Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday dedicated the 110 km railway track from Bidar to Kalaburgi in Karnataka, which will reduce distance from Bengaluru to New Delhi and upcountry destinations by 380 km and save 6-8 hours of travelling time.

The new track, laid over 16 years, was originally estimated to cost Rs. 370 crore but escalated to Rs. 1,542 crore.
The Prime Minister also flagged off the first train on the new line from Bidar station to Kalaburgi in the presence of Railway Minister Piyush Goel, Governor Vajubhai R Vala, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Union Ministers from the state Ananth Kumar and Sadananda Gowda.

The diesel-electric multiple train (DEMU) local service will cover the 110km between Bidar and Kalaburgi in two hours with brief halts at 12 stations en route.

Though the foundation stone for the project was laid in 1996 when Janata Dal-Secular supremo H D Deve Gowda from the state was the Prime Minister, construction began only in 2000 under the BJP-led NDA government and the railways took 16 years to complete it.

“The new track provides direct rail connectivity from Bengaluru to Bidar, 690km away from the state capital, and enable running more long-distance passenger and freight trains on the route,” a senior railway official told IANS here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Karnataka today, offered prayers at the famous Lord Manjunatha Swami temple at Dharmasthala. He then attended a function organised by the Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural development Project in the temple town in Dakshina Kannada district. The prime minister symbolically launched the distribution of RuPay Cards for self-help group members who enrolled for Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana through the Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural development Project, a non-governmental organisation, during the programme. PM Modi symbolically transfered RuPay cards to women who would then conduct banking transactions in the MICRO ATMs placed on the dais during the programme. He then traveled to the state capital Bengaluru to attend a public function organised by the Vedanta Bharati at the Palace Grounds. He will also inaugurate the 110 km Bidar-Kalaburgi railway track in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region that will reduce the distance between Bengaluru and New Delhi by 380km and travel time by six to eight hours.

A parliamentary panel has summoned top railway officials over the recent spate of rail derailments and the Elphinstone Road Bridge stampede in Mumbai.

The officials are scheduled to appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways headed by Trinamool MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay on November 9.
Representatives of the railway ministry (Railway Board) will brief the panel on safety measures in railway operations and maintenance of bridges, a Lok Sabha notice said.

A member of the parliamentary panel said railways is the lifeline of the country and a poor man’s transport. He said safety is of paramount importance and that is why the panel has called the meeting.

The panel is expected to question the officials about the recent incidents of derailment and the Mumbai bridge tragedy in which 23 people lost their lives, the notice said.

A recent circular by the Railway Board had raised concerns over the maintenance of railway bridges, stating that out of 275 such bridges, only 23 had speed restrictions on them.

Speed restriction for trains is needed when the tracks are in need of repair. Without such a restriction, there can be safety issues for trains operating on regular speed.

The Railways is working on a proposal to create a suburban railway network for Bengaluru, much like the one in Mumbai, to decongest the city and link it to the airport, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said today.

Mr Goyal said the idea was suggested to him before he took over as the railway minister by senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar who told him that he had been pushing for a suburban rail service for the Indian IT capital since 1996.

He said that during a review meeting of South Western Railway on September 18, he asked the officials to study the city for a rail network and come up with a preliminary project report for an elevated network.

“And possibly also have a road on top of the rail to connect the airport to places of work in the city,” Goyal said speaking at the International Conference on Green Initiatives and Railway Electrification here.

The minister said he gave the SW Railways 30 days’ time to come up with a plan but on September 20, when he was in the city again, he was given a document listing out initial action plans on the project to be executed within 28 days.

On September 26, Mr Goyal said the SW railway construction wing of Bengaluru awarded the consultancy to the Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES), a government of India initiative, for a conceptual planning and study of the proposal.

By October 1, the minister said he was presented with a rough assessment on the availability of land for commercial use including the relocation requirements.

“They used google to locate and prepare the plan where land is available because the scheme has to be self-financed. Then they identified various sections which need to be elevated and also pointed out which were to be done on ground,” he said.

By October 18, the RITES had already finalised an initial conceptual plan with drawings of how the project will look like, where the routes will be and with height and elevation details, the minister said.

