The Railways on Tuesday announced that it will operate 392 festival special trains between October 20 and November 30 in view of the upcoming festive season.

The decision was taken as the national carrier is anticipating a passenger rush during the upcoming festive season, the Railway ministry said in a statement.

The special trains will be run for destinations such as Kolkata, Patna, Varanasi, Lucknow among others to cater to the growing demand in the ensuing holiday period of Durga Puja, Dussehra, Diwali and Chhatt puja, it said.

Till now, the railways has pressed into service more than 300 mail/express trains which are now running regularly across the country.

These new festival special trains, however, will operate only till November 30 and will not have a continued run, officials said.

The RRB NTPC exam for selection to non-technical popular category (NTPC) posts in the Indian Railways will be held in December. Selection to these posts will be done through various exams which will be held in succession. The first stage of RRB NTPC exam will be held from December 15. Admit cards of the exam are expected to be released soon. For the RRB NTPC exam, close to 2 crore candidates are expected to sit.

“Facility for download of admit cards will be available about 3-7 days before the examination on the website of concerned Regional/ Sub-Regional Office. Candidates must bring printout of the admission certificate to the examination hall,” RRBs have said on NTPC admit card.

Candidates who qualify the first stage of the RRB NTPC exam will be shortlisted for the next stage. The tests will be computer based (CBT). For every wrong answer, negative marks will be given to candidates in this CBT.

The railway recruitment boards (RRB) will shortlist candidates for the second stage equaling to 20 times the vacancies as per the merit obtained in the first stage exam.

“The 1st Stage CBT is of screening nature and the standard of questions for the CBT will be generally in conformity with the educational standards prescribed for the posts. The normalized score of 1st Stage CBT shall be used for short listing of candidates for 2nd Stage CBT as per their merit,” RRBs have said in the notification released in February, 2019.

The second stage exam will have questions from general awareness, mathematics, general intelligence and reasoning.

The Indian Railways has decided to upgrade the non-air-conditioned (AC) sleeper coaches to AC ones for high-speed trains.

Aiming at saving travel time, it is already upgrading the tracks on Golden Quadrilateral and Diagonals, connecting the four metro cities, to cater to trains running at a speed of 130 km-160 km/hour (kmph).

Presently, only the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah sections of the Golden Quadrilateral are getting prepared.

According to an official statement by the Indian Railways, AC coaches are essentially a technical need for trains running at a speed of 130/160 kmph. “The speed potential of some of the corridors has already been upgraded to 130 kmph. Wind and weather factors demand that only certain types of coaches run at a higher speed. Hence, not all non-AC coaches will be upgraded for high-speed trains.”

It added a prototype of such an AC coach is being made at the Rail Coach Factory and that it should be ready in a few weeks. “Presently an 83-berth coach is being designed. It is being planned to have 100 coaches this year and 200 by next year. The coaches will be evaluated, on the basis of which further progress will be made.”

Railways further said that it will be ensured that while the price of tickets for the modified AC trains remains very affordable, the comfort and conveniences increase manifold.

Meanwhile, non-AC coaches will continue to be in trains running at 110 kmph, the Indian Railways said further.

A DMK MP and NDA constituent PMK on Sunday criticised rail users in Tamil Nadu allegedly receiving train ticket confirmation SMS in Hindi, with the Parliamentarian lashing out at “Hindi imposition”.

Southern Railway officials said that while the matter does not come under their purview, it has, however, been “flagged” with IRCTC, the authorised e-ticketing agency.

DMK MP from South Chennai, Thamizhachi Thangapandian, took to Twitter to share a screenshot of the SMS purportedly received in Hindi.

“The #GovernmentofIndia despite its promises to not impose Hindi, continues to impose the language through insidious means. Stop forcing Hindi on the non-Hindi speaking states,” she said.

In a series of tweets, she tagged the Railway Ministry and urged it to take urgent steps to ensure non-Hindi speakers are also able to access the IRCTC services.

“#StopHindiImposition,” she added.  Party MP Kanimozhi also criticised the alleged Hindi imposition.

“They are not respecting people’s feelings and are repeatedly imposing Hindi,” she said in an apparent reference to the Centre.

“People (in TN) cannot read what is mentioned in the SMS since it is in Hindi,” she told reporters at the airport in Chennai and warned of “serious repercussions” due to such incidents.

PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, whose party is an ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre, alleged that SMSes for e-tickets in Tamil Nadu are “being sent in Hindi for the last two days.”

“This is a planned imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people. The Railways should stop this,” he said in a tweet.

He demanded action against those behind this and urged that all Central government-related announcements in Tamil Nadu must be released only in Tamil and English.

