Southern Railway General Manager R K Kulshrestha held talks with Chief Secretary Paul Antony on the progress of ongoing railway infrastructure projects in Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad railway divisions.He requested government assistance in executing land acquisition for infrastructure projects including doubling in the Kuruppanthara-Chingavanam and Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari sections and development of Nemom coaching terminal.

Third line between Shoranur-Ernakulam has been sanctioned this year and can it be completed within three years of giving land to the Railways. The construction of Road Over Bridge in lieu of level crossing will ease road congestion and improve safety. The project is currently progressing and can be taken up further with active participation of the state government, he said.

He was accompanied by Prakash Butani, Divisional Railway Manager, Thiruvananthapuram division; Rajendra Prasad, Chief Administrative Officer, Construction, Ernakulam; Shaji Skaria Chief Engineer, Ernakulam; M R Mohan, Deputy Chief Engineer, Thiruvananthapuram; and L Balaji, secretary to General Manager, Southern Railway, Chennai.

A parliamentary panel today rapped the Indian Railways for not maintaining basic data on its land holdings and exhorted the public transporter to set up land management cells in all zones and divisions.

It suggested that the assistance of the Department of Space could also be taken for satellite mapping and monitoring of vacant lands. In its report tabled in Parliament today, the Public Accounts Committee headed by Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge expressed anguish that despite its earlier recommendations, the Railways could not set up land management cells in all zones and failed to “protect their own precious lands from encroachments and illegal occupations”.

It said that the Railways’ failure to maintain the requisite land record “snowballed” into a big problem not only for the national transporter but also for other stakeholders as many disputes and court cases stemmed from this lapse. But the Railways has made progress since then and out of 42,187 land plans, 41,467 have been uploaded on its website and 37,720 authenticated.

In a separate report concerning suburban train services, the committee strongly recommended that the Railways provide lifts and escalators at all suburban stations on a priority basis and within a timeframe.

It also asked the Railways to ensure timely completion of works for construction of boundary walls, foot-over-bridges and subways at suburban railway stations. “An apex level monitoring mechanism (should) be created to ensure timely completion of these life saving infrastructure,” the committee said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Tuesday, registered an FIR against an unidentified person after Railway Ministry complained about the existence of a fake website of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).

The unidentified person has been accused of illegally cloning the official website of RVNL with an intention to cheat job seekers applying through the web portal.

The FIR comes a month after a complaint was filed by P.P. Pandey, General Manager, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, a Public Sector under the administrative control of the Ministry of Railways, on February 8, 2018.

Indian Railways has published the Citizens’ Charter to be accountable, responsive, transparent and ethical to its passengers about their rights. The charter is a commitment of the Indian Railway Administration to :

• Provide safe and dependable train services
• Set notified standards for various services, wherever possible
• Ensure adequate passenger amenities in trains and at railway stations;
• Provide courteous and efficient counter services; and
• Set up a responsive and effective Grievance Redressal Machinery, at various levels and time-bound resolution of complaints and grievances as far as possible.

Reservations

• Provision of computerised reservation facilities at all station with a workload of 100 reservation related transactions.
• Opening of adequate number of counters to ensure reduced waiting time.

Booking

• Opening of ticket booking counters with adequate working hours to facilitate issue of tickets to the public. The working hours will be clearly displayed at the counters.

Refunds

• As far as possible, refunds would be made across the counter,provided the ticket is surrendered within the specified time limit. Such refunds can be obtained at the computerized counters of any station provided it is linked with the ticket issuing station and the ticket is presented within the prescribed limit.
• In case of failure of air-conditioning equipment, difference of fare between air-conditioned and non air-conditioned class of travel for the portion travelled without air-conditioning shall be refunded for which a Certificate may be obtained from Guard/TTE.
• Station Masters of certain important stations/reservation offices have been granted special discretionary powers to grant refund on used tickets issued from their stations where refund is not admissible at the station due to expiry of the time limits prescribed in the rules. The list of stations, where this facility is available, is published in the respective Zonal Railway Timetable.
• In case where refund is not permissible across the counter for refund of fare under circumstances other than those specified in these rules or under circumstances like ‘bandh’ or agitations or floods, etc., the passengers could not reach the reservation counter or station or current counters for cancellation of tickets, in those cases, a TDR shall be issued to the passenger and the passenger may apply for refund of fare within ten days from the day of commencement of journey to the Chief Commercial Manager (Refunds) of the railway administration under whose jurisdiction the TDR issuing station comes, enclosing the original TDR. The TDR shall be issued only upto three days after the scheduled departure of the train”.