“So in a months’ time, we have a proposal upon which the IR (Indian Railways) can now start deliberating.

“I am sharing this to reflect the new confidence with which the Indian Railways is working with the commitment to time-bound delivery of services,” Mr Goyal said.

For those who remember the headlines that the current government made, a prominent one was ‘coal surplus’. From 2014 onwards, the BJP government’s clarion call was increasing coal production and improving supply. State-owned monopoly Coal India Limited was given a tall target of 1 billion tonnes of coal production by 2019; three arterial railway lines were started from Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh; and the number of railway rakes for coal supply was to be increased.

Coal India ramped up production by opening new mines. So much that one of its subsidiaries, CCL, was opening a new mine every month last year. This improved coal supply boosted confidence in the government, which then started the programme to reduce dependence on imported coal to nil. This is where the problems began.

During the last financial year, while Coal India was increasing coal production to record levels, takers and the amount of coal dispatched reduced. Financially beleaguered power distribution companies weren’t buying surplus power, and they still aren’t. This led to power plants running at low capacity and, thereby, impacting the coal demand. Demand was so low that the ministry of coal rounded up close to 30 power generating units last year to pay penalty for sourcing coal below their lowest permissible threshold.

At the same time, state-owned NTPC went on a drive to reduce its import dependence. NTPC typically blends 8-10 per cent of imported coal in case of a domestic supply crunch. As Coal India increased production, NTPC was pursued to reduce coal dependence. The thermal power behemoth, which runs 49,000 Mw of coal-based units, reduced its imported coal consumption by 85 per cent as compared to the previous year. This was to be met through domestic coal supply, which Coal India duly complied with. Private units, even those in western India, that were dependent on imported coal shifted their loyalty to domestic coal as Coal India claimed to have a surplus supply.

In August, coal imports fell by 14 per cent over last year to 18.8 million tonne. At the same time, as the private units were running at low capacity, Coal India reduced production. Meanwhile, a crucial railway line (Dhanbad-Chandrapura) broke down and is still under repair. Further, the three planned lines are yet to be fully operational.

Crisis struck once peak summers came. Uttar Pradesh was the first to complain that it was only NTPC that was getting coal, while state-run and private units were facing a scarcity. Next in line came Maharashtra and Rajasthan, which had the same issue, and the latter suffered from power cuts.

By August, the situation worsened with hydropower generation not running at optimum capacity due to weak monsoon. Marred by payment issues and regulatory confusion, wind power faced its worst production year, with 354 Mw produced during April-August 2017.

By September end, average coal stocks at power plants were at a record low of five days. Last year, for the same month, it was 28 days. The number of rakes carrying coal for power sector was increased by the railway ministry. But this led to other sectors such as steel, cement and captive power units complaining of diversion of their rakes for power plants.

As the situation stands now, the ministry of coal has gone on record with the counter that it’s the power plants that should have kept a certain coal stock at their sites. Power plants, however, are alleging mismanagement by the ministries involved — coal, power, and railways. A lack of synchronised approach, they said, has led to this crisis.

Currently, 23 power units with a cumulative capacity of 30,000 Mw have super critical coal stock situation of less than three days, as per Central Electricity Authority. Latest data from ports show that, after five months of straight decline, coal imports have shown a spurt to 18.33 million tonne.

The headlines have gone back to coal deficit. Earlier, states would blame the Centre, the Union power ministry would blame the coal ministry, and the coal ministry would blame railways. For a government that vowed to break down silos, this is the test of cooperative federalism that it claimed to reinstate.

Diversion of Passenger Trains due to Heavy Floods & Breaches in Samastipur Division

1) Train No. 07091 Secunderabad – Raxaul Special Train departed Secunderabad at 21:40 hrs on 24th October, 2017 is diverted via Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Sagauli and Raxaul instead of Samastipur, Darbhanga , Sitamarhi and Raxaul stations.

2) Train No. 07092 Raxaul – Secunderabad Special Train scheduled to depart Raxaul at 12:45 hrs on 27th October, 2017 is diverted via Raxaul, Sagauli, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur instead of Raxaul, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and Samastipur Stations.

