The practice of having a reconfirmatory look at the reservation chart on coaches before boarding a mail or express train is set to change as South Eastern Railway will stop pasting charts on its trains from Monday.

SER spokesman Sanjoy Ghosh said it has been decided that the practice of pasting of reservation charts on train coaches will be discontinued from 16 October.

“The long-standing practice of pasting charts on train coaches is being done away with at Howrah station primarily to keep the coach exterior clean. It will also save paper, thus making the railways more environment-friendly,” Ghosh told PTI here.

SER operates several mail and express trains from Howrah to different destinations in the west and south, including Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad.

Reservation charts are pasted on all coaches beside the doors of mails, expresses at stations from where they commence their journey.

“People used to queue up in front of coaches earlier for knowing their reservation status and seat/berth allocation. But with the advent of modern forms like SMS services and reservation enquiry through the internet, the old practice of seeing the chart pasted beside coach doors have lessened a lot,” Ghosh said.

Tickets with confirmed status at the time of booking have information printed on the ticket itself, while waitlisted and Reservation Against Cancellation(RAC) passengers get their status updated on their registered mobile number through SMS at the time of charting, which is four hours before the scheduled departure of the train, Ghosh said.

Further, digital charting system has been installed at the major stations and at other stations, manual boards are installed for displaying the status of the waitlisted tickets to guide the passengers.

Apart from these, IVRS service through number 139 are available for passengers for checking the status of their tickets on real-time basis, the SER spokesman said.

According to railway officials, it takes at least two years on an average to build a foot overbridge (FOB). The reason for the same is said to be the lack of availability of uninterrupted working time as the trains always keep running and that the officials have very little space to manoeuvre while constructing the foot overbridge The railways have to make sure that they don’t cause any damage to the tracks, overhead wires or the posts that fix these wires in place, while drilling into the ground for laying the foundation piers.

Building the Elphinstone FOB will prove difficult due to space crunch — the structure is in close proximity to the platform and tracks —  and the fact that Central Railway (CR) is also constructing the Parel Terminus simultaneously.

A railway official said, “The end of the platform at Parel that connects to the foot overbridge is extremely narrow will have to be widened. When the Central Railway will be working on widening that part, we will have to make sure that during the process of digging and fixing the foundation of the bridge, we do not damage the bed of soil on which the tracks are laid.”

For constructing the bridge, the railways will have to bring parts of the foot overbridge together and align them together piece by piece.

During this process, trains cannot be allowed to run on the section where work is going on and finding the time when trains can be halted without causing trouble to commuters is a tough job.

The Western Railway will be rebuilding the Elphinstone Road Bridge, which was opened for the public in 1972.

My query pertains to the recent stampede on Elphinstone foot overbridge in Mumbai where 22 persons died and over 35 were injured. In such a case, can the affected persons file for compensation before the consumer court?

Media reports say that the government has announced some ex-gratia payment to the families of those who died and free treatment to the injured in the tragedy. They can also seek compensation under the Consumer Protection Act., provided they were travelling (or intended to travel) by the local train and were using the bridge as part of their commute. This makes them consumers of the railway service and they can seek compensation for the deficient or negligent service.

The Railways may well argue that the stampede was a result of too many people taking shelter on the bridge on account of heavy rain. However, there is enough evidence that many regulars at this station had warned the authorities about the extremely heavy passenger traffic on the narrow bridge and the possibility of a stampede or any other serious accident and sought intervention. The Railways, however, had made no effort to expand or extend the bridge nor regulate traffic on the structure to prevent such a mishap.

Is there any judgment on an issue like this?

The Elphinestone tragedy reminds me of another horrific disaster involving a railway foot overbridge that came up before the consumer court some years ago, forcing the apex consumer court to remind the Railways that it is its responsibility to maintain in good order, platforms, footpaths and overbridges. Failure to do so constitutes negligence and the Railways has to pay for the consequences, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission had said.

The complaint, in this case, pertained to the collapse of Jogeshwari railway foot overbridge on September 28, 1992. To quote from the order of the apex consumer court, because of the heavy rain, a large number of passengers had taken shelter on the bridge, when a portion of it suddenly gave way, killing and injuring several passengers.

The complainant, Vinaya Vilas Sawant, who was on the bridge with her husband, fell from a height of about 20-25 feet on to the track below, along with the rubble. Multiple fractures and spinal injuries left her with 60 per cent disability, even after two surgeries. Even with the screws and plates used to stabilise her spine, she could walk slowly only with a walker and with the help of an attendant. In fact, when she and her husband were lying unconscious from the fall, they were also robbed of their jewellery and cash.

