNER minister that out of 377 km, a stretch of 110 kms has been completed. The railways also informed the minister that work on 331 km track was on in full swing.

Handique was told that four out of 17 tunnels for the railway project were already over. The construction of the longest tunnel (No 10 with a length of 3.235 km is under progress after work resumed in October last year. TNN

cc: http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/getpage.aspx?pageid=7&pagesize=&edid=&edlabel=TOIKM&mydateHid=28-05-2011&pubname=&edname=&publabel=TOI

[COLOR="DarkRed"]The rail link between Kashmir valley and the rest of the country will be completed by December 2012 once Indias longest tunnel at 11 km connecting Qazigund with Banihal is constructed within a year.


This is not the longest tunnel in India. Stupid reporters.

then which is the longest tunnel??? 11km is pretty big i suppose. please don't include delhi metro or any other metro tunnels.

Railways all set to introduce green toilets
Kumod VermaKumod Verma, TNN | May 31, 2011, 06.39am IST
PATNA: The Indian Railways recently signed an MoU with the Defence Research and Development Organization ( DRDO) to develop environ-ment-friendly toilet system to improve further hygienic condition in toilets on running trains across the country.

According to a Railway Board official, the design of the proposed new toilet system has been developed by the DRDO.

The railways has decided to manufacture two rakes fitted with eco-friendly toilet system. The rail-ways would first put these rakes on trial and then the newly developed technology would be gradually introduced in superfast trains, he said.

The Board official said that the objective behind introducing the new system is to maintain zero discharge toilet system ( ZDTS) on running trains. The Research Design and Standard Organization (RSDO) and IIT, Kanpur, have jointly developed its design. This system was put on trial on one bogie of a train recently, he said.

The Board official maintained that the railways greatest concern is to provide homely comforts to passengers on running trains.

The concept of providing green toilets on running trains has been the pilot project of the railways. It will be introduced gradually in most of mail and express trains in different zones of the railways, he said. During the trial of the new system, it was observed that the response of passengers travelling by Bundlekhand-Varanasi Express was good. The railways would manufacture more such new bogies fitted with eco-friendly toilets soon, the sources said.

No more cooking inside trains

The Indian Railways is working to redesign the way the food is being served to passengers on the board. Plans are afoot to set up proper base kitchens at the station level and upgrade pantry cars with modular facilities to serve as storage and serving centres.

Senior divisional commercial manager (freight), northern railway's Lucknow division, Pratul Gupta inspected Lucknow's Charbagh railway station and said, "preparations are on to set up modular kitchens to provide home-like food to passengers in the near future."

Gupta's team-mates told that serving food would be divided into two parts - cooking and serving. Currently only empty space is given in a pantry car to set up a kitchen and prepare food. Sources share that procedure for hiring a professional agency has already begun.

To ensure that food is cooked at a stationery place and not in a moving train, a base kitchen would be set up at the station. Though reservation centres would be the first choice for the kitchen, a decision in this regard would be taken considering availability of the space. Pantry cars, which are attached with the trains, would be used for storing and heating of food etc.

Gupta added that besides improving facilities, the change-over also aims to curtail rail mishaps that occur in pantry cars. "It has been found that make-shift arrangement inside a train is neither adequate nor conducive for preparing quality food. It is also a safety hazard. So redesigning is essential," he said. TNN

Deadline for Kashmir rail network extended to '17

The Indian Railways aims to complete the ambitious 19,500-crore rail line that will link the scenic Kashmir valley with the rest of country by December 2017, a decade later than what was planned earlier.

The 345-km link would link towns of Udhampur, Katra, Baramulla and Quazigund to Jammu faces enormous security and engineering challenges as the planned line would run across rugged terrain, steep slopes and difficult weather conditions.

The 273-km link connecting Udhampur to Baramulla has been divided into three sections including a 25-km Udhampur- Katra stretch that would be completed by December next year. The 129-km stretch between Katra and Qazigund would see completion of the longest tunnel on the Indian Railways network, the 11-km Pir Panjal Tunnel. The line would also involve construction of 1,315-metre long Chenab bridge at a height of 359 metres using 25,000 metric tones of steel.

The 120 km between Quazigund and Baramulla has been completed by IRCON and is open to the public. "We are very happy with the commencement of this rail line. It has helped in improving our business," said Riaz Ahmad, a businessman who travels everyday from Quazigund to other small towns.

It used to take Ahmad a full day to travel this stretch that would cost him 300 . Now it costs him 23 and the distance is covered in a few hours. A total of 911 bridges and 114 km of tunnels will be constructed. Expenditure has surged over the years. Till April 2011, 7,165 crore had already been spent. While the budget for last year was 1,000 crore, it has been marginally raised to 1,100 crore for current fiscal. The 53-km stretch from Jammu to Udhampur was completed in 2005. " The completion of the project would help in integration of the region with the national network, thus helping in improvement of the economy," said Hitesh Khanna, Director Works, IRCON.

The project will provide the rail connectivity to far-flung areas in J&K. Apart from employment generation, the project would lead to construction of 260 km of roads, providing connectivity to 1,47,000 people in 73 villages.
The Economic Times

Sikkim: Construction for Rail link to start from October2011

Visit of the Chairman, Railway Board in Sikkim has increased the expectation of fulfilling a dream of railway service in Sikkim as the major means of transport like that of the rest of the nation.

The Chairman, Railway Board Mr. Vivek Sahai along with General Manager (Construction) NF Railway Mr. Keshab Chandra, Divisional Railway Manager, Katihar Mr. BS Patil, Managing Director IRCON (Construction Company) and its officials made their visit to Sikkim on 28th May 2011 and the visiting team also conducted a coordination meet, which was the first of its kind with the Chief Secretary, Government of Sikkim.

During the meet Mr. Sahai said that the work for construction of railway link to Sikkim will begin in full swing from the month of October which can be also viewed by the public at large. Furthermore Mr. Sahai added that there exists minute problem in regards to construction in North Bengal region between 0-5km and every positive step are being carried out to solve the persisting problem to link Sikkim with rest of the nation through railways.....

http://isikkim.com/73-27construction-for-rail-link-to-start-from-october2011/

Railways and Government of Rajasthan Sign MoU on Ratlam-Banswara- Dungurpur New Line Project
Ministry of Railways and Government of Rajasthan today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on implementing 176 kilometres Ratlam-Banswara- Dungurpur new line project. Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Vivek Sahai and Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan, Shri S. Ahmad were the signatories to the MoU.

The new line on completion will help accelerate the economic growth of the region. Rajasthan Government has planned to set up Thermal Power Projects in this area. The proposed new line will help in the moment of coal movement for thermal power plants. The new line will also serve as an impetus of development of this socially and economically backward area inhabited by tribal people.

The estimated project cost of this new line project is about Rs. 2083 crore. Fifty percent of the cost of the project will be borne by the Railways and fifty per cent by Government of Rajasthan (excluding land cost). The land cost will be borne entirely by Government of Rajasthan.
:cheers:

New rail route from Chittor, traders eye more profits
Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has proposed a new railway line to boost trade along the industrial belt on the Chittorgarh-Mandsaur route. This is the second major proposal for a new line after the state government successfully pushed its earlier project of laying a new track on the Ratlam-Banswara-Dungarpur route.

The Ratlam-Banswara-Dungarpur railway line is critical for the development of several power projects lined up in the area. The new proposed railway line would cater to cement industries in the Chittorgarh-Pratapgarh area.

The proposal was tabled by the state government while signing a memorandum of understanding with the railway board in New Delhi for the Ratlam-Banswara-Dungarpur project on Tuesday.

Chief secretary Salauddin Ahmad and railway board director Vivek Sahay signed the agreement, paving way for the new railway line that would connect the tribal areas in the state.

The project would cost more than Rs 2000 crore. In a clever move, the state government has offered to pitch in with half the funds required for laying the new railway line, a move which even the ministry of railways cannot write off.

After getting the fresh proposal from the state, railway board director said that he would have the area inspected for the feasibility of a new railway line first and added that the ministry would take up the project on the format on which the Ratlam-Banswara-Dungarpur railway line has been taken up, provided the railways finds the track feasible.

Energy secretary Naresh Pal Gangwar said that the Ratlam-Banswara-Dungarpur railway line would assist in the development of power projects with a generation capacity of 4,000 MW in the Banswara region. Officials said that the railway track would also serve to ferry coal from other states to the thermal power stations in the area.
source (http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/RAJ-JPR-new-rail-route-from-chittor-traders-eye-more-profits-2152011.html)

good going :cheers:
...

Low-calorie platter for Shatabdi passengers from July 1

: Passengers aboard the Shatabdi Express will be offered a healthy platter soon, with Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) all set to offer them a sumptuous spread of low-carbohydrate, low-fat health foods from July 1.

The healthy menu would include herbal tea, boiled vegetables, double toned milk, whole wheat bread and sprouted salad, among other foods.

Low-fat table margarine, marmalade, cornflakes and boiled eggs will also be offered and are sure to appeal to the gastronomical sense of health-conscious travellers.

An IRCTC official in Delhi said, 'We are looking at a July 1 launch for the healthy menu and this would then be extended to other chair car trains operating under the Ambala railways division. We are also actively considering introducing other cuisines like continental and Chinese, but this would take some time to strategize and implement.'

This bit of news is sure to please frequent travellers on the Shatabdi Express. One such traveller, Rohit Nayyar, a resident of Sector 18, said, 'One gets bored eating the same kind of fare on the train all the time. There has not been any change in the food served on the train for the last two years or so. Also, most of the preparations on offer at the moment are oily like 'samosas' and cutlets. The healthy food choices would be a great addition to the menu and are sure to be lapped up by health-conscious passengers.'

Mona Sharma, another frequent traveller, said, 'Most of the time, passengers decline the food trays offered on the train as the food is not good for their cholesterol levels. With a healthy menu on the cards, it would be a welcome relief from the drab offereings served at present.'

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Low-calorie-platter-for-Shatabdi-passengers-from-July-1/articleshow/8671397.cms

India proposes $1.4bn railway investment

KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) - Government owned India Railways was planning a $1.4-billion investment during 2012-17 to construct a 1 744 km dedicated track network to augment the transportation capacity for mining produce, and to achieve efficient inter-connectivity between roads, ports and railways.

The new track way would cover 16 minerals projects in the country’s mining belts.

The Indian Railways has forecasted 993-million tons of freight traffic during 2011, of which 47% would be made up of coal transportation, 8% of iron-ore for exports and 8% by iron-ore for domestic steel making.

The investment plan by Indian Railways is part of a report prepared by Department of Mines titled Goals and Status Report for Mineral Sector for twelfth Plan, which reviews the performance of the Indian mineral sector during 2007-12, and outlined priority areas for projects to be implemented during 2012-17.

The report stated that that increasing mineral freight carrying capacity of Indian Railways was critical for development of the mining sector.

“Today our road transport is totally unorganised and there is no co-ordination between ports, roads and railways,” the report said.

“The most urgent need of the country is to develop an integrated transport system for the mining sector that will achieve inter-connectivity with each port including those at Kolkata, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Mangalore, Tuticorin, Goa, Paradip and Kandla,” the report said.

Reviewing the performance of the mineral sector from 2007 till date, the report noted that investment in exploration had been grossly inadequate despite geological potential and both in terms of data generation by national survey organisations and concession framework and access of capital.

“Exploration and mining regulatory system at the central level and even more in the state level are inadequate. Illegal and unscientific mining are symptoms of failure of the regulatory system in all respects,” the report read.

“There are four main directions in which changes are required - greater emphasis on exploration, transparency in granting of concessions, addressing environment concerns and ensuring local population do not see mining as a threat to their existence,” said India’s Secretary of Mining, S Vijaya Kumar.

Apart from investments in integrated transportation of mining produce, the report also laid down a plan for special thematic mapping, geochemical mapping, geophysical mapping and aerial multi-sensory and aeromagnetic surveys.

Against a target of 35 000 km2 target for special thematic mapping during 2007-12, a total of 28 009 km2 has been achieved till March 2011. Similarly against target of 180 000 km2 for geochemical mapping, a total of 58 490 km2 has been achieved in aerial geophysical surveys.

Meanwhile, the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has taken up a project to present the National Mineral Inventory, in line with the United Nations Framework Classification (UNFC), to improve quality of information for assessing economic viabilities of deposits.

The IBM project under way has completed inventories of 22 minerals and the project will be completed by March 2012.

Identifying the major causes, the Department of Mines said that poor detection and enforcement procedures, poor information gathering and coordinating capabilities, poor investigations and prosecution mechanisms, corruption and connivance of local administrations had led to rising incidence of illegal mining.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/india-proposes-14bn-railway-investment-2011-06-01

The world’s top rail trails

1st June 2011

Luxury escorted touring specialist Journeys of Distinction has come up with its pick of the world’s top rail journeys, all of which are featured in selected itineraries among the company’s exceptional range of high quality escorted touring holidays.

India’s classic Palace on Wheels:-

Take a seven day journey on board one of the world’s most celebrated historical steam trains, the majestic, maroon and gold `Palace on Wheels’, newly refurbished and with each cabin attended by a uniformed Khidmatgar, (personal attendant).

Western, Chinese, Indian and Rajasthani style cuisine are served in the Maharaja and Maharani restaurants, and the train features carved furniture, elegant handicrafts and paintings, and has an ambience of a bygone era as it journeys from New Delhi across the state of Rajasthan.

Journeys of Distinction’s 13 day `Palace on Wheels’ tour departs on 16th October and 6th November 2011, with prices from £4245, including the services of a tour manager, local guides, accommodation pre and post rail journey at the Oberoi hotel, Delhi, 7 nights on board the train and return Jet Airways flights from Heathrow to Delhi.

The world’s most luxurious private train:-

The world’s most spacious and luxurious train, the privately owned Rovos Rail, carries a maximum of 72 passengers in 36 suites and recaptures the romance and atmosphere of a bygone era on an iconic rail journey from Durban to Pretoria. Air-conditioned suites have the choice of twin or double beds and ensuite facilities and the train offers accommodation of the highest standard, combining the opulence of a bygone era with modern innovations.

Two days on board the Rovos Rail, visiting game reserves and traversing the heart of South Africa, are included in Journeys of Distinction’s 16 day `Garden Route’ luxury escorted tour from Cape Town to Johannesburg. The tour, by luxury air-conditioned coach, safari jeep and Rovos Rail, takes in the spectacular wildlife and beauty of South Africa’s garden route with guided city tours of Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg, and costs from £4845pp, with departures on 16th September, 14th October and 28th October 2011.

Canada’s award winning Rocky Mountaineer

This is one train journey where the scenery is as awesome as the train itself. Canada’s award winning Rocky Mountaineer journeys`through the clouds’ from Jasper to Vancouver while guests enjoy roomy reclining seats, breakfast and lunch served with a commentary, from onboard attendants, through awe-inspiring scenery.

Scenic highlights include Mount Robson, Pyramid Falls, Yellowhead Pass and the journey along the North Thompson River, the steep slopes and rock sheds along the Thompson River and the gushing waters of Hells Gate in the Fraser Canyon.

Journeys of Distinction’s 17 day fully escorted `Grand Canadian Explorer’ holiday costs from £4,595pp and includes guided tours in Banff, Vancouver and Victoria, a day in Banff and Yoho national park, visits to Lake Louise and the Columbia Icefields, Jasper and Maligne Lake and a visit to Vancouver Island, as well as two days on board the Rocky Mountaineer from Jasper to Vancouver. Departures on 11th and 25th June, 13th August and 10th September 2011. There is also the option to enjoy a 3 day pre tour option to Toronto. Departures on 8th and 22nd June, 10th August and 7th September 2011.

Australia’s Ghan and Kuranda Rail journeys

Named after the Afghan cameleers who explored inland from Australia’s coastal towns, The Ghan (an abbreviation of The Afghan Express), provides an incomparable way to travel north to south through fresh panoramas of Australia’s constantly changing landscape. The route takes travellers from Adelaide to Darwin in 48 hours, or Adelaide to Alice Springs in half that time.

A second epic Australian rail journey, The Kuranda Scenic Railway, is a magnificent engineering feat that involved 2.3 million metres of earthworks, creating 15 tunnels, 93 curves, dozens of bridges and 75 kilometres of track to create a route for supplies for starving mining workers in 1882. The railway was built through dense jungle and cliffs with sheer drops of up to 327 metres and slopes as steep as 45 degrees. Today this amazing train journey travels through dense tropical rain forest, steep ravines, and picturesque waterfalls and into the sensational Barron Gorge.

The option to enjoy both The Ghan and the Kuranda Scenic Railway, as well as Australia’s major cities, most iconic landmarks and spectacular natural world are all possible on Journeys of Distinction’s leisurely 25 day tour by luxury air-conditioned coach. The company’s `Very best of Australia’ tour includes tours of Perth, Ayers Rock, Alice Springs, Adelaide, The Great Barrier Reef and Sydney with an overnight journey on Australia’s legendary scenic train available as an optional extra, The Ghan. Departures on 8th November 2011, 24th January, 21st February and 6th March 2012, prices from £4,795 for the 25 day tour, and £5165 to include the Ghan overnight rail journey.

Asia’s Oriental Express

The luxurious Eastern & Oriental Express recaptures the golden age of rail travel winding through some of the world's most beautiful and exotic landscapes in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and on into Laos, passing mountains, forests, fascinating towns and golden temples.

The sister train to Europe’s Venice Simplon-Orient-Express the train reflects Oriental styling with Malayan motifs and Thai wall carvings and offers gourmet dining, cocktails in the open-air observation car and local entertainment. The atmosphere on board harks back to a 'Colonial' age of rattan chairs on the verandah, linen suits and tea dances.

Included within Journeys of Distinctions 24 day fully escorted Asia tour, Jewels of South East Asia’ is a full day and overnight journey on board the Oriental Express, from Butterworth Station, over the River Kwai, and on to Bangkok. The fully escorted tour costs from£5,495 per person and combines Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos to bring you an abundance of culture, legend, architecture, nature and unmatched hospitality, with a full programme of touring on a luxury air-conditioned coach and by train, return Qantas flights and the services of a tour manager throughout.

India’s Maharaja’s Express

The luxurious Maharaja Express is claimed to be the finest train journey in Asia and is certainly one of the most opulent in India. It has a stylish lounge offering panoramic views, deluxe comfortable carriages, state of the art suspension, two restaurants and lavishly decorated cabins with individual temperature controls.

A journey on this magnificent train includes all meals, complimentary drinks and butler service and while the styling of the train may reflect a bygone and elegant age, the train itself is equipped with large LCD TV's, DVD players, direct-dial phones and Wi-Fi internet

An eight day journey on board the Maharaja Express, from Mumbai to Delhi, is featured in Journeys of Distinction’s 13 day `Journey on the Maharaja Express’ fully escorted touring holiday, with prices from £6,845pp, including full board on the train, with all soft drinks and Indian brand alcoholic drinks, sightseeing tours in Mumbai, Vadodara, Updaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra and Delhi, a jeep safari in Ranthambore National Park, local guides, luxury hotel accommodation at the Imperial in Delhi and the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai pre and post journey and return scheduled flights from the UK.

A glass vista of Macchu Piccu and a Pullman journey from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca

Peru’s Andean Explorer train is exquisitely decorated in the fine manner of the great Pullman trains of the 1920’s and comprises of a full fleet of refurbished coaches including dining cars and an open-air observation bar car, unique in South America. It journeys from Cuaco to Lake Titicaca, reaching altitudes of 14,150 feet, and passing through stunning Peruvian scenery.

During the journey passengers are served a three course lunch in the dining car followed by coffee served in the observation-bar car.

Completely different in style, but opening up similarly stunning vistas, is Peru’s Vistadome train, modern in style with leather seating, air-conditioning and panoramic windows. The train journeys from Cusco to Machu Picchu in around 90 minutes, passing fast flowing churning rivers, towering mountains, through the Sacred Valley of the Incas and on to the ancient `Lost city of the Incas’ at Maccu Picchu.