I) Trains Diverted due to traffic block

1) Train No. 12508 Guwahati – Thiruvananthapuram Super fast Train scheduled to depart Guwahati at 06:20 hrs from 27th October to 22nd December, 2017 (Fridays) is diverted on its scheduled days from New Farakka Jn via Azimganj, Katwa, Bandel and Howrah Stations with stoppage at Azimganj .

2) Train No. 12510 Guwahati – Bangalore Cantt Super fast Train scheduled to depart Guwahati at 06:20 hrs from 29th October to 24th December, 2017 (Sundays) is diverted on its scheduled days from New Farakka Jn via Azimganj, Katwa, Bandel and Howrah Stations with stoppage at Azimganj.

3) Train No. 12516 Guwahati – Thiruvananthapuram Super fast Train scheduled to depart Guwahati at 06:20 hrs from 25th October to 20th December, 2017 (Wednesdays) is diverted on its scheduled days from New Farakka Jn via Azimganj, Katwa, Bandel and Howrah Stations with stoppage at Azimganj.

Ministry of Railways has approved the extension of Tr. No. 16571/16572 Yesvatpur-Bidar-Yesvantpur Express to Latur (three days in a week) with effect from 3^rd February, 2018 from Yesvantpur and 4^th February, 2018 from Latur. The Train Numbers of extended train services will be changed as Train No. 16583 Yesvantpur-Latur Express and Train No. 16584 Latur-Yesvantpur Express.

Accordingly Train No.16583 Yesvantpur – Latur Tri-weekly Express will depart Yesvantpur at 19:00 hrs on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, arrive/depart Bidar at 09:15/9:20 hrs, on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, arrive/depart  Latur Road at 12.08/12.10 hrs and arrive Latur at 13.05 hrs on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

In return direction, Train No.16584 Latur – Yesvantpur Tri-weekly Express will depart Latur at 15:00 hrs on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, arrive /depart Latur Road at 15:35/15:37 hrs ,  arrive/depart Bidar at 18.00/18.05 hrs and arrive Yesvantpur at 07.40 hrs on Fridays, Sundays  and Mondays.

The Indian railways’ network is one of the largest in the world and the second largest in Asia, next only to China. To put things into perspective, India is the seventh largest country in the world, a third the physical size of its neighbour, China. The Indian Railways is entirely owned by the Government of India and is operated by the Ministry of Railways. It operates several hundred Express,

BRAZILIAN rail freight and logistics operator Rumo has signed an agreement with GE Transportation for the installation of GE’s Trip Optimizer energy management system on its locomotive fleet.

Trip Optimizer is a software-based energy management system that enables trains to operate in the most fuel-efficient manner possible by gathering information regarding its route and current load.

Trip Optimizer inputs data about a train’s route and load, and then automatically drives the train in the most fuel-efficient manner. Algorithms develop a customised plan to work with each train’s specific route to optimise operations and improve train handling and fuel economy. Trip Optimizer also syncs with the other onboard systems during each trip to adapt to changes that could impact the route, thereby enabling the train to consistently arrive on time while using the least amount of fuel possible.

Trip Optimizer runs on GE’s GoLinc on-board computing platform, which turns a locomotive into a mobile data centre and enables the implementation of GE’s full suite of digital solutions. “The installation of Trip Optimizer is an important first step in transitioning from manual trains to fully automated ones. It will not only increase rail productivity, but also radically change logistics for the better.” says Mr Danilo Miyasato, commercial director of GE Transportation, Latin America.

The solution is integrated with GE Transportation’s onboard computing platform GoLINC, which transforms a locomotive into a mobile data centre and enables the implementation of the company’s complete suite of digital solutions.

Trip Optimizer’s algorithms customise a locomotive’s work plan according to its specific rail route in order to optimise fuel usage and overall operational efficiency.

It can also synchronise with other onboard systems to adapt to potential changes that may impact the route.

Rumo technology director Roberto Rubio Potzmann said: “When integrated with our global technology strategy, it will bring considerable precision in the movement of freight, generating greater efficiency for our operation.

“Beyond that, the benefits of reducing fuel consumption extend beyond our own operations to the broader society as well.”

In addition, Rumo and GE are holding discussions regarding the possible implementation of additional digital solutions to help the operator further reduce operating costs and achieve other business goals.