In an eco-friendly measure to cut power consumption, the Indian Railways today said it planned to make all stations cent per cent LED lit by March 31, 2018.

The railways said it was actively working to provide 100 per cent LED lighting for energy needs in railway staff colonies, stations and platforms.

“Ministry of Railways has decided to make all railway stations 100 per cent LED lit by the end of current financial year by March 31, 2018. It is a huge initiative to provide energy efficient lighting which will eventually greatly help in the conservation of environment as well,” it said in a statement.

LED or light-emitting diode bulbs are more energy efficient and have a longer lifespan than traditional lamps.

Till November 2017, about 3,500 railway stations had already been provided with cent per cent LED lights. About 20 lakh such lights were installed.

The initiative will reduce consumption by about 10 per cent of the total energy being utilised for its non-traction uses, conserving about 240 million units of electricity, which will save the Railways about Rs. 180 crore annually, it said.

The Railways has also issued directives to Zonal Railways to provide LED light fittings to residential quarters.

Zonal Railways had distributed about 20 lakh LED lights to railway staff till October, 2017, under the government’s Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP) Scheme.

The national transporter also aims at providing these lights on all coaches/EMUs. Already, the lights in 1300 non-AC second-class and 3-tier sleeper coaches have been fully converted to LED.

Three months after the Ministry of Railways and Odisha Goverment met to iron out the issues that have been delaying the Haridaspur-Paradip and Angul-Sukinda railway link projects, the problems linger.

Construction works for the two projects have not gathered speed despite an agreement in the meeting that Rail Vikash Nigam Limited (RVNL), the executing agency, will transfer responsibility to the special purpose vehicles (SPVs) formed to implement the two projects.Since RVNL is a stakeholder, its status as the executing agency was pointed as a conflict of interest at the meeting between Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal in September last.

Subsequently, Managing Director of RVNL, Satish Agnihotri wrote a letter to Haridaspur-Paradip Railway Company (HPRC) Ltd and Angul-Sukinda Railway (ASR) Ltd asking them to take over construction work.However, the transfer of construction works from RVNL to SPVs has not gone anywhere since detailed guidelines are yet to be laid down while an official go ahead from the Ministry of Railway is still awaited. In such an event, the two projects are in a limbo of sorts.

Though RVNL advised the two SPVs to take over the construction process, neither HPRC Ltd nor ASR Ltd have the resources and wherewithal to take the massive work forward. With deadlines approaching and banks breathing down their neck, the SPVs have a target to meet.

Apart from RVNL, the two projects have several companies like Paradip Port Trust, Bhusan Steel and mining companies as stakeholders of the SPVs but their functioning has been marred by infighting which had also come up for discussion at the high-level meeting between the Railways Minister and Odisha Chief Minister in September.Delay in land acquisition, law and order problems, obstruction by locals and extortion by local mafia have hindered progress of the two projects.

The land acquisition for new rail route from Thoothukudi to Madurai via Aruppukottai is gaining momentum with the district administration handing over 24 acres of land on Monday.

Twenty-four acres land acquired from private land owners for the laying of the new railway route from Tuticorin to Madurai through Aruppukottai was handed over to the Madurai Division of Southern Railways by the Tuticorin District Administration on Monday.

District collector N Venkatesh handed over certificate for the acquired land to the executive engineer (construction) of Southern Railways S Chandru Prakash.

The land, running for 8.5 km, in Vadakkusilukanpatti, Saminatham and Sillanatham is part the first phase of land for the 18.7-km on Milavittan-Melamarudur section. The total cost of the land in the entire stretch is ₹100 crore.

The project is to lay new rail line for 143.5 km.

Collector N. Venkatesh here on Monday handed over the land acquisition certificate to S. Chandru Prakash, Executive Engineer (Construction), Southern Railway. The required land would be acquired in three phases.

