In order to provide travelling facility for passengers, South Central Railway will Permanently augment of H.S.Nanded-Panvel-H.S.Nanded and Vijayawada-Hubli-Vijayawada Amaravathi Express with additional Coaches  as detailed below:

1. Train No. 17614 H.S.Nanded – Panvel Express will be augmented with one Sleeper Class Coach from 29^th January, 2018.
2. Train No. 17613 Panvel – H.S.Nanded Express will be augmented with one Sleeper Class Coach from 30^th January, 2018.
3. Train No. 17225 Vijayawada – Hubli Amaravathi Express will be augmented with one AC III Tier and one Sleeper Class Coach from 26^th January, 2018.
4. Train No. 17226 Hubli – Vijayawada Amaravathi Express will be augmented with one AC III Tier and  one Sleeper Class Coach from 27^th January, 2018.

The army, which was brought in last year to build three foot over-bridges in Mumbai, had drawn on its resources stocked near the Indo-China border, a senior army officer overseeing the project has said. The project will miss its January 31 deadline by a fortnight because of gaps in coordination with the railways in the early days of the project.

Railways Minister Goyal called the delay “a wake-up call for all my colleagues in the railways”. He ordered a probe as well. Within the next month, the government called in the army.

That meant the Bombay Engineer Group, a regiment of the engineering corps of the army.

The officer leading this effort, Brigadier Dheeraj Mohan, told reporters that the bridges being built at Mumbai were actually “part of the war store” brought in because they had an early target to meet.

“We got it (material) from the war store because when this tragedy happened… innocent lives were lost…. And the army got the responsibility to fast track it,” Brigadier Mohan, who is Commandant of the Bombay Engineer Group, said.

“This bridge was moved from (near) the China Doklam border,” he said, a reference to the army’s “war store” on the Indian side of the Doklam Plateau.

The plateau is claimed by both Beijing and Bhutan as their territory. India backs Bhutan’s claim to Doklam that became well-known because it was the site of an aggressive stand-off with China that lasted 73 days.

The over-bridge, mostly made of high carbon steel, is as good as a permanent bridge, he told NDTV.

Similar bridges built 40-50 years back are still functional in harsh climates, he said.

Brigadier Mohan told NDTV that the overbridge – called Bailey bridges after the British civil servant who had designed them during the Second World War – had been built to higher specifications than sought by the railways.

“I think fair to say that 90 per cent of the work is complete,” he said.

Bengaluru Railway Division will introduce a fee of Rs.15 on all train tickets purchased from Shravanabelegola railway station from February 3 or 4. The Railway Board has given it the green signal to proceed with the move.

Top railway sources confirmed that a ‘surcharge cess’ would be levied to compensate the division for the massive infrastructure expenses incurred due to the upcoming festival. “The proposal was sent to the Railway Board last month and we have received clearance to go ahead with the levy of the fee,” a top railway official said. This would be applicable to offline or online bookings.

The Bengaluru Division has overhauled the existing infrastructure in this tiny ‘E’ category station to cater to lakhs of pilgrims expected to visit the town for Mahamastakabhisheka festival from February 7 to 25. The line connecting Nelamangala with Shravanabelegola was commissioned in March 2017, thereby ensuring easy rail access for the event for pilgrims.

“This is the first time the Division will impose such a cess on its passengers as it is the first time the Railways is chipping in a big way to ensure accessibility to the venue,” another official said. “We have gone by the Railway rule book. Whenever any mela of a grand scale takes place in the country, like the Kumbh Mela, the Division has the right to charge a fee for its services,” the official added.

In a bid to collaborate with Japan for the Hyderabad metro rail’s phase-2 works, the Telangana government and Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) officials held talks with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which channels development assistance from the Japan government to overseas entities.

“We have initiated talks with JICA, which finances different infrastructure projects, as of now. The investment process is a long one. We will prepare a detailed project report (for the collaboration with JICA for the metro rail’s phase-2 project), which has to be approved by our state cabinet and then the government of India. Only then will it be sent to JICA,” said N.V.S. Reddy, managing director, HMR, at a press conference on Monday.

Reddy added that HMR will complete the 66-kilometer (originally 72-kilometer) phase-1 of the metro rail network by the year-end. As of now, a 30-kilometer stretch connecting Hyderabad to the Hi-tech city area is operational.

Gaddam Vivekanand, advisor to the government of Telangana, who was part of the delegation that visited Japan and South Korea, said a lot of “fruitful” discussion had taken place with big companies, which are interested in coming to the state for investment. “They were impressed with our government providing 100% incentives (for investors), 100 % electricity and even water,” he added.

The talks were held last week when Telangana information technology and industries minister K.T. Rama Rao, along with other state government officials, visited Japan and South Korea and held bilateral discussions with companies to invest in the state in upcoming projects like the Pharma city and the Kakatiya Textile park in the state. Rao is presently in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum. Vivekanad said a memorandum of understanding was signed to develop long-term collaboration between South Korea and the state in the fields of animation, gaming, artificial intelligence and electronic manufacturing.