Journey’s of Distinction’s 19 day `Peru in Style’ tour includes a full day’s train journey on the Andean Explorer with views of high snow-capped peaks and endless horizons and a journey from Cusco to Machu Picchu on the panoramic Vistadome train. The tour costs from £3,865 pp with departures on 1 August, 12 September and 10 October 2011 and includes sightseeing tours of Lima, Arequipa, Cusco, Colca Canyon, Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley of the Incas, a day cruise on Lake Titicaca and return flights.

http://www.easier.com/90041-world-top-rail-trails.html

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HM/2011/06/02/Article//008/02_06_2011_008_008.jpg

PM pat for Didi at rail review, but no signal on successor

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a review meeting of the railways on Wednesday even as uncertainty persisted over who would head the ministry after Mamata Banerjee stepped down to take charge at Writers’.
Though Trinamool general secretary Mukul Roy was appointed minister of state for railways, the PM decided to keep the portfolio with himself. A recent circular that decreed all files on allocation of business would be vetted by the PMO triggered speculation that the Congress was trying to regain control of the railways, which has been its ally’s turf for a while.
At the meeting, Singh appreciated Mamata’s work and asked the railways brass to quicken the tempo to carry her initiative forward. His message was simple — speed up infrastructure projects and locomotive factories, and improve the financial position. The PM also wanted the pace of work accelerated on the dedicated freight corridor and rail projects in the Kashmir valley and the northeast, and initiatives taken to attract investment under the public-private partnership model.
The meeting was attended by Roy, junior ministers KH Muniyappa and Bharatsinh Solanki, railway board chairman Vivek Sahai and its members.

Boost rail revenue: PM


New Delhi: With the railways in a financial mess, the PM asked the management to improve the operating ratio by finding ways to increase revenue and decreasing expenditures. The death of 18 persons at an unmanned crossing in Bihar days after he took charge was on his mind. He directed that the signage and road surface at the level crossing gates be in accordance with laid-down norms and asked them to launch a publicity drive to educate road users, too.
Singh mentioned that there were complaints of the online ticketing system becoming slow at peak times. The capacity for online ticketing will be increased by an additional 1 lakh tickets a day by this summer. Officials assured the PM punctuality receives utmost attention and amenities at stations are being stepped up to provide greater convenience to passengers at a time summer holiday season is in full swing. He asked for special attention to the supply of fertiliser for farmers, and to expeditiously move foodgrains for the PDS from Punjab and Haryana, for consumption in the rest of the country. He said that there should be no slackening in movement of coal to power plants. TNN

Great. She has created this mess and moved on leaving it for someone else to handle. This populist measure now costs the IR even more. Eventually it is the Indian tax payer who pays for all this free travel. During the holoiday seasons, this is tantamount to running IR only for the benefit of its employee base. May as well - it is after all a large employee base! :ohno: I cant see any other option but to either roll back this measure or cap the number of free trips an employee can take under this benefit.

How Mamata’s largesse backfired on Railways

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/2011052620110526045626582a2ebd2f8/How-Mamata%E2%80%99s-largesse-backfired-on-Railways.html

Great. She has created this mess and moved on leaving it for someone else to handle. This populist measure now costs the IR even more. Eventually it is the Indian tax payer who pays for all this free travel. During the holoiday seasons, this is tantamount to running IR only for the benefit of its employee base. May as well - it is after all a large employee base! :ohno: I cant see any other option but to either roll back this measure or cap the number of free trips an employee can take under this benefit.

well bro, the answer is simple..... if didi wanted, she could have easily increased the train fares upto certain extent, that could have conveniently helped gradually reduce IR's losses. but no, what will the aam aadmi think? that would mean more burden on the common folk! of course, we can afford to pay if the fares are increased by atleast about 5-10% , but she herself would be going against her 'maa, mati, manush' concept. she is like a messiah for the poor, which constitutes majority of this country, particularly her home state. that would be a taboo, that could possibly ruin her reputation/chances of coming to power in bengal, which was more crucial at that moment. similar mistake was committed by laluji earlier.

now neither you nor me can do anything about this.... like many people in the country, even I want that all the trains here would have LHB coaches, all running at high speeds; if necessary, I am even ready to shell out extra bucks for the same.... but these are meant to remain just as dreams, kyonki yeh INDIA hai boss :ohno:

Great. She has created this mess and moved on leaving it for someone else to handle. This populist measure now costs the IR even more. Eventually it is the Indian tax payer who pays for all this free travel. During the holoiday seasons, this is tantamount to running IR only for the benefit of its employee base. May as well - it is after all a large employee base! :ohno: I cant see any other option but to either roll back this measure or cap the number of free trips an employee can take under this benefit.

now that she has now moved to West Bengal leaving the railways god help West Bengal.

ET (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/newsbyindustry/transportation/railways/Indian-Railways-to-launch-new-web-portal-soon/articleshow/8716676.cms)
Indian Railways to launch new web portal soon

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways will soon launch a new web portal, which would contain information related to passenger services , for the convenience of travellers.

The information will primarily include journey planners, E-ticketing, retiring room booking and train arrival/departure information and PNR status.

"The new web portal will provide a web-based complaint management and SMS complaint management," said a senior Northern Railway official.

The telephone number 132 has been taken over by Northern Railway for the purpose of web facilitation. It is to be an all-India number with accessibility from all mobiles and landlines across the country.

After the launching of the portal, passengers can dial 132 for lodging complaints against railway services, the official said.

All complaints which are presently being received on SMS either on 9717630982 or on 57886 shall be received later on at the three digit number.

"It will be ensured by the Railways that this number is integrated with the web portal," he said.

The portal will offer services to the rail users for freight services which includes information to the customer about the rakes. "This will also provide tracking facility of the rakes on the portal," the official said.

On the parcel services front, the portal will provide information about the parcel rules, parcel charges calculator, parcel rates and parcel tracking information also.

All the earlier 35 railway websites have been linked to the portal and made online, the official said.

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HM/2011/06/04/Article//008/04_06_2011_008_016.jpg

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Rlys-likely-to-seek-land-for-second-terminal-in-city/articleshow/8717561.cms

PATNA :Rlys likely to seek land for second terminal in city

Kumod VermaKumod Verma, TNN | Jun 4, 2011, 12.00am IST
PATNA: The railways is likely to make a fresh proposal to the state government to hand over vacant Hardinge Park land to it to facilitate construction of a second terminal for suburban trains there. This has become necessary keeping in mind the fact that Patna Junction would face huge traffic flow after commissioning of the Digha-Sonepur rail bridge in 2012-2013.

According to former chief engineer and technical expert of the railways G N Sahay, the Park site was vacated by private transport operators long back. From railway point of view it is an ideal place for the construction of double discharge (DD) platform on the pattern of Mumbai's Victoria Terminal as well as Washing Pit. The proposed terminal could easily cope with the traffic load of passenger trains coming from north Bihar and local suburban trains, he said.

Besides, there are seven pairs of local trains coming from Ara-Buxar side. These trains are originating from Patna Junction. A few pairs of local trains have been added as the new Ara-Sasaram line has been thrown open for traffic. Thus, the Hardinge Park terminal would cope with the rush of passenger trains coming from Buxar-Ara , Sasaram-Ara and Muzaffarpur-Digha-Phulwari ends, too, Sahay said.

The proposal to build DD platforms at the Park land had gained momentum when Nitish Kumar was the railway minister. The ambitious plan, however, could not be translated into a reality as the state government could not hand over the land to the railways for one reason or the other. Now that Nitish is chief minister of Bihar, the railways is hopeful of a favourable decision in this regard, sources said.

According to divisional railway manager (DRM), Danapur, L M Jha , a second terminal is desperately required at Patna Junction now. Besides, it could be developed as Washing Pit for smooth maintenance of rakes of long-distance mail and express trains originating from Patna Junction, he said.

According to sources, the Railway Board had first approved this proposal in 2003-2004. It was to be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore. The PRDA in principle had also agreed to hand over the land to the railways for development work . However, this proposal was temporarily shelved due to non-availability of the land, sources said.

Under the proposed plan, the railways intends to build both terminal and rake maintenance line at this site. It is also keen to build a multi-purpose platform at the Hardinge Park land so that traffic movement could be smooth in and around Patna Junction from 2012-2013 onwards, sources said.

TOI (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-02/patna/29612658_1_railway-projects-locomotive-factory-standard-organization)
PM reviews progress of various railway projects

PATNA: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is currently holding the charge of railway ministry, held a high-level meeting with three ministers of state for railways, Railway Board chairman and other officials of the board on Wednesday in New Delhi to review various railway projects. The general managers (GMs) of 17 zones, including East Central Railway (ECR), also attended the meeting which discussed all ongoing and proposed railway projects.

According to sources, the progress of ECR projects, particularly the wheel factory at Chhapra (being set up at a cost of Rs 1,417 crore), diesel locomotive factory at Marhaura (Rs 2,025 crore) and electric locomotive factory at Madhepura (Rs 1,400 crore) were also discussed in detail at the meeting. The PM also took stock of the other ongoing projects of railways in Bihar, including three mega railway bridges being built at Digha (Patna), Munger and Nirmali in north Bihar, sources said.

According to a Railway Board official, the PM directed railway officials to chalk out a plan to attract more investors for railway projects. He also stressed the need of completing pending railway projects based on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode to give a boost to railway development work in the country, he said.

According to sources, the PM reviewed railway projects worth about Rs 14 lakh crore being carried out in different zones of railways across the country. Expressing satisfaction at the pace of railway development work, the PM, however, directed board officials to realize Railway Vision 2020 on priority basis to achieve all-round development of railway network, sources said. Railways has chalked out a comprehensive plan to realize Railway Vision 2020 which aims at integrated development.

A board official hinted that the PM took keen interest in about 150 railway projects which are either being carried out satisfactorily or are yet to kick off. He also emphasized the need of increasing railway revenue and curtailment of unnecessary expenditure, the Board official said.

Senior officials of the Research Design and Standard Organization (RDSO), Lucknow, were also present at the meeting. The PM suggested to board officials to modernize RDSO to cope with the increasing demands of railways, especially in safety segment, sources said. According to sources, the meeting is likely to accelerate development work in Bihar.

Passenger safety is our main concern: Roy
India Blooms News Service (http://www.indiablooms.com/NewsDetailsPage/newsDetails010611q.php)
Kolkata, Jun 1 (IBNS): The newly appointed Minister of State for Railways Mukul Roy on Wednesday said that that ensuring the safety of the passengers will be the top-most point in the 154-year-old institution's priority list.

Addressing the conference of General Managers of all Zonal Railways and Production Units, here on Wednesday, Roy said, “Tthough the number of consequential accidents has been showing a downward trend and the trend has continued on the first two months of this fiscal, there is a need to further reduce these accidents.”

He emphasized on the need of maintaining Railways’ assets which include both rolling stock or fixed assets, to ensure proper safety of the passengers.

“Technological solutions would also have to be explored to ensure incident free movement,” he said.

Speaking on the improvement of passenger services, Roy said that the existing quality of the services provided by railways would need substantial improvement and railways would take all possible measures to ensure that train journeys are pleasant and at the same time clean and comfortable.

Addressing at the Conference, the Minister of State for Railways, K.H.Muniyappa said that Indian Railways have recently framed the Vision 2020 which provides a definite roadmap for the future development of the Railways that is needed to face the challenge of the ever growing number of freight and passenger traffic on Indian Railways by 2020.

Muniyappa said that the present financial position of Railways demands an increase in the internal resource generation for financing the infrastructure requirement.

He said that, “To achieve the estimated gross traffic receipts of Rs. 1,06,239 crore for the year 2011-12, there is a need for austerity and economy in expenditure so that sufficient surplus is generated.”

Muniyappa called upon the General Managers of all the Zonal Railways to ensure the timely completion of target of 1075 kms new lines, 1017 kms of gauge conversion and 867 kms of doubling, fixed for the year 2011-12.

Minister of State for Railway, Bharatsinh Solanki, who was present at the event said that security of the passengers which include the safety of the women passengers should be a prime concern of Railways.

Solanki also said that railways have to be more sensitive to the needs of the aged and the physically challenged persons who are availing railway services.

“Facilities like lifts and escalators, earmarked parking lots, standard ramps etc, should be provided at the stations ion a phased manner,” he added.

Speaking on the perspective of the year of ‘Green Energy’, the Minister said that Railways should also concentrate on renewable sources like solar, wind wherever possible to meet energy requirement.

14 lakh crore=$350 billion :eek:

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/166016/karnataka-trains-most-punctual-india.html

Karnataka trains most punctual in India
New Delhi, June 2, DHNS:

Karnataka can be proud of one more thing—here trains to run on time. A confidential report of the Railway Ministry reveals that northern states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh reflect their bad state of civic order also in running of trains .


If in Karnataka over 90 per cent of trains run on time, less than 50 per cent of trains are punctual in Bihar and UP.

The monitoring report presented before the General Managers’ conference, which concluded on Wednesday, reveals that the punctuality situation in southern and western states is good when compared with north Indian states.

Worried over its inability to run trains on time, particularly in North India, the Ministry has told its senior officers to maintain the punctuality of trains. Ministry sources say that it remained one of the major concerns for ministers in the General Managers’ conference.
Minister of State for Railways K J Muniyappa was candid enough to remind officers of their basic responsibility of running trains on time.

The monitoring report reveals the poor state of affairs in north India.

Source (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-03/chandigarh/29616787_1_railway-station-train-service-land-owners)
Direct city-Mumbai train loses steam

CHANDIGARH: Tricity residents will have to wait longer for a direct train to Mumbai from Chandigarh railway station. For, Ambala railway station authorities said due to hindrances in linking Gurgaon to the track, the train would not commence operations this fiscal.

In February, Union railways minister Mamata Banerjee had announced the introduction of a weekly express train from Mumbai to Chandigarh via Phulera and Ringus in Rajasthan and Gurgaon and Kurukshetra in Haryana.

But land acquisition problems have put on hold the work on linking Gurgaon track with the rest of the railway track. The railway authorities have had to face a stiff opposition from local farmers and land owners, who, unhappy with the compensation amount, are not willing to give up their land.

Ambala additional divisional regional manager Sudhir Garg told The Times of India, ''The proposal to link Mumbai and Chandigarh with train station in Gurgaon is on hold. The state authorities will have to convince local land owners to acquire the land. As it will take time, the train service is not likely to commence this financial year.''

PM reviews progress of various railway projects

PATNA: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is currently holding the charge of railway ministry, held a high-level meeting with three ministers of state for railways, Railway Board chairman and other officials of the board on Wednesday in New Delhi to review various railway projects.

Tis time for the PM MMS to do a "Praful Patel" makeover of the IR. This staid organization, lost in a time warp, needs to be modernized pronto. The state of affairs of Indian Railway Stations and Indians Railway trains is so awful, pathetic that one cringes to see pictures of IR posted on international news/forums.

Time for action PM on IR.

Chenab Railway Bridge construction Animation - CADMEC


JJvN9bVW-fk&feature=player_embedded

http://www.steelguru.com/russian_news/Russian_Railways_wants_slower_privatization/208401.html

Very interesting video!!

Really nice video man. But the bridge in the video seems fairly long. Any idea how long it is going to be?

^^ nice video

Durontos are money-spinners for CR

The Duronto trains are among thetop ten servicesin termsof daily
earnings on the Central Railway (CR) network ,said officials .

The CR witnessed a 10.3% increase in earnings in its long-distance trains from
passenger traffic between 2010to11.AscomparedtoRs 2,727 crore earned in 2009-10, the CR garnered approximately Rs 3,007 crorein thelastfinancial year .

"Thefour Durontoclasstrainson theCR networkhave registeredhandsome earnings even though they were introduced just a year ago . The earnings from some of these trains are ashigh asRs 10crore per month ." In termsof monthly earnings,the 99-year-old CST-Ferozpur Punjab Mail still tops the chart . "The CR earns Rs 10 lakh per trip or Rs 3.27 crore per month from the Punjab Mail .Biweekly Durontos ,Pune-Howrah and CST-Howrah , registered earningsof approximately Rs14 lakh per trip .Even Pune–Nizamuddin and LTT-E rnakulam biweekly Duronto trains also recorded earnings of Rs11 lakh per trip approximately ," Malegaonkar said .

The Punjab Mail is a money-spinner because as many assix coachesof the 23-cartrain are meant for top-end commuters , who prefer to travel in AC compartments.The earnings increased in 2010-11 becauseof the rise in passengers and introduction of holiday special trains to cater to the additional rush during the festive season. TNN

For the safety & convenience of rail passengers, Railways have decided toreplace the old 18 coaches conventional rake of train no. 12431/12432 Nizamuddin-Trivandrum-Nizammudin Rajdhani by the new LHB 16 coachesrake with improved seating capacity. The new replaced LHB rake of train no. 12431/12432 Nizamuddin-Trivandrum-Nizammudin Rajdhani Express will be on tracks from the 08-06-11 when departing from Nizzamudin and from the 10.06.11 when departing from Trivandrum.

Source:http://www.nr.indianrailways.gov.in/view_detail.jsp?lang=0&dcd=1051&id=0,4,268

:banana::banana::banana::banana:

Travel ‘Super AC’ on Western Railway soon

Come October 2011, outstation railway commuters on Western Railway will have the option of travelling in a new upgraded class called Super AC, which will have facilities like regulated AC temperature, LED lights, charging points for laptops and mobiles and sub-pantries with water coolers and ovens.

The railways are yet to finalise the placement of and fare structure for the special coaches.

“The new coaches will be an upgraded version of the existing first and second AC coaches and would be retrofitted with a large number of added amenities,” a senior official working on the project said.

The layout, officials promise, will have optimal utilisation of the space for seats and berths in the transverse directions. “If space and costs permit, there are also plans to provide state-of-the-art drop-down screens with pre-recorded audio-visual movies/clips,” said a senior railway manager.

The coaches are being manufactured by the Rail Coach Factory for Western Railway and should be ready for regular service by October 2011. The 25 specially designed coaches will seat 44 passengers with interior aesthetics and comfort levels comparable to world standards.

“The railways and airlines have always fought to attract passengers. For example, on the Mumbai-Delhi sector, the railways had slashed prices of Rajdhani trains as low cost airlines had lowered their rates. The airlines then further reduced prices, leading to an aggressive battle a few years ago,” a senior railway manager said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_travel-super-ac-on-western-railway-soon_1552035

Rlys plans to build MFCs-cum-budget hotels

PATNA: The railways is likely to start work on multi-functional complexes (MFCs)-cum-budget hotels on stations which have religious and tourist importance. The railways recently worked out the details to start the work. However, the civil work on the project would be taken up only from the next fiscal.

The MFCs will have shopping centres, food stalls, restaurants, book-stalls, PCOs/STD/fax booths, medicine shops, budget hotels and underground parking for vehicles, said a Railway Board official. According to him, the railways has decided to build these MFCs on public-private partnership (PPP) basis under the supervision of the Indian Railway Construction Ltd ( IRCON) and the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA). About 160 places have been selected and identified for the construction of MFCs, he said, adding each MFC is likely to involve huge expenditure.

According to sources, as many as five MFCs will be built at Gaya, Hajipur, Sasaram, Islampur and Bhagalpur (in Bihar). The railways intends to complete this project within two years, the Board official said.

According to sources, the plot size for building each MFC will vary from 1,000 square metres to 3,000 square metres depending on availability of vacant land near railway station buildings. Besides, the railways has also decided to build such complex even on a plot of about 200 square meters to cater to the needs of passengers, he said.