The railways have planned to complete the 143.5 km track laying project in three sections. The first phase, which is the smallest phase, covering 18.7 kms from Milavittan to Melamaruthur is estimated to be completed at Rs. 100 crore. The 51.3 kms in the second section will be from Melamaruthur to Aruppukottai, followed by the third section of 73.5 kms from Aruppukottai to Madurai. The second phase of 51.3 km from Melamarudur to Arupukottai and the third phase of 73.5 km. from Arupukottai to Madurai would be acquired subsequently, the Collector said while addressing the media.

The officials concerned were instructed to proceed expeditiously to complete the land acquisition, the Collector said.

District Revenue Officer M. Veerappan, Assistant Collector (Training) Saravanan, Tahsildar (Land Acquisition) K. Lenin, Senior Section Engineer of Southern Railway B. Rajendra Muthukumar and others were present.

Recently acquiring land from private land owners for the stretch covered in the six villages in the first phase. Beginning the works in the first section required acquisition of 185 acres, including 175.67 acres from private landowners from six villages. The 24 acres acquired so far is for 8.5 kms covering Vadakkusilukanpatti, Saminatham and Sillanatham villages.

Karnataka is among the three worst states in the country with regard to electrification of railway lines, behind only Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. According to the railway ministry, only 19 of existing lines in Karnataka are electrified, while it’s 18% in Gujarat and 13% in Himachal Pradesh. Karnataka, which has a total network of 3,281km, has just 632km electrified, way behind other southern states.

With a total rail network of 297km, Himachal Pradesh has 40km electrified, while Gujarat has managed to electrify only 970km of its 5,259km network. Kerala has the most electrified lines in the country (83%), followed by Odisha (78%), Andhra Pradesh (76%), New Delhi (75%) and Chhattisgarh (72). Nationally, only 30,012km (45%) of the total 66,687km had been electrified till April this year.

Indian Railways recently decided to electrify its entire network in four years at an estimated cost of Rs 35,000 crore, which is expected to save Rs 10,500 crore a year in the fuel bill. The move to phase out diesel locomotives is also expected to reduce greenhouse gas emission.

Union minister of state of railways Rajen Gohain on Friday said in the Rajya Sabha that they have identified 13,675km of railway lines for electrification, which includes 1,051km in Karnataka, which will be included in the 2018-19 budget.

“Indian railways has prepared an action plan to electrify 38,000 km broad gauge lines across the country in five years. It has also decided to increase the pace of electrification from the present average of 1,700km per annum to 4,000km a year, which will be further increased to 6000km a year in 2018-19,” he said in a written statement.

Indian Railways invites on December 22 an international tender for 487,000 tonnes of heavy steel rails and bidders for that tender are revealed.

From Europe, they are Voestalpine of Austria, British Steel (former Tata Steel UK) of the UK and ArcelorMittal of France. From Russia, they are Evraz Group and Mechel and from Japan, they are Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal and JFE Steel.

From China, Anshan Iron & Steel is expected to make a bid.

From India, JSPL will participate in the tender. They are 9 companies in total. They attended a briefing session on the tender held by Indian Railways.

Meantime, as an electronic bidding system is introduced, a source is observing that new companies other than above may also make bids.

Indian Railways’ pre-notice quantity was 718,000 tonnes. However, the formal tender quantity is decreased to 487,000 tonnes. The reason of a large decrease in quantity is unknown.

Nepal may have to pay the price for a mistake it did not commit, as locals of the Indian town right across from Birgunj have issued warnings that they will prevent Nepal-bound cargo vehicles from passing through their locality if concerned Indian authorities do not address their problem.

Locals of the Indian town of Raxaul have long been saying that improper management of cargoes of clinker, a key raw material used in the production of cement, has caused a rise in air pollution, posing severe health risks. If this problem is not resolved by December 25, locals claim that they will halt movement of vehicles on the Indian national highway.

Most of Nepal’s imports are channelled through Raxaul, which also serves as the final transit point for vehicles ferrying goods to Nepal. A disruption to the movement of cargo vehicles in this town will a trigger shortage of petroleum products, raw materials and other essentials in Nepal. It is, therefore, essential that concerned Indian authorities hold dialogues with locals and address their demands.

