The All-India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) has come out against the decision to close down nine railway printing presses, including three ticket printing presses and six stationery printing presses. These include Thiruchirapplli ticket press which printed tickets for Southern Railway, including for stations in Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad divisions. CITU national general secretary Tapan Sen MP who intervened in the issue has condemned the decision.

Mr Sen said in a statement said that these presses were supplying different stations with railway tickets and other stationery for daily use. The requirement of these printed items will continue which would facilitate the business of chosen private players, said Mr Sen. AILRSA zonal organising secretary P.N. Soman told Deccan Chronicle that the move was part of the agenda to privatise the railways. The printing work would be outsourced to private agencies, said Mr Soman. This was decided by the Railway Board in its communication recently. Group C and D staff will be redeployed and printing machines relocated to other locations, said Mr Soman.

“We had earlier voiced our protest against the decision to hand over the space in ten railway stations, including Ernakulam south, and also the land owned by railways in adjacent areas to the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) and Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA) for development. Such moves to privatise railway property should be opposed,” said Mr Soman. An MoU has already been signed between RLDA and NBCC for implementation of station development projects for 10 identified stations in partnership with the respective Smart Cities.

Union Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain on Thursday said the railway network is going to exponentially expand in the entire Northeast including Arunachal Pradesh.

“With the inauguration of the Bogibeel Bridge over Brahmaputra River likely in May-June this year, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will immensely benefit as the bridge will reduce distance between Itanagar and Eastern Arunachal districts,” the Union Minister of State for Railways said.

The minister informed that in the 2018-19 Union budget proposals have been made for electrification of Rangiya-Rangapara North-Harmutti-Naharlagun section of the broad gauge line with a total distance of 398 kilometre and the works would be executed by Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE).

Gohain exuded confidence that all the states in northeast would be connected by rail network soon as survey and construction works are going on in most of the states except Meghalaya, where no land have been provided to the railways by the state government for laying railway line.

The Minister of State for Railways asked the Arunachal Pradesh government to resolve the issue of land compensation involving laying of broad gauge line from Murkongselek in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh at the earliest.

Flagging off the Naharlagun-New Delhi Arunachal Express at Naharlagun railway station along with Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Gohain expressed dissatisfaction that the work on the 24.36 kilometre railway line has been stopped due to land compensation issue raised by the locals.

“The compensation amount claimed is more than the project cost for which works on the railway line has been stopped,” he said and appealed to the Arunachal Pradesh government to resolve the issue at the earliest by fixing reasonable compensation amount so that the project could be started soon.

Later talking to reporters, Gohain disclosed that the Railway ministry has already sanctioned an amount of Rs 400 crore for undertaking final location survey of Misamari-Bhalukpong-Tenga-Tawang line (378 km).

“Detailed project report will be prepared after completion of the survey and the work on the line will begin soon,” he added.

Union Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain on Thursday said the railway network is going to exponentially expand in the entire Northeast including Arunachal Pradesh.

“With the inauguration of the Bogibeel Bridge over Brahmaputra River likely in May-June this year, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will immensely benefit as the bridge will reduce distance between Itanagar and Eastern Arunachal districts,” the Union Minister of State for Railways said.

The minister informed that in the 2018-19 Union budget proposals have been made for electrification of Rangiya-Rangapara North-Harmutti-Naharlagun section of the broad gauge line with a total distance of 398 kilometre and the works would be executed by Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE).

Gohain exuded confidence that all the states in northeast would be connected by rail network soon as survey and construction works are going on in most of the states except Meghalaya, where no land have been provided to the railways by the state government for laying railway line.

The Minister of State for Railways asked the Arunachal Pradesh government to resolve the issue of land compensation involving laying of broad gauge line from Murkongselek in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh at the earliest.

Flagging off the Naharlagun-New Delhi Arunachal Express at Naharlagun railway station along with Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Gohain expressed dissatisfaction that the work on the 24.36 kilometre railway line has been stopped due to land compensation issue raised by the locals.

“The compensation amount claimed is more than the project cost for which works on the railway line has been stopped,” he said and appealed to the Arunachal Pradesh government to resolve the issue at the earliest by fixing reasonable compensation amount so that the project could be started soon.

