Railways have viewed the unfortunate incident of rolling down of Ahmedabad – Puri Express in Sambalpur Division of East Coast Railway very seriously and appropriate action has been initiated to track the core cause of this untoward episode.

Shri Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board expressed his regret and in a Press Statement issued on the incident stated that, this incident of rolling down of Ahmedabad – Puri express at Titlagarh is an isolated incident of staff negligence that is sincerely regretted by the Railways. While the concerned staff has been suspended and a high level enquiry has also been ordered, the railways remains committed to ensuring highest levels of safety in train operations. Railways have also ordered a one month long drive over the entire network for sensitizing the staff regarding the precautions to be taken to prevent such incidents. He further stated that, passenger safety followed by passenger comfort remains the highest priority of Indian Railways.

According to a press release issued by Shri Ravinder Bhakar, Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, the subject of safety is continuously being monitored at the highest levels in the Railway Board, with the monitoring being done daily at the level of the Chairman, Railway Board.

संरक्षा मानदंडों में वृद्धि हेतु भारतीय रेल द्वारा लगातार प्रयास लवे चलायेगी पूरे देश में एक माह का अभियान

मुंबई: भारतीय रेलवे ने पूर्व तटीय रेलवे के सम्बलपुर मंडल पर अहमदाबाद-पुरी एक्सप्रेस के रोलिंग डाउन की दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण घटना की समीक्षा की है एवं इसे काफी गम्भीरता से लिया है। इस अप्रत्याशित घटना के मूल कारणों की जाँच हेतु आवश्यक कार्रवाई प्रारम्भ कर दी गई है।

रेलवे बोर्ड के अध्यक्ष श्री अश्विरी लोहानी ने एक बयान जारी कर कहा कि टिटलागढ़ में अहमदाबाद-पुरी एक्सप्रेस के रोलिंग डाउन होने की घटना कर्मचारियों की लापरवाही के कारण हुई, जिसके लिए रेलवे द्वारा खेद प्रकट किया जाता है। सम्बंधित कर्मचारी को निलम्बित कर उच्चस्तरीय जाँच के आदेश दे दिये गये हैं। बयान में कहा गया है कि ट्रेन परिचालन में संरक्षा को सर्वोच्च प्राथमिकता देने हेतु रेलवे प्रतिबद्ध है। ऐसी घटना की रोकथाम के लिए कर्मचारियों को सतर्कता बरतने के प्रति जागरूक करने हेतु सम्पूर्ण नेटवर्क पर रेलवे द्वारा एक माह का एक विशेष जागरूकता अभियान चलाने के भी आदेश जारी किये गये हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि समुचित यात्री संरक्षा तथा बेहतर यात्री सुविधाएँ हमेशा भारतीय रेल की सर्वोच्च प्राथमिकताएँ रही हैं और भविष्य में भी रहेंगी।

पश्चिम रेलवे के मुख्य जनसम्पर्क अधिकारी श्री रविंद्र भाकर द्वारा जारी प्रेस विज्ञप्ति के अनुसार रेलवे बोर्ड के अध्यक्ष द्वारा प्रतिदिन व्यक्तिगत मॉनिटरिंग सहित रेलवे बोर्ड में संरक्षा के सभी पहलुओं की निरंतर उच्चस्तरीय मॉनिटरिंग की जाती है।

Who says the Railways are not giving a good service? With an aim to provide better amenities to rail passengers, the Ahmedabad division of Western Railways is going to give a string of new services at Kalupur Railway station.

Eleven escalators will be installed in eight months on the platforms of the station for smooth manoeuvring of passengers. Currently, Kalupur station has just one escalator in the entry region.

Of the upcoming escalators, three will be installed at the exit, two at each platform ends. The station has 8 platforms.

The aged and the physically-challenged passengers will benefit the most from the initiative. Currently, the station has elevators at each platform. They are always busy and many passengers, especially the senior citizens, are unable to use them.

