Five persons were run over by a speeding train at Sawimadhopur Railway Station in Rajasthan today. Two others were injured in the incident, railway police said.

The victims were passengers of the Jaipur-Bayana Express which halted at platform no. 1 in Sawimadhopur station.

Few passengers got down from the train on the railway track side instead of the platform side and were run over by the Gandhidham-Howrah superfast express which was passing at a high speed from the station, the SHO of GRP Railway station Kishanlal said.

Four of the five deceased were identified as Kamal (19), Nitesh (14), Man Singh and Mukesh (both 35), he said.

Railway users have welcomed the approval given by the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) for electrification-cum-doubling works between Madurai-Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram and urged the railway ministry to complete the works without any delay.

According to a statement from railways, the CCEA chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved the construction of double line with electrification between Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari, Madurai-Vanchi Maniyachi, Vanchi Maniyachi-Turicorin and Vanchi Maniyachi-Nagercoil via Tirunelveli. The projects are likely to be completed in four years by 2020 – 21.

The total length of Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari line is 86.56 km. The estimated cost of the project will be Rs.1431.90 crore and completion cost Rs.1552.94 crore with 5% escalation per annum. The total length of Madurai – Vanchi Maniyachi, Vanchi Maniyachi-Tuticorin lines will be 160 kms. The estimated cost of the project will be Rs 1,182.31 crore and completion cost Rs.1,272.51 crore with 5% escalation per annum. The total length of Vanchi Maniyachi-Nagercoil via Tirunelveli line will be 102 km. The estimated cost of the project will be Rs.1,003.94 crore and completion cost Rs.1,114.62 crore with 5% escalation per annum.

Kanyakumari District Rail Users Association (KKDRUA) observed that the line from Chennai to Kanyakumari was like a backbone of the state from which other railway lines were branching out. After so much of persuasion, Chennai- Madurai line was going to be doubled and Madurai- Kanyakumari yet to be doubled. With the existing single line, not many trains could be operated from southern Tamil Nadu to Chennai in spite of repeated demands from rail users of the region, the association observed.

President of KKDRUA, S R Sriram said that doubling of Madurai- Kanyakumari was a long pending dream of people of southern Tamil Nadu. He expressed his gratitude to Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan for making efforts for the materialisation of the project. President of Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association Limited and former member of Madurai Divisional Rail User Consultative Committee, S P Jeyapragasam pointed out that the 46-km stretch between Madurai and Virudhunagar should be doubled in first phase because the stretch was under enormous pressure of train traffic converging from three directions at Virudhunagar.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Director General of Income Tax (Investigation Wing) to conduct a detailed inquiry into a complaint filed by one R.C.Cyril Thiagaraj against the Railway Employees Cooperative Credit Society Ltd (RECCS).

In the order passed by information commissioner Bimal Julka on May 29, the commission noted that Thiagaraj submitted a complaint to the income tax department in July 2015.

In the complaint, he alleged that employees of the society were paid salaries in violation of the Income Tax Act and Rules. Loans to members of the society had been paid in cash instead of crediting in their bank account, the complaint said.

Thiagaraj filed a Right to Information (RTI) petition regarding the action taken on the complaint, for which the IT department did not give a reply even after the first appeal was filed.

In the order, Julka stated that the income tax department submitted that IT assessment relating to the society for 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2014-15 were pending for completion when the complaint was sent. The assessment was completed only on December 29, 2016 and the IT department said that clarifications were given. However, the Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the income tax department did not appear for the hearing to clarify the submissions made by Thiagaraj, Julka noted in the order.

Considering the facts in the case, the CIC has directed the director general of income tax to submit an inquiry report within 30 days in accordance with the RTI Act, 2005.

Ministry of Railways has sanctioned Solar Power System on 24 Coaches of DEMU trains and has approved similar provisions with flexible solar panels on 250 more coaches.

Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain stated this on 2 August in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

He said that the Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) Broad Gauge Train with Solar Power generation on roof top of its coaches has been dedicated to the nation by the Minister of Railways on  14 July 2017. This train has been inducted in the link of Train Number 740033 between Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Garhi Harsaru-Farukhnagar in Northern Railway.