Later talking to reporters, Gohain disclosed that the Railway ministry has already sanctioned an amount of Rs 400 crore for undertaking final location survey of Misamari-Bhalukpong-Tenga-Tawang line (378 km).

“Detailed project report will be prepared after completion of the survey and the work on the line will begin soon,” he added

At least 55 stations under South Western Railway (SWR) are set to get enhanced passenger amenities in the coming days after the Railways reclassified stations on the basis of passenger revenue and footfall.

Hitherto, stations were classified as A1, A, B and so on, solely on the basis of passenger earnings irrespective of footfall. The reclassification was done following Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s instructions to consider revenue, passenger footfall and strategic importance while categorising stations and providing amenities.

The stations will now be classified as Non-suburban (NS), Suburban (S) and Halt (H). KSR Bengaluru City, which was categorised as A1 earlier (more than ₹60 crore revenue), continues to be in the top slot as NSG1 with over ₹600 crore passenger revenue and handling 25 million passengers in 2016-17. Yeshwantpur, which too was A1, is categorised as NSG2 (₹368 crore) along with Mysuru (₹107 crore), which was in A category earlier. While Yeshwantpur handled about nine million passengers, Mysuru handled 10.7 million in 2016-17.

In all, SWR had two stations under A1 category (₹60 crore or more earnings); 15 under A (revenue between ₹8 crore and ₹ 60 crore); 17 under B (₹ 4 crore to ₹8 crore); 47 under D (₹60 lakh to ₹4 crore); 188 under E (less than ₹ 60 lakh); and 98 halt stations under F category.

Now, 15 stations — including Mysuru, Bangarpet, Mandya, Nanjangud Town, Chamarajanagar, Channapatna, Kuppam, Malur, Ramanagaram, Whitefield, Tyakal, Harihar, Subrahmanya Road, Sagarajambagaru, and Srirangapatna — have been upgraded to the next level. Besides this, 40 halt stations have been upgraded and will have enhanced passenger amenities, a release from SWR said.

The enhanced amenities include elevators, escalators, high-level platforms, foot overbridges, additional booking facilities, train coach indication boards, waiting halls, seating arrangements, platform shelters, and toilets.

Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges will not be levied on passengers for booking railway tickets (at the railway ticketing counters as well as through IRCTC ticketing website) on payment made through Debit Cards for a transaction value upto Rupees one lakh. Instructions to this effect has been issued to the Banks by Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance on 26th February 2018. This will further help in promoting digital and cashless transactions.

Ministry of Railways had informed Department of Expenditure that all proceeds from sale of tickets through IRCTC website/counters go to Consolidated Fund of India through Ministry of Railways and such transactions should be considered as Government receipts. The benefits on Government transactions must be passed on to the public, and they should not face MDR charges while making payments to Government.

Also, Indian Railways has initiated the facility of printing ticket details in local language on unreserved tickets issued through Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) with first such language being Kannada. Beginning is made with addition of Kannada on unreserved tickets issued through it’s UTS system.

The facility has been started initially at Mysuru, Bengaluru and Hubballi stations of South Western Railway and same will be extended to all other stations of Karnataka in phased manner. Name of starting station, destination, class and Mail express/Passenger etc., now will be printed in Kannada too along with existing languages i.e., English and Hindi.

Tickets being issued at these stations form one counter as trial since 01.03.2018. It will be extended to all other stations of Karnataka from 02.03.2018.

In a unique effort, first time in the history of Indian Railways, a language other than English and Hindi has been adopted with Kannada being the first. This is another feature in the Cap for South Western Railway.

The Union Minister for Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal today inaugurated the 5th PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, organized “Global Rail Convention 2018” with the theme “New Growth Eco-system from steam to bullet” – Innovation: Partnership and Challenges (Passenger and Freight).

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal said that he is aiming to make travel safe by according the highest priority to ensuring safety. Shri Goyal said “life of every passenger aboard Indian Railways is precious”. Since signals play a vital role in ensuring train movements, he has taken steps to ensure revamping of signaling system very soon.

