In order to clear extra rush of Passengers during Pongal festival season, one special train will be run from Kakinada Town to as detailed below:-

Train No. 07002  Kakinada Town-Secunderabad Special Train will depart Kakinada Town at 20:05 hrs on 19^th January, 2018 and arrive Secunderabad at 06:55 hrs on the next day.

Enroute, this special train will stop at Samalkot, Rajahmundry, Nidadavolu, Tanuku, Bhimavaram Town, Akividu, Kaikaluru, Gudivada, Vijayawada, Khammam, Warangal and Kazipet stations.

This special train consist of AC II Tier, AC III Tier, Sleeper Class, Chair Car and  Luggage cum brake van Coaches.

SECUNDERABAD: In order to clear extra rush of passengers, South Central Railway will continue running of Special Trains between Secunderabad and Raxaul as detailed below:-

Secunderabad – Raxaul – Secunderabad (20 Services):  Train No. 07091 Secunderabad – Raxaul Special train will depart Secunderabad at 21:40 hrs on 23^rd & 30^th January; 6^th, 13^th, 20^th & 27^th February; 6^th, 13^th, 20^th & 27^th March, 2018 (Tuesdays) and arrive Raxaul at 18:15 hrs on Thursdays.

In the return direction, Train No. 07092 Raxaul – Secunderabad Special train will depart Raxaul at 12:45 hrs on 26^th January; 2^nd, 9^th, 16^th & 23^rd February; 2^nd, 9^th, 16^th, 23^rd & 30^th March 2018 (Fridays) and arrive Secunderabad at 06:55 hrs on Sundays.

Enroute, these special trains will stop at Kazipet, Ramagundam, Mancherial, Balharshah, Sevagram, Nagpur, Betul, Itarsi, Pipariya, Jabalpur, Katni, Satna, Allahabad, Gyanpur,Manduadih, Varanasi, Mughalsarai, Buxar, Ara, Danapur, Patna, Bakhtiyarpur, Mokama, Barauni, Samastipur, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, and Bairgania stations in both the directions.

These trains will comprise of one AC II Tier, four AC III Tier, ten Sleeper Class and six Second class General Coaches.

Central Railway, Mumbai Division won the Championship Rolling Trophy in the 10^th Plants, Fruit, Vegetable & Flower Show “Vrushawali 2018”  organised by Thane Municipal Corporation at Thane from 12.1.2018 to 14.1.2018.  Shri D.K. Sharma, General Manager, Central Railway congratulated the horticulture team for their efforts.

CR won First prize in 7 categories viz. Foliage plants in pots; Annuals grown in pots, Flowering plants, Bougainvillea, Outstanding Orchids, Roses HT in pots, Cut Flowers – Annuals.

Second Prize in 9 categories viz. mass display of potted plants (sunny situation), mass display of potted plants (shady situation), Bonsai/Landscape bonsai, Succulents, Roses Floribunda in pots, Roses miniature in pots, Fruits grown in pots, Vegetable grown in pots, Landscape on the spot.

Third prize in 7 categories viz. Collection of flowering creepers, Cacti, Orchids collection, Cut flower- Biennial and Perennial, Medicinal plants in pots, Flowering and Avenue Tree in pots, Hanging Baskets.

GUNTUR: South Central Railway continues to remain in the forefront towards adopting various energy conservation measures. In this direction, yet another achievement has been attained with Guntur Division getting the  distinction of converting not just all the railway stations, but also the entire Railway Level Crossing Gates and Service Buildings on its jurisdiction to 100% LED Lighting.

The attainment has seen provision of 100% LED lighting at all the 76 Railway Stations, 184 Railway Level Crossing Gates and 99 Service Buildings on the Division. It is anticipated that the Energy Savings will be around 5.8 Lakh Units Per Annum, amounting to Rs. 52.5 Lakh per year, which is a notable saving in terms of Energy Conservation and also in revenue.

Railways will continue to provide experimental stoppage for Train No. 56237/56238, Mysuru- KSR Bengaluru – Mysuru Passenger at Palahalli Halt for a period of six months i.e. 10^th January, 2018 to 09^th July, 2018. Palahalli is one of the biggest village of Srirangapatna Taluk, with a population of over 12000.  Students, State Government employees, farmers, labourers and artisans travel daily to Mysore, Mandya, Maddur, Channapatna, Ramanagara and Bangalore from Palahalli Halt Railway Station.

