Ministry of Railways has announced one of the world’s largest recruitment processes for 89409 posts in Group C Level I (Erstwhile Group D) & Level II Categories. Online applications have been invited for the Group C Level II posts like Assistant Loco Pilots, Technicians (Fitter, Crane Driver, Blacksmith, and Carpenter) and Group C Level I (Erstwhile Group D) posts like Track maintainer, Points man, Helper, Gateman, Porter. This recruitment drive is open for candidates who have passed Class Xth & ITI for Group C Level I posts & Class Xth & ITI or diploma in engineering or a graduation in engineering for Group C Level II posts like Assistant Loco Pilots, Technicians and aspire to join Indian Railways.

Ministry of Railways has published a notification no. CEN 01/2018 for Group C Level II Categories posts for the candidates in the age group of 18-28 years who have passed Class X and have an industrial training certificate (ITI) or diploma in engineering or a graduation in engineering.

The notification no. CEN 02/2018 about Group C Level I (Erstwhile Group D) posts for candidates in the age group of 18-31 years and who have passed Class X and have an industrial training certificate (ITI). The notifications have already been uploaded on RRB Websites. The link of the website is as follows:

http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0,4,1244

For Group C level II posts, the monthly salary along with allowances as per the Seventh Pay Commission (level 2) Scale (19,900-63,200) will be given to the selected candidates. For Group C Level I (Erstwhile Group D) posts, the monthly salary along with allowances as per the Seventh Pay Commission (level 1) Scale (18,000- 56,900) will be given to the selected candidates. Applications for Group C Level II posts will be accepted till 5th March 2018 & for Group C Level I (Erstwhile Group D) posts will be accepted till 12th March 2018.

Free Sleeper Class Railway Pass facility shall be available for SC/ST candidates for Computer Based Aptitude Tests, Physical Efficiency Tests, Document verification during the recruitment stages.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal exhorts Job aspirants to apply for 1 lakh Railways jobs

Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday exhorted job aspirants to apply for more than one lakh vacancies in the railways.In a tweet, Goyal said, “More than one lakh job openings are available, visit Railway Recruitment Board website and apply.”These vacancies are in Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Bilaspur, Chandigarh, Chennai, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Jammu, Kolkata, Malda, Mumbai, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Ranchi, Secunderabad, Siliguri, and Trivendrum. Out of these one lakh vacancies, 62,907 are Group- D posts. “Opportunities for the youth in the Railways: For the 62, 907 posts of Group-D, the Railways have started recruitment process for the high school and ITI pass-outs,” Goyal tweeted. He added that the eligible candidates can apply for these posts.

The MahaMetro Rail Corporation will start the process of inviting tenders for constructing the 7.7-km-long viaduct on Civil Court-Ramwadi route in a few days and complete the entire procedure in three months.

Maharashtra Metro Corporation Limited (MahaMetro)’s managing director Brijesh Dixit said on Thursday the tenders would be invited in two to three days.

He said MahaMetro had plans to complete the process in the next three months, following which the actual work would begin.

The MahaMetro is done with the required surveys and alignment of this Metro corridor.

The route planned via RTO, Pune station, Bund Garden, Yerawada, Nagar Road and Ramwadi would have eight stations.

The entire stretch would be elevated.

The Civil Court-Ramwadi line is a part of Vanaz-Ramwadi Metro corridor. MahaMetro has started civil work on the Vanaz to Civil Court stretch.

The Metro route has been changed near Pune station after the railway administration sought rerouting of the line via Raja Bahadur Mill Road-end instead of the earlier alignment via Pune station’s main entrance.“The re-routing has brought down the length of the route by about 300metres.

When Union railway minister Piyush Goyal talks about complete electrification of railway traction, he is saying something which no railway has done in the world. Even in Europe, which is predominantly electric traction for reasons of cheap power available, around 20 per cent continues to be diesel.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who has been laying down the roadmap for Indian Railways since last year as well, emphasised on electrification in his February 1 Budget speech. “We are moving fast towards optimal electrification of railway network. Four thousand kilometers are targeted for commissioning during 2017-18,” said Jaitley.