According to sources, if everything goes well, the RLDA will invite tenders from interested investors for construction of MFCs at different places across the country. The RLDA is keen to develop these MFCs on identified railway plots. The developers will only design, finance, operate and maintain the MFCs, the sources said. TNN

Alignment of Agartala-Akhaura via Bangladesh

The alignment of the railway line between Agartala with Akhaura via Gangasagar in Bangladesh would be finalised by an inter ministerial group during a visit here on June 9.The 8-member delegation would be headed by B N Rajsekhar, member Indian Railway Board, Tripura minister for Industries and Commerce, Jitendra Chowdhury told reporters here today.The Railway Ministry has approved Rs 251 crore for laying 14 km of railway track to connect Agartala with Akhaura via Gangasagar in Bangladesh, he said.The Department of North Eastern region (DoNER) ministry would pay Rs 105 crore for construction the rail link on the Indian side and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Rs 146 crore for the project on the Bangladesh side, Chowdhury said.He said that another joint survey would be made next month to officially notify the proposed alignment.Earlier, a joint team comprising representatives from both sides had made a joint survey in November last year.The Northeastern Frontier Railway (NFR) is likely to take up work for laying the tracks by October next year.Sources in the NFR said, the Detailed Project Report (DPR) was almost ready and would be submitted to the Rail Ministry and the Railway Board for final approval.The railway extension from Agartala to Udaipur in South Tripura district was expected to be completed by December 2012.The conversion of the broad gauge line from Lumding to Badarpur in Assam has started after which it would be extended from Badarpur to Agartala.The NF railway was also conducting a survey to extend the railway up to Sabroom, the southern border town of Tripura for connectivity with the Chittagong Port in Bangladesh.

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/alignment-of-agartalaakhaura-via-bangladesh-rly-line-to-be/715617.html

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_travel-super-ac-on-western-railway-soon_1552035
Travel ‘Super AC’ on Western Railway soon

Come October 2011, outstation railway commuters on Western Railway will have the option of travelling in a new upgraded class called Super AC, which will have facilities like regulated AC temperature, LED lights, charging points for laptops and mobiles and sub-pantries with water coolers and ovens.

The railways are yet to finalise the placement of and fare structure for the special coaches.

“The new coaches will be an upgraded version of the existing first and second AC coaches and would be retrofitted with a large number of added amenities,” a senior official working on the project said.

The layout, officials promise, will have optimal utilisation of the space for seats and berths in the transverse directions. “If space and costs permit, there are also plans to provide state-of-the-art drop-down screens with pre-recorded audio-visual movies/clips,” said a senior railway manager.

The coaches are being manufactured by the Rail Coach Factory for Western Railway and should be ready for regular service by October 2011. The 25 specially designed coaches will seat 44 passengers with interior aesthetics and comfort levels comparable to world standards.

“The railways and airlines have always fought to attract passengers. For example, on the Mumbai-Delhi sector, the railways had slashed prices of Rajdhani trains as low cost airlines had lowered their rates. The airlines then further reduced prices, leading to an aggressive battle a few years ago,” a senior railway manager said.

Electrification of Pune-Daund route top priority for railways
TNN (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Electrification-of-Pune-Daund-route-top-priority-for-railways/articleshow/8766992.cms)|

Jun 8, 2011, 05.05am IST
PUNE: Kul Bhushan, general manager, Central railway, has said that the electrification work between Pune-Daund is a top priority. After the work is completed, local trains between Pune and Daund may run like the locals on the Pune-Lonavla route, he said.

The proposal for the electrification work of the Pune-Daund route is with the railway administration for the last four years. A loan proposal for this was sanctioned by the Asian Development Bank around six month's back. The administration is now looking ahead to complete the work as early as possible, he said.

Kul Bhushan was speaking at the 57th electrical standard committee meeting held in Pune recently.

The meeting was also addressed by Sudesh Kumar, member, electrical, railway board and ex-officio secretary to the government of India. The meeting was attended by various top officials from the railway electrical department. The meeting was held to discuss various issues to increase the productivity by measuring security norms. Policy matters and ways to improve efficiency at daily work were also discussed.

While addressing the meeting, Kumar said increasing productivity and maintaining security norms will remain top priorities for the railways. Energy conservation will play vital role in increasing productivity, he said.

Kumar also inspected the Mumbai-Pune rail track and shown satisfaction toward the standard of maintenance. He, however, instructed the officers to improve it further.

Meanwhile, chief commissioner of railway safety Prashant Kumar inspected the diesel loco shed at the Pune railway division. He inspected various initiatives undertaken by the railways regarding the safety aspect.

:cheers: That is a very busy section


BTW I just came across a train called Udyan Abha Toofan Express (http://indiarailinfo.com/train/1671/1/2104?kkk=1307512413957) from Howrah to Shri Ganganagar, RJ. It has 101 stops :nuts: Is there any other IR train with more stops? Even Himsagar has far lesser stops

2 days to cover that distance???? ? ? ? ? has to be the slowest on the planet!

Oh man, what an awesome video! Even though it's an animated one with lots of details missing, I loved it. Especially when it showed the top shot of that train passing over it. If the actual scene is anywhere like this, once completed, this is going to get added to list of all those worldwide iconic railway journeys to be undertaken!

Chenab Railway Bridge construction Animation - CADMEC


JJvN9bVW-fk&feature=player_embedded

An interesting initiative!

http://indiarailinfo.com/file/blog/post/181007/0/sseva.jpg

Railways’ new schedule for rail line to Manipur (http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=jun0711/oth06)

Imphal, capital of Manipur, is likely to find a place in the railway map of India in 2016, according to a new schedule drawn up by the Railway Ministry. Delay in execution of the railway projects figured at the meeting convened by the Prime Minister, last weekend.

Following Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh’s dismay at the slow implementation of the project, the railway authorities agreed to supplement equipment and manpower and assured that the railway line up to Tupul would be completed by 2014 and up to Imphal by 2016, sourcessaid. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh called a high-level meeting with Manipur Government and senior Central Ministers and top officials on Saturday to review implementation of national projects, besides several critical infrastructure, health and education ventures. The meeting was also attended by Defence Minister AK Antony, Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Bijoy Krishna Handique.

O Ibobi, who expressed concern regarding the slow pace of implementation of the railway project, also requested the railways authorities to induct additional manpower and equipment for ensuring stoppage of further slippages.

Regarding suggestions of theMember (Engg) of Railway Board, the Border Road Organisation was advised to strengthen all weak bridges on NH-53 by December 2011 so that the Railways could bring in all required heavy equipment required for the tunnelling work.

The PM also reportedly asked the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to clear all pending DPRs submitted by BRO, and also develop a new proposal for converting NH-53 to a world class road, befitting a road leading to international borders.

The Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways informed that both proposals were to be included in ‘Phase A’ of the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme and approval of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure was being obtained. The PM also advised the Ministry to bring the two issues to the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure within June for approval.

I think I am aware of 2 trains that are comparable though don't know how to figure out their real number of stops. One is the Howrah-Mumbai Express - didn't check recently whether it is listed on IRCTC or IndianRail.gov.in. The other one still exists although not listed on IRCTC and IndianRail.gov.in (I suspect it does not have a reservation facility) - but this one - Delhi-Howrah Janata Express, is unquestionably worse than Toofan.

Plus, I would put a question mark on the number of stops that Sealdah-Varanasi Express has (formerly known as Upper India Express). In terms of number of kms covered per stoppage, it ought to come amongst the very worst.

Again, I don't have data on any of the above but do know these trains are horrible.

:cheers: That is a very busy section


BTW I just came across a train called Udyan Abha Toofan Express (http://indiarailinfo.com/train/1671/1/2104?kkk=1307512413957) from Howrah to Shri Ganganagar, RJ. It has 101 stops :nuts: Is there any other IR train with more stops? Even Himsagar has far lesser stops

Delhi-Howrah Janata Express, is unquestionably worse than Toofan.



yep :lol:

Del-HWH Janata Express is probably the only long distance "Express" train to stop at every single station en route.

Indianrail.gov.in gets good response for railway ticket booking, as alternative to irctc - toi.

Bed rolls to get better in trains

The next time you are served a smelly towel or a stained bedsheet on long-distance trains, you will no longer have to hunt for someone to complain to. The paper wrapper of the linen sets will double as complaint forms, with mobile numbers and email IDs of officials who can fix your problem. < P>The project, which started on Wednesday for trains leaving Anand Vihar rail station in east Delhi, has the potential of being extended to other stations also.

Northern Railways have now outsourced the end-to-end management of linen on trains in a way that the company given the task of washing the stuff will also deploy uniformed men in each compartment to distribute them and also act as customer-care executives.

The “linen men” are part of the team of 63 executives deployed by a private firm hired to do the washing at a new facility at the new Anand Vihar terminal and do the follow-on work.

“We have done away with the practice of deploying railway officials for receiving, storing and distributing linen packets on trains. This job has been outsourced to ease the whole process,” said JK Singh, senior divisional mechanical engineer (carriage and wagon), Delhi Division, Northern Railway.

“The linen managers on board have been asked to collect every empty paper pack and encourage passengers to fill up the forms for suggestions, so that the vendor knows what he is doing wrong.”

The new facility, located at the Patparganj Industrial Area in east Delhi and run by Kolkata-based firm Kushal Group, can handle 8,000 sets of linen a day, but as of now it is washing around 2,500 sets because that is the amount adequate for the number of trains leaving Anand Vihar.

Including the Bhagalpur Garib Rath and Kathgodam Express, the new terminal sends off seven long-distance trains, mostly east-bound, and they will be serviced by this facility.

The new facility is highly mechanised with very little human intervention required in the cleaning process. The linen are washed with sterilising chemicals and in temperatures upwards of 100 degree celsius to make them bacteria-free.

“We also wash in steam for maximum results,” said a company official. The Delhi Division maintains 73 long-distance trains, of which it supplies linen to 33 trains a day. Hindustan Times

Railways starts new portal for online ticket booking, gets good response (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Railways-starts-new-portal-for-online-ticket-booking-gets-good-response/articleshow/8775863.cms)
Kumod Verma, TNN | Jun 8, 2011, 06.15pm IST
PATNA: Railways' new portal www.indianrail.gov.in , which was recently launched for online ticket booking, has evoked good response from people across the country. The portal has taken off pressure from the online ticket booking site of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

According to a Railway Board official, railways took the decision to have a new portal following frequent complaints about the non-availability of the IRCTC site during peak time. The new portal has the provision for Internet reservation, he said adding the alleged irregularities in issuing e-tickets to people on the IRCTC portal has been a major concern for railways in maintaining transparency in e-ticket booking.

According to a recent survey carried out by the railways, it has come to light that a large number of people across the country have been booking their journey tickets through IRCTC portal daily. The new site, which has received an overwhelming response from computer-savvy people, has enabled people to access the IRCTC site through the new portal as well, the Board official said.

About 30 to 40% of rail ticket bookings are being made by the IRCTC. Railways is keen to provide multiple choice to passengers to book their journey tickets in advance or just before their journey. The Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) has been providing assistance to the railways in making the online ticket booking system easy and foolproof, sources said.

Since the railways has, of late, banned several e-ticketing agents at the country level to check misuse of the IRCTC site, the new portal has been providing an easy access for online e-ticket booking. Besides, restriction on e-ticket booking for one hour from 8am to 9am has checked malpractice in booking 'Tatkal' tickets at major stations at the country level, a Board official said.

To redress passengers' grievances fast, the railways has decided to set up a separate cell at the Board level to register complaints about poor quality of meals or any other complaints related to passengers' journey on trains. Senior railway officials would look into passengers' grievances on a priority basis, sources said.

Meanwhile, the railway ministry has started hunt for a new chairman of Railway Board, as the present chairman Vivek Sahai is slated to superannuate on June 30. Sahai has been in dual charge of chairman and member (traffic) since the day he assumed the charge of chairman last year. Thus, the railway ministry has to appoint both new chairman and member (traffic). At present, PM Manmohan Singh is in charge of railway ministry.

has anybody booked ticket in this new website???

There's no new website that has been launched yet. Strange but that article is total rubbish

There's no new website that has been launched yet. Strange but that article is total rubbish

Agree!!
The existing internet reservation link on http://www.indianrail.gov.in/, when clicked, brings up https://www.irctc.co.in/ only!

Or maybe it will do so after 30th Jun when the new portal is expected to be launched on 1st Jul. Let's wait and watch.

Indianrail.gov.in gets good response for railway ticket booking, as alternative to irctc - toi.

Not sure what you are trying convey here.

IRCON has completed the first section of the 94 km long Seremban-Gemas electrified double tracking project.

The 2nd section, would be completed by next year.

These are my photos, taken on the first day of the operation.

Senawang

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09897.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09890.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09887.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09899.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09907.jpg

Sungai Gadut

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09933.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09928.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09924.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t224/Nissan_FUGA/KTM/DSC09915.jpg

^^so IRCON basically doesnt work only in India :bash:

that's not possible. i think indian gov companies have a brand image to maintail while working in india. they suck and even when they could do better they stick to being suckers.

^^ Amazing how first world infrastructure they setup in foreign but literally build toilet-like stations in India!!!

^^so IRCON basically doesnt work only in India :bash:

We have budget constraint. We cant afford swanky granites and roofs, you can see how they downgraded bangalore metro stations renders on budget constraint. Now bangalore metro stations look like indian railway stations :ohno:

Another point politicians like Digvijay singh and Left make is how poor people will feel to use such stations much superior to their home itself. They were telling this theory about shopping malls :bash:

Indian Railways Carry 157.30 Million Tonnes of Freight During April-May 2011 (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=72627)



Indian Railways have carried 157.30 million tonnes of revenue earning freight traffic during April-May 2011. The freight carried shows an increase of 10.89 million tonnes over the freight traffic of 146.41 million tonnes actually carried during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 7.73 per cent.

During the month of May 2011, the revenue earning freight traffic carried by Indian Railways was 79.78 million tonnes. There is an increase of 5.54 million tonnes over the actual freight traffic of 74.24 million tonnes carried by the Indian Railways during the same period last year, showing an increase of 7.46 per cent.

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HKL/2011/06/11/Article//005/11_06_2011_005_041.jpg

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HM/2011/06/11/Article//005/11_06_2011_005_008.jpg

HT:
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3240/unledcv.jpg

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HM/2011/06/11/Article//005/11_06_2011_005_008.jpg

They should introduce delhi-mumbai durono at the soonest. That is high air traffic route

They should introduce delhi-mumbai durono at the soonest. That is high air traffic route
There isnt Delhi-Mumbai Duronto already? Thats very shocking. Many major state capitals and big cities already have Duronto to Delhi. Any particular reason why Mumbai doesnt

No news on high speed rail praoject and upgradation of railway stations...:( .. sick of hearing shitty old news...IR will be a shit like dis only...no upgradation,nothing...after all this is india (TII)

Any idea What is the total Annual Volume of Passenger coaches, locomotives and Freight wagons procured by IR

ET (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/railways/punjab-mail-chugs-into-100th-year/articleshow/8758190.cms)
Punjab Mail chugs into 100th year

MUMBAI: Once the preferred service for British officials disembarking at Mumbai and travelling up-country, the Punjab Mail entered its 100th year this month. It is the first train to achieve this distinction on Indian Railways' broad gauge network and still connects west and north India.Though the exact date of start of the Punjab Mail, running between the then Bombay and Peshawar in today's Pakistan, is unclear, Central Railway has calculated its "birth date" based on an old document and a passenger complaint - about the train arriving a few minutes late!

"From a cost estimate paper of 1911 and a complaint by an irate passenger dated Oct 12, 1912, about the late arrival of the train by a few minutes at Delhi station, we have more or less inferred that the Punjab Mail, or Punjab Limited, as she was then called, made her inaugural run from Ballard Pier Mole Station, on June 1, 1912," a Central Railway official told IANS.

This makes the Punjab Mail 16 years senior to its more glamorous sister, the Frontier Mail, running on the Western Railway network.

Although there are other trains which have completed 100 or more years of service on some metre or narrow gauge sections, the Punjab Mail record on the broad gauge is based on available historical material, the officials said.

The 24-coach train, a mix of air-conditioned and ordinary sleepers, traverses the entire 1,930 km distance between Mumbai and its terminus, Ferozepur city in Punjab, near the Pakistan border, in 34 hours.

Its regular passengers have remained loyal and appreciative.

"I have always found the journey by Punjab Mail fast, efficient as far as timings are concerned and good service in terms of lodging and boarding en route," said businessman J.S. Kahaan, 60, who has frequently travelled on the train between Punjab and Mumbai.

The train used to be popular with the British officers, along with their families, who usually disembarked at Bombay after a two-week steamer voyage from Southampton.

"Since they held tickets combining the sea journey with an inland train journey on the subcontinent to various destinations, the officers and their families hopped on to one of the trains taking them to places like Delhi, (the then) Calcutta or (the then) Madras," the official said.

Running on some fixed days of the week to carry mail and postal articles, Punjab Limited was the fastest train in British-ruled India for those travelling to northern India.

It traversed the picturesque 2,496- km-long Great Indian Peninsular Railways route, dotted with hills, mountains, deserts, rivers and forests, from Bombay to Peshawar in about 47 hrs, or almost two full days.

Major stops en route were Itarsi (in present-day Madhya Pradesh), Agra, Delhi and Amritsar as well as Lahore (in present-day Pakistan) before it terminated at Peshawar Cantonment.

"The train was made up of six cars, three for the passengers with a total carrying capacity of 96, and three for postal goods and mail. The sparkling clean cars were all corridor cars, and made up of first class, dual berth compartments," the official said.

So are high speed trains in India feasible?

There isnt Delhi-Mumbai Duronto already? Thats very shocking. Many major state capitals and big cities already have Duronto to Delhi. Any particular reason why Mumbai doesnt

That is because politicians prefered mumbai-nagpur duronto over delhi. Regional politics :bash: But mumbai-delhi announced in this budget but not started yet :cheers:

^^ Nagpur is understandable. But they should have preferred Mum-Del over Mumbai-HWH Duronto

^^ Mumbai-delhi should have been the first duronto line in the whole country :lol: Howra will haunt railways for more time to come, as Roy will be made railway minister before next budget.

I remember running and jumping on trains.

^^ Mumbai-delhi should have been the first duronto line in the whole country :lol:
Exactly :cheers:

I remember running and jumping on trains.

yes we know you are a kangaroo, no need to publicize it :lol:

^^ Nagpur is understandable. But they should have preferred Mum-Del over Mumbai-HWH Duronto

Exactly :cheers:

Why? Why prefer Mum-Del over Mum-Hwh while Mum-Nagpur is "understandable"? So is it that Mum-Nagpur is preferable over Mum-Hwh?

Why not have both Mum-Del and Mum-Hwh in the first place?

I see a lot of sense in Mum-Hwh Duronto and the sense that I see is more than Mum-Del Duronto.

What's the fastest travel time between Mum and Hwh? Before Duronto, 32 hours. After Duronto, 27 hours. Improvement - 5 hours in 27 - close to 20%.

What's the current shortest travel time (rail) between Mum-Del? 14 hours maybe? What's around 20% improvement of that? 11.5 hours or so. Do you see a Duronto achieving that?

So in terms of sheer passenger convenience improvement, I see a Mum-Hwh Duronto make more sense over Mum-Del as long as both trains are seeing 100% occupancy, if one has to come against the other. By the way, I fail to see a reason why both should not operate.

^^ Mumbai-delhi should have been the first duronto line in the whole country :lol: Howra will haunt railways for more time to come, as Roy will be made railway minister before next budget.

Oh yeah? Haunt? Look at it - forget the media for some time and apply your own counting. The hue and cry was that Mamata was preferring Kolkata over other places for Durontos back in 2009 when they were first introduced. I counted. I hope, all of us can count easily.

