The order worth Rs 360.58 crore is for six-laning of Davanagere-Haveri section of NH-48 in Karnataka and will be completed in 24 months.

Dilip Buildcon shares gained 3 percent intraday Friday on bagging orders from IRCON International and NHAI.

The road developer informed exchanges that it has received letter of award from IRCON International Limited’ (A Government of India Undertaking) for an EPC road project in the state of State of Karnataka.

The order worth Rs 360.58 crore is for six-laning of Davanagere-Haveri section of NH-48 in Karnataka and will be completed in 24 months.

The company further said today it has received letter of award from the National Highways Authority of India for an EPC road project in Madhya Pradesh.

On Thursday, Dilip Buildcon said it had been declared L-1 bidder by the National Highways Authority of India for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) road project in Madhya Pradesh.

The project worth Rs 730 crore is for construction of four laning from km 624.480 to km 653.225 of NH-7 in Madhya Pradesh.
At 14:37 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 949.70, up Rs 12.75, or 1.36 percent on the BSE.

In its endeavour to provide a safe and secure travel experience to passengers, Indian Railways is pitching for the procurement of about 12 lakh CCTV cameras to ensure state-of-the-art surveillance systems in all trains and stations across the country.

The Railways will make a provision of around Rs.3,000 crore in its budget for 2018-19 to install CCTV systems in all 11,000 trains, including premier and suburban services, and all the 8,500 stations in the Indian rail network, to provide safety and security at rail premises.

As per the plan, while each coach will have eight CCTV cameras covering the entry gates, aisle and vestibules, all crucial points at stations will have the systems.

Currently, there are about 395 stations and about 50 trains that are equipped with CCTV systems.

“All mail/express and premier trains, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and local passenger services, will be equipped with the modern surveillance systems in the next two years,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Railways is exploring various options to fund the installation of the CCTV surveillance systems – and may even raise resources from the market if needed.

Given the increased number of derailments last year, the Rail Budget this time is slated to give top priority to safety and prevention of accidents – followed by improving passenger amenities to make the journey pleasant.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would roll out the details of provision for strengthening safety mechanism in train operations in his Budget 2018-19.

Elimination of 4,943 unmanned level-crossings, replacement of all old tracks and strengthening of the remaining tracks are among other safety-related proposals that will be highlighted in the budget.

Besides track defects, unmanned level-crossings are among the reasons for a maximum number train accidents. It has been decided to eliminate all unmanned level crossings by 2020, the official said.

South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager Vinod Kumar Yadav has said a technical team that consists of officials including the DRM, Vijayawada, would visit Nellore Station in February to make plans for development of Nellore Railway Station. The General Manager visited Nellore Railway station and inspected platforms I and II, and the escalator and noticed sanitation conditions in the premises.

Interacting with the media persons, the GM assured that they would develop Nellore railway station with world class facilities by providing amenities and  maintaining safety precautions for the passengers. He said that they would construct another Foot Over Bridge along with escalator facility. The existing Foot Over Bridge would be widened to 6 metres soon.

Vinod Kumar Yadav informed that they will be constructing platforms in every station and also increase height of the platforms in phased manner.

After laying foundation to food over bridge, he said that they would complete the Foot Over Bridge in Nellore South Station within 6 months. ‘Lands belonging to Railways in Bitragunta Junction will  be utilised,’ he said. We have been working on it and will announce a decision later,’ said the GM.

He also said that a commercial facility would be developed in the Nellore station in around 65,000 sq ft by spending  Rs60 crore. They would check feasibility of constructing another Road Under Bridge in the city as per the request of public representatives. Basic amenities in Nellore South and Kavali stations would also be developed, said the GM.

To incentivise travelling by air-conditioned (AC) coaches, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has proposed to partially air-condition the existing rakes on the suburban railway. According to the proposal, two coaches of the Bombardier-manufactured trains would be replaced with air-conditioned ones.

Both Central Railway and Western Railway operate 250 non-AC coaches. The WR also operates one AC train that sees 12 trips between Churchgate and Virar railway stations every weekday. But officials have complained about the poor daily average ridership in it, which is only 265 passengers.

