Russian Railways plans to increase investment next year to a record 579.4 billion rubles (about $10 billion), according to a draft program obtained by Reuters.

The principal focus of the investment is the modernization of Baikal–Amur mainline (a 4,324 km long railway line that passes through Siberia and the Far East). The money will also go to the Trans-Siberian Railway which connects European Russia with the country’s Far East, China, Mongolia and North Korea.

The Trans-Siberian Railway was built between 1891 and 1916 under the supervision of ministers personally appointed by Tsar Alexander III and his son, later Tsar Nicholas II.

Spanning a record eight time zones, it connects hundreds of large and small cities of the European and Asian parts of Russia over 9,289 kilometers, making it the world’s longest railway.

Russian Railways plans to modernize the rolling stock, as well as expand approaches to ports and develop the Moscow transport hub.

The investment program and the financial plan of the state-owned railway monopoly are approved annually by the Russian government. The planned $10 billion investment would be the largest at least since 2010, according to Reuters.

Russian Railways will invest 672.9 billion rubles in 2019 and 591.2 billion in 2020.

By 2030, the company intends to significantly upgrade the rolling stock, construct 20,000 km of new railway track, upgrade existing railways, build lines to 18 industrial zones and promising mineral deposits, which will require more than 4,600 kilometers of track and create and develop terminal and logistics centers. If all the work is done, the Russian rail network will increase by 24 percent, according to the company.

Indian Railways has planned to give a new year gift to Mumbaikars. 2018 will bring a great relief to passengers of local train in Mumbai as Railways has decided to launch India’s fist air-conditioned local trains for Mumbai routes.

Indian Railways has planned to give a new year gift to Mumbaikars. 2018 will bring a great relief to passengers of local train in Mumbai as Railways has decided to launch India’s fist air-conditioned local trains for Mumbai routes.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that the first AC rake will be introduced on Western Railway on January 1, 2018.

The local trains are considered Mumbai`s lifeline. These trains carries over 65 lakh passengers very day. Moreover, the Western Line alone give service to 35 lakh passengers.

The railways authorities have procured 9 more electrical multiple unit (EMU) AC rakes for Mumbai so that such services can be operated both on the Western railway (WR) and Central railway (CR) lines.

Earlier, the first such train was scheduled to run this month but there were some operational issues which delayed it.

Indian Railways has floated a global tender to procure rails, a move that may end the monopoly of state-run supplier Steel Authority of India Ltd. as Asia’s oldest network seeks to plug a supply shortfall.

The state-run freight and passenger carrier is seeking to buy 700,000 metric tons of rails for track upgrades, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said. The move will ensure steady supplies and competitive prices. Jindal Steel & Power Ltd., one of the biggest non-state steelmaker, may benefit as it’s the only other local producer of this grade, according to Goutam Chakraborty, an analyst at Emkay Global Financial Services.

“If Steel Authority cannot supply, then they will go in for other producers. So in that way, JSPL will definitely be benefiting,” Chakraborty said by phone from Mumbai. “The railways’ first preference will always be Steel Authority.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pouring about Rs. 8.6 lakh crore ($132 billion) to upgrade the aging lines of the network that was started under British colonial rule. Giant track-laying projects are underway to modernize passenger and freight movements to cut travel time.

The tender gains significance as Steel Authority and Jindal Steel have been trying to boost market share and profits after reporting losses for at least two straight years even as they battle high debt levels. Indian Railways expects annual demand for steel rails to rise to 1.5 million tons in the year ending March from about 800,000 tons in the prior 12-month period.

The tender can put pressure on Steel Authority to ramp up production from the plant at a faster pace, according to Emkay’s Chakraborty. Steel Authority didn’t immediately respond to phone calls and an email seeking comment.

Expecting demand to surge from railways to housing, steelmakers have lined up expansion plans. Annual capacity stands at 126 million tons and is forecast to rise to 150 million tons by 2021, before settling at 300 million tons, according to Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma.

Son of a railway employee who started off as a vegetable and fruit vendor in trains, Abdul Kareem Telgi took to the murky underworld and attained notoriety as the kingpin of a multi-crore counterfeit stamp papers scam.

For over a decade, Telgi, who died on Thursday following various medical problems including meningitis while serving his sentence, ran an empire as the mastermind of the counterfeit stamp papers until 2003 when the scam spread across several states broke out and shook the nation.

As the sensational scam unfolded, security and intelligence agencies had then pegged its size at a mind boggling figure of up to Rs. 20,000 crore.

Various estimates are made about the magnitude of the scam, which rocked financial markets.

Hailing from Khanapur in Belagavi district of Karnataka, 56-year old Telgi began his life as a vegetable and fruit vendor in trains.

After his education in the local Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, an English-medium school, he had obtained a B.Com degree from a college in Belagavi.

Later, he moved to Saudi Arabia and returned seven years later to Mumbai where he allegedly developed links with the underworld.

He was arrested in 1991 by Mumbai police on charges of cheating but reportedly used his stay in the prison to learn the tricks of the trade from an expert forger.

Telgi allegedly bribed his way out of jail.