In terms of sheer count, 5 Durontos ended in Delhi. 4 ended in Kolkata. So what makes people thing Howrah is haunting Indian railways and Delhi is not? If I got my senses correct from every angle and want my country (India) to develop all round, I would want the entire country to get its equal and fair share of trains rather than cornering every single Rajdhani-equivalents to Delhi.

In fact, Duronto could have been one of the rare trains to AVOID Delhi because Delhi is well-connected with the state capitals thanks to Rajdhani, but most other pairs of state capitals are not well-connected which is what Duronto is designed to do in the first place.

Lets grow India all around rather than concentrating on Delhi and Mumbai and crying when some other city also receives its fair share. Grow up, friends. Stop bashing.

On last statuary the rail railway minister was at Borivali station to meet people.
Residents have asked to consider a halt of Duranto at Borivali. Don't have a news source to refer but was present there.

In fact I think it's a good option as on WR 60% people board from Borivali. A 2 minute stop will save 2 hrs of people. ( from Borivali--to Bomaby central and then back towards Borivali)

^^ no sorry no stops in duronto thanks. Those ppl can catch a local train to bombay central from borivili. Or we can change start/terminating station to borivili itself, how would you like that?

Why? Why prefer Mum-Del over Mum-Hwh while Mum-Nagpur is "understandable"? So is it that Mum-Nagpur is preferable over Mum-Hwh?

So in terms of sheer passenger convenience improvement, I see a Mum-Hwh Duronto make more sense over Mum-Del as long as both trains are seeing 100% occupancy, if one has to come against the other. By the way, I fail to see a reason why both should not operate.

Oh yeah? Haunt? Look at it - forget the media for some time and apply your own counting. The hue and cry was that Mamata was preferring Kolkata over other places for Durontos back in 2009 when they were first introduced. I counted. I hope, all of us can count easily.

In terms of sheer count, 5 Durontos ended in Delhi. 4 ended in Kolkata. So what makes people thing Howrah is haunting Indian railways and Delhi is not? If I got my senses correct from every angle and want my country (India) to develop all round, I would want the entire country to get its equal and fair share of trains rather than cornering every single Rajdhani-equivalents to Delhi.

In fact, Duronto could have been one of the rare trains to AVOID Delhi because Delhi is well-connected with the state capitals thanks to Rajdhani, but most other pairs of state capitals are not well-connected which is what Duronto is designed to do in the first place.

Lets grow India all around rather than concentrating on Delhi and Mumbai and crying when some other city also receives its fair share. Grow up, friends. Stop bashing.

Delhi because delhi has more railway traffic, lot of middle class goes to delhi who depend on railway. If you go by traffic volume if you have 4 durontos ending in kolkata then delhi should have 12 durontos ended :cheers: What is that howrah-delhi duronto and sealdah-delhi duronto nonsense? We tolerated with smile till now because WB election was crucial. Now that is over, stop the howrah haunting already :bash: The reason you fail to see both are not there is because limitations of things in life, otherwise all durontos would have introduced in single year single month.

durontos have been introduced not mainly for fast travel but to ease congestion between two big cities...
durontos are actually not non-stop...i have travelled on mumbai-howrah duronto and it stops at almost 10-12 stations in between...officially also it has 6 technical halts as seen on erail.in...even mumbai-indore has 3 technical halts...
the only diff is that tickets are not available for technical halts...
delhi-chennai rajdhani and delhi-howrah rajdhani take same time(in fact slightly less) as durontos resp...

ET (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/railways/punjab-mail-chugs-into-100th-year/articleshow/8758190.cms)
Punjab Mail chugs into 100th year


:applause:
pity over the time the on time performance for this historical train has been dismal.

So are high speed trains in India feasible?

if they are feasible in small nations like France and Japan I dont see a reason why they shouldnt be feasible in India.

We have budget constraint. We cant afford swanky granites and roofs, you can see how they downgraded bangalore metro stations renders on budget constraint. Now bangalore metro stations look like indian railway stations :ohno:

IMO, Bangalore metro stations are far better than the IR stations. There cannot be any comparision... Ofcourse there are deviations from the renders....
Also the pics have the same kind of stations as we see in Delhi metro and the soon to be opened Bangalore metro..
Ofcourse most of the IR stations suck...but not all..

.
For our Bhartiya HIGH SPEED AFICIONADOS :

China Backtracks on High-Speed Trains (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/world/asia/14china.html?_r=1)

BEIJING — China’s troubled Railway Ministry was dealt another blow on Monday as it announced a reduction in high-speed rail service and contended with a rare protest alleging that its hiring practices were corrupt.

The protest erupted outside the ministry’s fortress-like entrance across from the Defense Ministry here. More than 100 demobilized soldiers and their families chanted slogans accusing the ministry of reneging on promises to hire them. The group traveled 750 miles from the northeastern city of Harbin and claimed that one protester had been killed there.

“We love China!” the protesters shouted. “Give us our jobs!” The protesters, many of them wearing T-shirts saying “I am from a military family,” said they been tested for the jobs but that the results were rigged. People with good connections to the rail ministry were awarded the jobs, they said.

The ministry did not return calls seeking comment.

The protest — a rarity in tightly controlled central Beijing — lost steam after one middle-aged female protester appeared to have had a heart attack. Police officers dispersed the crowd an hour after the demonstration began.

The ministry confirmed that the new high-speed line — as well as several others across the country — would be slower and cheaper than planned. Originally meant to operate at top speeds of about 215 miles per hour, the new line will have trains running at 186 miles and 155 miles per hour. In addition, officials said, they had scrapped plans for luxury compartments and would offer cheaper classes of service.

The new strategy of slower, cheaper trains is meant to increase capacity, Vice Minister Hu Yadong told reporters. Starting July 1, he said, three other high-speed lines would also offer the two-tier service. The result would be a 9.6 percent increase in capacity, he said.

The new policy makes “the satisfaction of the people as the basic requirement for evaluating railway work,” Mr. Hu said.

This contrasts with the ministry’s high-tech and high-end strategy under the former rail minister, Liu Zhijun. Mr. Liu resigned earlier this year after allegations of corruption and an extravagant lifestyle emerged in the Chinese press. He was also seen as representative of a system that was out of touch with ordinary people.

This past Chinese New Year, for example, local news media reported stories of the miserable trips home that millions of Chinese migrant workers still have to suffer.

The high-speed trains have radically cut travel time: the new Beijing-Shanghai line will cut travel times between the country’s two great metropolises from 10 hours to less than five. But even the lowest ticket price of about $63 almost equals the net monthly income of an average resident of rural China. For many Chinese, that means trips on slow, overcrowded and often filthy trains.

Mr. Hu also sought to dispel rumors that the new line’s speeds were being reduced for reasons of safety. In the past few months, some foreign companies that sold China its high-speed technology said the trains were not designed to operate at 215 miles per hour.

The ministry countered this by saying that Chinese engineers had improved on the foreign technology and that the trains were safe at the higher speeds.

Mr. Hu said the new Beijing-Shanghai line could run at 215 miles per hour but that the ministry opted for the slower speed to make it easier to accommodate the slower and cheaper trains that were now operating on the same tracks. In addition, the lower top speed will reduce energy consumption and maintenance, he said.

Cheers :cheers:

durontos have been introduced not mainly for fast travel but to ease congestion between two big cities...
durontos are actually not non-stop...i have travelled on mumbai-howrah duronto and it stops at almost 10-12 stations in between...officially also it has 6 technical halts as seen on erail.in...even mumbai-indore has 3 technical halts...
the only diff is that tickets are not available for technical halts...
delhi-chennai rajdhani and delhi-howrah rajdhani take same time(in fact slightly less) as durontos resp...

duronto and shatabdi are now flagship. Duronto non stop means your co-passenger wont get down in the middle and new one wont come in, this is because tickets are not available for halfway, that gives flight like experience :banana: Moreover i guess they will reduce number of technical stops in duronto in future.

IMO, Bangalore metro stations are far better than the IR stations. There cannot be any comparision... Ofcourse there are deviations from the renders....
Also the pics have the same kind of stations as we see in Delhi metro and the soon to be opened Bangalore metro..
Ofcourse most of the IR stations suck...but not all..
IR stations are ok only when they are new.. Once it is 5 year old thats it you will hate it :bash:

If Delhi-Kolkata is connected 4 times a week on Durontos and 2 out of that 4 days is to Howrah and other 2 days to that is in Sealdah, why does that become a nonsense? That's how it is today !! I personally think, looking at the rush of the Delhi-Kolkata sector, Duronto is needed 7 days every week, no matter whether that's Howrah or Sealdah.

Also when you say 4 Durontos terminating in Kolkata ought to imply 12 in Delhi, I am assuming you meant the railway passenger traffic to Delhi is 3 times more than to Kolkata. Could be - I don't know - but would be nice to see some statistics.


Delhi because delhi has more railway traffic, lot of middle class goes to delhi who depend on railway. If you go by traffic volume if you have 4 durontos ending in kolkata then delhi should have 12 durontos ended :cheers: What is that howrah-delhi duronto and sealdah-delhi duronto nonsense?

Railways set to modernize 150-yr-old Jamalpur workshop

The railways has chalked out an ambitious plan for modernization of the 150-year-old railway workshop at Jamalpur in Munger district at an estimated cost of Rs 117.46 crore.

Under the new plan, the railways would further improve its infrastructure to cope with the demands of new technology to manufacture rail components as well as to carry out maintenance work of locomotives, cranes and wagons smoothly.

According to chief works manager (CWM) Animesh Sinha, the Jamalpur workshop had come into being on February 8, 1862. It was the first workshop of the country to manufacture steam engine CA 764 `Lady Curzon' in 1899 at a cost of Rs 33,000 only. Besides, it was the first to establish a rail foundry in 1893 whereas it had set up a rolling mill in 1870 to fulfill the needs of the railways, he said.

Sinha, who took over charge as the new CWM of Jamalpur railway workshop, said that the workshop was the first to manufacture ticket printing, ticket chopping and ticket counting machines at the country level. Between 1899 and 1923 it had manufactured 216 steam locomotives.

However, the railways had stopped manufacturing steam locomotives in 1923. The steam locomotive era of the railways had virtually ended in 1992, he said, adding the workshop had manufactured many important components of passenger and goods trains much to its credit.

Set up in an eco-friendly atmosphere, the Jamalpur workshop is spread over a sprawling area of about 5,74,654 square meters. About 6 MVA power plant has been installed to run the workshop smoothly. While the total number of machinery plants is about 1416, it has the annual turn over of about Rs 502 crore, the CWM said, adding the staff strength is 9,710. TNN

Better late than hungry, feels Rlys

Next time you board a premium train and it’s delayed, there is no reason to worry, at least not about food! Indian Railways has now decided to provide “full” meals free of cost to passengers travelling by Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express if they are behind schedule.

A senior railway official involved in the decision said, “It has been decided that catering services to passengers on board these trains may be provided full menu — including packaged drinking water — as per the service timing, irrespective of sector-wise services and apportionment made for its normal run.”

This would mean that if passengers supposed to reach their destination in the first half get delayed up to the time of serving of the next meal (lunch, snacks or dinner), they would get “full menu” without any extra cost.

The official added, “For example, if the Kolkata Rajdhani, which reaches Delhi around 10 am, gets late beyond lunch time, the caterer would provide them the entire food that is served as lunch in a normal practice free. There would be no cut in the items served.”

At present, passengers are not served the full menu and are only provided some light snacks. The railways would compensate for the loss caused to the caterer in serving additional food to passengers, according to the railway official.

The Railways claims the decision would benefit lakhs of passengers who travel in the 27 pairs of Rajdhani Express, 15 pairs of Shatabdi Express and 23 pairs of Duronto Express.

According to an estimate, over 3.38 lakh passengers travelled in AC first class category in 2010-11 while over 31 lakh travelled in second AC. The number of passengers travelling in third AC category was over 82 lakh while another 29 lakh travelled in AC chair car during the same period.

These included total passengers who travelled in Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi Expresses, who are going to benefit by the latest Railways decision.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/345992/Better-late-than-hungry-feels-Rlys.html

Railways working on high-speed corridor project

PATNA: Under the Vision 2020 plan, the Indian Railways has decided to complete its most ambitious high-speed corridor project.

While a feasibility study of the proposed high-speed passenger train corridors at six places across the country is being carried out at identified places, the railways is keen to accelerate the pace of development work now. The railways intends to run high-speed passenger trains at 200-250 kmph. Currently, trains run at the maximum speed of 160 kmph on the Delhi-Bhopal route.

The railways has already identified these places located on the Delhi-Chandigarh, Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Vijawada-Chennai, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna sections. The feasibility study is being taken up on cost-sharing basis with the governments in these states.


According to a former technical expert of the railways, G N Sahay, the proposed high-speed passenger train corridors have become inevitable for the railways to keep pace with air services. "Countries like Turkey and Morocco are well set to introduce high-speed corridor passenger trains soon. The Indian Railways must not lag behind now," he said.


Sahay said it would provide an alternative mode of communication to passengers at a time when the cost of travelling by air and train is more or less the same in AC first class .Besides, it would be the fastest journey by trains in the country, he said .


According to Sahay, the railways initially intends to develop a stretch of about 2000 km as the high-speed corridor in the country. :lol::lol::nuts:The railways proposes to build elevated corridors at those points where fencing on tracks is not feasible on high-speed corridor routes.

The Patna-New Delhi route could be converted into a high-speed corridor. Tracks have been replaced all along the route. The present track condition is conducive to run high-speed trains on the Patna-New Delhi route. :nuts::nuts: However, the railways needs to improve signalling system on this particular route, he said.


According to sources, the total cost of the survey work on the Patna-Delhi route would incur about Rs 11 crore. Since the 1000-km-long route falls under the territories of Bihar, UP and Delhi, the total area falling under Bihar is hardly 200 km, sources said.


A Railway Board official described a meeting held recently with the state government as positive. The state government would cooperate with the railways while carrying out the work on the high-speed corridor project. This ambitious project will enable the railways to increase its earnings, he said .


According to Sahay, the Indian Railways has the largest network in the country. Introduction of high-speed passenger trains on the pattern of foreign counties would fill railway coffers as elite class passengers would prefer to undertake journey safely by such high-speed trains.


"The project will be directly monitored by the High Speed Authority in the country to expedite fast development of the network," he said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Railways-working-on-high-speed-corridor-project/articleshow/8856548.cms

i am sure the same article will be used in 2020

u bet...

i am sure the same article will be used in 2020

One good thing about it that they have been consistent enough to offer the same news over and over again. They are getting better, thus. :)

^^
Yeah right :| Since last so many months or is it years by now, we have been hearing the same old story again and again and again ....

The Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad survey was supposedly already completed as well. But what happened post that.... anybody every saw or heard anything about it?? Nope! And our great media, they will also routinely keep on circulating the same old story in one or other form. Did they ever bothered to ask them officials what has happened since then, what progress has been made, what are the specific steps being planned to be undertaken towards this and when.

Alas we deserve the politicians we got, as well as the bureaucrats and the media men that come along with them and complete the package.

Railways working on high-speed corridor project

PATNA: Under the Vision 2020 plan, the Indian Railways has decided to complete its most ambitious high-speed corridor project.

While a feasibility study of the proposed high-speed passenger train corridors at six places across the country is being carried out at identified places, the railways is keen to accelerate the pace of development work now. The railways intends to run high-speed passenger trains at 200-250 kmph. Currently, trains run at the maximum speed of 160 kmph on the Delhi-Bhopal route.

The railways has already identified these places located on the Delhi-Chandigarh, Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Vijawada-Chennai, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna sections. The feasibility study is being taken up on cost-sharing basis with the governments in these states.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Railways-working-on-high-speed-corridor-project/articleshow/8856548.cms



Why not they are trying for the tracks connecting four metro's?:no:

Why not they are trying for the tracks connecting four metro's?:no:

Now there are 6 metros :bash: In fact only mumbai, delhi and bangalore are only 3 tier 1 cities in india, and none else :cheers: And yes, kolkata stands 6th, please dont live in the past.

Why not they are trying for the tracks connecting four metro's?:no:

You are in big trouble dude :lol:

Now there are 6 metros :bash: In fact only mumbai, delhi and bangalore are only 3 tier 1 cities in india, and none else :cheers: And yes, kolkata stands 6th, please dont live in the past.


OK....It is 6. But why Patna??....Why Haldia??......

Kolkata 6th in WHAT? Lets get concrete. Business volume? Traffic volume? Rail traffic volume? Importance among metros as per your opinion?

And where did Rupak say Kolkata stands ahead of other "metros" in whatever sense (and thus he lives in past)? Are we reading different lines?

I saw you give another statistic on the other day - that Delhi needs 12 Durontos if Kolkata needs 4 - why?

Could you please start backing things up with numbers with sources, or explain what you are trying to say in more (concrete) details?

It helps people like me understand your viewpoints better. Otherwise, at least to me, these comments fail to make any sense.

Now there are 6 metros :bash: In fact only mumbai, delhi and bangalore are only 3 tier 1 cities in india, and none else :cheers: And yes, kolkata stands 6th, please dont live in the past.

OK....It is 6. But why Patna??....Why Haldia??......

Yes it is 6 of them, but hope you know which is 6th ranked city out of those 6 ;) Cheer up Delhi patna is halfway to kolkata itself :cheers: Still we arent complaining..

OK....It is 6. But why Patna??....Why Haldia??......

Because they are most densely populated areas + mineral belt + port + if we need to eradicate poverty and provide jobs we need to provide fast movement of goods and passengers.

Railways working on high-speed corridor project

PATNA: Under the Vision 2020 plan, the Indian Railways has decided to complete its most ambitious high-speed corridor project.

While a feasibility study of the proposed high-speed passenger train corridors at six places across the country is being carried out at identified places, the railways is keen to accelerate the pace of development work now. The railways intends to run high-speed passenger trains at 200-250 kmph. Currently, trains run at the maximum speed of 160 kmph on the Delhi-Bhopal route.

The railways has already identified these places located on the Delhi-Chandigarh, Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Vijawada-Chennai, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna sections. The feasibility study is being taken up on cost-sharing basis with the governments in these states.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Railways-working-on-high-speed-corridor-project/articleshow/8856548.cms

I think I have seen this report a few times in the last couple years. They have the same routes and they are still into the feasibility stage. I also feel that the plan could be more broad-based and could eventually aim to connect the different corners of the country with high speed train lines, something similar to the golden quadrilateral highway project.

When our entire rolling stock is capable of travelling at 120-160kmph, why dont they invest a fraction of what they would with hsr on improving signalling, line safety and line speed on the entire network?

The complete roster of express trains on IR are overbooked a week in advance, I havent read a single concrete plan to improve long distance route capacity which is way more vital than travelling at 250kmph. There are literally thousands of people throughout the country everyday who take a flight because a train is not available, why cant the railways think of them?

When our entire rolling stock is capable of travelling at 120-160kmph, why dont they invest a fraction of what they would with hsr on improving signalling, line safety and line speed on the entire network?

The complete roster of express trains on IR are overbooked a week in advance, I havent read a single concrete plan to improve long distance route capacity which is way more vital than travelling at 250kmph. There are literally thousands of people throughout the country everyday who take a flight because a train is not available, why cant the railways think of them?

Mostly because the the investment will not be done by the railways. It will funded by the central govt, various state govts, private sector and perhaps loans from international bodies. The railways will take over the operations once the construction is complete.
But I agree with your suggestions. IR could start with improvements such as better track conditions, signaling & communications, expanding/speeding up rail electrification, doubling quadrupling busy routes. Eventually, they will need to construct dedicated high speed corridors. However, like many projects this one is also mired in bureaucracy or politics that is characteristic of the indian railways.

When our entire rolling stock is capable of travelling at 120-160kmph, why dont they invest a fraction of what they would with hsr on improving signalling, line safety and line speed on the entire network?