The budget speech came as no surprise since Goyal has been talking about electrification of railway ever since he took office as railway minister last year. Even after the GE controversy, that erupted within days of his taking over, settled down, Goyal on November 22, 2017 told a gathering at FICCI, “We have planned to switch all trains to electric-driven in the next five years.” Diesel locomotives will be used for back-up purposes in the yards, according to the minister.

Since Goyal has been minister of state for power and still takes keen interest in the electricity sector, his penchant for electrification is understandable. But this emphasis has now been challenged by Bibek Debroy, chairman, Economic Advisory Committee of Prime Minister. Debroy had earlier chaired a committee on railways. Though the committee did not dwell much on electrification, it acknowledged the fund crunch faced by the national transporter and how its resources are thinly spread over various projects including those for electrification.

Goyal, however, says the Railways is spending Rs 160 billion every year on diesel and moving to electricity will save it Rs 80-100 billion. The railways consume 17.5 billion units of electricity. In 2015-16, its electricity bill stood at Rs 110 billion, and dropped to Rs 90 billion in 2016-17. The average per-unit cost dropped from Rs 6.75 a unit in 2015-16 to about Rs 6 in 2016-17.

This argument can be countered by the fact that it is the taxation structure which makes diesel expensive even during the low oil price scenario. The Indian Railways roughly consumes 2.8 billion litres of diesel a year for which it pays roughly Rs 69 billion in tax to state and central governments.

Besides, electrification, comes with a cost. Out of the total network of 66,687 route kilometre (RKM), only 30,012 RKM is electrified. According to a roadmap chalked out by the Railway Board last year, the Railways would electrify at least 22,400 RKM by 2020-21. In the last four years, Rs 171.65 billion has been spend on electrifying 16,815 RKM. Electrifying low traffic routes is, therefore, not financially prudent.

Railway experts say electrification for high-speed passenger services is understandable but in the US, for instance, where freight business dominates rail system, diesel continues to be the main traction. On electrified routes, moving double-stack containers is difficult though there have been some pilots done by the Railways. There is no pressing need, therefore, for the financially-starved Railways to electrify.

A new station building has been readied at the southern end of the Danapur railway station at an estimated cost of Rs 2 crore.

Officials claimed that the building has been built keeping in mind the sudden increase in footfall of passengers at the Danapur station. The railways intends to shift at least two unreserved ticketing system (UTS) counters to the new station building to help people living in the southern end of the state capital.

According to sources, the railways is also building a new platform close to platform number 1 at the Danapur station for arrival and departure of passenger trains either originating from or going towards the Pataliputra Junction. The new platform will have provisions to accommodate passenger trains with a load combination of 24 coaches. Although a spacious area has been earmarked for parking vehicles and autorickshaws in the circulating area of the new station building, the railways is yet to complete the circulating area.

The railways has also decided to build a refreshment room and two retiring rooms at the Danapur station for passengers’ conveniences.

As many as 10 mail and express trains originate daily from the Danapur station, while at least 280 passenger trains pass through it while going to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Calcutta.

Meanwhile, the main circulating area of the Danapur station at the northern end has become highly congested and a veritable death trap for pedestrians. According to a Danapur RPF official, encroachment by autorickshaws in the main Danapur station area is the main cause for traffic congestion.

Frequent passengers have welcomed the opening of the second exit point of the Danapur station.

Mysuru & Madikeri: Opposing the Thalassery-Mysuru Railway line via Kodagu , a protest will be staged at the Dasara Exhibition Grounds on Sunday, said ‘Kodagu against Railway’ coordinator J P Ayyanna.

Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, Aiyanna said, “River Cauvery is the lifeline of Karnataka.

Coffee and paddy are mainly grown in Kodagu district. If the railway project is implemented, it will severely impact the main catchment area of Cauvery. With unwanted development projects like the Mysuru-Kushalnagar-Mangaluru Railway line and widening and upgrading of state Highways to National Highways will affect the Kodagu belt.” “The high-tension power line project from Mysuru to Kozhikode had resulted in the cutting down of 50,000 trees. With the road widening and railway line projects, many more trees will be cut resulting in groundwater depletion,” he added.

“Two proposed railway lines will pass through Kodagu and both will have Periyapatna or KR Nagar as junctions. The Thalassery-Mysuru Railway line will lead to more than one lakh trees being cut,” he said.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal has already invited us for a discussion on the railway projects in Kodagu.

s Bengaluru Division (SBC).