However, when she filed a complaint before the consumer court, seeking compensation from the Railways, the biggest public sector undertaking argued that she was not a consumer. She was not travelling by train, but only using the bridge and that did not make her a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act. While she said that as an employee of MTNL, she had a monthly pass to travel by train and the pass had been stolen along with all the other belongings when she was lying unconscious, the Railways argued that she did not have a monthly pass!

The district and state consumer courts dismissed her complaint, but the apex consumer court clarified that once a passenger has purchased a ticket to travel by train, he or she is the consumer of all services provided by the Railways in connection with that travel and this included the platform, footpath and overbridges meant for ingress to and egress from the train. In this case, subsequent investigations into the collapse had revealed gross negligence of the Railways — the bridge was in a bad shape, but the Railways had failed to act (Smt Vinaya Vilas Sawant Vs Union of India, RP No 864 of 2006).

The decision paved the way for consumers to haul up the Railways for its negligence with regard to not just rail travel, but the connected facilities too.

The South Western Railways will operate 12 additional train services from Bengaluru and Hassan to Shravanabelagola during the Mahamastakabhisheka to be held from February 7 to 26.

A.K. Gupta, General Manager of SWR, inspected the Hassan and Shravanabelagola stations on Friday.

According to a release issued by SWR on Saturday, the frequency and number of services will be announced later. During the Mahamastakabhisheka held in 2006, only a few trains were run between Hassan and Shravanabelagola, as the track between Hassan and Bengaluru was not ready then.

“This time, SWR is gearing up to handle enhanced passenger traffic. Adequate additional temporary booking counters will be opened at Hassan and Shravanabelagola,” Mr. Gupta said.

A temporary Passenger Reservation System will be opened at Shravanabelagola. And arrangements for temporary structures, including waiting hall and toilets, are being planned. “Additional stalls for food and beverages will be planned at Hassan. For uninterrupted power supply, back-up generators are also being planned. CCTV and high-speed WiFi will be provided at Hassan and Shravanabelagola stations,” he said.

The Mahamastakabhisheka draws pilgrims in lakhs during the period and hence the railway authorities said cleaning arrangements for ensuring hygiene are being worked out.

R.S. Saxena, DRM of Bengaluru Division, Atul Gupta of Mysuru Division, and P. Lamghare, Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer, accompanied the General Manager for the inspection.

GM INSPECTION

Mahamastakabhisheka, the head anointing ceremony of Lord Gommateswara at Shravanabelagola is being celebrated once in 12 years. The holy event will be conducted from 7^th Feb 2018 to 26^thFeb 2018.

South Western Railway is planning to run additional train services to Shravanabelagola from Benagluru/Hassan to facilitate pilgrims during the period. Shri A K Gupta, General Manager, SWR has inspected  Hassan & Shravanabelagola stations on 13.10.2017 in connection with preparatory arrangements and to plan necessary passenger amenities for convenience of the passengers expected to turnout in large numbers during Mahamastakabhisheka.  He was accompanied by Divisional Railway Managers of Bengaluru & Mysuru Sri R.S.Saxena ,Atul Gupta and various heads of departments.  Shri P Lamghare, Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer , Shri U S S Yadav, Principal Chief Engineer, Shri Rajeev Kumar, Principal Chief Electrical Engineer , Shri John Prasad, Principal Chief Operations Manager  & Shri K Siva Prasad, Principal Chief CommercialManager  were present in the inspection.

A press release of SWR stated that 12 additional services are being planned from Bengaluru/Hassan to Shravanabelagola during the celebrations.  Frequency and number of services will be announced in due course.  Shri A K Gupta stated that in 2006 the section from Hassan to Bengaluru having Shravanabelagola station   was not open for passenger traffic and only few trains were run between Hassan to Shravanabelagola. But this time SWR is gearing up to handle enhanced passenger traffic as this section has been made operational in March this year. Adequate additional temporary booking counters will be opened at Hassan & Shravanabelagola. A temporary PRS will be opened at Shravanabelagola.  Arrangements to erect temporary structures for waiting hall & toilets are being planned.  In addition a control room will also be opened by Railways at Hassan & Shravanabelagola.  A helpdesk will also be provided at these stations to facilitate passengers.

Additional stalls for food and beverages will be planned at Hassan. For uninterrupted power supply backup generators are also being arranged.  CCTV & High speed Wi-Fi at Hassan & Shravanabelagola stations will be provided.  Coordination with Stage Govt. for security, first aid and water supply will be ensured. Cleaning arrangements for ensuring hygiene are being worked out. Mobilizing extra rakes and staff to cater this significant event is on the way. Sri Gupta has stated that all out efforts are being made by South Western Railway to organize Railway portion of the prestigious event successfully.