Lost, Torn or Mutilated Tickets

• No claim for refund is entertained by Indian Railways in case of lost or misplaced tickets.
• Refund of fare will be granted in respect of a torn or mutilated ticket if the authenticity is verifiable on the basis of the particulars visible on the face of the ticket.
• If the ticket is confirmed/RAC, the Railways may permit travel on the same reservation, on payment of charges fixed from time to time.

Special Trains

• Information will be given in advance through media for special trains on special occasions.

Enquiry and Information

• Railway Timetables provide information for different trains. Computerised Interactive Voice Response System is also available at important stations.
• The position of running of trains will be updated regularly and announced on the Public Address System at important stations and also made available on telephone or personal enquiries.

Catering

• Indian Railways shall provide catering services through mobile and static units by IRCTC.

Cleanliness

• Every effort shall be made to keep railway premises clean and hygienic and regular inspections are to be conducted to monitor cleanliness inorder to identify weak areas and take remedial measures. Toilets under ‘Pay and Use’ scheme are made available at more and more stations.

Passenger Amenities

• Basic facilities like booking arrangements, waiting hall, benches, lighting, drinking water, platform, urinals, shady trees shall be available at all the regular stations. On board a train, lighting and fans, cushioned berths, toilets, reservation charts and destination board will be available.TTEs/Conductors, etc. shall also be available to attend to complaints/grievances.

Public Grievances

• Railway Administration would ordinarily reply to the complainant within 90 days, where detailed enquiries are not required to be made and within 120 days, in case of complaints where detailed enquiries are warranted,

Theft of Luggage

• A prescribed FIR Form in English, Hindi and regional languages is available in the Timetable or with ’TTEs/Guards or GRP escort. After filling it up, the Form may be handed over to one of the officials viz., TTE, Guard or GRP escort for registration of the report at the next Police Station.
• All the above services and commitments will be honoured without the citizens having to pay any bribe.

Co-operation from Passengers

• Co-operation of general public is sought to maintain cleanliness, avoid unnecessary chain pulling, maintain cordial relations with fellow passengers and railway staff coming into their contact, abstain from carrying inflammable items, discourage touts. All the above services and commitments will be honored without the citizen having to pay any bribe.

The latest edition of Western Railway’s popular in-house magazine ‘Rail Darpan’, which has also earned the distinction of winning the prestigious National Awards from the hands of H.E. The President of India, instituted by the Rajbhasha Directorate of Home Ministry of Govt of India, was released by Shri A.K. Gupta – General Manager of W.Rly on Tuesday, 27th March, 2018 on the occasion of the meeting of Zonal Official Language Implementation Committee (ZOLIC) at W.Rly. HQs at Churchgate. On this occasion, Shri Gupta appreciated the overall efforts of the editorial team of ‘Rail Darpan’ and expressed his pleasure that this popular magazine has not only won many prestigious awards for its creative excellence but also has provided an excellent platform for the literary talents of Western Railway to express and share their views and creations. Shri Rahul Jain – Additional General Manger, various Principal Heads of Departments, Shri M.K. Gupta – Chief Rajbhasha Officer, Shri Ravinder Bhakar – Chief Editor of ‘Rail Darpan’ & Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, Dr. Sushil Kumar Sharma – Dy. General Manager (Rajbhasha) and Shri Gajanan Mahatpurkar- Sr. Executive Editor of ‘Rail Darpan’ were also present on this occasion.