Dinesh Kumar, Division Railway Manager (DRM) of Ahmedabad division said that the project will take at least eight months to complete. Currently, Kalupur station has just one escalator in the entry region. With an aim to provide better amenities to rail passengers, the Ahmedabad division of Western Railways is going to give a string of new services at Kalupur Railway station. Eleven escalators will be installed in eight months on the platforms of the station for smooth manoeuvring of passengers. Of the upcoming escalators, three will be installed at the exit, two at each platform ends.

Ahmedabad Railway station will don a heritage look in just eight months. Ahmedabad Railway division took the inspiration from the city’s heritage monuments. Why so? That’s because your city bagged the Heritage City status by UNESCO last year.

The flavour of heritage will come from the sculptures that the station will have constructed at the Kalupur side.

The pillars of Sarkhej Roza will come up at the face of the main building.

The famous window carving of Sidi Saiyyed Mosque will be added at the centre of the building. The three doors of Teen Darwaza will be constructed at both the entry and the exit gates.

In order to cope with the new age, the station will have several selfie points to be constructed with miniature train modules. A giant 15×8 feet LCD screen will be installed at old booking area to show videos related to the Railways.

The blank staircases at the stations will have 3-D paintings and the interior will have chandeliers.

Dinesh Kumar, Division Railway Manager of Ahmedabad, said, “We are still to finalise the theme. As of now, we have decided to base it on the heritage monuments of the city. There are several aspects such as budget, designs etc. Once it’s decided, the project will be finalised. We have been given a deadline of 8 months to complete the project.”

The ministry of Railways has formulated the plan to redevelop 90 stations. The redevelopment plan has been assigned to different zones. These stations have a footfall of more than 50,000 people daily.

Also, six more stations of Gujarat like Gandhinagar, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar city and Valsad will have a facelift in different manners.

In order to boost Ease of doing Business in Indian Railways, Research Design & Standards Organization (RDSO) is keenly approaching Indian industry through Vendor meets being organized in various cities where senior officers of RDSO interact with the prospective vendors, educate them about the features and ease of using the new online vendor registration system.

The first such vendor meet was organized on 24.01.2018 at Rajkot in coordination with Laghu Udyog Bharti, Rajkot in which Queries/Doubts from the around 200 vendors present were resolved on the spot by senior officials in a Question-Answer session.

Similar Vendor meets have since been held at other cities such as Faridabad, Ludhiana, Sahibabad, Coimbatore, Pune and Noida on 22.02.2018, 07.03.2018, 09.03.2018, 15.03.2018, 04.04.2018 and 05.04.2018 respectively. The efforts are being very well appreciated by industry. Further such meets are planned in April and May 2018 at seven more places.

As a result of these actions, applications for fresh registration for RDSO items have increased from about 25 (average) per month earlier to 60 (average) per month now. From the period 01.11.2017 to 16.03.2018 RDSO has created 1231 nos. of Vendor Account Registration, Received payments in 208 cases and 27 Vendors delisted.

In this way, RDSO has opened up its arms to the Indian industry and poised itself as an industry friendly organisation. This has been very well received and appreciated by one and all.

The railways today said a crude bomb explosion near the Dum Dum Cantonment station in West Bengal had not affected train services in the area.

The ministry said a guard of 33421 Up Sealdah-Barasat local informed at 8.20 am that one person was injured near the rail tracks between Bidhannagar Road-Dum Dum Cantonment section of the Eastern Railways Sealdah Division.

The RPF said there was a bomb blast in the Dum Dum Cantonment area and on enquiry, it was learnt that the blast site was about 150 ft away from the tracks near Dum Dum Cantonment area.

“The local police and the GRP cordoned off the area and carried out a thorough search in the locality. It was learnt that a drum of locally made bombs was found in a slum. It was recovered by the civil police and GRP,” a ministry statement said.

It also said that services were not been affected by the incident.

“It is clearly stated that the incident had no repercussions in the train services of Bidhannagar road-Dum Dum Cantt sections of eastern railways Sealdah division. Train services were maintained,” it said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the country’s first 12,000 horsepower electric locomotive from the Madhepura locomotive factory in Bihar on 10 April.