The Minister informed that the ETCS level 2/level 1 technology will be soon inducted in the Indian Railways. The Minister added that the benefits across economies of scale will help awarding larger bulk orders at cheaper cost. He said the Ministry of Railways’ motto is to provide modern, new and safe railways to all the citizens of India. Efficiency with competition is the guiding principle for the work culture in the Ministry, he added.

As a corollary by providing ETCS signaling, the Railway Stations will also need to get the benefit of Wi-Fi connectivity. Availability of Wi-Fi on Railway Stations will in turn benefit the citizens living nearby as they would be able to use the Station Wi-Fi kiosks to engage with other tasks, making the Railway Stations an attractive and useful feature in their lives.

Talking about other initiatives undertaken under his leadership in the Ministry of Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal said that the decision has been taken only to make LHB Coaches, as LHB Coaches are most sturdy and withstand accidents better, minimizing fatalities.

The Minister also said that efforts are being make to ensure that the Unmanned Level Crossings in the main routes will all be Manned henceforth.

The Global Rail Convention 2018 also had a special Railway Board Session featuring the Initiatives and Opportunities in the Railway Sector.

Panel discussion were also held on issues of Track, Signaling and Electrification and latest developments and best practices in Rolling-Stock and Freight, Seamless Multimodal Logistics. The Ambassador Czech Republic to India and Ambassador of Belgium to India were also present on the occasion.

Konkan Railway bagged its first project in Kerala after it inked an agreement with the Vizhinjam port in the coastal state to build a connecting rail line, the rail operator said.

“We have entered into an agreement, covering the project report as well as construction, with the Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited (VISL), a Kerala government undertaking, to build a 12 kilometre line connecting the port with the national network at Balarampuram, south of state capital Thiruvananthapuram,” KR officials said.

The rail connectivity to the upcoming Vizhinjam International Multipurpose Deepwater Seaport here will be from Balaramapuram railway station on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari railway line.

He added that some eight kms of this line would run through tunnels and the project would cost Rs 555 crore excluding the price of land.

The Kerala government holds a six per cent stake in Konkan Railway. The proposal for the 12-km connectivity to the seaport was prepared by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL).

A railway link that aims to reduce the distance and travel time between Delhi and Dehradun is now one step closer. The land acquisition process for the Roorkee (Moradabad Division/NR) – Deoband (Delhi Division/NR) rail line which will reduce the travelling distance between Dehradun and Delhi by 42 km and the journey time by almost two hours is complete.

The authorities working on the project said that acquisition of land in only one village is left and this would also finish within two days. For the Rs 791 crore rail line project, a total of 51 hectares of land spread across five villages has been acquired.

On Monday, chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh took stock of the current situation of the 27km rail line project. The rail line would have 30 small and four large bridges as well.

The Centre and the state are sharing the expenses of the project on a 50-50 basis.

The Roorkee-Deoband rail line project got the Centre’s nod in June last year. The approval had come after CM Trivendra Singh Rawat met Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the matter.

In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while  reviewing PRAGTI (Pro Active Governance and Timely Implementation) last year on 24th May 2017, enquired into the present status of Deoband-Roorkee rail track laying project for which the Chief Secretary assured that the half of the cost-estimated to be around Rs 153 crore aside from Rs .400 crore to be spent on land acquisition- involving the Deoband-Roorkee rail track laying project would be borne by the State Government.

CS also informed Prime Minister that Deoband-Roorkee rail  link project  is logistically important for the state. Once it is completed the present 42 kilometer distance between Roorkee and Muzaffarnagar would be substantially reduced. The 27.45 kilometer long rail line would have 30 small and four large bridges as well.

Railway Minister Piyush Goel on Thursday announced several sops for Uttar Pradesh at Investor summit with converting the Dudhwa-Lakhimpur meter gauge rail line as an international heritage destination, setting up a rail refurbishment factory in Jhansi and a rail auxiliary park in Fatehpur.

Lakhimpur, not to be confused with North Lakhimpur on the NFR, is the district headquarters of Lakhimpur Kheri and quite easily the most important town en route. The name `Lakhimpur’ actually derives from `Laxmipur’, historically named for the Sankata Devi Laxmi temple that is located there. Kheri is actually a different town, situated a short distance away and deriving its name from the `Khair’ trees. On the railway front, Lakhimpur boasts 8 tracks, 1 `pucca’ platform, a track level island platform, a signal cabin and the largest crowd we would encounter on that section. The station building. more specifically the GRP outpost. is the most graceful looking one we see on the line, and a little beyond that is, what appears to be an active goods siding.