Shri Bhakar, Chief Editor of Rail Darpan, briefed about the new issue to the General Manager & enlightened that this is 27^th issue of ‘Rail Darpan’.  All efforts have been made to make this new issue of ‘Rail Darpan’ more better, interesting, worth reading & attractive. This edition’s cover page is adorned by the photographs of the ground breaking ceremony of the much anticipated & technologically advanced high speed bullet train project. The inauguration of India’s first Air-conditioned local train as well as the colourful mural of the ‘Father of the Nation’ – Mahatma Gandhi alighting from train painted on the façade of Churchgate station. The  back  cover  of  the  magazine  carries  the  column  “Vishisth  Athithi  Rachnakar”,  wherein special guest & Bollywood’s famous lyricist – Pandit Kiran Mishra’s beautiful couplets. The English section’s popular column ‘Celebrity Interview’ is a rendezvous with the National Award winning film-maker, Shri R. Balki. Apart from this, the ‘Special Feature’ column takes you to a nostalgic trip on the Evolution of EMU train services from 3 coach train to 15 coach train & to the more recent AC local and also carries on illustrious & colourful article on the mural of Gandhiji’s portrait of him alighting from a ‘third class’ railway coach, painted over the façade of Churchgate station. This edition also holds an attractive calendar of 2018 in the inside middle pages. Apart from regular columns, it also incorporates Stories, Poetries, Current Affairs, Readers column, Sports section etc. and also the column ‘My Marathi’ which had been started in the previous edition to promote the cultural values of local regional Marathi language of Western Railway Headquarters has been continued in this current edition too.

“रेल दर्पण” के नवीनतम अंक का पश्चिम रेलवे के महाप्रबंधक श्री ए. के. गुप्ता द्वारा विमोचन भारत की महामहिम राष्ट्रपति महोदया के हाथों भारत सरकार के गृह मंत्रालय के राजभाषा निदेशालय की महत्त्वपूर्ण पुरस्कार योजना के अंतर्गत देश की सर्वश्रेष्ठ गृह पत्रिका के राष्ट्रीय पुरस्कार सेसम्मानित हो चुकी पश्चिम रेलवे की लोकप्रिय गृह पत्रिका “रेल दर्पण” के नवीनतम अंक का विमोचन मंगलवार, 27 फरवरी, 2018 को चर्चगेट स्थित प्रधान कार्यालय में आयोजित क्षेत्रीय राजभाषा कार्यान्वयनसमिति की बैठक में पश्चिम रेलवे के महाप्रबंधक श्री ए. के. गुप्ता ने किया। इस अवसर पर श्री गुप्ता ने पत्रिका की सम्पादकीय टीम के प्रयासों की सराहना करते हुए इस बात पर प्रसन्नता व्यक्त की कि एकलोकप्रिय गृह पत्रिका के रूप में “रेल दर्पण” ने अपनी रचनात्मक उत्कृष्टता के लिये न सिर्फ अनेक प्रतिष्ठित पुरस्कार जीते हैं, बल्कि पश्चिम रेलवे की साहित्यिक प्रतिभाओं को उनकी वैचारिक अभिव्यक्ति के लिए एक सशक्त माध्यम भी उपलब्ध कराया है।

इस मौके पर अपर महाप्रबंधक श्री राहुल जैन, विभिन्न प्रमुख विभागाध्यक्ष “रेल दर्पण” के प्रधान सम्पादक एवं पश्चिम रेलवे के मुख्य जनसम्पर्क अधिकारी श्री रविंद्रभाकर, मुख्य राजभाषा अधिकारी श्री एम. के. गुप्ता, उप महाप्रबंधक (राजभाषा) डॉ. सुशील कुमार शर्मा तथा ‘रेल दर्पण’ के वरिष्ठ कार्यकारी सम्पादक श्री गजानन महतपुरकर भी उपस्थित थे।