The complete roster of express trains on IR are overbooked a week in advance, I havent read a single concrete plan to improve long distance route capacity which is way more vital than travelling at 250kmph. There are literally thousands of people throughout the country everyday who take a flight because a train is not available, why cant the railways think of them?



In the Vision 2020 document, then Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee proposed to speed up IR tracks capable of travelling at 160-200 kmph. But there are doubts whether it will be implented or not.:ohno:

Pataliputra station set to open soon

The railways has expedited work on the much awaited Pataliputra station located on Bailey Road near Rukunpura. Although Pataliputra station is part of the mega rail-cum-road bridge over the river Ganga, the railways intends to commission it in July or August this year. Commissioning of the new Pataliputra station would facilitate the railways to link its rail route services from both Danapur and Phulwari ends before opening of the Ganga railway bridge in 2012-2013.

According to sources, the railways has completed construction of three platforms at the station. These platforms have been built and raised to normal height to accommodate any passenger train having load combination of 24 bogies. The railways has left enough space vacant adjacent to Pataliputra station to build two more platforms in future as per its requirement to cope with increasing traffic load after commissioning of the Ganga railway bridge, sources said.

The earthwork on the southern side right from the Phulwari FCI godown to the Bailey Road has already been completed as per standard requirement. Tracks on about eight km route have been laid up to Pataliputra station from FCI end. Recently, a pilot engine was allowed to run on the tracks for a test trial from Phulwari FCI to Pataliputra. The trial run was successful, an ECR official said.

According to sources, the new Pataliputra station building is being provided with all modern facilities like food plaza, cyber cafe, deluxe toilets, pay and use toilets and a provision for parking about 100 vehicles in the circulating area, sources said. Since the road over bridge (ROB) at Pataliputra station is being thrown open by the end of June, efforts are on to make Pataliputra station functional also next month.

At present, the railways is carrying on the alignment work on priority basis. The commissioning of Pataliputra station would help the railways expedite the Ganga bridge fabrication work, too, an ECR official said. The new station would reduce traffic pressure on Patna Junction. Besides, Pataliputra station will have facilities like spacious waiting halls, ticket booking counters, passenger reservation system (PRS), full sheds on platforms, high level platforms, parcel office and sprawling circulating area, sources said, adding there is special provision to provide proper lights at station and convert it finally into a terminal station. According to sources, incoming trains from north Bihar would terminate there.

The railways has decided to build four washing pit lines at Pataliputra station. TNN

Now there are 6 metros :bash: In fact only mumbai, delhi and bangalore are only 3 tier 1 cities in india, and none else :cheers: And yes, kolkata stands 6th, please dont live in the past.

Not according to Govt of India's HRA calculation (for Income Tax). Its still 40% of basic for Bangalore :(

^^ I think they will make it 50% once 2011 census is published.

Only Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore are tier 1 cities - JLL:
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7993/indiacitytier.jpg
http://www.joneslanglasalle.com/ResearchLevel1/research_india_30_real_estate_opportunities_in_tier_III_cities.pdf

Ranked for WHAT? You don't rank something unless you state the objective of ranking !! Rank for cleanliness? Rank for population count? Rank for number of belly dancers who dance after 11 PM inside bars bigger than 2200 square meters? Rank in terms of number of passengers that use railway (since we are inside a railway thread here)?

Or do you actually mean, no matter whatever your objective is, Kolkata is always ranked the 6th city in India?:lol::nuts::banana:

That would be some achievement for sure - to rank 6th for everything that one can possibly imagine :lol::lol::lol:

Yes it is 6 of them, but hope you know which is 6th ranked city out of those 6 ;) Cheer up Delhi patna is halfway to kolkata itself :cheers: Still we arent complaining..

Okay, so you are talking about real estate?

How in the world does that relate to railways?

^^ I think they will make it 50% once 2011 census is published.

Only Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore are tier 1 cities - JLL:
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7993/indiacitytier.jpg

^^ Bangalore is third by population too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_populous_cities_in_India

And kolkata is the only city in india that has negative population growth between 2001-2011 census :bash: http://www.banglanext.com/news/kolkata-population-decresed-86000-86.html

Again you are confusing between city and metro area.

The way that Bangalore population is measured is that the entire city area and metro area are combined together.

The way that Kolkata population is measured is that the city and metro area are differentiated. The city area in Kolkata is tiny - and practically most of the real "Kolkata" (metro area) is outside Kolkata - only 10%-odd (187 sq km against the total 1700+ sq km) is the "official" city area. The remaining is the metro area. And that is the Kolkata metropolis - not the tiny city.

The discussion is moving away from the thread objective (and again, Bangalore being third in population has nothing to do with Kolkata being 6th in some magical dimension and/or real estate and both have nothing to do with railways) - but remember the Mumbai around 15 years back? It was 54 square km (up till Sion) - till the authorities decided to officially expand it. Do you think Mumbai was that much? No way. Same for Kolkata.

But look up the official population of Kolkata metro area (KMDA) - that's well above 1.32 crores.

Lets not get into city-to-city comparison here. Lets focus on railways on this thread.

EDIT: I looked up the source you cited. What you are missing is that North and South 24 Parganas have major areas in Kolkata Metro Area. All that I read from that one is thankfully the city of Kolkata is seeing what it should have long back - a practical expansion (no matter what the officials think) and all-round growth and development. I would suspect a rise in the Kolkata Metro Area population still. And that would be driven by the population growth of the overall Kolkata Metro area (and driven by areas such as North and South 24 Parganas that have seen 12%+ population rise).

Just to put in perspective, did you know, localities such as Salt Lake, New Town Rajarhat etc are all North 24 Parganas? If you go by the "official" distinction and these weird settings, Kolkata has never had an airport (the airport being in Dum Dum, North 24 Parganas); and Howrah station is something disconnected from Kolkata. So would we start debating whether Howrah as an individual city (with no Kolkata in the scene) needs 4 Durontos? No way. Howrah needs all those Durontos and other trains because of Metro Kolkata.

^^ Bangalore is third by population too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_populous_cities_in_India

And kolkata is the only city in india that has negative population growth between 2001-2011 census :bash: http://www.banglanext.com/news/kolkata-population-decresed-86000-86.html

^^ ^^
Guys, we are starting to have quite an animated discussion on the relative ranking of our metros. Can we please move this discussion to chaibar, and focus only on Railways over here.

Again you are confusing between city and metro area.


Fred ignoring in this case is bliss ;)

Fred ignoring in this case is bliss ;)

Thanks Sidney, very true. I shut up for now :cheers: - I know we (and me included) have been digressing and have acknowledged it in my post too. Sorry about that.

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HM/2011/06/18/Article//011/18_06_2011_011_001.jpg

Guys.. What happened to the Skybus initiative started by Konkan Railways?? I remember some accident took place.. Has it been shelved??

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/railways/steam-loco-to-be-dispatched-for-use-in-nmr/articleshow/8888268.cms
Steam loco to be dispatched for use in NMR

TIRUCHIRAPPALLI: The Golden Rock Railway Workshop here will dispatch the second oil fired steam locomotive for use in the Nilgris Mountain Railway (NMR) section, a senior official said.

The 80-year-old workshop had been entrusted to design and manufacture four new locomotives for NMR, out of which one had already been dispatched and put to use, Chief Mechanical Engineer ( Southern Railways )), S K Sood said here yesterday.

He said orders to manufacture and supply 400 meter gauge passenger coaches for Bangladesh railways were in the pipeline, adding, the carriage works at Perambur near Chennai would receive the orders shortly for exports.

The workshop had earned Rs. 40 crore as sundry earnings, he said.

Earlier, he distributed cash awards and certificates to the staff of Golden Rock Railway Workshop.

Chandigarh bullet train to start rolling soon

A bullet train ferrying passengers from Chandigarh to New Delhi at a speed of 200 km per hour and reaching national capital in less than one-and-a-half hours would soon be a reality with Northern Railways, who are currently conducting a feasibility study to ascertain where all strengthening of railway track would be required on the existing track between the two cities.

The bullet train, an integral part of High Speed Corridor (HSC), would run between New Delhi to Chandigarh to Ludhiana and onwards to Amritsar. The corridor would be the first among six in the country to be started, with the other five being Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Chennai, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulum and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna sections.

Speaking to TOI, senior Northern Railways official in New Delhi said, ''Northern railways is actively looking at creating HSC in the region and have begun a feasibility study along with concerned departments of state governments. This would be the first-of-its-kind in the country and would prove to be a major hit with passengers.''

The introduction of high-speed passenger trains on the pattern of foreign countries would no doubt fill railway coffers with high-end passengers preferring to undertake their journey on trains rather than airplane.

Amit Bhatia, resident of Sector 9, said, ''The bullet train would become the most preferred mode of transport to New Delhi as the time taken by the train to travel to the destination would be next to nothing. Getting to New Delhi in an hour-and-a-half would be very beneficial for businessmen as for them time is money.''

Gaurav Malik, resident of Sector 16, said, ''The train would be very useful for people who need to travel to New Delhi and return the same day. Even though the cost of train ticket would be more than other trains, the fact that one would be able to get to New Delhi in less than one-and-a-half hours would make up for that.'' TNN

Fatuha-Ara third railline project in limbo

The proposed third line between Fatuha and Ara in Danapur division under East Central Railway (ECR) is the need of the hour as traffic on the mainline route between Mughalsarai and Jhajha has already reached saturation of about 160 and 170% causing detention of long-distance mail and express trains. However, this project does not seem to be a priority for the railways now.

According to sources, Danapur division has, of late, witnessed an astronomical increase in the number of passenger trains. About 280 passenger trains and 40 goods trains run daily through the division. Thus a third line is a must to streamline the movement of both long-distance and local passenger trains either passing or originating from the division, sources said

Among all divisions of the ECR, Danapur division has become the most crowded. Keeping in mind the daily run of Patna-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and other Rajdhani Express trains, the division has to provide clear path for these prestigious trains. Besides, popular trains like Sampoorna Kranti Express, Garib Rath, Shramjeevi Express, Magadh Express, Vikramshila Express and Poorva Express have been running on the mainline section of the division daily, sources said. TNN

Chandigarh bullet train to start rolling soon

(Source: ToI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Chandigarh-bullet-train-to-start-rolling-soon/articleshow/8931569.cms))

A bullet train ferrying passengers from Chandigarh to New Delhi at a speed of 200 km per hour and reaching national capital in less than one-and-a-half hours would soon be a reality with Northern Railways, who are currently conducting a feasibility study to ascertain where all strengthening of railway track would be required on the existing track between the two cities.

The bullet train, an integral part of High Speed Corridor (HSC), would run between New Delhi to Chandigarh to Ludhiana and onwards to Amritsar. The corridor would be the first among six in the country to be started, with the other five being Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Chennai, Howrah-Haldia, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulum and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna sections.

Speaking to TOI, senior Northern Railways official in New Delhi said, ''Northern railways is actively looking at creating HSC in the region and have begun a feasibility study along with concerned departments of state governments. This would be the first-of-its-kind in the country and would prove to be a major hit with passengers.''

The introduction of high-speed passenger trains on the pattern of foreign countries would no doubt fill railway coffers with high-end passengers preferring to undertake their journey on trains rather than airplane.

Amit Bhatia, resident of Sector 9, said, ''The bullet train would become the most preferred mode of transport to New Delhi as the time taken by the train to travel to the destination would be next to nothing. Getting to New Delhi in an hour-and-a-half would be very beneficial for businessmen as for them time is money.''

Gaurav Malik, resident of Sector 16, said, ''The train would be very useful for people who need to travel to New Delhi and return the same day. Even though the cost of train ticket would be more than other trains, the fact that one would be able to get to New Delhi in less than one-and-a-half hours would make up for that.''

Hoye Hoye Balley Balley

Chandigarh bullet train to start rolling soon


:doh:

Okay, so you are talking about real estate?

How in the world does that relate to railways?

because this guy is a hardcore kannadiga. the fact that the pension town bengaluru is now at the same level as Mumbai and Delhi has triggererd his (?) enthusiasm.

but my question is: why on this thread?

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110622/jsp/frontpage/story_14145089.jsp


One cabinet berth on Mamata lips
J.P. YADAV

New Delhi, June 21: Mamata Banerjee today said her party would stick to one cabinet portfolio and that it would be the railways.

“We have only one cabinet berth and will stick with it. We are not demanding anything more and there will be no problem. There is no pressure from the Congress,” she said, amid speculation that the Congress wants the railways for one of its own MPs ahead of next year’s Uttar Pradesh elections.

In reply to a specific question whether the Trinamul Congress would retain railways or the portfolio would go to the Congress as is being speculated, Mamata replied: “We had one cabinet and it was railways and so it will remain with us.”

Some suggestions were made earlier that Mamata may opt for a second cabinet berth — Trinamul’s numerical strength in the Lok Sabha entitles it to one more slot — to ensure that the balance of power among the second-rung leaders in the party would not be tipped.

If Mamata sticks to the one-cabinet formula, she will have to decide whether to fill the slot with a party nominee or induct someone with professional expertise from outside. As minister of state, Mukul Roy is now holding additional charge of the portfolio.

In Delhi to seek funds for Bengal, the chief minister today did not put one foot wrong.

She endorsed Manmohan Singh as an “honest person” and, in response to a question whether Rahul Gandhi should be made Prime Minister, said she loved the Gandhi family.

“Whether the Prime Minister or the chief justice should be brought under Lokpal does not matter to me because I know the Prime Minister is an honest person,” she said when asked about the so-called civil society’s insistent demand for their inclusion.

The chief minister further said: “Do you think inclusion of one person (Prime Minister) in the Lokpal will end corruption? Entire system has to be reformed.”

Having made it clear where she stood — the Congress is against the inclusion of the Prime Minister — Mamata took a dig at the rights activists without taking any names: “One day meeting and bhashan will not give any result…. Let them join politics and fight the battle.”

Having laid the pitch, Mamata later went to meet the Prime Minister to press Bengal’s case and attended a meeting of UPA partners on the Lokpal bill.

In response to a separate question on talk of Rahul as Prime Minister, Mamata said: “I love this family. I had good relations with Rajiv Gandhiji and have good relation with Soniaji also. Choosing PM candidate is prerogative of the Congress party. We are part of UPA and will support whoever they choose as PM.”

The question was in the context of Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh saying on Sunday the Gandhi scion had all the qualities and was ready to become Prime Minister, a statement that fuelled talk of leadership change that the Congress tried to quickly quell by rallying behind Manmohan Singh.

Mamata, who wants to keep the focus of her visit on Bengal, refused to be prodded into protesting the oil price increase. “I will not protest to make you happy,” she said, when asked why she was silent on the issue.

The chief minister steered clear of controversies even on issues related to Bengal. Asked for her stand on withdrawal of joint forces engaged in fighting Maoists and whether she would now ask the Centre to recall them, Mamata said: “It is an internal matter, security matter. I will tell when it comes up. For now let Jungle Mahal live in peace.”

She spoke at length on her commitment for the hills and the Maoist areas and said she was ready to sign the Gorkhaland tripartite agreement wherever the Centre wanted but would prefer it happens in Darjeeling. “I will go to the hills with a full package for the people there. I love Darjeeling. It is our Switzerland,” she said.

Similarly, she would visit Jungle Mahal once a package for the region was finalised.

Asked about holding talks with Maoists, the chief minister did not make an offer of dialogue but said she would take it up seriously if the rebels made the offer through proper government channels. “I feel a lot of things can be sorted out through dialogue,” she said.

:doh:

Now I am sure Sidhu-ji will move 100 miles away from Euro-praji

because this guy is a hardcore kannadiga. the fact that the pension town bengaluru is now at the same level as Mumbai and Delhi has triggererd his (?) enthusiasm.

but my question is: why on this thread?

Thanks for the compliments. Bangalore is third in income tax collection too. And I was wrong kolkata is not even 6th :doh: it is in 7th position:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/07/13/images/2010071353900601.jpg

Income tax collection in cities:
Let me put data here:

1. Mumbai 27,673
2. Delhi 12,011
3. Bangalore 8,794
4. Chennai 5,282
5. Hyderabad 4,869
6. Pune 4,831
7. Calcutta 3,180
8. Ahmadabad 2,639

22 Hubli 937

Hubli(Rank 22) is only other city in Karnataka to feature in list of 47 cities..


http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/07/13/stories/2010071353900600.htm
Bareilly, Durgapur, Hubli, Jalpaiguri (the centre of West Bengal's tea industry), Nashik, Panchkula (a suburb of Chandigarh), Shillong, Thane and Tiruchi top the list of “overlooked” towns.

Other city people work hard and pay tax to feed kolkata with all facilities? Govt should invest more where it gets more tax from.. So, if kolkata gets 4 duronto bangalore should get 8 durontos, almost 3 times income tax :banana: Dont dig more, then more gory facts about kolkata will come out :)

^^ So gentem is feeding Kolkata? :lol:

Thanks for the compliments. Bangalore is third in income tax collection too. And I was wrong kolkata is not even 6th :doh: it is in 7th position:



Other city people work hard and pay tax to feed kolkata with all facilities? Govt should invest more where it gets more tax from.. So, if kolkata gets 4 duronto bangalore should get 8 durontos, almost 3 times income tax :banana: Dont dig more, then more gory facts about kolkata will come out :)

who is giving whom? most corrupt politicians from the south and west are looting the country. DMK has taken over the shipping ministry without much media coverage.

just hype will not do. i have been there and seen the terrible mess that is bengaluru. i had to cancel several appointments one day because of the most frustrating bumper to bumper traffic that refuses to move. getting from one place to another takes 3 hours. i seriously think bengaluru is a hype propaganda by people like you.

now, please remember that east India (Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa) fed other parts of India for 40 years because of the freight equalization policy and lobbying of politicians at the centre. Now it is payback time. All DRDO institutes in and around bengaluru should be uniformly distributed all over the country.

also, we must reduce the burden. why should only bengaluru pay income tax? very bad. people from siliguri, durgapur, muzaffarpur, ranchi, patna, kolkata must pay as much. here goes the smiley :lol:

i will not respond any more. if you want, you can take the discussion to a different and more appropriate location. this is the railways thread.

Let's have a GENTEM LOVES BANGALORE thread

Amritsar-Chandigar train by July end

Amritsar-Chandigarh Doronto will commence by July end, this was informed by BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu to media persons after holding meeting with senior railway officials here on Tuesday.

On the occassion Sidhu also appealed to political parties agitating for beginning of train to wait till July end else he would also join their agitation besides taking up the issue in Parliament.

The train number 12241/12242 was announced in the railway budget 2010-2011. Initially, train was planned to leave Chandigarh in the morning and Amritsar in the evening.

Sidhu said that following his appeal railway authorities decided to originate the train from Amritsar in the morning and from Chandigarh in the evening. The proposed train would run via Sirhind with reversal at Sirhind every day.

Sources informed that due to an influential lobby of transporters and some leading politicians having interest in transport business especially on Amritsar-Chandigarh route the beginning of train was being delayed.

"A strong transport mafia is against plying of train since rail route will severely affect their business" said sources.

However denying any such mafia influencing government to delay the commencement of train Sidhu said "Sometimes there are hiccups and technical problems to address before inauguration of a project"

He said the primary maintenance of this train is at present planned at Amritsar but the same will be shifted to Chandigarh after the commissioning of second washing line at Chandigarh.The proposed train would have seventeen coaches including three air conditioned and the ordinary ticket would cost less than Rs 70. TNN

Let's have a GENTEM LOVES BANGALORE thread

:lol::lol:

Let's have a GENTEM LOVES BANGALORE thread

:weird:

So, if kolkata gets 4 duronto bangalore should get 8 durontos, almost 3 times income tax :banana: Dont dig more, then more gory facts about kolkata will come out :)

Kolkata's railway stations serve a population 3 times that of what Bangalore's stations do. So if Kolkata gets 4 durontos, then Bangalore should get 1.33 :)

Gurrrrrrr........... Hurrrrr........:doh:

Kolkata's 3 times people really needs a general compartment trains and not a AC trains ,

Kolkata's railway stations serve a population 3 times that of what Bangalore's stations do. So if Kolkata gets 4 durontos, then Bangalore should get 1.33 :)

Kolkata's 3 times people really needs a general compartment trains and not a AC trains ,

Unfortunately for you, even Muniyappa doesn't think so :)

Another line between RNT and Patna Jn commissioned

The railways has commissioned one more additional line between Rajendra Nagar Terminal (RNT) and Patna Junction to stable empty rakes of passenger trains after their proper washing and maintenance. Work on laying of one more additional line between Patna Junction and RNT will be completed soon.