Alleged Hindi imposition has been a sensitive issue in Tamil Nadu for long.

The DMK had successfully heralded an anti-Hindi agitation in the 1960s, before coming to power for the first time in 1967.

Even recently, both the ruling AIADMK and DMK have opposed the Centre’s New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, with the former having rejected the three language formula proposed in it.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced that his government will only follow the two-language system–Tamil and English.

In a huge relief for passengers ahead of the festive season, the Railways has allowed the sale of cooked food at its catering and vending units on stations for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, but said the food plazas, Jan Ahars, cell kitchens and refreshment rooms will open only for takeaways.

These units were earlier allowed to sell only packaged food.

In an order on issued on September 30, IRCTC said, “Zones are advised that static catering units (food plazas, fast food unit, Jan Ahars, cell kitchens and refreshment rooms) which are operational at 10 per cent of license fee with limited saleable items up till September 30 may be allowed to operate till October 31 at pro-rata LF of 20 per cent of license fee with the sale of cooked food as takeaway only.”

No dine-in to be allowed, the order said.

“Further, zones are also advised that the contracts which have expired after March 23 may also be allowed to operate up to October 31 on payment of license fee of 20 per cent,” it said.

Officials said despite an order issued a few months back, not many vendors had opened their units because of low footfall and restrictions on items they could sell.

Vendors associations had written to the Railways stating that they were not ready to begin services on platforms due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and urged officials not to pressure them into opening the stalls

Stalls on platforms have been shut throughout the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown, which was imposed on March 25 to check the spread of the infection.

The Railways is planning to introduce 200 special trains between October 15 and November 30 to cater to passengers travelling during the festive season, Railway Board Chairman and CEO VK Yadav said on Thursday.

The Railways has suspended all regular passenger trains indefinitely. Regular trains have remained suspended since March 22.

It started operations of 15 pairs of premium Rajdhani special trains connecting Delhi with different parts of the country on May 12, and 100 pairs of long-distance trains on June 1. Also, 80 trains started operations on September 12.

In a huge relief for passengers ahead of the festive season, the Railways has allowed the sale of cooked food at its catering and vending units on stations for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, but said the food plazas, Jan Ahars, cell kitchens and refreshment rooms will open only for takeaways.

These units were earlier allowed to sell only packaged food.

In an order on issued on September 30, IRCTC said, “Zones are advised that static catering units (food plazas, fast food unit, Jan Ahars, cell kitchens and refreshment rooms) which are operational at 10 per cent of license fee with limited saleable items up till September 30 may be allowed to operate till October 31 at pro-rata LF of 20 per cent of license fee with the sale of cooked food as takeaway only.”

No dine-in to be allowed, the order said.

“Further, zones are also advised that the contracts which have expired after March 23 may also be allowed to operate up to October 31 on payment of license fee of 20 per cent,” it said.

Officials said despite an order issued a few months back, not many vendors had opened their units because of low footfall and restrictions on items they could sell.

Vendors associations had written to the Railways stating that they were not ready to begin services on platforms due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and urged officials not to pressure them into opening the stalls

Stalls on platforms have been shut throughout the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown, which was imposed on March 25 to check the spread of the infection.

The Railways is planning to introduce 200 special trains between October 15 and November 30 to cater to passengers travelling during the festive season, Railway Board Chairman and CEO VK Yadav said on Thursday.

The Railways has suspended all regular passenger trains indefinitely. Regular trains have remained suspended since March 22.

It started operations of 15 pairs of premium Rajdhani special trains connecting Delhi with different parts of the country on May 12, and 100 pairs of long-distance trains on June 1. Also, 80 trains started operations on September 12.

Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Raghav Chadha today said the DJB has issued notices to several central government departments, including Railways and Delhi Police, and municipal corporations asking them to clear dues amounting to ₹ 6,811 crore within 30 days.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Chadha said the notices were also issued to the Central Public Works Department and the Delhi Development Authority between September 1 and September 15.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the economy hard and governments across the country were facing financial challenges.

“Is it imperative that these outstanding dues are paid so that the DJB can deal with the financial challenges,” he said.

“Railways owes ₹ 3,283 crore to the DJB for the services provided by it…the Delhi Police is yet to pay bills worth ₹ 614 crore, while CPWD has to clear dues amounting to ₹ 190 crore,” Mr Chadha said.

“The DDA owes ₹ 128 crore, East Delhi Municipal Corporation ₹ 49 crore, North Delhi Municipal Corporation ₹ 2,466 crore and South Delhi Municipal Corporation ₹ 81 crore,” the DJB vice-chairman said.