प्रधान सम्पादक श्री भाकर ने महाप्रबंधक महोदय को नवीनतम अंक के बारे में जानकारी देते हुए बताया कि यह नया अंक ‘रेल दर्पण’ का 27 वाँ अंक है। ‘रेल दर्पण’ के इस नवीनतम अंक को भीहरसम्भव बेहतर, रोचक, पठनीय एवं आकर्षक बनाने के पुरज़ोर प्रयास किये गये हैं। आवरण पृष्ठ पर इस बार तेज़ गति की आधुनिकतम प्रतीक बुलेट ट्रेन परियोजना के शिलान्यास तथा मुंबई में एसी लोकल ट्रेन केशुभारम्भ के अलावा चर्चगेट स्टेशन पर ट्रेन से उतरते हुए राष्ट्रपिता महात्मा गांधी जी की तस्वीर पर आधारित भव्य कलाकृति को मूल संकल्पना के रूप में चुना गया है, वहीं अंतिम आवरण पृष्ठ के लोकप्रियस्तम्भ ‘विशेष अतिथि रचनाकार’ में इस बार खास मेहमान हैं, बॉलीवुड के मशहूर गीतकार पंडित किरण मिश्र। नये अंक के मध्य पृष्ठों पर पाठकों को नये वर्ष के आकर्षक कैलेंडर की खास सौगात दी गई है, वहींअंग्रेजी खंड के मशहूर कॉलम ‘सेलेब्रिटी इंटरव्यू’ में इस बार सबकी मुलाकात होगी मशहूर फिल्मकार श्री आर. बाल्की से। इनके अलावा मुंबई की जीवन रेखा कहलाने वाली लोकल ट्रेनों के 3 डिब्बों से 15 डिब्बों औरअब एसी लोकल तक के ऐतिहासिक सफ़र पर प्रकाशित ‘स्पेशल फीचर’ तथा चर्चगेट स्टेशन पर ट्रेन से उतरते हुए राष्ट्रपिता महात्मा गांधी की तस्वीर पर आधारित भव्य कलाकृति के बारे में प्रकाशित लेख अंग्रेज़ीखंड के प्रमुख आकर्षण हैं। ‘सामयिक गतिविधियाँ’ में जहाँ महत्त्वपूर्ण गतिविधियों की सचित्र झलक मिलेगी, वहीं अन्य सभी नियमित स्तम्भों का प्यारा सिलसिला लगातार बरकरार और सबके मन-मस्तिष्क कोलुभाने को तैयार है। कथा कुंज, सामयिक गतिविधियाँ, पाठक पीठिका, स्वास्थ्य चर्चा, व्यंग्य-वीथिका, सखियों का संसार, खेल खिलाड़ी और ‘तस्वीर बोलती है’ जैसे नियमित स्तम्भों के अलावा पश्चिम रेल मुख्यालयकी स्थानीय प्रादेशिक भाषा मराठी की सांस्कृतिक अस्मिता को बढ़ाने के उद्देश्य से मराठी भाषा में भी पिछले अंक से शुरू किये गये नये स्तम्भ ‘माय मराठी’ को इस बार भी जारी रखा गया है।

The DFCCIL on Tuesday said it had successfully conducted the trial run on the 190-km Ateli-Phulera section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor at a maximum speed of 100 kmph in less than four hours.

“Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation India Ltd. (DFCCIL) achieved a historic feet by successfully completing the trial run on its western corridor for the first time,” it said in a release.

According to the DFFCIL, the trial run of the Railways locomotive was conducted from Ateli in Haryana’s Mahendragarh district to Phulera in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district during the day.

“The locomotive covered 190 km in 3 hours and 52 minutes and touched a maximum speed of 100 kmph,” it said. The section has over 10 viaducts and major bridges, 127 minor bridges, one rail flyover and 118 under-bridges.

The 3,373-km DFC, a flagship project of the Railways, aims to augment rail transport capacity to meet the growing requirement of movement of goods by segregating freight from passenger traffic. The Eastern Corridor of the DFC runs from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1856 Kms) and the Western Corridor from Dadri to Jawahar Lal Nehru Port, Mumbai (1504 Kms).