Acquiring a stamp paper licence in 1994, Telgi opened an office at Mint Road in Mumbai.

He was said to have befriended several officials in the revenue ministry, stamp office and Nashik Security Press where stamp papers are printed.

Telgi was also accused of having used his political clout to get the machinery at the Nashik press declared as ‘junk’ only to buy it and set it up at his office in Mumbai.

Abdul Kareem Telgi: From Vegetable Vendor To Stamp Paper Scam Mastermind
For over a decade, Abdul Kareem Telgi, who died on Thursday following illness while serving his sentence, ran an empire as the mastermind of the counterfeit stamp papers until 2003 when the scam spread across several states broke out and shook the nation.

Abdul Kareem Telgi: From Vegetable Vendor To Stamp Paper Scam Mastermind

Abdul Kareem Telgi died at the age of 56, having served time in prison for 11 years
Bengaluru: Son of a railway employee who started off as a vegetable and fruit vendor in trains, Abdul Kareem Telgi took to the murky underworld and attained notoriety as the kingpin of a multi-crore counterfeit stamp papers scam.

For over a decade, Telgi, who died on Thursday following various medical problems including meningitis while serving his sentence, ran an empire as the mastermind of the counterfeit stamp papers until 2003 when the scam spread across several states broke out and shook the nation.

As the sensational scam unfolded, security and intelligence agencies had then pegged its size at a mind boggling figure of up to Rs. 20,000 crore.

Various estimates are made about the magnitude of the scam, which rocked financial markets.

Hailing from Khanapur in Belagavi district of Karnataka, 56-year old Telgi began his life as a vegetable and fruit vendor in trains.

After his education in the local Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, an English-medium school, he had obtained a B.Com degree from a college in Belagavi.

Later, he moved to Saudi Arabia and returned seven years later to Mumbai where he allegedly developed links with the underworld.

He was arrested in 1991 by Mumbai police on charges of cheating but reportedly used his stay in the prison to learn the tricks of the trade from an expert forger.

Telgi allegedly bribed his way out of jail.

Acquiring a stamp paper licence in 1994, Telgi opened an office at Mint Road in Mumbai.

He was said to have befriended several officials in the revenue ministry, stamp office and Nashik Security Press where stamp papers are printed.

Telgi was also accused of having used his political clout to get the machinery at the Nashik press declared as ‘junk’ only to buy it and set it up at his office in Mumbai.

He also allegedly obtained the original dye for printing in connivance with Nashik press security officials and began printing fake stamp papers.

The investigation agencies discovered that he ran the business like a mega industry by recruiting about 350 agents, who sold the duplicate stamp papers of various denominations in bulk to banks, insurance companies, stock brokerage firms and corporates.

He ran his business allegedly in collusion with top police officers and people in power, according to investigations.

Telgi ran out of luck in 2003 when his multi-billion scam came to the fore.

He had allegedly named many influential people during the narco-analysis test conducted on him.

In January 2006, Telgi and several associates were sentenced to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment by a court.

A report submitted by former Deputy Inspector General D Roopa had recently alleged that Telgi was among several prisoners who received special treatment in jail.

The facilities included special massages given by three or four convicts allotted to him.

In his first conviction in 2006, Telgi was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and the remaining 20 years he was sentenced in four different cases.

At the Behrampada slums in Mumbai’s Bandra, thousands of families spent the night in the open, some by the railway tracks as locals whizzed past them. A huge fire that broke out yesterday in the slum swallowed their houses, leaving them homeless.

Among them is 90-year-old Amina Qureshi, perched on a stool, she’s staring at the rubble that was once her house. When we asked her if she had somewhere to go, Ms Qureshi said, “Where will I go? I’ll be out in the open. I don’t even have my medicines with me.”

Ms Qureshi’s 32-year-old grandson Anwar blames Mumbai’s civic body BMC for Thursday’s tragedy. Even after the fire was put out, what remains of their house is still smouldering.

“The BMC came and served us a notice yesterday and asked us to vacate the homes. And then this morning they landed with bulldozers and with a lot of force. Then a cylinder blast happened. The BMC doesn’t care whether we sleep on platforms or out in the open,” said an angry Anwar.

Shakeela Khan and her five children are now homeless and their belongings completely gutted. They are hungry and nowhere to go.

She said, “Much of our belongings were lost in the fire. We can’t even cook anything.”

70-year-old Najmunissa was at work in south Mumbai when she heard of the demolition drive and rushed home. Distraught, she said, “I could not save anything I could only save my life. We don’t have a home. Will they give me a home now?”

A huge fire broke out near Bandra station, Bandra East in Mumbai this afternoon. As of now, 16 fire stations have been rushed to the spot and 17 fire tankers are trying to fight the blaze. The main skywalk which connects Bandra East and Bandra station is engulfed in flames. The Andheri-Wadala stretch of the Harbour Line has been shut. The fire broke out in Behrampada slum, near the Bandra station.

The fire is now under control.

Here are the live updates on the Fire In Bandra:
Oct 26, 2017
20:51 (IST)
Four slum residents, fire fighter injured in fire

Four persons who are residents of the Behrampada slum, were injured in the fire that broke out at the slum near Bandra railway station.