The trains originating from these railway stations had no longer any reservation charts, and this exercise helped the Railways to save Rs 60 lakh in a year.

Hence, even if reservation charts are stopped at 10 such stations, Rs 6 crore can be saved per year.

Starting March 1st, Southern Railway will stop pasting reservation charts on all trains, and as per estimates, this will help them to save 28 tonnes of charting paper and Rs 1.70 lakh every year, per train.

SBC’s Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Sridhar Murthy has initially mooted this idea, which has now spread to the entire country.

In future, as per incoming reports, the concept of paper reservation chart would be totally abolished, and the passenger will have these 4 mediums to check the status of their ticket, and to find out the berth, coach:

1. Digital Display at platforms
2. Dial 139 and get IVR assistance
3. SMS sent on their phones, with berth and coach number
4. Ask TT of the train, as they will have a physical chart ready (which will soon change to digital gadgets)

In our opinion, this is a good initiative and will set a new example and standard for all other Govt. departments.

Do share your opinions by commenting right here!

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal deserves praise for allocating over Rs 1.48 lakh-crore for capital investment in the Union budget. This is a substantial increase from last year’s allocation.

Track safety is of prime importance, and controlling track, rail and weld failures pose a serious challenge. In the first nine months of the fiscal year 2017, there were 3,006 failures — an increase from 2,404 in same period last year. At close to 10 failures per day, it’s an alarming rate; because each is a potential accident. The budget makes efforts to address these failures by hiking the allocation of track renewals from Rs 9,305 crore in Revised Estimates (RE) 2017 to Rs 11,450 crore in Budget Estimates (BE) 2018. The underlying belief is that the renewal of overaged tracks will reduce such failures.

Without challenging this premise, it needs to be analysed why rails in India crack so much in comparison to other countries.

First, the use of technology for crack detection without engaging trackmen needs to be used much more. This is because manual detection is not entirely foolproof, especially at night. A recent pilot project in the North Central Railway is a welcome move.

Second, it is all about improving the railways’ financials. The capacity utilisation in sections that really matter is already above 100%, leading to delays in running trains, denial of maintenance blocks and difficulty in introducing new trains.

The railways proposes to induct high-speed rolling stock, but this may not be a solution. It would be like driving a new BMW through the packed streets of Chandni Chowk in old Delhi. The answer lies in increasing the average speed of freight trains which is hovering around 23.1 km/hr. The technical advancements so far have primarily concentrated on longer and heavier freight trains rather than faster ones.

The simplest way to make freight trains faster is by focusing on the horsepower (HP) to trailing load (TL) ratio. Using remote radio controls for multiple locomotives will also help. Thus, the time for a technology push is overdue.

Third, the fog during winter plays havoc with train operations. Fog-safe devices now being used have their limitations as they indicate the signal location and not the signal aspect — yellow, red or green. Loco pilots need to slow down for checking this. Cab signalling can solve this problem. This technology is quite common in Europe and Japan, and can be adopted in at least one zone, the North Central Railway, where fog delays are rampant during winter.

Fourth, any Indian who has travelled in a train abroad will lament the poor condition and facilities in Indian trains. Efforts made so far by the railways have got mired in specifications and vendor selection, thereby missing the larger picture. The easier way is to have a government-to-government partnership on the pattern of India-Japan rail cooperation for the dedicated freight corridor or the high speed train project. The funding requirement is also not much and a small beginning, of placing an order of 1,000 coaches, can be made initially. This strategy will deliver coach interiors with international benchmarking with a strong potential for Make in India eventually.

 In a bid to ease traffic situation in Delhi and to give the national capital a comprehensive suburban network, the Railway Ministry is now trying to revive the ring rail system here.

As per a report, the Ministry of Railways has planned to revive and then integrate the ring rail system with the Delhi Metro.

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said together as part of the integrated network, the Delhi Metro and the ring rail has the capability to unclog Delhi and send “50% cars off the roads”.

A study has already been commissioned to work out the modalities of the project, the report said.

Further, to reduce the burden on the rail network in Delhi, the ministry is mulling a separate bypass for freight trains passing through Delhi. Goyal said the aim is to let trains, which are not bound for Delhi, to bypass it.