The Western DFC runs from Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai to Tughlakabad and Dadri near Delhi, and aims to cater largely to the container transport requirements between the existing and emerging ports in Maharashtra and Gujarat and the northern hinterland.

The 1,839 km Eastern DFC runs from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near Kolkata — to be extended in future to serve the new deep-sea port proposed in the Kolkata area, and will largely handle coal and steel traffic.

The DFCCIL plans to run freight trains at a maximum speed of 100 kmph as against the current 75 kmph. It also plans to increase the average speed of freight trains from the existing 26 kmph to 70 kmph on the DFC.

Railway will implement monsoon time table with effect from 10^th June, 2018 to 31^st October, 2018 for the following trains which are running over South Western railway.

The monsoon timings will come into effect from 10^th June, 2018 i.e. train leaving from originating stations on or after 10^th June, 2018.

1. Train No. 12741/12742 Vasco da gama – Patna Jn. – Vasco da gama Weekly Superfast Express.
2. Train No. 11097/11098 Pune – Ernakulam- Pune Weekly Express.
3. Train No. 16514-16512/16511-16513 Karwar – KSR Bengaluru -Karwar Express (4 days in a week)
4. Train No. 16515/16516 Yesvantpur – Karwar-Yesvantpur Tri-weekly Express.
5. Train No. 16524-16518/16517-16523 Karwar – KSR Bengaluru -Karwar Tri-weekly Express.

The monsoon timings of these trains are mentioned below:

पश्चिम रेलवे के महाप्रबंधक श्री ए. के. गुप्ता ने सोमवार, 26 मार्च, 2018 को महालक्ष्मी स्थित ईएमयू कारखाने का निरीक्षण किया। श्री गुप्ता ने सभी प्रधान विभागाध्यक्षों सहित वर्कशॉप की सुविधाओं को जायजा लिया तथा विभिन्न विभागों का निरीक्षण किया। निरीक्षण के दौरान श्री गुप्ता की उपस्थिति में सम्बंधित सेक्शन प्रभारी द्वारा ट्रैक्शन मोटर सेक्शन में नव विकसित डस्ट-फ्री बियरिंग मेंटेनेंस सेक्शन तथा एलईडी लाइट फिटिंग्स लगे एक लोकल रेक का उद्घाटन किया। इस लाइट फिटिंग्स से प्रति ट्रेन वार्षिक 16556 केडब्ल्यूएच ऊर्जा बचत करने में सफलता मिलेगी। श्री गुप्ता ने कपलर पाइप लाइटिंग, पेंटोग्राफ टेस्टिंग सिस्टम तथा ऑक्जलरी सेक्शन में मेन कम्प्रेशर हॉलिंग का निरीक्षण किया। निरीक्षण के दौरान श्री गुप्ता ने फाइविले मेक ब्रेक उपस्करों के लिए नई विकसित की गई ब्रेक उपस्कर जाँच प्रणाली का भी निरीक्षण किया।

वर्कशॉप के ट्रैक्शन मोटर सेक्शन में श्री गुप्ता ने ‘सेंटर ऑफ एक्सीलेंस’ ई-लाइब्रेरी का निरीक्षण किया तथा कारखाने के विभिन्न अनुरक्षण कर्मचारियों के साथ उनसे जुड़े तकनीकी मुद्दों पर विचार-विमर्श किया। महाप्रबंधक ने बोगी लिफ्टिंग सेक्शन तथा अत्याधुनिक रूप से विकसित किये गये ऑयल सकिंग सिस्टम का भी निरीक्षण किया। श्री गुप्ता द्वारा पौधारोपण भी किया गया एवं व्यायामशाला तथा हिंदी प्रदर्शनी का भी अवलोकन किया गया। वर्कशॉप की कार्यकुशलता एवं अनुरक्षण प्रक्रियाओं के प्रोत्साहन हेतु महाप्रबंधक द्वारा 50,000 रु. के पुरस्कार की घोषणा की गई। इसके अतिरिक्त महालक्ष्मी ईएमयू कारखाने को विभिन्न अभिनव कार्यों हेतु महाप्रबंधक श्री गुप्ता ने 1,10,000 रु. के पुरस्कारों की घोषणा की।