Locals have been reckless in the handling of Nepal-bound clinker cargoes that arrive at the railway station from Indian states such as Jharkhand and Odisha. The haphazard handling of consignments has filled the town’s air with clinker dust.

Clinker dust is harmful for health. If this issue is not solved immediately, residents of Raxaul will continue to develop allergies and respiratory problems. So, Indian authorities must act fast before the slow poison starts killing people.

Earlier, the High Court in Patna had also directed the Indian government to immediately control pollution in Raxaul. Following this, the Indian Railways had started building another station for the transportation of clinker. But locals of the area where the new station is being built have said they will not allow their town to be turned into a clinker clearing house. Their concerns are genuine and the Indian government should not coerce people to compromise on health related issues.

Yet the Indian government should not turn a blind eye to concerns of Nepal as well, which relies on India for almost all of its imports. If the protest is allowed to go on, Nepal will definitely face supply disruptions, which will trigger shortage of goods, thus allowing black markets to flourish and build inflationary pressure.

Clinker imports have gone up in Nepal due to a jump in demand for cement, as post-earthquake reconstruction works and other construction activities have started gathering pace. But Nepal will not have to rely on Indian clinker forever because the country has a huge deposit of limestone. Lately, foreign companies have started eyeing these deposits and are investing in Nepal to extract the mineral. Also, domestic cement factories have started producing clinker.

But until the time Nepal becomes self-sufficient in clinker production, it will have to rely on India. So India should make necessary arrangements to ensure uninterrupted flow of clinker to Nepal, while containing the health hazards created by movement of the raw material in the bordering Indian town.

The Samastipur Divisional Railway authorities says that the railway which has a depot and rack point for dumping material like coal, cement and clinker which is shipped to Nepal at Raxaul Railway Station is in the process of shifting the rack point to village Ramgarhwa which is 12 kilometers from the site.

According to sources in the Railways the decision to shift the rack point to Ramgarhwa has been taken as traffic has been increasing on the Raxual Railway Station. However local residents are up in arms at the Railways decision. They say that the rack point is a source of major air pollution and the residents of Raxaul had been protesting against the rack point for several years.

Since the material involved is coal, cement and clinker enroute to Nepal it leads to air pollution by increasing the suspended particulate matter in the ambient air, say environmental experts. This can lead to lung related infections in the individuals who live near the area, they add.

Now the residents of Ramgarhwa will face a similar fate if the rack point is shifted from Raxual to Ramgarhwa says Chowdhary the principal of the Ramgarhwa High School.

In view of the fact that several people reside in the area of Ramgarhwa railway station and it is densely populated, Chowdhary says that the Rack Point should be shifted to Masladih Railway Station which is half way between Raxaul and Ramgarhwa and where there is hardly any population. This way the Railway will be able to shift the rack point and the people of Ramgarhwa will not be inconvenienced, says Chowdhary.

Clinker has turned out to be a major cause of respiratory disorder for residents of this India-Nepal border town.

The stony residue from burnt coal or from a furnace consists of inferior limestone that contains rich volume of silicon dioxide, which is very harmful for lungs.

Clinker is used as raw material in cement-manufacturing units and the dust-like component is stored in Raxaul, around 210km north of Patna. The clinker is usually transported from Madhya Pradesh, which is supplied to nearly two dozen cement factories in Nepal.

Confirming the adverse impact of clinker on human body, physician Mahendra Singh said he knew at least two of his patients Ashok Bajaj (57) and Dhruv Prasad (50) who died of lung cancer because of infection caused by clinker dust that fills the Raxaul air.

The Duncan Hospital, a Christian missionary-run health facility, in its report submitted to the local administration confirmed the impact of the raw material on human health.

The report stated that more than half of Raxaul’s population was suffering from different kinds of lung and eye diseases caused by clinker. The population of the sub-divisional town of East Champaran district is around 1.25 lakh.

Another doctor in the town Prashant Kumar said the harmful clinker dust gets mixed in the air at the time of unloading and loading of the raw material.