There is a 35-km-long ring rail network in Delhi which touches the Metro rail network at several places. However, no effort has so far been made to link the two. But, this might change now.

The Railway Minister said Metro will be connected to the ring rail network as part of the project, as the former has been “a boon for Delhi”.

The study that is underway will evaluate whether new lines or linkages are required to connect the Metro and ring rail systems. The ministry is looking at linkages and interchanges with the Metro system, the report added.

Delhi got its ring rail system in 1975 for freight purposes and was tapped for passenger trains in 1982 when the city played host to the Asian Games.

Due to Line Block to facilitate engineering works between Chennai Beach – Royapuram railway stations, changes will be made in the pattern of suburban train services on 17^th & 18^th February, 2018 as explained below.

A.  The following suburban train services will be fully cancelled on 17^th February, 2018.

1.    MMC – Thiruvallur EMU local, scheduled to leave MMC at 09.30 hrs.
2.    Velachery – Avadi EMU local, scheduled to leave Velachery at 10.15 hrs.
3.    Velachery – Thiruvallur EMU local, scheduled to leave Velachery at 12.15 hrs.
4.    MMC – Avadi EMU local, scheduled to leave MMC at 12.35 hrs.

1.    Thiruvallur – Velachery EMU local, scheduled to leave Thiruvallur at 11.05 hrs.
2.    Avadi – Velachery EMU local, scheduled to leave Avadi at 12.10 hrs.
3.    Thiruvallur – MMC EMU local, scheduled to leave Thiruvallur at 14.40 hrs.

B.  The following suburban train services will be fully cancelled on 18^th February, 2018.

1.    MMC – Thiruvallur EMU local, scheduled to leave MMC at 09.30 hrs.
2.    Chennai Beach – Avadi EMU local, scheduled to leave Chennai Beach at 11.10 hrs.
3.    Chennai Beach – Thiruvallur EMU local, scheduled to leave Chennai Beach at 13.05 hrs.

1.    Thiruvallur – Chennai Beach EMU local, scheduled to leave Thiruvallur at 11.05 hrs.
2.    Avadi – Chennai Beach EMU local, scheduled to leave Avadi at 12.10 hrs.
3.    Thiruvallur – MMC EMU local, scheduled to leave Thiruvallur at 14.40 hrs.

C.  The following suburban train services will be partially cancelled on 17^th & 18^th February, 2018.

• Velachery – PTMS EMU local, scheduled to leave Velachery at 12.55 hrs., will be partially cancelled between Velachery – Avadi.  The train will run from Avadi to PTMS only.
• Thiruvallur – Chennai Beach EMU local, scheduled to leave Thiruvallur at 13.40 hrs., will be partially cancelled between Avadi – Chennai Beach.  The train will run from Thiruvallur to Avadi only.

D.  The following suburban train services will leave from MMC on 17^th February, 2018.

1.    Velachery – Tiruttani EMU local, scheduled to leave Velachery at 11.20 hrs., will instead leave from MMC at 12.15 hrs.
2.    Velachery – Arakkonam EMU local, scheduled to leave Velachery at 13.35 hrs., will instead leave from MMC at 14.30 hrs.
3.    Velachery – Sulurpeta EMU local, scheduled to leave Velachery at 13.55 hrs., will instead leave from MMC at 14.45 hrs.

E.  The following suburban train services will leave from MMC on 18^th February, 2018.

1.    Chennai Beach – Tiruttani EMU local, scheduled to leave Chennai Beach at 12.10 hrs., will instead leave from MMC at 12.15 hrs.
2.    Chennai Beach – Arakkonam EMU local, scheduled to leave Chennai Beach at 14.25 hrs., will instead leave from MMC at 14.30 hrs.
3.    Chennai Beach – Sulurpeta EMU local, scheduled to leave Chennai Beach at 14.40 hrs., will instead leave from MMC at 14.45 hrs.

F.  The following suburban train service will be diverted to MMC on 17^th & 18^th February, 2018.

• Kadambattur – Chennai Beach / Velachery EMU local, scheduled to leave Kadambattur at 12.05 hrs., will be diverted to MMC.

G.  Passenger special suburban train service from Avadi to PTMS.

• A passenger special suburban train service from Avadi to PTMS will leave Avadi at 14.20 hrs. and reach PTMS at 14.40 hrs.

