After several aspirants went online with complaints of four times increase in the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) jobs’ fee, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said yesterday that there was no hike in the examination fee for the ongoing recruitment process. Addressing the concerns of the candidates who are set to apply for more than 89,000 posts, for which the national transporter had advertised recently, the minister said the exam fee was fixed at Rs. 250 for the exempted categories and Rs. 500 for the general category to ensure that only serious candidates applied.

Exempted categories include SC/ST, ex-serviceman, PWDs, female, transgender, minorities and economically backward class.

Ministry of Railways, through its RRBs, has announced one of the world’s largest recruitment processes for 89409 posts in Group C Level I & Level II Categories recently. Online applications have been invited for posts like Assistant Loco Pilots, Technicians (Fitter, Crane Driver, Blacksmith, and Carpenter), Track maintainer, Points man, Helper, Gateman and Porter.

According to the RRB notifications available online, in last four years, Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) and Technician categories saw an increase of more than 1000 per cent. No examination fee was notified for SC/ST, ex-servicemen, persons with disability, women, minorities and economically backward candidates having annual family income less than 50,000 when RRB released its 2014 notification.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today said the railways is planning to build Ayodhya station on the model of a temple to connect people to Lord Ram’s birthplace and there was nothing objectionable if its design was the one conceptualised by the VHP for the Ram Janmabhoomi temple .

Responding to a question on reports of railways’ junior minister Manoj Sinha’s comments on Tuesday in Ayodhya, where he said that the railway station would be built as a replica of the Ram temple, Mr Goyal did not deny the plan but said the design was yet to be finalised.

He said that the idea was conceptualised by him to link railway stations with the history of the place.

Giving an example, he mentioned he had recently instructed that the entrance of Belagavi Railway Station in Karnataka be built like the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat. It was in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi who had used the same station when he came to attend the All India Congress convention held in 1924, Mr Goyal said.

“In Ayodhya, if it (railway station) is connected to the birthplace of Lord Ram which all of us are well aware of, if Mathura is connected to the Vrindavan temple if Ajmer Sharif is connected to the dargah or mosque over there and if Agra is connected to the Taj Mahal, I think its a great contribution of the Indian Railways to teach our history, our heritage and our tradition to the next generation”, he said on the sidelines of a book release event in New Delhi.

Union minister Manoj Sinha today said the the Railways Ministry would submit a proposal to the Union Cabinet to re-construct the Ayodhya railway station as a replica of the Ram temple.

The minister of state for railways made the announcement after laying the foundation stone of projects worth more than Rs. 200 crore, including Rs. 80 crore for the reconstruction of the railway station.

He said the proposal for the reconstruction of Ayodhya railway station as the replica of the Ram temple would be submitted by the Railways Ministry to the Union Cabinet.

BJP MP Vinay Katiyar was also present at the event.

“The development of Ayodhya railway station was being discussed from the time of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. When its construction will be completed, then the construction of Ram temple will be started,” he said.

A senior television journalist was allegedly attacked by around eight passengers inside a local train on the Western railway line in Mumbai this morning, a railway police official said.

Sudhir Shukla, who works for a Hindi news channel, sustained injuries in the attack that took place between Mira Road and Andheri railway stations, the official said.

“A group of passengers standing on the foot-board of the local train, tried to stop Shukla from boarding the Andheri-bound train at Mira Road, saying that there was no space inside,” a senior Government Railway Police (GRP) official said.

“However, Shukla managed to get inside the train, following which an argument broke out between him and those passengers,” the official said.

Soon, the group started assaulting him and even snatched his phone when he tried to click their pictures, he said.

Mr Shukla, who sustained injuries in the incident, was taken to a hospital for treatment.

“Once his treatment gets over, we will initiate the process of identifying the accused and a very strong action will be taken against them,” Purshottam Karad, DCP of Western Railway GRP, said.

The process of registering a case in this connection was underway at the GRP unit in Andheri, he added.

Condemning the incident, the Mumbai Press Club said in a statement that it has informed the government and police authorities and sought the arrest of the attackers.

“These commuters are known for blocking others from traveling on trains in peak hours. The violence goes unchecked by the police despite repeated incidents,” the Press Club said.

Mumbai Crime Reporters’ Association also condemned the incident and demanded strict action against the accused.

A major mishap was averted when the driver of Toofan Express detected a fire in the parcel coach and immediately detached it from other bogies, an Eastern Railway official said.

There was no injury or casualty to any passenger of the train, and only the parcel coach was affected in the fire that occurred between Mugma and Thaparnagar stations of Asansol division of Eastern Railway, the official said.

A separate engine was called in to take back the train to Mugma, from where it will proceed to its destination after lines are cleared, the official added.