The details of reduction in Carbon Emission and fuel saving shall be known after running this train for a period of one year, Minister said in his reply.

Replying to one another question, the Minister stated that during the last three years, a total of 62,773 candidates have been empanelled for various categories of Group ‘C’ posts by all the 21 RRBs.

Indian Railways, an organization having pan India character, presently has 21 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) across the country for catering to the recruitment requirements of various categories of Group ‘C’ posts of Zonal Railway(s)/ Production Unit(s).

Replying to the questions the Minister Gahain said that, “No preference/relaxation is given to candidates belonging to any region. The RRBs have been established based on territorial jurisdiction of the Indian railways and not on the basis of State(s), Zone(s) / Region(s). Candidates are free to apply to any RRB throughout the country in response to the advertisements; RRBs do not make any distinction on the basis of State(s), Region(s) / Area(s) / Locality, Caste(s), Gender(s) or Creed(s).”

The Railways earned Rs. 1,400 crore from ticket cancellation charges in 2016-17, an increase of 25 per cent from the previous fiscal, the government today said.

The jump in the earnings may be attributed to the doubling of cancellation charges from November 2015.

“There has been an increase of approximately 25 per cent in the amount realised from cancellation of tickets in 2016-2017 over the previous year,” Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

Charges are levied for cancellation of tickets as per the Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Ticket and Refund of Fare) Rules, 2015. The rules provide for refund of fare, subject to provisions.

“However, there is no provision to refund the cancellation charges so recoverable under the Rules,” said Gohain.

The minister also said the South-Central Railway has realised Rs. 103.27 crore as cancellation and clerkage charges on reserved tickets during 2016-17.

Effective from November 2015, the cancellation fee for a confirmed AC 3-tier ticket, 48 hours before the scheduled departure of the train, was revised to Rs. 180 from Rs. 90, while for AC 2-tier it was made Rs. 200 in place of Rs. 100.

The cancellation fee for a sleeper class confirmed ticket was doubled to Rs. 120 while the charge for second class was increased to Rs. 60 from Rs. 30.

Earlier, passengers had a six-hour window before the departure of the train and a two-hour one after to cancel their ticket and get a refund.

Under the new rules, there is no option of any refund after the departure of a train, while there is only a four-hour window to cancel and get refund before the train leaves.

A plan to rename the iconic Mughalsarai railway station in Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s oldest, provoked a row in parliament today, with the opposition accusing the ruling BJP of trying to change the country’s map.

The central government recently cleared UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s request to rename the station after Deen Dayal Upadhyay, an icon of the BJP.

Ministry of Railways has entrusted the work of redevelopment of Delhi Safdarjung Railway Station to IRCON along with RLDA by leveraging the commercial potential of the railway land around the station including RLDA’s office as well as air space above the railway station.

In the gracious presence of Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Minister of Railways, Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), a Statutory Authority under Ministry of Railways, Government of India signed an MoU for this purpose with IRCON International Limited, a Public Sector Undertaking under Ministry of Railways.

Shri Rakesh Goyal, Vice Chairman RLDA and Shri S. K. Chaudhary, CMD IRCON signed the MOU. Delhi Safdarjung station is proposed to be developed on self-financing model for which finance will be raised through marketing of the commercial built-up area that will be developed on the surplus railway land and air space as part of the Station development project. The land and the constructed buildings will continue to remain under the ownership and control of RLDA and only the commercial built-up area will be leased for upto 45 years by RLDA, the statement said.

IRCON will carry out design, construction and marketing of the project. The Phase-I of the project will come up on the Moti Bagh side of the Station and is targeted for completion by January 2019.

They are expected to leverage the commercial potential of the railway land around the station as well as the air space above it. The station is proposed to be developed on a self- financing model for which finance will be raised through marketing of the commercial built-up area that will be developed on the surplus railway land and air space as part of the station development project.

The livery of the Evolution Series diesel locomotives which GE Transportation is building for Indian Railways was unveiled on August 3 when the first painted locomotive was rolled out of the Erie plant’s paint shop. The ES43ACmi required 190 litres of paint, with the red chosen to represent energy and yellow to represent freshness. With paint completed, GE expects to ship the locomotive in a few weeks. It is expected to arrive in India later this year.