TEMPORARY AUGMENTATION OF TRAINS WITH ONE ANUBHUTI COACH

Railways has decided to temporarily augment with ONE ANUBHUTI COACH (AC Executive Chair Car) for Train No. 12007/12008, Chennai – Mysuru – Chennai Shatabdi Express with effect from 12^th January, 2018 from both end until further advice.

The revised Train composition will have TWO AC Executive Chair Cars, ELEVEN AC Chair Cars and TWO Luggage cum Brake Van with generator.

TEMPORARY DE-AUGMENTATION OF TRAINS WITH TWO AC-3 TIER  COACHES

Railway has decided to temporarily de-augmentation with TWO AC-3 Tier Coaches for Train No. 12735, Secunderabad – Yesvantpur Garibrath Express with effect from 14^th January, 2018 from Secunderabad end, Train No. 12736, Yesvantpur – Secunderabad Garibrath Express with effect from 15^th January, 2018 from Yesvantpur end.

The revised Train composition will have NINE AC-3 Tier Coaches and TWO Luggage cum Brake Van with generator.

Railways Board has pulled up zonal railways over poor utilisation of funds with some zones returning huge funds for doubling of projects, which are important to decongest busy routes.

What is bothering Railway Board is that the money for doubling works has mostly been arranged from the Rs 1.5 lakh crore loan by LIC and any surrender of that fund would reflect badly on part of railways.

The railways got into an agreement with railways in 2015 for providing extra-budgetary support of Rs 1.5 lakh crore for five years for implementing railway projects.

In a review meeting, it was observed that the expenditure in construction organizations projects is below expectation till 2017 and only 40 per cent of budgeted expenditure has been made so far.

Railway construction organization undertakes all construction related major construction activities like new line projects, gauge conversion, doubling of existing lines, important bridges, important signal and telecommunication works and electrical works among others.

Asserting that the surrender of funds will not be acceptable, Railway Board has directed the Chief Administrative Officers (Construction) to devise means to overcome the surrender.

“As per the revised estimated figures available with the Railway Board, heavy surrender has been proposed by Western Railways and East Coast Railways,” said a senior Railway Board officer.

The officer further said that the most of the surrenders are proposed in doubling plant head.

“We should understand that doubling is important and crucial from the operational point of view. The money from doubling works has mostly been arranged from LIC loans, any surrender of which will not be acceptable by higher management,” said the officer.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) today tendered an apology for posting a picture of an ‘ISKCON temple’ as ‘Puri Jagannath Temple’ at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in Mumbai.

“The news article appeared in Odisha newspapers where IRCTC posters of Bharat Darshan has shown ISKCON temple instead of Puri Jagannath Temple. The posters were displayed at Mumbai where this has happened inadvertently. All the posters have now been removed. Our sincere apology,” IRCTC East Zone said in its twitter handle.

The issue was raised by priests of Sri Jagannath Temple after Shambhu Nath Khuntia, a servitor of Puri Jagannath temple during his recent visit to Mumbai, found an ISKCON temple photo in place of the 12th century shrine in Puri.

Protesting the IRCTC’s action, Mr Khuntia immediately posted the image on social media which sparked a statewide resentment. Subsequently, Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) also wrote to the Indian Railways and protested the IRCTC’s act of displaying a wrong picture in the name of Puri Temple.

“We have written a strong letter to the Indian Railways for posting wrong picture in the name of Puri Temple,” said SJTA official Sujit Chatterji.

In a major initiative to ensure expeditious implementation of ambitious Railway Infrastructure Development Plans, Ministry of Railways is organizing a “Mega Conclave” on 17th January, 2018 with all stakeholders including leaders of the construction industry at Railway Board/New Delhi.

The Conclave will not only see Railway Board Members and Senior Zonal Railway Officials interacting with construction industry captains but will also see Minister of Railways & Coal, Piyush Goyal to have a mutual dialogue and personal interaction with the participants.

The Conclave named as “NIRMAN–SAMVAAD” is being organized by Railways PSU Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL) which is a dedicated arm of the Ministry of Railways for fast track implementation of railway projects.