From the ticket collector to the station superintendent, from the enquiry counter to the station master and even pointsman – it’s an all-women show all the way at Jaipur’s Gandhinagar train station. Starting today, all the operations will be handled by the station’s staff of 40 women.

“The entire activity on the railway station will be managed by women, that includes operations, which basically means operating the panel where you align the tracks according to the route of the trains. Then there are commercial operations like selling of tickets and ticket collection,” says Soumya Mathur, Divisional Railway Manager, Jaipur.

“The third major function is security,” adds Ms Mathur, “so we will have lady constables patrolling the platforms.”

In fact, to support the all-women crew, the Railway Protection Force, or RPF, has decided to post 11 women police personnel at the police station attached to the railway station.

What makes the Gandhinagar station unique is that it is on the main line between Jaipur and Delhi. Twenty-five trains stop here daily, including high-end tourist trains like Palace On Wheels and the Maharajas’ Express. Fifty trains pass the station each day, including high-speed ones like the Rajdhani and the Shatabdi. The station sees upwards of 7,000 passengers pass through it each day.

But the women who work at Gandhinagar railway station say they are geared up for the challenge. They will work two eight-hour shifts in rotation.

“Train movement is my job: which train is to be received on which track,” explains station master Angel Stella as she waves a green flag to allow a passing goods train. “All trains are important to us whether passenger or goods. The safety of so many people depends on us and goods worth crores are transported by train, so our main aim is to facilitate the safe movement of trains.”

Asked whether she’s worried about troublemakers at the railway station, Ms Stella shakes her head. “Doesn’t matter,” she says, “women are not less than anyone.”

A 23-year-old man died after he was kicked out of a moving train by another passenger, without any apparent provocation, near Sukhi Sewania railway station on the outskirts of Bhopal, railway police said today.

Ritesh, the victim, was sitting near the door of a general coach of the Kamayani Express yesterday when Rajmal Pal aka Rajju (27) kicked him out, said a Government Railway Police (GRP) official.

According to Ritesh’s cousin who was accompanying him, Rajmal said before kicking Ritesh that ‘I am going to die anyway, so I am killing you’.

The victim and the accused didn’t know each other, nor was there any dispute between them before the incident which could have acted as a trigger, said Hemant Shrivastava, in-charge, GRP police station, Bhopal.

“Ritesh and his cousin Sumit Singh were sitting near the door as they had to get down at Bhopal. The accused kicked Ritesh who fell off the running train and died on the spot,” the GRP official said.

Sumit Singh told police that Rajmal emerged from the toilet and said to Ritesh, “Mujhe to marnaa hi hai, is-liye tujhe maar raha hoon (I have to die anyway, so I am killing you),” and then kicked him out before others understood what was happening.

Further investigations are underway,” Hemant Shrivastava said.

Sukhi Sewania police station in-charge Mahendra Mishra said that Rajmal was returning from Allahabad after performing the last rites of his mother. Ritesh and Sumit were travelling from Allahabad to Bhopal for a wedding.

The Railways will provide space for electric vehicle charging stations at the parking lots of train stations to promote the use of green energy.

To begin with, the parking lots at the New Delhi and Nizamuddin railway stations in the capital have been identified to set up e-vehicle (EV) charging spots and “necessary preparations” are underway, according to a senior Railway Ministry official.

According to the plan, there will be five fast-charging DC points capable of charging 10 cars simultaneously at a dedicated place in the parking lots of the two railway stations.

While an AC charger takes around six hours to charge an EV, the DC chargers are faster and take only around 40 minutes to an hour to fully charge a vehicle.

According to the Railway Ministry official, the charging points at the two stations will be set up by BSES – Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL).

The scope of work includes funding, procurement and construction, operation and maintenance of the electric charging station infrastructure. It will cost about Rs 15 lakh to provide charging infrastructure at each station parking lot – at Rs. 3 lakh per charging point.

“An effective charging infrastructure is required for creating the ecosystem for EVs to operate smoothly. And the lack of charging facilities inhibits the growth of e-vehicles in the city,” said the official.

BRPL, which will operate the charging stations, will price the power at Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) tariffs.

The EV charging points at the two railway stations will not only generate revenue for the national transporter, it will also reduce emission of greenhouse gases, “thereby reducing Indian Railways’ carbon footprint and helping the country achieve targets set in Paris Agreement for combating climate change”, said the official.

The Railways efforts are also expected to contribute towards helping the highly polluted capital to breathe a little easier, he added.

The Railways will allocate parking spaces at the station parking lots and will continue to collect parking fees from the vehicle owners as usual.

The promotion of EVs is a strategic goal for the National Democratic Alliance government, which is keen to cut the country’s oil imports.

The Railways is also phasing out diesel engines and replacing them with electric locos to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Besides, the state-run transporter is also promoting solar and wind energy in a gradual manner.