CHANGES IN PATTERN OF SUBURBAN TRAIN SERVICES – IN CHENNAI – ARAKKONAM SECTION

Due to Line Block and Power Block to facilitate engineering works between Thiruvallur – Kadambattur in Chennai – Arakkonam section, changes will be made in the pattern of suburban train services on 16^th & 17^th February, 2018 as explained below.

A.  The following suburban train services will be dealt on fast line from Thiruvallur to Arakkonam and will not stop at Senji Panambakkam railway station.

1.    MMC – Arakkonam EMU locals, scheduled to leave MMC at 08.20, 09.10 & 11.05 hrs.
2.    MMC – Tiruttani EMU locals, scheduled to leave MMC at 10.00 & 11.45 hrs.
3.    MMC – Kadambattur EMU local, scheduled to leave MMC at 12.00 hrs.

B.  The following suburban train services will be dealt on fast line from Thiruvalangadu to Thiruvallur and will not stop at Senji Panambakkam railway station.

1.    Arakkonam – MMC EMU locals, scheduled to leave Arakkonam at 08.55, 10.50 & 12.00 hrs.
2.    Arakkonam – Avadi EMU local, scheduled to leave Arakkonam at 11.20 hrs.
3.    Tiruttani – Velachery EMU local, scheduled to leave Tiruttani at 08.50 hrs.
4.    Tiruttani – MMC EMU local, scheduled to leave Tiruttani at 09.40 hrs.
5.    Kadambattur – Velachery EMU local, scheduled to leave Kadambattur at 12.05 hrs.
6.    Kadambattur – MMC EMU local, scheduled to leave Kadambattur at 13.40 hrs.

Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is the nodal agency under Ministry of Railways for providing Information Technology services to the Indian Railways (IR). CRIS designs, develops and implements IT systems covering different domains on diverse technologies. CRIS has strength of approximately 600 technical professionals working in multiple projects and on varied technologies. For effective job performance, CRIS felt the need for continuous upgradation and acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities through Training and Development programs.

As part of this decision to meet the above milestone, CRIS had published an RFP for empanelment of a competent Training Organization for three years to provide Training to its Technical staff.

RPS Consulting Private Limited has been empaneled as one of the choicest Technology Trainings partner by the Centre for Railway Information Systems for a period of 3 years for delivery of trainings on various types of core and critical Information Technology areas for the technical staff of CRIS, based on the technical capabilities. As part of the empanelment, RPS shall render the technical trainings to CRIS staff on the course categories / sub categories including implementation of a Learning Management System (LMS) in CRIS.

With the finest of its kind Training Standards & Process Excellence, the experienced & benchmarked Trainers of RPS are credited for excellence in delivery of the training services with highly adaptable training delivery methodologies and with seamless planning and execution using various L&D Methods viz.Instructor Led Training (ILT), Live Virtual Classes (LVC), Onsite Training, Training on Demand, Blended Training and Webninars and Seminars.

RPS Consulting works on approx.. 35+ Principles (OEMs), with 30+ Certified Instructors and 650+ Technology Consultants/Trainers from 7+ Delivery Centres. RPS today serves more than 250+ Enterprise Class clients on more than 2600+ IT/ICT Technologiescovering varied OEM Platforms, thus empowering the executives in periodical upgradation of their core IT/ICT Skills in different IT platforms.

RPS founders’ says “At the heart of our solutions is our unique talent development and delivery platform that drives success for many marque Fortune-500 and Enterprise-class customers making leading-edge, NextGen and niche technologies work for their businesses and enable them stay top in meeting their business challenges. 

Our marque customers include Indian Air Force (Information Warfare School), Bank of America, HP, IBM, Cognizant, Capgemini, Wipro, Wells Fargo, EMC, HCL, Accenture, AstraZeneca, Vodafone, Verizon, RedHat, Cerner, Mphasis, VMware, Fidelity, TCS, Infosys, ANZ, GE, TCL, Ericsson, HSBC, Societe Generale, CGI, Allstate, Intuit, Microland, Fujitsu, Unisys, GENPACT, L&T, iNautix, Govt.of Telangana State etc.“

The Trainings comprises of Laboratory-orientation wherever required, and are Instructor led in the capacity of an authorized partner on principle Brand OEMs for each course from RPS Consulting.