‘It is great to see Indian Railways’ first locomotive emblazoned in the railroad’s ornate paint scheme,’ said Nalin Jain, President & CEO of Asia Pacific at GE Transportation, adding the locomotives would ‘instill a sense of pride in Indians nationwide’.

In November 2015 GE Transportation and the Ministry of Railways signed a US$2·6bn joint venture agreement for the supply of 700 Type ES43ACmi twin-cab locomotives of 4 500 hp, to be designated Class WDG4G by Indian Railways, and 300 ES57ACi single-cab locomotives of 6 000 hp.

The first 100 of the 1 676 mm gauge freight locomotives are to be exported from the USA complete or in kit form, while the government’s Make in India programme requires the rest to be produced with mainly domestic components at a factory which GE is building at Marhowra in Bihar.

GE Transportation is preparing to ship the first locomotive from the USA in a few weeks. Production of the ES57ACi locomotives is scheduled to begin later this year.

‘This new ES43ACmi locomotive is ideal for Indian Railways’ modernisation efforts’, said Yuvbir Singh, Vice-President of Global Locomotive Operations at GE Transportation. ‘It will provide greatly improved fuel efficiency and emissions compared to Indian Railways’ existing non-Evolution Series fleet.’

The Railways has rejected a Parliamentary standing committee recommendation to include a member in the Railway Board exclusively to deal with safety- related issues of the national carrier.

In its reply, the railways has said the safety aspect is integral to the construction, certification, operation and maintenance of the railway system and each member is responsible for their respective departments like rolling stock, infrastructure, etc..

“Overall coordination is done by the Member (Traffic), Railway Board. Hence, the question of separate member for safety is not pertinent,” it said.

While making the recommendation, the committee had said having a nodal department for safety would help synchronise micro-level measures into a holistic macro-level railway operations, unaffected by inter-departmental differences on the issue.

The standing committee report, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha today, said “such an attitude reflects the ministry’s unwillingness to relinquish age-old practises and procedures.”

“The committee feels that the Member (Traffic) is fully engrossed with running of trains through the entire railway network in India and the related works on a daily basis. A separate member for safety would be able to exclusively focus on safety issues of railways,” the committee said.

It reiterated the ministry should review its stand on the matter and give serious consideration to “optimising the composition of the railway board”.

Plans to run India’s first bullet trains that will race between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will soon get off the drawing board. Visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will next month lay the foundation stone for the trains that could run at speeds of 350 kilometre an hour.

The project is expected to be completed for the first ride in the next six years.

The bullet train will reduce the journey between Ahmedabad and Mumbai to two hours from seven; there are a total of 12 stations on the 508-km route – four of which are in Maharashtra and eight in Gujarat. Sources told that the bullet train on this route would mostly, 92 per cent, run on elevated tracks.

The bullet train will start underground from the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai and travel 27 km through a tunnel in the sea before emerging over ground at Thane. It is estimated to cost about Rs. 97,636 crore.

“The entire funding for this or more or less 85 per cent of this will come from the Japanese and that too on very soft terms,” Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

But other cities too are going to get faster trains.

Mr Prabhu said his ministry had drawn up maps for high-speed corridors on different routes between Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Mysuru and Bengaluru that would let trains touch speeds of 350 km an hour. On other routes such as Chennai-Hyderabad and Chennai-Mysuru, there would be trains that travel at speeds ranging from 160 to 250 km.

That, however, is the plan. For now, the minister conceded that India’s fastest trains – the Rajdhani and Duronto – were getting delayed because of heavy traffic on the lines. Some networks are operating at 160 per cent to 170 per cent of the capacity,” he said.

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail project has been sanctioned for implementation with technical and financial assistance of the Japanese government. “Procurement of high speed rolling stock is an integral part of the project that envisages promoting ‘Make-in-India’ of high speed rolling stock in a phased manner,” he said.

Around 85 per cent of the funding for the project would come from the Japanese and that too on “very soft terms”. “This is the best soft term under the Overseas Development Assistance,” he added.

In reply to a query as to why Rajdhani and Duronto trains are getting delayed, Prabhu said a major reason for train delays is heavy congestion as there has been a significant increase in traffic compared to the railway infrastructure.