According to sources, the Railway Board has approved the plan with a view to stabilizing the rakes of passenger train coaches. The railways intends to complete the project on priority basis from operational point of view as well as to streamline the run of originating trains from these two major stations of Danapur division under the East Central Railway (ECR), sources said.

According to Danapur rail division PRO R K Singh, this facility is a must now to maintain smooth movement of trains at these two places after proper maintenance of passenger coaches in the washing pit line. About 40 to 60 pairs of trains originate either from Patna Junction or RNT every day, he said. TNN

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/node/373401

Rank City Rank by Population Rank by GDP

1 New York 6 2
2 London 28 5
3 Tokyo 1 1
4 Paris 20 6
5 Hong Kong 31 14
...
45 New Delhi 2 32
46 Mumbai 4 25
47 Osaka 16 7
48 Kuala Lumpur 57 65
49 Rio de Janeiro 14 27
50 Tel Aviv 50 40
51 Manila 15 34
52 Johannesburg 45 43
53 Jakarta 24 47
54 Bogota 29 45
55 Caracas 51 62
56 Nairobi 47 64
57 Guangzhou 27 38
58 Bangalore 30 53
59 Lagos 18 63
60 Karachi 10 50
61 Ho Chi Minh City 33 56
62 Shenzhen 26 28
63 Kolkata 8 44
64 Dhaka 9 50
65 Chongqing 23 57

Bangalore is there in the list :) though ranked 30 in population...

Again you are confusing between city and metro area.

But look up the official population of Kolkata metro area (KMDA) - that's well above 1.32 crores.



Seems kolkata (metropolitan area if not city limits) has more population as it is ranked 8 worldwide and bangalore 30.. But now bangalore has population of 96 lakhs in 2011 census provisional - compared to 1.3 crore of kolkata. But railway traffic need not be directly proportional after all..

(Source (http://in.news.yahoo.com/railways-high-speed-trains-may-french-connection-034800784.html))

Railways high speed trains may have French connection

Railways is mulling to name its proposed high speed train service as TGS (Tibra Gatee Seva) on the pattern of TGV, the bullet train service in France.

France''s TGV, which stands for ''Train � Grande Vitesse'' or high speed train in English, is renowned for its speed and comfort, running at 280-300 km/hour speed on five major lines.

Some of the premier train services are named by Railways as Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto.

Railways which is setting up the National High Speed Rail Authority to implement and monitor the high speed train project in the country is currently awarding contracts to global consultants for conducting feasibility studies of the proposed routes.

"As of now we are in the process of awarding contracts for the pre-feasibility studies of the proposed high speed corridors," a senior Railway Ministry official said.

As far as naming the proposed bullet trains is concerned, the official said, "No final decision has been taken yet to name it as TGS. This may be a just proposal as these trains are meant to cover distances of up to 600 km in two to three hours," the official said.

Railways plans to make the high speed rail corridor into a catalyst for India''s economic growth, a stimulus for the development of satellite towns and reduction of migration to cities.

"We have awarded three foreign consultants to carry out studies in three corridors out of the six identified routes for conducting pre-feasibility studies for developing high speed rail corridors," the official said.

^^
Above reminds me of an old saying in Hindi... Paas mein nahin daane, amma chali bhunane :lol:
For those not understanding hindi, basically it's a case of counting your chickens before they are hatched.

Another thread where joker is making some good entertainment.......


Praahji..( Aka Babaji) Delhi- Chandigarh .....1.1/2 hours wow........I am loving it...

.
China’s railway boom hurtles into the red (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011/06/24/story_24-6-2011_pg5_31)

BEIJING : The numbers for China’s relentless push for a high-speed rail network are impressive — in terms of debt, not passengers.

The argument in support of the vast project — with many lines connecting to more sparsely populated inland regions — is that they are a strategic investment that will link markets across the country.

Detractors counter that while high-speed rail may suit the densely populated eastern corridor, investment is wasted on inland projects which are better served, and more cheaply, by short flights and slow trains. “It will be a liability, not an asset, for China,” complained Zhao Jian, a professor with Beijing Jiaotong University, a vocal opponent of the ambitious plans.

The Ministry of Railways, already deep in debt, is undeterred and expects to splurge another 2.8 trillion yuan ($431.7 billion) between now and 2015 on the project. State backing for the 45,000 km (27,962 miles) of high-speed track the ministry has pledged to lay by the end of 2015 means it can almost certainly find the money.

But outsiders, too, are weighing into the debate. US economist Nouriel Roubini spoke to reporters earlier this month in Singapore of his trip on the Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed train, which connects the cities in 40 minutes.

“[It] is half-empty and the brand new station is three-quarters empty. Parallel to that train line, there is also a new highway that looked three-quarters empty. Next to the train station is also the new local airport of Shanghai and you can fly to Hangzhou,” Roubini said. “There is a no rationale for a country at that economic level to have not just duplication but triplication of those infrastructure projects. The level of it and the cost of it is massive, and a third of it will generate zero cash,” he said.

Even the landmark Beijing-Shanghai line, set to launch by the end of the month, faces uncertain profit prospects and many analysts are saying the investment in rail is too much too soon. At a cost of 220.9 billion yuan, the 1,318-km line linking the capital and financial hub will cost one-way economy class passengers 555 yuan ($86) to start, just under the cheapest discounted air ticket. Speeding passengers through the countryside at 300 kph, the new line will serve as the government’s new model for passenger transport.

Professor Zhao cited the line from eastern Henan province’s capital Zhengzhou to the Shaanxi city of Xi’an as the perfect example of a white elephant rail project. “It is basically empty,” he said. In the first six months after its launch in February 2010, the railway reported 1.98 million passengers. It was designed for 37 million a year.

No slow down: “We will not slow down the pace, and there will be no cut in investments,” Vice Minister of Railways Hu Yadong told a news conference last week.

The ministry’s 58.24 percent asset-liability ratio — as of March — is no deterrent, with rail development closely linked to national development in the world’s most populous country and second biggest economy.

Wang Fang, a senior project officer who focuses on China’s railways at the Asian Development Bank office in Beijing, said the MOR should not worry about its debt ratio. “A debt ratio of 60 percent itself is not worrisome. Many expressways in China have a debt ratio of 70 percent of more. What should be worrying is profitability performance,” she said.

JP Morgan rail sector analyst Karen Li said a 4-7 year post-construction profitability target hinted at by MOR’s chief economist Yu Bangli was not unrealistic for the line connecting Beijing and Shanghai. But other lines may be less lucky.

“Typically for infrastructure, healthy building should outpace demand by two to three years. For high-speed rail, at this point, we may be looking at 5 to 10 years ahead of demand, in my view,” Li told Reuters from Hong Kong.

“I think much of the railway investment in the past three to five years should have been put into the freight rail side,” she said, helping to lower logistics costs which are much higher than in developed countries.

Knock-on benefits: Some experts say the high-speed lines will have wider knock-on benefits for the freight sector and the economy.

New high-speed rails, in theory, will take passenger traffic off old tracks and open them up to freight. With per capita kilometres of rail low compared to developed countries, advocates say if it is going to build a new rail network anyway, China might as well build one that is first class.

Wang Shuang, an analyst with the Industrial Securities in Shanghai, estimates MOR operating losses in 2011 of 96.6 billion yuan, but said rail spending would still boost the economy.

“In terms of a whole region, railways will promote investment along the line in a noticeable way,” Wang said, noting that every dollar spent on railway could generate three dollars in investment. Even before the official launch of the Beijing-Shanghai line, Yu Shouhai, an investment promotion official at Taian, one of the 24 stations along the line, sees great promise. Projects, including a tourist spot called “Tropical Gardens”, were launched ahead of an anticipated wave of visitors. “The new railway line has tremendous meaning for us,” Yu said. “Since the announcement of the railway blueprint, investors have been speeding up in putting money down here.” reuters

Cheers:cheers:

^^^ No need to cheers... Wait until they start reaping the benefits of HSR when the oil prices fly high. Any public infrastructure needs to spend money initially and should not even think of getting it back before a decade.
What they have done in terms of HSR is plain excessive, but in it will eventually benefit them... like the freeways did to the US after the 50's.

When can we have darshan to Indian HSR, atleast 1 route for our pride sake.

Delhi chandigarh amritsar is highly viable fast train routeAnother thread where joker is making some good entertainment.......


Praahji..( Aka Babaji) Delhi- Chandigarh .....1.1/2 hours wow........I am loving it...

Next Railway Minister is most probably going to be Dinesh Trivedi of TMC .

NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who was clear that she didn't want anyone else from her party to get Cabinet rank, may have to reverse her decision with the Congress making it plain that a crucial portfolio like railways needed a Cabinet rank minister at the helm.

After Banerjee's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during her visit here earlier this week, minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi seems to have emerged as the frontrunner for the post of railway minister. The changes will have to wait till the PM shuffles his Cabinet before the monsoon session of Parliament.

After Banerjee took over as West Bengal chief minister, Mukul Roy was handed additional charge as MoS, railways. Roy, a TMC general secretary and close aide of Banerjee, also holds MoS portfolio for the ministry of shipping.

While Banerjee is clear about keeping the railway portfolio with her party, she had considered keeping it in the hands of Roy, as MoS with independent charge of railways. But the PM is learnt to have insisted on having a full Cabinet minister for the railways while he agreed that the ministry will remain with Trinamool. The option for TMC was that if the UPA partner agreed to leave the railway berth for Congress, it could get three more ministers of state posts at the Centre, but if it opted to retain railways, Banerjee would have to nominate a party MP as Cabinet minister.

It is difficult for the railway ministry to go without a Cabinet minister as the important ministry cannot be represented at the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure or at the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs and even if an EGoM is formed, if it has a minister of state in charge. Also, the railways already has two ministers of state, so a third could not be placed above them. While the late Madhav Rao Scindia had held the railways portfolio as MoS with independent charge during Rajiv Gandhi's prime ministership, the systems in the government were quite different then.

If Trivedi is shifted to railways as a Cabinet minister, then TMC will get to add one more of its MPs as MoS. The name of Sudip Bandopadhyay, the party's chief whip in Lok Sabha, is doing the rounds as the new MoS.

Trivedi accompanying Banerjee to the PM's residence (though she met the PM in private) and to the Press Club for an interaction with the national media last Tuesday is being seen as a message from the TMC chief in his favour.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Trinamool-set-to-retain-railway-ministry/articleshow/8984741.cms

china's HSR will have around Rs18 lac crore of debt by 2015 :nuts:

if that is the case then "thank you" to the HSR in India IMO.

^^^ No need to cheers...1. Wait until they start reaping the benefits of HSR when the oil prices fly high. Any public infrastructure needs to spend money initially and should not even think of getting it back before a decade.
2, What they have done in terms of HSR is plain excessive, but in it will eventually benefit them... like the freeways did to the US after the 50's.

When can we have darshan to Indian HSR, atleast 1 route for our pride sake.

Planned Chaos Ji :

1. Vely solly, No can aglee.

How China Lailways Poweling the HSR?

If Diesel Engine then lequile Diesel Oil lefined flom Clued Petloleum.

If Electlic Engine then lequile Fulnace Oil to Powel Electlic Genelating Station. Same same Fulnace Oil lequile Clued Petloleum. If Electlic Powel Genelating from Coal the even Coal Plice will go up, up and away if Clude Petloleum Plice go up, up and away.

So me no undelstanding.

Please Teach.

2. Me vely solly again.

Please lead following :

“ [It] is half-empty and the brand new station is three-quarters empty. Parallel to that train line, there is also a new highway that looked three-quarters empty. Next to the train station is also the new local airport of Shanghai and you can fly to Hangzhou,” Roubini said. “There is a no rationale for a country at that economic level to have not just duplication but triplication of those infrastructure projects. The level of it and the cost of it is massive, and a third of it will generate zero cash,” he said.

Accolding to my infolmation Amelican Plesident Eisenhowel - makee Fleeways like Gelman Hitlel makee Autobahns. But not Dulicates or Tliplicates!

Cheels :cheers:

Finally we are talking about something that makes sense to me. I agree with this.

The population (and GDP, as you are showing GDP in the other column of the report you highlighted) and railway traffic may be correlated but that does not necessarily mean proportional - just like rank in real estate within the country etc also need not be proportional with the requirement in number of trains.

And that brings us back to the topic that we had started off from - does a Mumbai-Nagpur Duronto warrant a requirement more than Mumbai-Kolkata and Mumbai-Delhi Duronto? Plus, does a Mumbai-Delhi Duronto warrant a requirement more than Mumbai-Kolkata? Remember, we are assuming that we need to make 2 choices out of 3 (since that's what was made given the Indian railways budget), and 1 needs to be excluded.

Out of sheer ignorance of other data (such as average size of waiting lists on the railway reservation list, the absolute number of total and AC berths between the two cities on an average daily basis, the total number of flights that run Mumbai-Nagpur/Mumbai-Kolkata/Mumbai-Delhi and their seat occupancy rates etc), I presume Mumbai-Kolkata and Mumbai-Delhi warrant the Durontos over and above Mumbai-Nagpur Duronto.

If the problem statement above is clear and correct then does anyone have a solution? I think I have got our problem statement right here.

But railway traffic need not be directly proportional after all..

china's HSR will have around Rs18 lac crore of debt by 2015 :nuts:

if that is the case then "thank you" to the HSR in India IMO.

The chinese built their HSR too fast and hence the record debt. Not to mention their building massive stations which IMHO serve more to boost their egos. If planned properly and executed in stages the HSR can be built w/o the massive debt. One needs to look at germany on how they build their HSR lines. They have one 300 km/h line which is also utilized in the night by Eurocity trains. Additionally germany didnot build massive stations outside big cities. Instead they planned and built/modified the high speed lines to utilize the same stations as non HSR trains. Consequently their trains are slightly slow but the network as a whole is more efficient and cheaper to build.

Two additional daily trains will be added to Bangalore and Mysore from July 1

Two additional daily trains will be added to the exiting 17 trains shuttling between Bangalore and Mysore from July 1. The trains announced in rail budget 2011 are making their entry starting next month. What's significant is that the two new trains have been scheduled during the rush hour traffic-one at 1.30 pm and other at 4.15 pm. Both these trains will have stoppages at Kengeri, Ramanagaram, Channapatna, Maddur and Mandya© Times of India

:banana::banana::banana:

http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/7641/yo134.jpg (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=419068)

Two additional daily trains will be added to Bangalore and Mysore from July 1



© Times of India

:banana::banana::banana:



More trains between Mysore, B’lore, Chennai

The first two trains will be launched simultaneously on July 1, while another will be launched on July 7.

trains as announced in railway budget, will be launched from July.

Rajya Rani daily express (Bangalore-Mysore-Bangalore) (no 16558) will depart Bangalore at 8.15 am and arrive in the city at 11.15 am. The train (16557) departs Mysore at 4.15 pm and reaches the capital at 7.40 pm. Train will stop at Mandya, Maddur, Channapatna, Ramanagaram and Kengeri. The classes of travel are clasified into- 1 AC, 2 AC, 3 AC, sleeper, ladies and general.

Yeshwantpur- Mysore- Yeshwantpur daily express Yeshwantpur- Mysore train (16560) will depart the capital at 10.10 am and arrive here at 1.50 pm. The return journey (train no 16559) is scheduled at 1.30 pm and the train will reach the capital at 5.15 pm. The train will stop at Mandya, Maddur, Channapatna, Ramanagaram, Kengeri and Bangalore City junction. Classes of travel- 1 AC, 2 AC, 3AC, sleeper, ladies and general second class.


Mysore-Chennai central-Mysore weekly superfast express Chennai train (no 22681) will depart city at 8.10 pm and reach Chennai Central at 5.15 am. Train (22682) will depart Chennai central at 11.30 pm and reach here at 8.35 am. The train will stop at Bangalore city, Bangalore cantonment, Krishnarajapuram, Bangarpet, Jolarpet, Katpadi, Arakkonam and Perambur, the release added.


©DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/171620/more-trains-mysore-blore-chennai.html)

http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/7641/yo134.jpg (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=419068)

You have found yourself a nice signature, my friend.

@ bhargavsura thank u

You have found yourself a nice signature, my friend.

Actually forum policy doesnt allow image signatures :ohno:

Source (http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/dahanunashik-rail-link-survey-underway-railways/738998.html)
Dahanu-Nashik rail link survey underway: Railways

PTI | 12:06 PM,Jun 26,2011
Thane, Jun 26 (PTI) In a reply to an RTI query by Thane District Rail Passengers' Association (TDRPA), the Railways have informed that the survey for the proposed route between Dahanu in the district and Nashik is being conducted. The reply also states that the proposed link will be 167.67 km long, and will have 16 stations. The information does not state how much the new link will cost. The sites of stations are Dahanu Road, Asha Garh, Ganjad, Kasa, Khadki, Kasapada, Jawahar, Mokhada, Pimpalpada, Kandhati, Trimbak, Khambale, Pimplad, Shingve Bahule, Devlali and Nashik Road. President of the TDRPA, Om Prakash Sharma, said this was a welcome development. It will impact the lives of tribals in the area positively, he said.

ZUOUXnuCLOU

IR needs more of them

©drsvkf (http://youtu.be/ZUOUXnuCLOU)

O&M’s 'Train' on track for Film Craft Lions

Indiantelevision.com Team (http://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/headlines/y2k11/june/junemam99.php)
MUMBAI: India has got its first nomination in the Film Craft Lions category that was introduced last year.

Ogilvy & Mather has become the first Indian agency to enter the Film Craft Lions shortlist. This category was introduced in 2010 to honour craft of the filmmaking process – the direction, copywriting or editing, or the skilful use of music or sound design.

The agency’s film titled -- Rail Gaadi (Train) – was created for promoting Indian Railways and was unveiled during the opening of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.


The 60-second spot has been nominated under the ‘Best Use of Music’ sub-category, at the 58th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The music in the ad have been mixed with a song from a 1968-movie called Aashirwad. This song -- ‘Rail Gaadi Chhuk Chhuk’ -- was sung by Indian actor, Ashok Kumar.


This ad film was recorded at Mumbai-based studio, Blue Frog, while the sound design/arrangement was done by Ishan Naik.


None of the Indian entries, however, has managed to find a place in the Titanium and Integrated Lions shortlist.

The Film Craft jury is presided over by Velocity Films director Keith Rose and Corcoise Films Ad Film Maker Prasoon Pandey is also a part of the jury.

^^ The ad

rzEKCYb6zzU

ZUOUXnuCLOU

IR needs more of them

©drsvkf (http://youtu.be/ZUOUXnuCLOU)

Really really impressed with this technique. Not sure how much time it will save, but it will certainly reduce our laborers and more unemployment, but perhaps the same manpower can be applied to design such things in India. But again, India is least concerned with innovations besides trying to replicate some famous brands.

Award for rail factory, Kapurthala

The Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, has received the prestigious Golden Peacock Environment Management Award. This is for the third time that the RCF has been bestowed upon this coveted prize in the field of environment management. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram presented the award to KK Saxena, General Manager, RCF, at the 13th World Congress on Environment Management held in New Delhi recently.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110629/region.htm

SWR's latest timetable has more trains, extended services

http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/30/images/2011063052050701.jpg

The Railway Regional Public Timetable released recently by the South Western Railway (SWR) will come into effect from Friday (July 1).