With the launch, India will join an elite list countries, including Russia, China, Germany and Sweden, that have 12,000 horsepower and above capacity Electric Locomotives. Till now, the most powerful electric engine in Indian Railways was of 6,000 horsepower .

The heavy-haulage locos, with a maximum speed of 110 kilometre per hour, will help decongest saturated routes by improving the speed and carrying capacity of freight trains.

Prime Minister will also dedicate the Madhepura factory — a high-value FDI joint venture with French rolling stock giant Alstom — to the nation.

The Rs 20,000 crore project is expected to roll out a total of 800 high horsepower locomotives over a period of 11 years. The total project cost includes Rs 1,300 crore for setting up the factory at Madhepura and two loco maintenance depots at Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Nagpur (Maharashtra), beside building 800 locomotives. The average cost of each locomotive is estimated to be Rs 25 crore.

According to the contract agreement, the first five locomotives will be imported while the remaining 795 will be manufactured in the country under the Make in India programme.

The rolling out of the first locomotive on 10 April will be followed by four more locos in the current fiscal. About 35 locos will be manufactured at the Madhepura facility in the next fiscal (2019-20) and 60 in 2020-21. After that, the factory will produce 100 locos  every year till the target of 800 is reached over 11 years. These heavy-haulage locos would be pressed into service to transport coal and iron ore, said a senior railway ministry official.

Equipped with insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)-based propulsion technology, the 12,000 horsepower locomotives will be compliant with Indian standards of freight transport.

Nearly five months after the Railway Board chairman mooted the idea of Indian Railways supplying coaches for Metro rail projects, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has asked the urban affairs ministry to buy coaches from the Railways for Metro projects that will be rolled out without external assistance.

Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani in last October had written to housing and urban affairs ministry stating that the railways were keen to partner with the ministry to make the rolling stock (coaches) available for Metro trains. He had mooted setting up of a dedicated unit for Metro coaches manufacturing through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with urban affairs ministry’s partnership with commitment for 10-15 years.

Sources said the PMO at a meeting held last month had suggested the urban affairs ministry to expedite standardisation Metro signalling system and promote captive buying of coaches from the railways be rolled out without external financial assistance.

Till now only a few Metro rail projects such as the Noida-Greater Noida link have been taken up without external assistance. “In projects where we have got external financial assistance from agencies such as JICA or AFD, the bidding for rolling stock has to allow bidders from across the globe,” said a source.

Moving beyond the five hill networks that are major tourist attractions, Indian Railways is planning to also preserve its old five-metre gauge tracks built during its early days in the British era to promote heritage tourism.

These corridors in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Assam and UP are currently defunct.

“As part of the strategy to preserve the metre-gauge lines, Indian Railways is planning to preserve few metre-gauge lines, which have the potential to attract more tourists,” a senior Railway Ministry official told, requesting anonymity.

“The decision to preserve the metre-gauge lines was taken at a meeting on February 3. Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani, stressing on the need to preserve the metre-gauge lines to promote the heritage structures of Indian Railways, asked the officials to identify such railway tracks on which the tourism can be promoted,” the official said.

While the rail corridor in UP passes through Dudhwa tiger reserve; the rail line in Madhya Pradesh runs through the scenic Vindhyachal range of mountains. Recently, railways have also planned running air conditioned trains on mountain railways in Darjeeling, Nilgiri and Shimla, apart from reviving the vintage steam locomotives to haul the iconic Palace on Wheels.

“Thus we have identified five lines for preservation — the 42.27 km Visavadar-Talala line in Gujarat, the 16 km Mhow-Patalpani-Kalakand line in Madhya Pradesh, the 162 km Mavli Junction-Marwar Junction line in Rajasthan, the 171 km Nanpur-Mailani line in Uttar Pradesh and the 47 km Mahur-Harangjao metre-gauge line in Assam,” he said.

“Four of the metre-gauge lines are in working condition, while the one line located in Assam is not operational right now,” he added.