The team of officers later met the Seer of Shravanabelagola Digambar Jain Matha and sought his guidance.

L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad Limited (L&TMRHL), the concessionaire for Hyderabad Metro Rail project, has sought additional financial support of Rs.3,756 crore to facilitate completion of the project.

In a letter to the government on October 10, L&TMRHL has appealed for help, stating that the project needs urgent financial support to tide over the situation and establish financial viability.

It said the project funding was suffering due to reasons beyond the control of L&T or the State government. Hence, assistance is being sought from the Central government as well to sustain the project, L&TMRHL said in the letter.

The letter further stated that the concessionaire had exhausted all its means of financing and is currently starved of funds to complete the project. Since all sources of funding are exhausted, infusion of funds is needed from the government.

The letter comes after L&TMRHL held meetings with senior government officials in August seeking financial support. During the meeting, the concessionaire was asked to submit details on its financial requirements. The same had to be reviewed and necessary recommendations made to the Central government for approval.

According to sources, L&TMRHL has said that the delay in handing over land parcels as planned under the Concession Agreement led to the project being delayed by more than 15 months.

In view of the festive season, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has decided to launch a special drive to ensure smooth operation of its trains.

Director (Operations) Sharat Sharma has directed all the officials of Operations and Maintenance wing to intensify their travel by the metro while moving to and fro duty, a DMRC’s press statement said.

The move comes close on the heels of the metro fare hike, which is being opposed by the Delhi government and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.

According to the DMRC, the special drive is aimed at ensuring that any minor issue or incidence which may affect pleasant travel experience for the millions of passengers in this festive season is directly monitored and attended to by the officials in the least possible time.

It said the drive also is intended towards ensuring the “highest level” of cleanliness on its premises.

The services of the Delhi Metro, which started operations in 2002, is today

availed by nearly 30 lakh passengers daily, according to the DMRC.

Presently, its network consists of about 218.17 km with 164 stations along with six more stations of the Airport Express Link.

The network has now crossed the boundaries of Delhi to reach Noida and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon and Faridabad in Haryana.

The DMRC at present has 235 train sets of four, six and eight coaches, according to the information on its website.

It is confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to inaugurate the first phase of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project on November 28.

According to the sources, the official letter in this regard is going to reach the Telangana government on Monday.

The confirmation came through following the report submitted by the Union Urban Development Ministry whose team of officials gave an approval on the project after the inspection in Hyderabad.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had written a letter to the Prime Minister on September 6 requesting him to launch the Metro Rail service in Hyderabad.

The Metro Rail project is one of the biggest public-private partnership project in the country is being constructed on a 72-km stretch encompassing three corridors spread across Hyderabad.

PM Modi will launch a 30 km stretch of the metro rail project extending from Nagole to Miyapur on November 28.

Officials are making test run between Mettuguda-Begumpet and sources say that the complete test run will be completed in 15 days.

After more than a year, Indian Railways and Coal India are witnessing high demand for fuel from the power sector. Coal sales increased 15-16 per cent in August and September. Yet the two entities is not happy.

Emphasis on the power sector is bad for the CIL balance-sheet. This is because the miner gets 20 per cent higher price from non-power customers like steel, cement and others.

And over the last two months, its supplies to the power sector increased from roughly 82 per cent to 92 per cent. Even the most profitable open market sales have nearly stopped as CIL failed to offer much coal to the platform. The result may be felt in terms of lower margin in the July-September quarterly results.

CIL and Railways could step up supplies to the power sector but its production and marketing plan suffered fresh uncertainties.

The miner is expecting the situation to improve in October as the loading rate is set to improve from 215 a day to 235 a day in a week’s time.

History repeats

In the past, CIL used to direct nearly 30 per cent of its total sales to this segment. The ratio tilted in favour of power nearly four years ago, when the power sector was hit by fuel crisis.

The fuel crisis was a result of the greed and wrong policy prescriptions on the part of the then UPA government which ignored many alarms to recklessly enhance the generation capacity. CIL paid the price. It squeezed supplies to every customer to keep the power sector happy.

After coming to power, the Narendra Modi government went a step ahead. Open market sales were suspended throwing many ferroalloys companies, especially in Odisha, in great uncertainty.

Though the policy was reversed in the last year and more coal pumped into the open market; CIL had a hard time to get its customers back.