The unloading is done when the raw material reaches the town by train from the mines of Madhya Pradesh. This raw material is then loaded in vehicles heading to the cement factories in Nepal.

Alarmed over the impact of this stony material on human health, Raxaul resident Mahesh Agrawal filed a writ petition in Patna High Court seeking its intervention on the issue. The matter, said Agrawal’s counsel Gautam Keriwal, has not yet been listed for hearing in the court.

The petitioner has made railway officials as well as those from the state pollution control board party in the case.

Throwing light on the problem, college teacher Anil Sinha, who has been actively raising issues concerning residents of Raxaul, said the situation was not that alarming around 15 years back when the clinker dumped near Raxaul railway station was transported to Nepal within 24 hours but things deteriorated and at present the stock remains dumped outside the Raxaul railway station at least for a week after its arrival.

Railway sources said more than 60 rakes of clinker reach Raxaul every month and the raw material is stored in the open near the railway station.

Though railways has assured corrective steps to make the town free of the problems caused by clinker dust, till date nothing substantial has been done to fulfil the promise.

The then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, in a letter sent to local MP Sanjay Jaiswal, who had drawn the attention of the problem, had made the promise. Concerned over the failure of the railway ministry, teacher Sinha said residents will resort to agitation to draw the attention of authorities towards the problem which was taking a toll on the health of the residents.

The Indian Steel Association, an industry body representing companies accounting for 60 percent of the crude steel produced in the country, has sought Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma’s intervention to resolve the issue of shortage of rail rakes. The lack of movement of raw materials like iron-ore and coal from mines as well as ports has forced steel manufacturers to scale back production.

The problem is more acute in case of movement of iron-ore from south eastern and east coast railways, and imported coal docked at Paradip, Dhamra and Vishakhapatanam ports.

The affected producers include state-owned manufacturers like Steel Authority of India and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, private companies like Jindal Steel & Power and Bhushan Steel, and many smaller plants located in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.

In a December 13 letter written to Sharma, Indian Steel Association’s Secretary General and Executive Head Bhaskar Chatterjee requested the secretary to take up the matter with the Railways “at the highest level”.

“We request your urgent intervention to restore the rake supply to steel sector pre-October levels and meet its demand. The steel industry needs a minimum of 35-40 additional rakes per day for meeting its raw material requirements then (sic) than is being available at present,” Chhatterjee wrote in the letter, a copy of which was seen by Moneycontrol.

The shortage of rail rakes has led to a piquant situation, according to the letter.  While on one hand, it has led to a shortage of raw material supplies to steel plants, there is also an inventory pile-up of the finished steel product which is hurting both its domestic as well as export volumes.

The letter pointed out that iron-ore stocks at several steel plants had reached critical levels and some companies could be forced to suspend production.

State-run SAIL, the only supplier of rails to the Indian Railways, supplied 6.20 lakh tonnes of rails to the national transporter, Parliament was informed today.

This supply was about 40 per cent less against the demand of 10.05 lakh tonnes made during 2016-17, Parliament was informed today.

To a question whether SAIL is “lagging behind to meet the demand for new rails of the Indian Railways for track renewal and capacity augmentation,” Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai said in 2014-15, railways ordered 5.81 lakh tonnes of rails and received 5.84 lakh tonnes.

In 2015-16, the PSU steel major supplied 6.46 lakh tonnes of rails as against the order of 8.12 lakh tonnes. In the following fiscal, the PSU supplied 6.20 lakh tonnes to the public sector transporter as against the order of 10.05 lakh tonnes, the minister informed the Lok Sabha through a written reply.

SAIL has taken steps to augment its capacity by setting up a rail mill at its Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh, the minister said.

“During April-November 2017, SAIL supplied 5.55 lakh tonnes to the railways, which is an increase of 43 per cent over corresponding period last year, when it was 3.89 lakh tonnes,” Sai said.

Until now, as per an MoU, state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is the only company supplying rails to the railways. SAIL manufactures 260-metre long rails at its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh.

