After some candidates have raised concerns over the process of shortlisting of candidates for the second stage of the ongoing recruitment examination under Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs)’s Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC) exam results, the Ministry of Railways has now released a clarification addressing the concerns. The ministry said the RRB NTPC result was “strictly as per provision laid down in notificatio

“The procedure for shortlisting of candidates for the second stage computer based test (CBT) had already been given elaborately under Para 13 of the original notification i.e., CEN 01/2019 published on 28.02.2019. In this employment notification, thirteen categories were advertised which were open to graduates and six of these for under-graduates. …. Every candidate was free to opt for all or any of these thirteen categories subject to conditions of eligibility,” a release from the ministry said.

“While the first stage CBT was a common examination for all the candidates, Para 13.2 of the notification clearly states that in the 2nd stage CBT there would be a separate examination for each group (viz., Levels 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) with differing graded levels of difficulty,” the ministry said on the concerns have been expressed by the RRB NTPC candidates that the Railway Board had in the exam notification mentioned that CBT stage 1 will be qualifying exam and candidates 20 times the vacancies will be shortlisted for CBT 2.

The release also said the notification had nowhere mentioned that 7 lakh distinct candidates will get shortlisted for 2nd stage CBT.

“Since a 2nd Stage consists of CBT of five different levels and a candidate can be shortlisted for more than one level as per eligibility, merit and option, the lists of 7 lakh roll numbers will have some names appearing in more than one list,” it said.

Regarding the the cut offs of the RRB NTPC results, the ministry said they have been prepared on the basis of normalized marks that are normally higher than raw score. “Also cut off depends upon the number of vacancies notified for that level/post. Since about 10,500 vacancies have been notified for 10+2 candidates across 21 RRBs as against about 35000 where Graduate candidates are eligible, cut offs for 10+2 have been higher than Graduate candidates based on normalized score,” it said.

Tesla is not the only company that’s run by Elon Musk. In fact, Musk used some of the money he made with SpaceX to invest in Tesla to eventually gain control of the electric car maker. And SpaceX has also been categorised by Musk as some of the most important work he is doing in his life. But as it happens some of his former SpaceX engineers have quit and formed a startup that’s looking to reinvent the railway industry.

Parallel Systems, founded by former SpaceX engineer, Matt Soule who partnered with a bunch of his former SpaceX colleagues, intends to disrupt the railway industry with electric powertrains and autonomous vehicle technology that’s taking over the consumer automotive space. The company has received $50 million in a Series A funding round and only recently came out of stealth

Their idea is to create a small autonomous electric-powered rail vehicle. The idea is for a cargo vehicle that enables one to drop the cargo on a Parallel Systems vehicle and have it move without the need for the entire train to be unloaded. Each container can do individually move 800 km or band together to be even more efficient.

This would allow smaller railroads to be reopened and new ones to be built to deliver cargo closer to customers and take some market away from trucks. These vehicles in question can also take in an impressive payload of 128,000 pounds which is twice the capacity of a semi-truck. So far though, their prototype vehicle can only do 80 km.

Mutilated bodies of a man and a woman were recovered from a railway track in the Bhimganj Mandi area in Rajasthan, police said on Monday.

It is suspected that the two jumped before a train to end their lives, they said.

However, no note confirming that the man and the woman died by suicide was found at the spot, police said.

Ajay Singh Meena (22) and Archana Meena (22), who were cousins, were going to Kota to collect educational documents from the University of Kota, they said.

Police received information on Sunday night that two bodies were lying on a railway track at Chambal river over-bridge, Station House Officer, Bhimganj Mandi police station, Laxmichand said.

On reaching the spot, police found that the faces of the victims were disfigured and their bodies mutilated, he said, adding they were identified on the basis of documents recovered from the site.

According to an initial inquiry, the man was pursuing ITI while the woman was an undergraduate student, the SHO said, adding the two were residents of Swaimadhopur district.

He said a cousin of the deceased is a police constable posted at Jawahar Nagar police in the city and they were to head to his house to stay there for the night and collect the documents from the university on Monday.

A case in the matter has been registered, Laxmichand said, adding the bodies were handed over to family members after post-mortem.

The railways has shortlisted over seven lakh candidates for 35,281 posts for the Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC) Level 2 exam, the national transporter said on Saturday. The total number of candidates selected for NTPC Level 2 is 7,05,620.

It said shortlisting of candidates has been done separately for each level based on options exercised and the educational qualifications of the candidates.

“For second stage computer based test (CBT) of each level, candidates have been called 20 times the community-wise vacancies notified against each RRB (Railway Recruitment Board),” it said.

“In case multiple candidates have obtained same marks at the cut-off, all have been called,” it said.

Based on merit obtained in second stage CBT, the candidates will be shortlisted for third stage exam in which eight times the number of vacancies will be called.

“The final result will contain a unique list of 35,281 notified vacancies and no candidate will be appointed against more than one post. A candidate who has been shortlisted for high level post cannot be debarred for appearing in second stage CBT of lower level post,” it said.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday visited the site in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district where the Bikaner-Guwahati Express train had derailed on the previous day, leaving nine dead and at least 36 injured.
Bikaner-Guwahati train mishap: “Preliminary inquiry shows there was a glitch in locomotive equipment. The Commission of Rail Safety is conducting an inquiry to find the root cause behind the accident,” says Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at the mishap site https://t.co/Hs4MR243cbpic.twitter.com/enlJI3gEDA

He conducted an inspection of the tracks and the locomotive involved in the accident, a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesperson said.

The cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained and a committee has been formed to investigate it, she said.

Twelve coaches of the Bikaner-Guwahati Express train had derailed and some of them capsized near Domohani in Jalpaiguri district on Thursday.

NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Guneet Kaur said that Vaishnaw arrived at Domohani railway station at 9.38 AM and proceeded to the derailment site within two minutes by a motor trolley.

“He conducted a trolley inspection to ascertain the condition of the track and fittings,” Ms Kaur said.

At the accident site, the minister conducted a thorough inspection of the underframe of the locomotive and its braking system, she said.

NFR General Manager Anshul Gupta reached the spot at 12.08 AM on Friday, and is supervising the restoration work of tracks for normalisation of train movement, Ms Kaur said.

“An inquiry committee has been formed to find out what caused the derailment,” Ms Kaur told PTI.
She said that the death toll in the incident has risen to nine, with three of the deceased yet to be identified.

The number of injured currently stands at 36. While 23 passengers are undergoing treatment at a super specialty hospital in Jalpaiguri, six are admitted to the North Bengal Medical College and seven at Maynaguri Rural Hospital, she said.

NFR GM Gupta visited various hospitals on Thursday night and early on Friday to check the condition of the injured patients.

The CPRO said that evacuation of passengers was completed at 10 PM on Friday night and a special train had left the accident site at 9.50 PM with 290 stranded passengers for Guwahati.

The special train has reached Guwahati railway station around 8.30 AM on Friday, Special DGP (Law and Order) GP Singh said in a Twitter post.

There were 1,053 passengers onboard the train at the time of the derailment, an NFR statement had said on Thursday.

The Railways has announced ex-gratia of ₹ 5 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in the accident, ₹ 1 lakh to the grievously injured, and ₹ 25,000 for passengers with simple injury.

“Now that the passenger relief operation at the site is complete, restoration work will start in full swing for normalisation of train movement under the supervision of the NFR general manager,” she said.

At least 10 trains, mostly intercity and DEMU trains, have been cancelled on the affected route on Friday, while a couple are being short-terminated or short-originated. Another 10 long-distance trains are being diverted through alternative routes, the CPRO added.

 

Long-distance train travel is likely to cost more for passengers boarding or alighting at redeveloped stations as the Railways is planning to levy a station development fee ranging from ₹ 10 to ₹ 50 depending on the class of travel.

Officials said the fee is likely to be added to the train tickets during booking. The fee will be levied only after such stations become operational.

The user fee would be in three categories. ₹ 50 for all AC classes, ₹ 25 for sleeper class and ₹ 10 for the unreserved class. No station development fee will be charged for suburban train journeys, according to a circular issued by the Railway Board.

It stated that platform tickets at these stations will also be costlier by ₹ 10.

“Station Development Fee (SDF) shall be collected from the passengers (boarding as well as alighting at such stations).

“Class-wise SDF for developed/redeveloped stations shall be charged as under: For alighting passengers at such stations, the SDF shall be 50 per cent of the rates indicated above. If both boarding/alighting such stations, in that case, SDF shall be 1.5 times of the applicable rate,” the circular stated.

SDF shall be uniform across all such stations and shall be charged as a separate component plus applicable GST, for which instructions shall be issued separately, it added.

1CommentsOfficials said that the levying of SDF will ensure a continuous revenue stream for the Railways and will make the model financially viable for the national transporter to lure private players Various stations are being redeveloped on Indian Railways to provide modern amenities. Rani Kamalapati station of West Central Railway and Gandhinagar Capital station of Western Railway have been developed and commissioned.

Only those with a double vaccination certificate would be allowed to travel by Chennai local trains from January 10 till 31 January, the Southern Railway announced today.

Passengers without the certificate will not be able to purchase tickets, the railways said amid the spurt in Covid cases due to the Omicron wave.

There won’t be any exception and the rule will also apply to season ticket holders too. The unreserved ticketing system (UTS) on mobile will not be available during the period.

Tamil Nadu reported 8,981 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. Chennai, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur accounted for a majority of the new cases with the state capital alone adding 4,531 cases.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu has reported 121 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 so far including 117 recoveries.

A total of eight people have died of Covid in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities in the state to 36,833.

3CommentsWhile 984 people have recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours. With this, the cumulative recoveries have risen to 27,08,763 in the state.

A video shared by the Ministry of Railways shows how an alert train driver hit emergency brakes in the nick of time to save the life of a man lying on the tracks. The video was filmed at the Sewri station on the Harbour line of the Mumbai suburban railway network. The 50-second clip begins with the man wandering onto the railway tracks. Abruptly, he lies down on the tracks as the train approaches.

Within a few seconds, we can see the train slowing down and then coming to a complete halt as the loco pilot applied emergency brakes. Soon, three railway police personnel could be seen running up to the man and escorting him to safety. From the time stamp on the video, it’s evident that the incident occurred around 11.45 am on January 2.

In the tweet, the Ministry of Railways applauded the “work done by the motorman”, and added, “At Sewri station in Mumbai, the motorman saw a person lying on the track, he saved the life of the person by applying the emergency brake with promptness and understanding. Your life is precious, someone is waiting for you at home.”