According to the proposal, the next set of 12-coach Bombardier trains will have six AC coaches each. “We are procuring 20 Bombardier rakes from the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai. We plan to ensure six coaches of these are air conditioned, which will bear the same configuration as the existing AC local trains. After they are procured, we can replace two non-AC coaches in Bombardier suburban trains with two AC coaches. This way, the system will see the running of 60 rakes in the suburban system fitted with two AC coaches each,” a senior MRVC official said.

Commuters have complained that the frequency of the AC local train is poor. By integrating two AC coaches in the existing suburban trains, more commuters would be able to travel in the AC coaches. “We are going to procure 210 AC rakes over the coming three years. So, this could prove to be a stop-gap arrangement for commuters,” the MRVC official added.

The two AC coaches would be at the middle of a suburban train as the model specifications demand it. “The motorman would be allowed to control its door closure from his cabin. A ticket checker could be deployed. The proposal is still at its nascent stage and requires to be discussed further,” the official added.

Officials hinted that the two AC coaches may also replace the existing first class coaches of the suburban trains. “When there are two AC coaches in a local train, we may not see the need to have a separate first class coach. Transition of commuters from first class to AC coaches could be seen gradually. We hope to see commuters with second class passes also traveling in the AC coaches later,” the senior MRVC official said.

Sanjay Singh, the MRVC spokesperson, said: “The scheme has not been finalised yet. The Railway Board, in consultation with the MRVC and the ICF, is weighing options as to how modifying suburban coaches would yield better results. There is a meeting with the ICF this week to get a better understanding of the plan.”

 Chennai Central and Basin Bridge railway stations were centre of activity on Saturday when chairman of Railway Board Ashwani Lohani visited them.

He inaugurated the passenger friendly display of Chennai Central station layout situated in front of station directors room. He also inaugurated the newly constructed staff canteen and ladies restroom that day.

According to a press release, Ashwani Lohani took stock of the new facilities being provided at Chennai Central such as the new lift, pay and use toilets, newly launched Jan Ahar, new cafe and crew luggage box room.

He was briefed about the ongoing and proposed works such as crew lobby renovation, cable tray arrangements, IRCTC food plaza, app based taxi stand, shelter connectivity between Moore Market Complex, Chennai Central and Metro subways.

Railway board chairman also had an extensive interaction with gang staff and loco pilots. He lauded the sincere efforts of the gang staff and loco pilots in ensuring safe train operations.

On inspection of the Running Room, the Chairman assessed that the cabin has requisite amenities. Later, the chairman also visited Southern Railway Headquarters and held meetings with officials duly reviewing the performance of Southern Railway. He met representatives of recognised trade unions and various associations of staff and officers.

Railway officials at all levels were highly inspired and motivated by sessions held by Ashwani Lohani. The Chairman of Railway Board expressed high satisfaction over the various developments in ICF.

He also appreciated the spirit of staff over Chennai Division of Southern Railway and lauded the team efforts in continuously upgrading various facilities.

Union minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain will lay the foundation stone for the works for doubling of tracks and electrification of Kanyakumari-Nagercoil-Thiruvananthapuram section at Nagercoil Junction Railway station on Tuesday.

The construction work for the 86.56km line is estimated at Rs 1431.90 crore. Cabinet committee on economic affairs had approved the project in August last year. The work to be implemented by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd is expected to be completed in four years.

The doubling and electrification project was proposed as a solution to the delay in train traffic movement in the sector, especially Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil section.

In addition to expediting the operation of goods and coaching trains, the project also provides additional capacity for the increase in traffic in future. The Vizhinjam seaport project is likely to be complete by 2019 and bring good revenue to the railways.

“It is estimated that after the completion of the Vizhinjam seaport, 30% of its traffic is likely to be handled by railways. Considering the terrain, the construction work in the Nagercoil section will be easier than Thiruvananthapuram, which has gradients and require land acquisition from inhabited area,” said an official from Thiruvananthapuram railway division.

Rajen Gohain will also inaugurate the construction works in the 160km Madurai-Vanchi Maniyachchi-Tuticorin section and 102km Vanchi-Maniyachchi-Tirunelveli-Nagercoil section in the function and passenger amenities such as escalator, LED lighting and WiFi service at Nagercoil station.