Coal supplies need strong logistics support which cannot be created overnight. Non-power customers found imports a more dependable option. The meltdown in energy commodity prices too helped the move.

The government’s decision to spare a potentially more polluting high-sulphur petroleum coke from carbon tax vis-a-vis four times rise in clean energy cess on coal from ₹100 a tonne to ₹400 a tonne, further tilted the game away from coal.

Cement makers started using petroleum coke not only for kiln operations but also for captive power generation. But just when CIL was trying to rebuild this market, the current crisis struck. And CIL has no one but the power sector to blame.

Spreading uncertainty

Between 2007 and 2017, India’s power generation capacity has doubled riding on thermal power capacity growth. It was expected that the plant-load factor of the sector will improve from 79 per cent to 85per cent during the period.

The reverse happened. PLF declined consistently to 60 per cent in FY17, indicating huge over-capacity running into 40-50 GW.

According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), as of July 2017, the all-India PLF was barely 55 per cent.

Open market tariff was an unremunerative ₹2.5 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and private sector generators were facing techno-feasibility constraints to run plants at barely 55 per cent PLF. To reduce costs, they stopped storing coal for the monsoon.

A sudden upturn in demand for thermal electricity beginning mid-August, led to a rush for coal causing a disruption in the entire system.

The first of 10 Prima M4 electric passenger locomotives for national railway ADY was unveiled at Alstom’s Belfort factory in France on October 9.

ALSTOM managing director for west and central Asia Mr Bernard Peille presented the first of 10 type AZ4A Prima passenger locomotives for Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) to ADY deputy chairman Mr Hijran Valehov at the manufacturer’s plant in Belfort, France, on October 9.

Speaking at the unveiling, ADY Deputy Chairman Hijran Valehov said important steps were being taken to modernise the operator’s locomotive fleet.

Alstom is building the 10 Type AZ4A passenger locomotives under a contract awarded by ADY on May 12 2014. The AZ4A is part of the manufacturer’s Prima M4 family, adapted to meet ADY’s specifications and the 1520mm-gauge locomotive is certified in accordance with Euro-Asian Council for Standardisation, Metrology and Certification GOST standards. The locomotives are intended to operate at a maximum speed of 160 km/h under 3 kV DC on the north–south corridor and 25 kV 50 Hz electrification on the east–west corridor.

The AZ4A is designed to offer longer intervals between servicing than older ADY locomotives, with lower power consumption and maintenance costs.

‘We are very pleased to deliver our first multipurpose Prima locomotive to Azerbaijan and become a part of ambitious projects to increase transit links between the Black and Caspian seas and between Russia and Iran’, said Bernard Peille, Alstom Managing Director for Western & Central Asia Cluster. ‘This technologically tailor-made product is the result of a solid relationship of trust between Alstom’s and ADY’s project teams.’

In May 2014 ADY awarded Alstom a €288m contract to supply 50 type KZ8A double-unit electric freight locomotives, but the order was amended to 40 freight locomotives and 10 passenger units the following year. The order was financed through a loan from a consortium of Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and the French branch of HSBC.

In a major safety lapse, Railway has found that out of 275 railway bridges across the country that need rebuilding for they are very old, speed restrictions for trains to pass through has been put only on 23 bridges. What poses a big threat to safe train operations is that trains continue to pass with usual speed on other 252 bridges that are in bad shape.

The Railway Board had sought details of bridges and it was observed that large number of bridges needing rehabilitation existed on some zonal railways since long. The Central Railways has 61 bridges, East Central Railways 63, South Central Railways 41 and Western Railways 42 bridges pending rebuilding.

“It is also observed that in most of the cases, no speed restriction has been imposed and special inspection schedule has also not been prescribed by chief bridge engineers. On the other hand, there are many bridges where speed restrictions have been imposed on condition basis but they are not categorized under ORN-1 or 2 categories,” said the order issued by A K Singhal, Executive Director Civil Engineering.

The railway bridges are divided in three categories – overall rating number 1, 2, 3. Bridges with overall rating number (ORN-1) rating require immediate rebuilding/rehabilitation, ORN-2 ratings are required to be rebuilt on the programmed basis while ORN-3 bridges require special repairs.

Railway Board has now pulled up zonal railways for failing to do a time bound planning for completing the rehabilitation work.

“It seems that proper time bound planning has not been done by railways for rehabilitation of these bridges which creates a doubt whether correct condition rating appropriate to the actual condition of the bridge has been assigned or not. It is also felt that there has been lack of due diligence at Division/headquarter level while revising/confirming the rating,” said Singhal in the order issued last month.