Indian Railways offers big prize money! Want to do something for the development of Indian Railways and even win lakhs of prize money for it? Here’s your chance! The Narendra Modi government has launched a new contest for Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways, in which people have a chance of winning prizes worth Rs 19 lakh! In a bid to provide better services to its passengers, Indian Railways, has come up with a public competition called ‘How to raise money for Railways to provide better Services (Jan Bhagidari)’. Under this competition, the national transporter is allowing public to share their ideas, detailed business plans, implementation strategies to raise money for the development of Indian Railways. The online competition and is being hosted at innovate.mygov.in web portal. The competition aims to inspire creation of intuitive, easy to use business ideas and solutions that can facilitate smooth implementation without effecting the current capability of Indian Railways. The winner will get a prize of Rs 10 lakh! Not only that the second, third and fourth prize winners will get cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 1 lakh respectively! Following are the terms and conditions for interested candidates:

Mode of entry

• In order to submit entries online, participants are advised to go to http://www.innovate.mygov.in web portal and click the option which says “CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE”.
• After clicking on the option, participants will be directed to a landing page, which will display the registration form along with various fields.
• The Participant Registration form and the Entry Submission form have to be filled out by the participant. The submission of the forms must meet the requirements, mentioned on the online Entry Submission form.
• After successfully submitting the form, the participants will get a confirmation email.
• In case, the competition organizers require additional information, they will contact the registered participant through email. Therefore, it is advised that participants provide any additional information as per the instructions.
• Correspondence between the competition organizers and the participants will be through email or SMS on mobile number, which has been provided by the participant at the time of the registration.

Last date to Submit Entries

Before submitting the entries, participants are advised to check whether the form is fully filled or not. The completed entries must be submitted online before 6:00 pm on May 19, 2018.

Eligibility

• The competition organized by Indian Railways is open to individuals and companies or institutions.
• In case of companies or institutions, majority of the team members or shareholders are required to be Indian citizens. Also, all participating individuals are required to be Indian citizens.
• The participant should be at least 18 years of age as on March 20, 2018.
• However, an Indian Railways employee, involved directly in execution and evaluation of the competition is not allowed to participate. Apart from Railway employee, any member or employee of Knowledge cum execution partner or organizer is not allowed to participate. Also, any member of the evaluation panel, experts and jury of the competition are not allowed to participate.

Awards

• The first prize is of Rs 10 Lakh
• The second prize is of Rs 5 Lakh
• The third prize is of Rs 3 Lakh
• The fourth prize is of Rs 1 Lakh

General Guidelines for participants

• The write up submitted by the participant should either be in Hindi language or English language.
• In case the submission of the writeup is in any other language then it must be accompanied with translation in either Hindi language or English language.
• The competition is open for individuals as well as for teams. However, the size of the team should not exceed six.
• As per the regulations, no reference of the identity of the person(s) submitting should be made in the proposal. If it is done then the entry will be rejected by Indian Railways.
• Moreover, it is advisable that interested participants do not wait till the end moment for their entry submission as the organizers will not be responsible for non receipt of entries on account of server errors or traffic.
• Also, the participants may be asked to present their ideas or plans in front of the jury.
• For the implementation or for the development of the proposed idea, Indian Railways may decide to associate with the proposer.
• For the competition, decision of the evaluation panel and jury will be final. In addition to this, no communication will be entered into with any person in relation to any decision of the panel or process.
• Also, as per the regulations, the unsuccessful entries shall be intimated through email and Railway Ministry shall not have any right over the same.

Evaluation

The evaluation of the entries, submitted by the participants shall be carried out in following three stages:

• In the first stage, all entries submitted by various participants will be evaluated in order to shortlist approximately 50 entries through double blind review.
• In the second stage, the 50 shortlisted entries will be further evaluated by an expert panel in order to select the 10 most promising ideas.
• In the third stage, the selected 10 ideas in Stage II will be presented to competition committee formed by Ministry for consideration of awards.