Introduction of new trains, including Bangalore City-Mysore Rajya Rani Express; regularisation of special trains, including the services of five diesel multiple units (DEMU); extension of trains, including Yeshwantpur-Mangalore (16515/16516) Intercity Express to Karwar; and increasing of the frequency of Howrah-Yeshwantpur-Howrah Duranto Express (12245/12246) are among the things that the new timetable contains.

New trains

The new services, including those of train no. 16558/16557 Bangalore-Mysore-Bangalore Rajya Rani Daily Express and 16560/16559 Yeshwantpur-Mysore Daily Express, will commence on July 1 as recently announced by Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa.

However, the dates of commencement of the following new trains will be announced later, the SWR said.

Train no. 17315/17316 Vasco da Gama-Velankanni-Vasco da Gama Weekly Express will leave Vasco at 9.50 a.m. on Mondays and arrive at Velankanni at 1 p.m. the next day. The return service will leave Velankanni at 1.45 p.m. on Tuesdays to reach Vasco at 7.40 p.m. the next day.

Train no. 19406 Ahmedabad-Yeshwantpur-Ahmedabad Weekly Express will depart from Ahmedabad at 9.40 p.m. on Saturdays to arrive at Yeshwantpur at 6.40 a.m. on Mondays. Train no. 19405 will leave Yeshwantpur at 10.45 a.m. on Mondays to reach Ahmedabad at 7.20 p.m. on Tuesdays.

The Chennai-Shirdi-Chennai Weekly Express (22601/22602) will depart from Chennai Central at 10.10 a.m. on Wednesdays and reach Shirdi at 11.30 a.m. on Thursdays. The return service will leave Shirdi at 8.25 a.m. on Fridays to reach Chennai Central at 9.40 a.m. on Saturdays.

The weekly express connecting Bangalore and Ernakulam (22607/22608) will leave Ernakulam at 5 p.m. on Sundays to reach Bangalore City at 4.20 a.m. on Mondays. Train no. 22608 will leave Bangalore City at 5.15 p.m. on Mondays to reach Ernakulam at 4.20 a.m. on Tuesdays.

Yeshwantpur-Gorakhpur-Yeshwantpur Weekly Express (15024/15023) will leave Yeshwantpur at 11.40 p.m. on Thursdays to reach Gorakhpur at 5.05 a.m. on Sundays. The return service will leave Gorakhpur at 8 a.m. on Tuesdays to reach Yeshwantpur at 11.15 a.m. on Thursdays.

Regularisation

The SWR has decided to regularise the services of the following special trains. They are: 22681/22682 Mysore-Chennai-Mysore Weekly Express; 22817/22818 Howrah-Mysore-Howrah Weekly Express; 76507/76508 Bangalore Cantonment-Bangarpet-Bangalore Cantonment DEMU; 76553/76554 Bangalore City-Dharmapuri-Bangalore City DEMU; 76517/76518 Marikuppam-Bangarpet-Marikuppam DEMU; 76506/76505 Kolar-Bangalore Cantonment-Kolar DEMU and 66528/66527 Bangarpet-Kuppam-Bangarpet EMU.

Extension

The tri-weekly intercity express between Yeshwantpur and Mangalore will be extended to Karwar at a date to be notified later. Train no. 16515 will leave Yeshwantpur at 6 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to reach Karwar at 11 p.m. the same day. Train no. 16516 will leave Karwar at 5.30 p.m. to reach Yeshwantpur at 10.25 p.m. the same day instead of the present 7.30 p.m.

On the extended stretch, the train will halt at Mangalore Junction, Udupi, Mookambika Road, Bhatkal, Gokarna and Kumta.

Train no. 16206 Mysore-Shimoga Town Intercity Express will leave Mysore at 6 a.m. and reach Talaguppa (extension) at 2.15 p.m. with halts at Anandapura and Sagara. Train no. 16205 will leave Talaguppa at 2.30 p.m. to reach Mysore at 11.50 p.m. While the new timings will be effective from July 1, the date of extension of service to Talaguppa will be notified later.

Similarly, the dates of extension of 56905/56906 Hubli-Bijapur-Hubli Passenger to Solapur; 11423/11424 Solapur-Gadag-Solapur Intercity Express to Hubli and increasing the frequency of 12079/12080 Bangalore-Hubli-Bangalore Janshatabdi Express from six days a week to daily will be notified later.

©Hindu

http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/7641/yo134.jpg (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=419068)

HT:
160 km/hr = Bullet train ???

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/4171/76385232.jpg

atleast it's a start..maybe like delhi metro..it will spread to other cities with better quality and faster speed.
let's just hope that the delhi rrts will atleast be build and hopefully atleast by 2016 if not 2015

Planned Chaos Ji :
1. Vely solly, No can aglee.
How China Lailways Poweling the HSR?
If Diesel Engine then lequile Diesel Oil lefined flom Clued Petloleum.
If Electlic Engine then lequile Fulnace Oil to Powel Electlic Genelating Station. Same same Fulnace Oil lequile Clued Petloleum. If Electlic Powel Genelating from Coal the even Coal Plice will go up, up and away if Clude Petloleum Plice go up, up and away.

So me no undelstanding.
Please Teach.

I will be glad to be your teacher... but first I should get the L's out of my head. Seriously, you should try to write normally if you are trying to discuss some valid points.

If you take a look at the energy sector in China, they are increasingly moving onto renewable sources of energy. Three Gorges Dam (18GW), and several more hydel projects along the Yangtze, massive investments in solar and wind energy sectors, all these are going to pay off some day when petroleum costs will rise. Although at present coal powers close to 70% of China's electricity, remember that they still have access to vast reserves of coal.
But by the end of this decade, they would be moving to almost 50-60% energy from renewable sources and hence can keep the cost of energy under control.


2. Me vely solly again.

Please lead following :

“ [It] is half-empty and the brand new station is three-quarters empty. Parallel to that train line, there is also a new highway that looked three-quarters empty. Next to the train station is also the new local airport of Shanghai and you can fly to Hangzhou,” Roubini said. “There is a no rationale for a country at that economic level to have not just duplication but triplication of those infrastructure projects. The level of it and the cost of it is massive, and a third of it will generate zero cash,” he said.

Accolding to my infolmation Amelican Plesident Eisenhowel - makee Fleeways like Gelman Hitlel makee Autobahns. But not Dulicates or Tliplicates!

Cheels :cheers:

Thats the reason why I already said that in some areas what they have done is plain excessive. And how it benefits the people in these particular sectors is still up for debate. What the article says is true and I agree that duplicates and triplicates are sometimes overkill.

But having said that, we also have to consider the fact that local businesses have a much better chance of growing along the highway corridors compared to railway corridors. There are plenty of examples of this all around the world.

If you take a look at the energy sector in China, they are increasingly moving onto renewable sources of energy. Three Gorges Dam (18GW), and several more hydel projects along the Yangtze, massive investments in solar and wind energy sectors, all these are going to pay off some day when petroleum costs will rise.


Not exactly true. ThreeG dam is in trouble. In the race to build the largest/biggest/any other-est structure they have miscalculated few aspects. The recent drought is one of them. And the other major concern is the possibility of earth quake due to the massive reservoir. Let's wait and watch.

Dearer diesel to cost railways an additional Rs 720 cr

The latest increase in the price of diesel will put an additional burden of Rs 720 crore (Rs 7.2 billion) annually on the Indian Railways, even as it tries hard to bring down expenses to maintain weakening financial viability.

The railways buy an average of 2.4 billion litres of diesel every year spending around Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) annually on diesel fuel expenses for operating locomotives.

The government had raised diesel prices by Rs 3 a litre to Rs 41.13 on Saturday.

"The decision to increase diesel price by Rs 3 will have an impact of Rs 720 crore annually on Indian Railways' expenditure.

It has become difficult to keep afloat (economically)," said a senior ministry official.

The government had last raised diesel prices by Rs 2 a litre on June 26, 2010. The rise had resulted in a hit of Rs 460 crore (Rs 4.6 billion) on railways' revenues then.

The railways use a mix of electric and diesel traction, the motor used to propel rail cars.

Around 51 per cent of the 11,000 passenger trains and 37 per cent of freight trains run on diesel.

Overall fuel cost accounted for over 19 per cent of railways' working expenditure of Rs 83,167 crore (Rs 831.67 billion) in 2010-11.

The railway ministry had budgeted for an additional Rs 993 crore (Rs 9.93 billion) spending on fuel in the current financial year owing to increase in prices of diesel and electricity tariff.

The financial health of Indian Railways has worsened over the last few years with the operating ratio -- money spent to earn a sum of Rs 100 -- rising from 75.9 in 2007-08 to 91.1 in 2010-11.

Its total working expenses have risen 77 per cent to Rs 96,450 over the same period. Rediff

HT:
160 km/hr = Bullet train ???

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/4171/76385232.jpg

For God's sake don't make a fool of urself and indians by calling a train as bullet train that covers distance of 90 km in 63 minutes.

People of many other countries check these threads like me.

:bash::bash:

But by the end of this decade, they would be moving to almost 50-60% energy from renewable sources and hence can keep the cost of energy under control.


what nonsense? They have planned 30% of their energy from renewables by 2050.

Shaant ho ja Munde, we are the first nation to make slow bullets ! :cheers::lol::bash::banana::ohno::nuts:


For God's sake don't make a fool of urself and indians by calling a train as bullet train that covers distance of 90 km in 63 minutes.

People of many other countries check these threads like me.

:bash::bash:

Shaant ho ja Munde, we are the first nation to make slow bullets ! :cheers::lol::bash::banana::ohno::nuts:

It's always good to be the first at something I guess!

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_ac-double-decker-train-for-jaipur-duronto-for-mumbai-ajmer_1560893
AC double-decker train for Jaipur; Duronto for Mumbai, Ajmer


Two new Duronto trains for Mumbai and Ajmer and one AC double-decker train for Jaipur are among 23 new train services to be launched by Northern Railway soon.

A new Shatabdi Express train for Ludhiana from New Delhi station will also be pressed into service shortly, General Manager of Northern Railway SK Budhalakoti said after releasing the new Time Table here.

However, out of 23 proposed new train services including the AC double-decker train, launch dates of 18 trains are yet to be announced in the time table.

"Date of introduction of these new trains will be announced shortly and these trains will definitely run before March 31, 2012," said Budhalakoti.

The Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Jaipur AC double decker train will have stoppages at Guragon and Delhi Cantonment stations. While the train will start from Jaipur at 6 AM in the morning and reach Sarai Rohilla at 10.30 AM, it will leave Sarai Rohilla at 5.35 PM and reach Jaipur at 10.05 pm daily.

The date of introduction of the double-decker train is yet to be decided.

"The double decker train will be launched in the current financial year. Since it is a new kind of train, extensive trials are going on and after getting the clearance from the Commissioner Railway Safety we will announce the date," Northern Railway GM said.

A new passenger train for Ghaziabad for daily passengers will be pressed into service from July 1.

The date of introduction of Mumbai Duronto and Ajmer Duronto will be announced shortly.

While the frequency of five trains including Sealdah Duronto and Ajmer Shatabdi is being increased, the routes of 15 trains are extended in the new Time Table.

The frequency of Sealdah Duronto is being increased to four days from two days a week. Ajmer Shatabdi has become a daily train instead of six days a week.

According to the new time table, New Delhi-Dehradun AC Express and Dibrugarh Rajdhani have become daily service from six days a week.

The frequency of Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Udaipur Chetak Express has been increased from four days a week to daily service.

The Vivek Express and Kavi Guru Express announced in the Rail Budget 2011-12 have found mention in the time table. However, the dates of launching the weekly Vivek Express from Jammu Tawi to Bandra Terminal and the Kavi Guru Express from Kamakhya to Jaipur have not been announced.

"The date of introducing the new Rajya Rani Express from Meerut to Lucknow is also to be announced later on," said Budhalakoti.

Thirteen new express trains including an AC Express train for Sasaram from Anand Vihar will be introduced shortly.

Other proposed trains include Rae Bareli-Juanpur Express, Chandigarh-Bandra Express, New Delhi-Puducherry Express and Lucknow-Bhopal Express.

Shaant ho ja Munde, we are the first nation to make slow bullets ! :cheers::lol::bash::banana::ohno::nuts:

90km (i.e. 60 miles) in 63 minutes can be done even on Hero Honda or any other bike if we have an access controlled safer highway :bash:

what nonsense? They have planned 30% of their energy from renewables by 2050.

Sorry about the figures. I actually wanted to put energy sources from non-petroleum products which are not that sensitive to changing oil prices. You are right about the 30% renewable sources, but my guesstimate includes renewable as well as non-petroleum energy sources (nuclear, clean coal). What I meant in my earlier post was to exclude the oil and gas from the electricity equation which are typically more sensitive to rises.

Sorry about the figures. I actually wanted to put energy sources from non-petroleum products which are not that sensitive to changing oil prices. You are right about the 30% renewable sources, but my guesstimate includes renewable as well as non-petroleum energy sources (nuclear, clean coal). What I meant in my earlier post was to exclude the oil and gas from the electricity equation which are typically more sensitive to rises.

Planned Chaos Ji :

From your various answers would like to point out the following :

1. Higher Speeds : A Unit – Land, Air or Water – be it a Train, Car, Truck, Bus, Air Craft or Ship consumes far more fuel at comparative higher speeds, i.e. The consumption per hour at 200 KPH is far more than twice that at 100 KPH. I have heard of the Ratio of Speed to Consumption/Horse Power as (Speed)² is in Proportion to (Consumption / Horse Power)³. Not being an Engineer I cannot quote any writings on the subject.

However, this does make sense as driving my car at 90 MPH over a distance is over twice the consumption as at 55 MPH.

Again not being an Engineer I might have not framed my answer correctly in the technical sense and hope that you understand what I am trying to say.

2. The Power Companies are not going to sell Power Generated by Coal or Nuclear or Wind or Tidal or Hydro (as you put it Hydel) cheaper than that produced by Oil Fuelled Generators - Steam or IC.

As such the cost of “Power” for running at comparatively Higher Speeds will remain in similar proportions no matter how it is Generated.

Thus the High Speed Trains may be “affordable” by Joe Smith or Von German or Japanese San but for the common Indian using the Indian Railway System it might remain a dream.

Herein you must appreciate that in respect of Non-suburban Travel, as per the 2009-2010 Year Book, the number of Passengers travelling in Upper Classes is 86 Million compared to 3,284 Million in the Second Class.

S0 I do not foresee the Indian Bullet or High Speed Trains carrying but a miniscule part of the total Non-Suburban Travellers using the Indian Railways.

Cheers :cheers:

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HD/2011/07/01/Article//007/01_07_2011_007_005.jpg

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Publications/HT/HD/2011/07/01/article/013/01_07_2011_013_007.jpg

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Publications/HT/HD/2011/07/01/article/015/01_07_2011_015_005.jpg

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Publications/HT/HM/2011/07/01/article/009/01_07_2011_009_008.jpg

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Publications/HT/HM/2011/07/01/article/009/01_07_2011_009_007.jpg

Planned Chaos Ji :

From your various answers would like to point out the following :

1. Higher Speeds : A Unit – Land, Air or Water – be it a Train, Car, Truck, Bus, Air Craft or Ship consumes far more fuel at comparative higher speeds, i.e. The consumption per hour at 200 KPH is far more than twice that at 100 KPH. I have heard of the Ratio of Speed to Consumption/Horse Power as (Speed)² is in Proportion to (Consumption / Horse Power)³. Not being an Engineer I cannot quote any writings on the subject.

However, this does make sense as driving my car at 90 MPH over a distance is over twice the consumption as at 55 MPH.

Again not being an Engineer I might have not framed my answer correctly in the technical sense and hope that you understand what I am trying to say.

2. The Power Companies are not going to sell Power Generated by Coal or Nuclear or Wind or Tidal or Hydro (as you put it Hydel) cheaper than that produced by Oil Fuelled Generators - Steam or IC.

As such the cost of “Power” for running at comparatively Higher Speeds will remain in similar proportions no matter how it is Generated.

Thus the High Speed Trains may be “affordable” by Joe Smith or Von German or Japanese San but for the common Indian using the Indian Railway System it might remain a dream.

Herein you must appreciate that in respect of Non-suburban Travel, as per the 2009-2010 Year Book, the number of Passengers travelling in Upper Classes is 86 Million compared to 3,284 Million in the Second Class.

S0 I do not foresee the Indian Bullet or High Speed Trains carrying but a miniscule part of the total Non-Suburban Travellers using the Indian Railways.

Cheers :cheers:

This is not really true in case of railways. That is because aerodynamic friction is very less for a train compared to a car or a bus because it is very long. So higher speed will consume more fuel but travel time reduced saves fuel. Current problem is engineering and capital costs, not fuel cost.

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2011/07/01/20110701aH009100006.jpg

Whoever's doing so should be ready for a lot of ranting from people.

Barun Roy: A tortoise named Duranto

To date, India, with one of the largest railway networks in the world, doesn’t have a single kilometre of railway that can be called high-speed, dedicated to trains running at 200 km or more an hour. To date, China has 8,358 km of such tracks laid out and in service and 17,000 km more under construction.

Source-
Business Standard
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/barun-roytortoise-named-duranto/441040/

The sleek blue-and-white trains known as the Harmony Express take less than five hours to commute from Beijing South Railway Station to Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, an 800-mile journey that crosses the same distance as a trip from Los Angeles to Albuquerque but takes more than three times as long on Amtrak.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/30/world/la-fg-china-train-20110701


1300km in 5 hours, avg 260 kmph speed. Similarly distance btw delhi-mumbai is 1200km, and yes we dont have a single duronto on this route yet, howrah being more important :bash:

http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2011/06/30/mn-china01_PH_0503707059_part6.jpg
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/01/MNQK1K4VN4.DTL


http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20110630/800_ap_jiaozhou_bay_bridge_110630.jpg?2
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20110630/china-opens-longest-sea-bridge-in-jiaozhou-bay-110630/
China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge.

The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 42 kilometres long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the island of Huangdao.
Our rameshwaram bridge is 2.3km :)

Man, why do we have do drag India-China comparison in every thread?

Man, why do we have do drag India-China comparison in every thread?

They launched this service yesterday. So the news.

They launched this service yesterday. So the news.

Relevance to this thread? None.

If Howrah is more important (going by what you are saying here), then does it not make sense to run Durontos to/from Howrah?

If Howrah is not more important and you had meant the sarcastic way, then how about comparing Nagpure or Jammu Tawai or some other smaller cities with Durontos rather than trying to take on metro cities (in which the requirements of Durontos are somewhat more obvious)?

Here are some proposed Durontos:

# Allahabad-Mumbai AC Duronto (bi-weekly)
# Pune-Ahmedabad AC Duronto (tri-weekly)
# Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam AC Duronto (tri-weekly)
# Madurai-Chennai AC Duronto (bi-weekly)
# Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram AC Duronto (bi-weekly)

Do you think these are good ones to propose? By the way, Mumbai-New Delhi is also a proposed Duronto just in case you had missed it (and I did not list it above as I said these are some Durontos and not all).

1300km in 5 hours, avg 260 kmph speed. Similarly distance btw delhi-mumbai is 1200km, and yes we dont have a single duronto on this route yet, howrah being more important :bash:

South India or India gets 19 new trains :banana:

This is not really true in case of railways. That is because aerodynamic friction is very less for a train compared to a car or a bus because it is very long. So higher speed will consume more fuel but travel time reduced saves fuel. Current problem is engineering and capital costs, not fuel cost.

gentem Ji :

It is true whereever a "Prime Mover" (The Engine be it in a Car or Truck - Bus or in the Locomotive etc.) where the inrease in Speed is not in direct proportion to the Horse Power required and thereby the Fuel Consumed.