The latest decision by the Indian Railways to rationalise the tariff structure for coal transportation is expected to benefit independent power producers (IPPs) with a generation capacity of about 22,000 mega watt (MW). Under the new freight rate system, thermal power producers would now be compensated for various surcharges which, in the previous tariff structure, caused annual under-recovery of about Rs 2,000 crore. The new railway tariff subsumes additional surcharges like the busy season surcharge (BSS), development surcharge (DS) and coal terminal surcharge (CTS) levied on coal transportation. By doing that, these expenses would now be included in the price escalation index for coal by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC). The index is used in the calculation of variable fuel charges of power production, liable to be passed through to consumers.

According to estimates by the Association of Power Producers, the average impact of BSS and DS was Rs 994 crore per annum since FY15. Under-recovery from CTS between August, 2016 and June, 2017 was more than Rs 1,000 crore. Though the base-price of coal transportation will now be higher, power generators—who use the majority of coal produced in the country—can recover all the expenses incurred on fuel transportation. However, experts noted that the benefits from the change in railway freight structure will only be realised from July onward, when the CERC is expected to prepare the price escalation index. For price recoveries of these surcharges imposed in the previous years (FY15-18), CERC has to approve them as ‘change in law’.

As reported earlier, the current fuel escalation index, which excludes assorted taxes and levies on coal and its transportation via the railways, has caused under-recoveries of Rs 8,400 crore to a clutch of independent producers over the five years to FY17.  In a letter to power minister RK Singh, IPPs had indicated that the index did not cover 49% of coal costs and 21% of fuel transportation costs. The development is expected to bring some relief to thermal electricity producers after Coal India raised the price of coal grades most commonly used by the power sector by 15-18%, hiking power generation costs by about Rs 0.10-0.20/unit.

The dreams of a high-speed local train have crashed and burned. The special rake was supposed to have a running speed close to that of Gatimaan Express, India’s fastest train. But after pouring Rs. 60 crore and six years into building it and conducting trial runs, the railway authorities have finally admitted that the so-called high-speed train is barely faster than a regular local.

The Western Railway (WR) started testing the high-speed MRVC 1181 train in 2012, but all these years, officials remained tight-lipped on why it hadn’t been pressed into service. It is only now that the authorities have responded to RTI (Right To Information) queries, admitting that the Rs. 60-crore rake is a complete failure.

This information came to light through a series of responses this month to a commuter activist’s RTI applications to WR, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), and the Lucknow-based Railway Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO).

Contradictory answers

The trials were conducted between Mumbai, Virar and Dahanu, but all three organisations have given contradictory information on the number of trials conducted. WR’s reply stated only that trials were conducted at variable speeds, and sanctioned speed was 145 kmph. MRVC’s reply stated that two trials were conducted on the Virar-Dahanu section, and that they were not successful. This response also added that the train will be put into regular service after necessary modifications. There was no mention of the trial speed.

The reply from RDSO said that three trials were conducted, and the train failed at 140 kmph, which was the top speed for testing. RDSO’s response further explained that the train failed the trial runs because of a fault in the design of the bogie (the undercarriage and wheels).

While the high-speed rake looks similar to the other locals, it is the bogie that would have made all the difference. It’s frame and technology was bought from Siemens, Austria, as part of the R4,500-crore Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). The train would have cut down the travel time for longer distances to Dahanu, Karjat and Kasara by at least 20 to 25 minutes.

Dead weight

The train was rolled out by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai. The nine-car rake was filled with heavy bags of sand and debris during the test runs. “The bags were equal to the weight of a crowded train. Trials were conducted till a few years ago, but now the train has just been standing here,” said an official at the Virar car shed. The train has now been cannibalised, as most of its functional parts, like lighting, seating and other accessories, have been used as replacements for existing running trains.

Railway officials now claim that they had only planned to conduct trials with the rake, and it was never intended to be pressed into service. “There are limitations within the city for such high-speed travel, given the back-to-back line up of the trains in the saturated suburban system and the quality of tracks. But, it is easily possible outside city limits, at the Dahanu and Kasara-Karjat stretches. However, the tracks too need to be equipped to cater to such speeds,” said an official.

No officials were willing to speak on record about the project, and there was no explanation for why the authorities spent Rs. 60 crore on a train that was only meant to be used for trials. It seems all the more wasteful now, considering the success of the new Bombardier rakes, which are capable of running at about 110 to 120kmph, and cost nearly Rs. 10 crore less to make.