The Ministry of Railways recently floated a global tender to procure 7 lakh tonnes of rails worth Rs 3,500 crore. This is the first time that the railways has come up with such a tender.

Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), the only domestic player holding experience in rails making and supplying, is interested in the tender. Its Raigarh plant has a capacity to produce 1 million tonnes of rails, about 30 per more than the railways requirement

Analyze the root cause of problems and find out the solutions related to safety to ensure safety and punctuality in train operations, said Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager, SCR. He also advised the officials to trust the lower cadre to build the confidence and improve the work culture to work effectively. He conducted intensive review meeting on Safety, Punctuality and Freight loading etc., i.e., 18^th December, 2017 at Rail Nilayam, Secunderabad along with Principal Heads of Departments. The Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) of all six Divisions i.e. Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Guntur and Nanded attended the meeting through video conference.

Vinod Kumar Yadav conducted a detailed review of all the safety measures to be taken to ensure safe running of the trains. He discussed the factors hampering the Safety and punctuality on the zone including minor incidents like yard derailments, signal failures, Level crossing gate open incidences and Loco failures etc., The General Manager also reviewed all the ongoing and pending works pertaining to passenger amenities and bridge works and other infrastructural works etc and instructed the officials to speed up the works to achieve the target.

The General Manager indicated the DRMs to make advance loading program to meet the demands in supply of the wagons for loading Cement, Sand, Lime stone and Coal etc. Further he instructed the branch officials to work with co-ordination of the adjacent zonal officials to overcome the issues like loco shortages etc. He instructed the officials to re-engage the retired employees on contract basis as per feasibility in commercial department to fill-up the gap of shortage of ticket checking staff to curb the ticket less travel.

John Thomas, Additional General Manger; K.V.Siva Prasad, Principal Chief Engineer; N. Madhusudana Rao, Principal Chief Operations Manager; M.G.Sekharam, Principal Chief Commercial Manager; Arjun Mundiya, Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer; Vijay Agrawal, Principal Chief Administrative Officer (Construction); V.M.Srivastava, Principal Chief Signal & Telecommunications Engineer; A.A.Phadke, Principal Chief Electrical Engineer; D.K.Singh, Chief Safety Officer; P.K.Sangewar, Principal Chief Material Manager; N.V. Ramana Reddy, Principal Chief Personnel Officer; Dr. K.H.K.Dora, Principal Chief Medical Director and Sanjay Sankrityayan, Chief Security Commissioner were amongst the officials present.

The nearly two-year-long recruitment process for railway jobs may soon be over in just six months, if things go according to plan. Hit by severe staff crunch, Railways is mulling shortening the process by introducing online tests among other steps.

In a meeting of general managers with Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani soon after the derailment of the Vasco-Da-Gama-Patna Express on November 24, the zonal heads raised the issue of filling up of vacant posts in the railways, according to the minutes of the meeting available with PTI.

“The process of recruitment takes too long, taking almost two years since submission of application. Many candidates get alternative jobs, leading to the poor materialisation of indents (vacancy notice). With online tests etc the process should be speeded up,” General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway Chahatey Ram suggested in the meeting in the presence of 17 GMs.

In response, Lohani said that the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) should review the process “with a target to complete it within six months”. The board has instructed its departments to submit their proposals on the issue by December 20. As of December 2016, Railways has a staff strength of more than 1.3 million, while it has 225,823 vacancies in Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ categories.

According to data available with Railways, it has 122,911 vacancies in safety categories and a shortage of another 174,64 loco running staff. The vacancies range from profiles such as drivers, guards, gangmen and other technical staff.

Other general managers pointed out that zonal railways should be allowed to place vacancy notices directly to the RRB instead of going to the Railway Board, thereby reducing the time it takes to hire staff. Sources said that the board is considering the matter and is reviewing ways to “fast track” the process.

The Railways has a staff strength of more than 1.3 million and its employees take care of the country’s 66,030 km of tracks, 10,773 locomotives, 63,046 coaches and 2.45 lakh wagons. The transport behemoth ferries over 20 million passengers daily.