In other words the Increase in Horse Power and thereby the Fuel Consumption does become "uneconomical" especially in the case of subsidized Travel Sectors for the Lower Strata which is very sizable in respect of the Indian Population.

An example is the Air Line Travel in India where the total India Domestic Traffic is ablut 25 Million in the January - May 2011 Period. The Indian Railways CARRY AROUND 20 MILLION PASSENGERS PER DAY.

Cheers :cheers:

Man, why do we have do drag India-China comparison in every thread?

Yeah...there is no point in comparing india and china...its just like comparing gold with copper...India has never and will never become like china...y this shit comparision..

^^ All that glitters is not gold.

gentem Ji :

It is true whereever a "Prime Mover" (The Engine be it in a Car or Truck - Bus or in the Locomotive etc.) where the inrease in Speed is not in direct proportion to the Horse Power required and thereby the Fuel Consumed.

In other words the Increase in Horse Power and thereby the Fuel Consumption does become "uneconomical" especially in the case of subsidized Travel Sectors for the Lower Strata which is very sizable in respect of the Indian Population.

An example is the Air Line Travel in India where the total India Domestic Traffic is ablut 25 Million in the January - May 2011 Period. The Indian Railways CARRY AROUND 20 MILLION PASSENGERS PER DAY.

Cheers :cheers:

Increase in horse power will at the same time reduce travel time - so fuel consumption is same - this is taking only friction into account neglecting air drag. Only disadvantage is aerodynamic drag which is cube of speed, which is much less in a train compared to aeroplane or car.

Increasing avg speed is easy by fixing bottlenecks. Even if we can have 120kmph avg speed (which is much less than 160 kmph top speed) mumbai-delhi would be 10 hours overnight.

Man, why do we have do drag India-China comparison in every thread?

Exactly.. why every single time!!! Two different giants with different challenges and needs.

If Howrah is more important (going by what you are saying here), then does it not make sense to run Durontos to/from Howrah?

If Howrah is not more important and you had meant the sarcastic way, then how about comparing Nagpure or Jammu Tawai or some other smaller cities with Durontos rather than trying to take on metro cities (in which the requirements of Durontos are somewhat more obvious)?

Here are some proposed Durontos:

# Allahabad-Mumbai AC Duronto (bi-weekly)
# Pune-Ahmedabad AC Duronto (tri-weekly)
# Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam AC Duronto (tri-weekly)
# Madurai-Chennai AC Duronto (bi-weekly)
# Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram AC Duronto (bi-weekly)

Do you think these are good ones to propose? By the way, Mumbai-New Delhi is also a proposed Duronto just in case you had missed it (and I did not list it above as I said these are some Durontos and not all).

Indeed true. Mumbai-New Delhi Duronto proposed timings are declared. Its going to be a biweekly train.

Mumbai Central (Dep): 23.15 New Delhi (Arr): 16.55
New Delhi (Dep): 23.30 Mumbai Central (arr): 16.20

Check out: http://www.nr.indianrailways.gov.in/view_detail.jsp?lang=0&dcd=1099&id=0,4,268

:delete:

Increase in horse power will at the same time reduce travel time - so fuel consumption is same - this is taking only friction into account neglecting air drag. Only disadvantage is aerodynamic drag which is cube of speed, which is much less in a train compared to aeroplane or car.

Increasing avg speed is easy by fixing bottlenecks. Even if we can have 120kmph avg speed (which is much less than 160 kmph top speed) mumbai-delhi would be 10 hours overnight.

gentem Ji :

I refer you to the following :

High speed, energy consumption and emissions

Study and Research Group for Railway Energy and emissions (http://www.uic.org/download.php/publication/526E.pdf)

2.2. The “square” and “cube” rules

There are two ideas relating to the links between energy and the railway operation of trains that are very widespread, even among many engineers and railway experts.

a) The first idea, which we could call the “power rule” or “cube rule”, is that the power of the train would increase with the cube of its speed.

b) The second idea, which we could call the “energy rule” or “square rule”, indicates that energy consumption would increase in proportion to the square of the speed. This rule would correspond to a consumption induced solely by quadratic resistances, such as those of an aerodynamic nature.

Please check the following in Para 2.3 :

Figure 1. Comparison between the journey time and the energy consumption of a train between London and Edinburgh for various maximum speeds. Energy is expressed in kWh/seat and the journey time in hours. Source: Kemp (1993)

I would request you to post it with your reply as I do not know how to post such an item.

Cheers :cheers:

Indeed true. Mumbai-New Delhi Duronto proposed timings are declared. Its going to be a biweekly train.

Mumbai Central (Dep): 23.15 New Delhi (Arr): 16.55
New Delhi (Dep): 23.30 Mumbai Central (arr): 16.20

Check out: http://www.nr.indianrailways.gov.in/view_detail.jsp?lang=0&dcd=1099&id=0,4,268

It is not flagged off yet. That is good 17 hours. This needs to be reduced to 10 hours so that it will be overnight journey.

gentem Ji :

I refer you to the following :

High speed, energy consumption and emissions

Study and Research Group for Railway Energy and emissions (http://www.uic.org/download.php/publication/526E.pdf)

2.2. The “square” and “cube” rules

There are two ideas relating to the links between energy and the railway operation of trains that are very widespread, even among many engineers and railway experts.

a) The first idea, which we could call the “power rule” or “cube rule”, is that the power of the train would increase with the cube of its speed.

b) The second idea, which we could call the “energy rule” or “square rule”, indicates that energy consumption would increase in proportion to the square of the speed. This rule would correspond to a consumption induced solely by quadratic resistances, such as those of an aerodynamic nature.

Please check the following in Para 2.3 :

Figure 1. Comparison between the journey time and the energy consumption of a train between London and Edinburgh for various maximum speeds. Energy is expressed in kWh/seat and the journey time in hours. Source: Kemp (1993)

I would request you to post it with your reply as I do not know how to post such an item.

Cheers :cheers:

It is not directly square or cube, it has 2 components - aerodynamic drag and friction of wheels. For long distance trains acceleration and deceleration can be neglected. Again, aerodynamic drag is less in a train. So only what matters is friction which is independent of top speed, but i may be wrong.

Tata Steel, 7 other cos seek Rly nod to set up pvt freight terminals

Eight companies, including Tata Steel, Central Warehousing Corporation and Container Corporation of India, have sought Indian Railways’ permission to set up freight terminals to transport third-party cargo after the latter relaxed eligibility criteria effective June 21.

The railways had issued a policy in June 2010 allowing companies to construct private freight terminals (PFTs). However, the policy failed in eliciting a response from the corporate sector, which complained that the special purpose vehicles could not meet the net worth criterion. The railways wanted the implementing company to have a net worth of at least R10 crore in the previous year.

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Tata-Steel--7-other-cos-seek-Rly-nod-to-set-up-pvt-freight-terminals/812465/

TRS President K. Chandrasekhar Rao called for a two-day Telangana bandh starting July 5. Telangana students should take out rallies across the region in support of statehood cause, he said.

"Complete rail roko would be observed on July eight and nine. The rail roko would be organised in such a way that the traffic from north India to south India is snapped"

©deccanchronicle (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/south/telangana-crisis-39-cong-34-tdp-mlas-resign-andhra-jac-calls-strikes-565)

New track detection algorithms for rail detection developed by this US company specifically for Indian railways. Checkout their video section to see their test algorithm in action. You might need to click on the video's link multiple times to get to the video. Indian Railways will be using this for detecting which track the train is on, cool ya?

http://www.solfice.com

Narayanasamy seeks Puducherry-Mumbai rail service
PTI | 06:07 PM,Jul 04,2011

Puducherry, July 4 (PTI) Union Minister of State for PMO and Parliamentary Affairs V.Narayanasamy today requested the Railway Ministry to introduce a train service from here to Mumbai. Thanking the Railway Ministry for introducing the Puducherry-New Delhi train from yesterday, in a release here Narayanaswamy said a service to Mumbai would benefit traders, businessmen and others. Stating that the Congress led UPA Government had been taking care of requirements of Puducherry, he expressed hope that very soon Puducherry to Mumbai service would be available.

Indian Railways to roll out new e-ticketing service (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indian-Railways-to-roll-out-new-e-ticketing-service/articleshow/9111183.cms)
PTI | Jul 5, 2011, 01.59pm IST
NEW DELHI: Indian Railways is all set to roll out its own e-ticketing service, which will have no room for travel agents and will be reserved for individual users.

"Unlike the e-ticketing service of IRCTC, the new service by Indian Railway will have no role of travel agents and commercial organisations. Only individual users will be allowed to book on the portal," said a Railway official.

Travel agents in the IRCTC service have been accused of blocking tickets to sell them at a premium.

Public resentment has also led the railways to bar travel agents from booking tatkal tickets during peak hours on the IRCTC portal.

Under the new railway e-ticketing service, individual customers would need to register themselves for the first time for availing the services. The registration will be free of charge.

A maximum of eight transaction per user ID per month will be allowed in the beginning, the official said, adding, the service charges levied will be Rs five per ticket for sleeper class and Rs 10 per ticket for all other classes.

IRCTS charges Rs 10 per ticket for sleeper class and Rs 20 per ticket for all other classes.

The new service will be available on its web portal www.indianrailways.gov.in.

Its launch will be announced after necessary clearance for payment gateway transaction, the official said.

The service will be available from 12.30 am to 11.30 pm.

"The project was sanctioned with a view to consolidate all the services and information on a single window interface for public," the official said.

He said the service will provide passengers another avenue to book tickets, while easing the pressure from the IRCTC website considerably.

On offer is also a service for booking tickets on the mobile platform.

Customers desirous of utilising the facility and having Internet facilities will have to download mobile ticketing application on mobile phones from Indian Railway's website, the official said.

Tracking facility for freight trains running and parcel status by customers would be among a host of other features that the portal is expected to introduce shortly.

^^
Railway's site still links to IRCTC for making reservation. These dumb reporters will write anything without verifying anything.

^^ The above article did'nt report that the service has started. IR WILL rollout this service.

The new service will be available on its web portal www.indianrailways.gov.in.

Its launch will be announced after necessary clearance for payment gateway transaction, the official said.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=72959
Press Information Bureau
Government of India

Ministry of Railways

30-June-2011 20:53 IST Salient Features of New all India Time Table ‘Trains at a Glance’

New Time Table Comes into Effect from 1st July 2011



The Ministry of Railways has released its new All India Railway Time Table known as “TRAINS AT A GLANCE (TAG)” which has come into effect from 1st July, 2011. In addition to this All India Time table, all the 17 zonal Railways have also released their zonal railway time tables which too have come into effect from 1st July, 2011. This Time Table includes the new class of trains which were announced in this year’s Railway Budget namely, Double Decker AC trains, Vivek Expres, Kavi Guru Express and Rajya Rani Express.



The salient features of the All India Railway Time Table i.e. TAG are as under :

1. Encouraged by the public response over the past few years all the user-friendly features of Trains at a Glance viz. how to read a table, route map, station index, trains between important stations, station code index, Train number index, Train name index, has been retained.

2. Five digit numbering scheme for train services has come into force from 20th December, 2010. This has been necessitated as the numbers in four digit numbering scheme got exhausted as also to enable capture of all types of passenger train services viz. Duronto, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and other Mail/Express services, sub-urban, holiday specials, etc. on Indian Railways. The five-digit train numbering has been accordingly indicated in Trains at a Glance.

3. Colour coding scheme adopted for various categories of trains: (a) Pink for Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Garib Rath Express and Duronto Express (b) Yellow for Double Decker services and other superfast trains (d) blue/white for other mail/Express trains.

4. New category of services viz. Double Decker services, Rajya Rani services, Vivek Express, Kavi Guru Express have been included.

5. Commercial information of passenger use and interest viz. advance reservation period, reservation through internet, refund rules and rail travel concessions have been suitably updated. New addition to the fare chart is the fare for AC and mixed type of Duronto services.

6. Information regarding Vigilance organization, Public grievance machinery, disaster management and catering services have been incorporated.

7. The Metro Railway, Kolkata has been added in the list of Zonal railways. The website addresses of all Zonal railways have been added this time.



· Budget announcements: The details of all the train services announced and which have been incorporated in the Trains at a Glance are as under:



Name of services
No. of service

· Duronto Services
09

· Double Decker AC
02

· Shatabdi
03

· Kavi guru Express
04

· Vivek Express
04

· Rajya Rani Express
10

· Express services
57




· Category-wise details:

I. Duronto trains: Duronto Train services were conceptualized in the year 2009-2010. At present 23 pairs of Duronto services are operational. In this year’s Railway Budget 09 pairs of Duronto services have been proposed, which are as under:

1. Allahabad-Mumbai AC Duronto (bi-weekly)

2. Pune- Ahmedabad AC Duronto (tri-weekly)

3. Sealdah – Puri non AC Duronto (tri-weekly)

4. Secunderabad- Visakhapatnam AC Duronto (Tri-weekly)

5. Madurai- Chennai AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)

6. Chennai - Thiruvananthapuram AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)

7. Mumbai Central- New Delhi AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)

8. Nizamuddin-Ajmer non-AC Duronto(Bi-weekly)

9. Shalimar – Patna Duronto (Tri-weekly)

II. Double Decker AC:



1. Jaipur- Delhi

2. Ahmedabad-Mumbai



III. Shatabdi Express:



1. Pune -Secunderabad

2. Jaipur-Agra

3. Ludhiana – Delhi



IV. Vivek Express: To mark the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda which will be celebrated in 2013, “Vivek Express” are being proposed as under:

***

1. Dibrugarh- Thiruvanthapuram-Kanniyakumari Express (weekly) via

2. Kokrajhar

3. Dwarka-Tuticorin Express (weekly) via Wadi

4. Howrah-Mangalore Express (Weekly) via Palghat

5. Bandra (T)- Jammu Tawi Express (Weekly) via Marwar-Degana- Ratangarh-

6. Jakhal- Ludhiana



V. Kavi Guru Express: As a homage to the great poet Kavi Guru Ravindra Nath Tagore, it is proposed to run the following Kavi Guru Express trains:



1. Howrah-Azimganj Express (daily) via Sagardighi

2. Guwahati- Jaipur Express (weekly)

3. Howrah-Bolpur Express (daily)

4. Howrah-Porbander Express (weekly)







VI. Rajya Rani Express: A new set of trains connecting state capitals with important cities/towns in those states are as under:



1. Sawantwadi Road - Mumbai Express (daily)

2. Saharsa - Patna Intercity Express (daily)

3. Meerut- Lucknow Intercity Express (daily)

4. Mysore - Bangalore Express (daily)

5. Damoh - Bhopal Intercity Express (daily)

6. Silghat – Dhubri Intercity Express (tri-weekly via Guwahati – Kokrajhar - Jogighopa)

7. Bankura – Howrah Express (tri-weekly)

8. Nilambur Road – Thiruvananthapuram Link Express (daily)

9. Jharsuguda – Bhubaneswar Express (tri-weekly)

10. Manmad – Mumbai Express (daily) via Nasik

Next railway budget may not see any new project

Burdened with R2.5 lakh crore of projects stuck due to paucity of funds and other reasons, the Indian Railways plans to give itself a ‘plan holiday’ in announcing new projects in 2012-13. Policymakers at the helm of the national transporter feel the break would help them clear the backlog of over 200 projects, mostly for laying new rail lines and doubling tracks, but also including new manufacturing units for wagons and wheels.

The Railways has been attempting a conscious shift from funding projects from its own resources for fresh capital investment by embracing the public-private partnership (PPP) route. But it would take a couple of years for PPP to assume a major role in its financing plans, while most pending projects will have to be implemented by dipping into the railways’ own revenue.

Top officials from the railways’ planning department told FE that they were working on a proposal to declare the next fiscal as a ‘holiday year’ for fresh plan expenditure. This means no new projects — either for creating new assets or replacing existing ones — would be taken up during 2012-13.

Railways had observed a similar ‘holiday’ in 2001-02, during Mamata Banerjee’s first tenure at the ministry. As a matter of policy, no new projects were taken up related to railway lines and manufacturing units. While the Plan outlay for the year was R11,090 crore, the ministry merely announced only 31 new train services and few small projects in gauge conversion. A senior railway ministry official said: “We need over R2.5 lakh crore just to finish projects which are not on the PP mode. Announcing new projects would increase the burden (on railways).”

The average delay for railway projects is estimated at 18-220 months. While a large number of these projects are for laying new lines and doubling tracks, big-ticket projects like the dedicated freight corridor too have been delayed. The high-speed rail corridor and bullet train are still far in the future. Between 2007-08 and 2009-10 alone, 91 projects for new lines and doubling have been delayed. Railway officials blame unavailability of funds, delays and price escalation in land acquisition, rise in raw material costs and slow approvals from various government agencies for the backlog. ....

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/next-railway-budget-may-not-see-any-new-project/813223/0

Vigilance Control Device to make diesel locos more efficient

Railway Board has issued directives for installation of Vigilance Control Device (VCD) in all diesel locomotives in the country by March 2012. The installation of VCD would help in better management of diesel locomotives.

In this connection, director, mechanical engineering (traction) of Railway Board, SM Sharma has written to chief mechanical engineers of all zonal railways, including the North Central Railway, to take steps in this direction. The letter, dated June 13, 2011, asks the chief mechanical engineers to expedite the fitment of VCDs to meet the target by March 2012. Though majority of diesel locomotives have been fitted with VCDs, some are still left.

The Vigilance Control Device ensures the safe plying of trains. It also helps in data analysis for management review in case of derailment or any accident. Driving function like throttle, master controller, horn, sander, loco brake, train brake, dynamic brake, headlight, etc., are taken as input signals for VCD operation.

VCD improves vigilance and provides warning and brake application signals in a predefined manner. It also records data of penalty brake application event, VCD bypass, VCD suppression in a non-volatile memory for management reviews, if required. It is Windows-based data extraction and analysis software for report generation. Its user friendly data analysis software allows to configure the unit with predefined timing cycle parameters.

North Central Railway has about 117 diesel locomotives. While VCD has been installed in 78 diesel locomotives, steps are being taken for installation of the system in the remaining locomotives.

The letter also states that no diesel locomotive fitted with VCD should be turned out from the shed with VCD in defective/isolated condition. If the VCD gets defective/isolated en route, loco should be declared `failed' on arrival at destination/changing pint. The reason of isolation should be investigated thoroughly and action be initiated against the erring staff, the letter adds.

The letter also mentions that each zonal railways should furnish a list of the individual loco numbers which have been fitted with VCD to the Railway Board. TNN

HT (http://www.hindustantimes.com/Rs-240-cr-railway-link-between-beas-and-Qadian/Article1-715818.aspx)
Rs 240-cr railway link between beas and Qadian

In an effort to mainstream the Ahmediyyas — a Muslim sect— the Indian Railways at its June 24 meeting sanctioned the RS240-crore project to construct a 39.6-kilometre stretch linking the international headquarters of Ahmediyyas with Radha Soamis. The Ahmediyyas’ branch is located in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district at Qadian while the Radha Soamis is headquartered at Beas in Amritsar district.

“This rail link will meet the increased requirements of freight and passengers traffic and also the strategic needs of the armed forces,” said Pratap Singh Bajwa, the Congress Lok Sabha member from Gurdaspur.

The Qadian-Beas link will help decongest road traffic, facilitate bulk transportation of food grains, and supply coal, pig iron and scrap to industries in Batala. It will also enable faster inward movement of cement and fertilizers to Gurdaspur.

The new route will shorten the Amritsar-Delhi distance by approximately 40 kilometres.

“I rejoice in the fact that my dream project is now turning into a reality,” said Bajwa — who has been campaigning for the rail link for over a decade.

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HKL/2011/07/08/Article//004/08_07_2011_004_019.jpg