A fire fighter was also injured.

A part of a sky-walk near the eastern exit of Bandra station collapsed after it caught fire.

Oct 26, 2017
19:03 (IST)
Fire in Bandra now under control

The fire in Bandra is now under control. Although, the harbour line connecting Wadala and Andheri is still closed.

Oct 26, 2017
18:01 (IST)
Train services not affected due to fire, says Western Railways PRO

According to the Western Railways PRO, “The fire which reached Bandra station has not affected train services.” The sky walk on the east side of Bandra station is completely out of bounds.

Oct 26, 2017
17:47 (IST)
Fire began at 3.45 PM at Behrampada slum, a part of Bandra station skywalk collapses

The fire in Behrampada slum started at around 3.45 PM.

According to Mid-Day, one firefighter was injured in the fire. Mid-Day also says that gas cylinders exploded during a huge demolition drive carried out in the slum this afternoon.

Oct 26, 2017
17:37 (IST)
Chief PRO of Central Railway says Harbour Line train services have been stopped

According to news agency PTI, the Chief PRO of the Central Railway has said, “We have stopped Harbour line up and down services from 4.25 pm as a precautionary measure owing to fire near the Bandra station on the east side.”

Oct 26, 2017
17:33 (IST)
Fire started in Behrampada slum, Bandra East

The fire had started in Behrampada Slum in Bandra East. The slum is near Bandra station.

Oct 26, 2017
17:10 (IST)
Major train lines at bandra station shut

The skywalk which connects Bandra East to Bandra station is on fire.

Trains from the Andheri-Wadala stretch of the Harbour line, which is one of the city’s three main local lines, have been stopped. This is because the fire is allegedly close to the railway tracks.

Oct 26, 2017
17:06 (IST)
Fire in Bandra station, major train lines shut

A fire which broke out from a slum near Bandra station has engulfed an overhead pedestrian bridge at Bandra station. This has happened during rush hour at the station.

Major train lines have been shut due to the fire. 16 fire engines and around 17 water tankers have been rushed to the spot.

The sky is filled with smoke, as of this moment.

The overhead pedestrian bridge at the Bandra station, one of Mumbai’s busiest, was engulfed in flames at rush hour after a fire erupted in a slum nearby. Four residents of the slum and one fire-fighter were injured.

Trains, however, were not affected according to officials of the Western Railways.

16 fire engines and nearly as many water tankers were used to fight the fire, which began at 3.15 pm in the Behrampada slum; the sky was filled with smoke at Bandra, the trendy western suburb of the financial capital, till nearly 6.30 pm.

A part of the sky-walk near the eastern exit of the large station collapsed after it caught fire. The western entrance was kept functional. As a precaution against a stampede, security personnel were posted across the station to prevent large crowds from gathering.

Mid-day reported that the fire erupted after gas cylinders exploded during a huge demolition drive in the slum this afternoon.

Old railway coaches will be converted into shelters for the homeless before the start of colder weather, officials say.

The government this month asked states to consider fitting old passenger coaches with electricity and sewerage connections, and installing them in areas of cities where shelters are needed.

An intercity train ran over five women here early on Monday morning, four of whom died on the spot, prompting a protest by the locals that disrupted traffic for a few hours, a senior police official said.

The incident took place around 6 am near the Adalpur Halt when the women were crossing the tracks on their way home after taking bath at a nearby ghat, Munger Superintendent of Police Ashish Bharti said.

They might have failed to notice the approaching Bhagalpur-Danapur Intercity train due to heavy morning fog, the SP said.
“Four of them died on spot and another received serious injuries. The injured woman was taken to the Munger Sadar Hospital,” he said.

Enraged over the incident, people from a nearby village gathered at the spot and squatted on the tracks, preventing the bodies from being removed, Bharti said, adding that train services were disrupted for a few hours.

Jamalpur SP (railway) Shankar Jha said services were restored around 11 am after a police team reached the spot and pacified the locals.

The Indian Railways will soon cut short the running time of over 500 long distance trains by up to two hours, a senior railway official said on Friday.

The new timings will be updated in the November timetable of the railways, he said.

Following directions from Railway Minister Piyush Goyal earlier this month, the national carrier incorporated “innovative timetabling” under which running time of popular trains will reduce by 15 minutes to two hours.

The railways has started the exercise of an internal audit through which 50 mail and express trains will be upgraded to super-fast services.

This is part of an overhaul of the rail system of increasing the average speed of existing trains, he said.

Trains such as the Bhopal-Jodhpur Express will reach 95 minutes early while the Guwahati-Indore Special will complete its 2,330-km journey 115 minutes early and the 1929-km journey of the Ghazipur-Bandra Terminus Express will be completed 95 minutes earlier.

The national transporter has also reduced the halt time of trains at stations. Similarly, trains will not stop at stations where footfall is less.

Coupled with track and infrastructure upgrade, automatic signalling and the new Linke-Hofmann-Busch coaches that allow a 130 kmph top speed, trains are expected to run faster.

The railways has also in the process of reviewing permanent speed restrictions.