The official also said that the Railway Ministry has written to the zonal railways to check the operational feasibility of these tracks. “Once the response from zonal railways is received by the third week of April, the ministry will formally launch the project,” he said.

Giving details of some of the five lines, the official said: “The Visavadar-Talala metre-gauge line passes through the Gir forest in Gujarat and there is thus a speed restriction. Currently, only three trains pass through this section in the day.”

The Mhow-Patalpani-Kalakund line, the official said, passes through picturesque mountains, valleys, tunnels, ravines and crosses the Choral and Malendi rivers, which makes the journey very memorable, especially after the rains.

According to the official, this line was laid by the British about 150 years ago and passes through of the Vindhyachal mountain range.

The official said that the Nanpur-Mailani metre-gauge railway track in Uttar Pradesh crosses through the Dudhwa Tiger reserve.

The Railways currently operates six trains on the section. The trains are allowed to run at a maximum speed of 30 km per hour, which reduces to 20 km per hour in accident-prone areas.

The British laid this track in the 19th century for transporting timber from Nepal’s forests and from the forests on the border.

Currently, the five hill trains — Darjeeling Himalayan train, Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Kalka-Shimla Railway, Kangra Valley Railway and Matheran Hill Railway — are a major attraction for tourists in India.

Also, the railway ministry is working to revive two defunct heritage locomotives, including a fireless steam loco which is rested at the national rail museum in the national capital. According to a railway board official, the ministry has decided to preserve five of its metre-gauge lines across the country, and run them as heritage lines.

Earlier, it was planned to convert them into broad-gauge lines as they were lying defunct. Sources said these lines are linked to tourist destinations and were earlier identified for gauge conversion, but now will be retained as heritage lines.

Among the identified corridors are the 30-km long Mhow-Kalakund rail line in Madhya Pradesh, which, the sources said, will be used solely for tourism purposes. This rail route passes through the picturesque hills and the valleys of the Vindhyachal mountain range and will draw tourists to the Patalpani waterfall, officials said.

Similarly, the 171-km Nanpara-Mailani section in Uttar Pradesh, too, will be developed for tourist purposes. The corridor runs through the Dudhwa national park which attracts a large number of wildlife enthusiasts.

Around a 50-km meter-gauge line that passes through the Gir Forest in Gujarat will also be preserved, sources said, along with about a 70-km Marwar-Udaipur metre-gauge railway section falling in the bio-diversity sanctuary of Todgarh Raoli. “These are picturesque stretches which can be enjoyed by tourists and are unique to India. They have high potential of ecotourism safari. All these sections have sharp bends and tunnels which have immense tourism potential,” said an official.

Sources say that the ministry is also contemplating if these heritage trains can be such that tourists can enjoy the scenery through large glass windows and ceilings like the trains started in Araku valley and the Kashmir valley. Railway ministry has also identified a 120-km section in Assam – the Mahur Harangajao meter gauge – in the hill section of the North Cachar Hill district (now called Dima Hasao district). The line, which will now be preserved, is unique for the presence of several tunnels in the section that still stand out as architectural marvels. Three of the hill railways- the Darjeeling Himalayan, the Nilgiri Mountain, and the Kalka-Shimla Railway- have been accorded the UNESCO World Heritage status, two other hill railways – the Neral-Matheran and the Kangra Valley, is on a tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The work on Manoharabad-Kothapally (Karimnagar) new railway line is going at an expected pace, according to Karimnagar Lok Sabha member B Vinod Kumar.

The MP, who met the South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager Vinod Kumar Yadav in Hyderabad on Friday, in a statement said that track work between Manoharabad and Gajwel will be completed by December. The tender process for the stretch between Kothapally and Boinpally will be completed in April. Works on railway bridge across Manair river near Sircilla will be launched very soon, the MP said.

Responding to the MP’s appeal for the halting of Patna-Secunderabad Express and Danapur Express trains at Jammikunta station, the GM said that proposals were sent to Railway Ministry. Meanwhile, the Railways has sought State government’s approval for the construction of a RoB at LC No 18 at Karimnagar yard on cost sharing basis.