After Lakhimpur the alignment bears sharply west and the crop pattern changes almost instantly. Paddy fields are few and far between while sugarcane takes over as the dominant crop in these parts. Some of these areas are also low lying as is evident by widespread inundation. At one point, a railway bridge, which has, no doubt been damaged during the recent floods, necessitates a complete stop, and only after the driver signs some paperwork, are we allowed to proceed, albeit at crawl speed. The local boys don’t seem to mind though and continue using the somewhat sunken railway embankment as a perch from which to dive into this gushing rivulet.

The stations on the Sitapur. Mailani section appear to be much larger than the ones south of it and this may well have something to do with the prosperous sugarcane belt that we are now passing through. Gola Gokaranath is no different, having exactly the same number and type of assets as Lakhimpur. While it doesn’t hold district HQ status, it is well known for its Shiv Temple. The Up Ruhelkhand is crossed here and leading it is a freshly turned out YDM4 # 6346, looking dazzling in its bright blue livery.

As we leave the station, a goods siding is spotted, which is almost certainly abandoned but has those tell tale signs of having seen better days. The tracks from the siding continue to run parallel to the main line some more, eventually forming a four track yard, with several leads into what is evidently the largest sugar factory we will cross on our way. As was the case in Balrampur, the previous night, we are confident, that come winter, the yard will be busy again.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal today accused the earlier Congress led UPA regime of neglecting the Rae Bareli coach factory while claiming that a government that understood the importance of Uttar Pradesh now functioned at the Centre which had increased the capital investment in the state by several times.

He also lauded Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for improving the law and order situation in the state while had led to a rise in investor confidence.

“Between 2009-14, the capital investment in UP was Rs 5,550 crore, on average Rs 11,00 crore an year. The figure was small for such a vast state where about a sixth of the country’s population lives. The prime minister understands the importance of UP. In 2014-19, Rs 26,390 crore, exactly five times in just five years will be invested in UP,” he said.

Attacking the previous Congress government in the Centre, he said Rae Bareli coach factory project had been lying neglected for long.

“An announcement was made decades ago but nothing was done. The area is an election bastion of a particular family. Only furbishment was done there. But under Modi we set country’s largest modern coach factory where this year 600-700 coaches will be made. Next year the number will go up to 1,000, in 2019-20 to 2,000 and in 2020-2021, 3,000 coaches will be made,” he said.

We want to take the capacity to 5,000 coaches, he said.

Significantly, Rae Bareli is the Lok Sabha constituency of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

He also spoke on a number of UP specific initiatives, including for Kumbh next year when five stations complexes would be upgraded on either side of Allahabad.

“Dudhwa and Katirniya Ghat park are two gems of UP. We will try to set a metre gauge railway line which will pass the park. We will send new age rails here just like the ones we see in Switzerland etc for our tourists,” Goyal who is also the Union minister of coal said.

He also proposed setting up eco friendly hotels of 5 star grade in the region. You see such rent based hotels are set up in Rajasthan, he said.

Goyal lauded the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh for improving law and order situation and making it a safe investment destination.

“The confidence being witnessed in the investors, entrepreneurs and delegates attending the meet from all over the world shows how UP has improved in terms of law and order and ease of doing business,” Goyal said addressing a session in the UP Investors meet here.

“Its a commendable job which the Yogi Adityanath’s government has done.It has made UP an attractive investment destination and safe investment destination… he has settled the issue once and for all,” Goyal, minister for Railways said.

“In his short 11 month regime, he has given a message to the world as to how from applying to getting various related approval for doing business has improved ,” Goyal said.

He said Adityanath visited Noida not just once but many times when people were afraid of visiting the city because of a supposed jinx. Previous chief ministers Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav did not visit Noida during their regime.

“In Gorakhapur due to some issues loco shed could not completed. I just got to know we have got all defence approvals and work will start soon,” Goyal said.