The Conclave will provide an opportunity to discuss the impediments/constraints faced in implementation of the projects and to seek suggestions to remove bottlenecks and bring about efficiencies in project execution on Railways.

Senior Officers of Railway Board, Zonal Railways, CPSEs and top executives of about 400 construction and consultancy companies will be participating to deliberate upon the issues/impediments being faced by the industry and arriving at possible remedies thereof. The ambitious Infrastructure Development Projects of Indian Railways include Doubling Projects, Electrification Projects, Hill Railway Projects, Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and High-Speed Projects on diamond quadrilateral.

Backgrounder:

Ministry of Railways has ambitious plans for development of Rail infrastructure to meet the ever increasing transport needs of the nation and a huge investment in this sector has been planned. The main focus is on:-

• The pace of augmentation of railway network needs a quantum jump. The speed of execution of doubling/tripling and quadrupling which is about 800 kms per annum for the last 5 years, needs to be accelerated 2 to 3 times to meet the increasing demand.
• Completion of electrification of the full rail network in the next 3 to 5 years. So far out of 63000 RKM, 25201 RKM have been commissioned on electric traction till 31st March 2017. The average pace during last five years is about 1300 RKMs per annum which needs to be increased by 6 to 8 times to electrify remaining 38000 RKMs to meet the ambition of complete electrification.
• Taking up of Hill Rail Projects, including Rishikesh – Karanprayag, Char Dham rail connectivity, Bhanupalli – Bilaspur and on to Leh.
  Completion of ongoing and proposed Dedicated Freight Corridors.
• Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor and other projects on Diamond Quadrilateral to link the major Metropolitan Cities.

It has been experienced that there are constraints of capacity from the side of both executing agencies as well as from railways to meet the demand.

The Conclave will address all these issues and workout solutions with a view to ensure fast track implementation of all railway projects.

Soon, specialised weather forecasts could help in the operation of train services. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is piloting for a Specialized Weather Forecast wing for Indian Railways for real-time weather and climate information services for smooth operations of trains.

In the next few months, the IMD is planning to widen its wings in several spheres of weather services to help Railways get real-time data on weather forecasts on various Zonal,  Divisional Railway systems including remotest Railway stations coverage.

To this effect, IMD is planning to train its internal resources in lines with the Railway operations and equip the staff to cater to the requirements of Indian Railways for safety and smooth operations of trains.

The condition of weather plays an important role in the operation of train services by Indian Railways as it can damage tracks and electric equipment powering the train.

To overcome such problems, the Indian Meteorological Department is providing real-time weather information such as wind speed, weather interference, weather warnings to the Indian Railways on a pilot basis.

One of the long-awaited improvements in long-range forecast and precision in weather warning may soon be implemented.  At present, the IMD provides five-day weather forecast and two days of outlook. The lead time may be increased to 15 days forecast with higher accuracy soon.

Such specialised services would be provided as part of its programmes for sustenance and upgrading forecasting system approved under the NITI Aayog, which has replaced Planning Commission.

IMD to also further coordinate with various other government agencies for providing tailor-made weather forecasts to different sectors on real-time basis, take preventive measures against the spread of infectious diseases, plan power generation etc.

Following a MOU with the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the department has already started providing climate information feed for health service on an experimental basis.

The specialised weather forecast for four days would predict the possibility of spread of diseases, including malaria and dengue, in a particular region based on the temperature and humidity conditions there.

S.B.Thampi, Deputy Director General of Meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, said the forecast service for the health sector is likely to be launched in six months across the country.

Power generation is another sector where weather prediction would help plan ahead for power distribution. Following an agreement with the Power System Operation Corporation, the IMD has proposed to develop a demand forecast based on various parameters, including wind, temperature, humidity and onset of sea breeze. Various energy sources like thermal and wind could be operated according to the demand and weather conditions.

There are also plans to upgrade the services already being offered in the tourism and agromet advisory services. Tourists could soon plan their travel better as more places would be covered under specialised forecast.

“There are only eight to ten agromet field units across the State. Agriculture activities vary in every region. We want to set up District Agromet Unit in every district for region-specific meteorological service for agriculture,” said Mr. Thampi.