Railway Board has said that the chief bridge engineers (CBEs) should specifically review the position in respect of all bridges assigned in their respective railways and firm up the action plan for their rehabilitation on priority.

A CAG report in 2015 had found that delays in sanctioning of bridgeworks and completion of sanctioned bridgeworks resulted in operation of train services with speed restriction.

The Railways violated its own guidelines on foot-overbridges (FOBs) at stations which it had formulated in 2012-13 in the case of the one at Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai where a stampede occurred last month killing 22 people and leaving 33 injured. The breadth of the bridge was half what it should have been.

According to the standards that were set in 2012-13, the FOBs should have a breadth of 10 metres. But the breadth of the FOB at Elphinstone Road station is 4.5 metres. The schedule of dimensions which is issued by the Railway Board from time to time gives the standards that are to be followed for construction of FOBs and other infrastructure. “This schedule gives the ideal size of the infrastructure that has to be constructed at the railway stations and this is improved over time,” said a senior Railway official.

According to the official, FOB is a passenger amenity and it is still not considered a safety issue. Therefore the safety circular which is issued to all the chief safety officers will not include FOBs. “Safety circular is meant for operations of trains,” said the official.

FOBs  inside railway stations as well as at the entry and exit points are a responsibility of the Railways. In the past eight years, the Railways have sanctioned 36 FOBs for the Mumbai suburban railway. Out of these 22 have been constructed.

Railway officials said there is regular inspection of all the infrastructure at the general manager and divisional railway manager level. But the issue of the narrow FOB at Elphinstone Road station and vulnerability of people was apparently never raised. A survey of footfall at the station, an indicator of over-strained infrastructure, was also never carried out.

Now a new FOB has been sanctioned at the Elphinstone Road station by the GM Western Railways at a cost of Rs 10 crore. It is to be constructed parallel to the old FOB and will meet the standards that have been set by the Railways in 2012-2013. “The old FOB will not be destroyed as it will be a tedious task. Instead a new FOB will be constructed,” said the Railway official.

Illegal hawkers who encroach on the FOBs in the Mumbai suburban railway network have been blamed for the stampede. A campaign has been started to drive out the illegal hawkers which is being conducted by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP).

It further said that instances of continued operation of speed restriction were noticed on 87 bridges of 13 zones ranging between four to 591 months. Audit assessed an extra expenditure of Rs 103.40 crore on account of operational cost due to continuation of speed restrictions.

“The above demonstrates the casual approach on part of Railways in sanctioning/executing and monitoring of bridgeworks. This resulted in delay in execution of bridgeworks that were identified for rehabilitation leaving the possibility of compromising passenger safety during operation of train services on these bridges. Railways need to ensure an effective monitoring system to be in place for timely execution and completion of bridgeworks,” the CAG report has added.

More than 100 footover bridges (FOBs) along Mumbai’s busiest suburban railway lines — Central and Western — fall in the top three fatal zones which require urgent attention, an internal Railways survey shows.

The list of dangerous bridges collated by the Railways shows that there are 61 bridges on the Central Railways (CR) and 42 bridges on the Western Railways that require urgent repair, DNA reported.

The East Central Railway zone with 63 bridges that need repairs are the most fatal zones. The report said that one of the bridges in the Lucknow Division, under the Northern Railway, is in a precarious condition and needs to be immediately rebuilt.

Western Railway officials did not confirm if the Elphinstone Road FOB was a part of the list. On September 29, 23 passengers were killed and 36 were injured in a deadly rush-hour stampede that occurred on a narrow foot overbridge connecting the Elphinstone Road railway station to Parel station.

The report stated that the Railway Board had issued a letter to 16 zones on Indian Railways where they had identified 275 railway bridges that need to be built immediately on September 21, a week before the stampede.

In 2017-18, the railways plan to come together to rehabilitate 114 bridges, of which CR will rebuild 20 bridges and WR will rebuild 13 bridges.

”It seems that proper time-bound planning has not been done by the railways for rehabilitation of these bridges. This creates a doubt whether the correct rating, appropriate to the actual condition, of the bridge, has been assigned or not,” states the letter.

Earlier, the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had called for innovation in making the railways safer while stressing that enough money is available for the purpose.

“The railway minister has asked the zones not to worry about funds as far as work on safety is concerned. And so work on rehabilitating and rebuilding these railway bridges will be expedited,” AK Saxena, Director General (PR), Railway Board said.

The letter also stated that the field officers in charge of maintaining and studying the health of railway bridges need to be educated by the Chief Bridge Engineers so that the officer can determine the correct condition of bridges and take necessary remedial measures for safe movement of trains.