HMRL asked to prepare detailed project report for Hyderabad metro phase II

The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited, the nodal agency implementing the 72-km-long elevated Hyderabad Rs. 14,132 crore metro project has been called upon to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for phase II of the project.

The decision comes within days of a high powered delegation headed by KT Rama Rao, State Industries and IT Minister, touring Japan and South Korea to explore various possibilities, including funding options.

SP Singh, Telangana Chief Secretary, who held a task force meeting, today requested NVS Reddy, Managing Director, HMRL to initiate preparatory activity including conducting of surveys for determining the broad contours of Metro phase-II expansion programme and preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs).

Singh said this would help approach the Central Government for sanction of Metro phase-II.

Towards this, he emphasised on the need for a coordinated action plan involving Commissioner, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Metropolitan Commissioner, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, Collectors of Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Sangareddy, Medchal districts and other senior officers concerned, apart from senior management officials of concessionaire L&T and GMR, which runs the Hyderabad airport.

Singh suggested the need to improve the feeder services and last mile connectivity for the Metro trains which are being operated in the 30 km stretch of Miyapur-Ameerpet-Nagole.

During the meeting, the need to introduce electric vehicles as non-polluting Metro feeder services at an early date and also augmentation of TS road transport feeder services.

The Government has also decided to conduct a quick study to get the feedback from Metro rail commuters, do station-wise mapping with frequency details and match the frequency of RTC feeder services and Metro trains, so as to provide end to end connectivity for commuters.

HMRL has been called upon to complete phase-I of the Metro Rail project by the end of this year and also to commission the balance portions of phase-I, including the stretches between Ameerpet and LB Nagar (16 km) of corridor-I, Ameerpet and Hitec City (10 km) of corridor-III and JBS to MGBS (9 km) of corridor-II in a phased manner starting from June this year.

Foundation Stone for three Rail projects on Southern Railway – doubling and electrification of Madurai-Vanchi Maniyachi-Thoothukudi section; Vanchi Maniyachi-Tirunelveli-Nagercoil section; and Kanyakumari- Thiruvananthapuram Central section- laid at Kanniyakumari on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain and Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan, along with ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, participated in the function.

The Rs. 3,618-crore projects, covering 349 km in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, will be executed by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited.

Once completed, the entire Chennai Egmore-Kanyakumari section will have double lines and facilitate faster and seamless connectivity between Tamil Nadu and Kerala for passenger and freight trains.

The Madurai-Kanyakumari single line is being utilised beyond its capacity and the Southern Railway has constraints in introduction of additional trains on the Chennai-Kanyakumari section, its highest passenger revenue generating sector.

The project was announced in the Railway Budget 2015-16.

However, it could not take off till now due to paucity of funds. Only in August 2017 did the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared the project.

Doubling and electrification of the 86.56-km Thiruvananthapuram Central-Nagercoil Junction-Kanyakumari railway line running through Kerala and Tamil Nadu will cost Rs. 1,431.90-crore.

Work on the bridges in the 5.5-km Nagercoil-Kanyakumari section will commence on Tuesday itself, for which the works were awarded to two contractors.

“As no land acquisition is needed on the stretch, the doubling work will begin after the foundation stone is laid, keeping 2022 as the deadline for commissioning by Railways,” a top construction official told.

The work is being executed under the supervision of the Chief Administrative Officer (Construction), Ernakulam. Chennai-based Copco Engineering Pvt Ltd has bagged the bid for the construction of bridges and Erode-based R.S. Developers Pvt Ltd, the earthwork.

42 hectares of land

The project has 15 stations, 394 bridges, 35 level crossings and five tunnels, and for this as much as 42 hectares of land is to be acquired. Of these, 17 hectares is in Kerala and the remaining is in Tamil Nadu.

The 47-km Eraniel-Thiruvananthapuram Central stretch poses a problem, as land acquisition is mainly confined to this corridor spread over the two States. Bids for the works can be floated only after the land acquisition is completed by the two States. The Railways had already submitted the details of the alignment of the second line to be laid to the State and the district administration, the official said.

State’s assurance

The State government promised to speed up land acquisition for the project at a high-level meeting convened by K.J. Alphons, Union Minister for Tourism and IT, and attended by Ajit Pandit, additional member, Works, Railway Board, last week in Kochi.

The Union Minister, during the current visit, will also inaugurate the doubling of the 160-km stretch from Madurai Junction to Thoothukudi and the 102-km line from Vanchi Maniyachi to Nagercoil Junction and some passenger amenities, at a function to be held at Nagercoil Junction.

Japanese Consul General Ryoji Noda said here today that India’s first high-speed rail project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad should be completed by 2023.

Noda, Consul General, Consulate of Japan in Mumbai, said both Japan and India were global and strategic partners and this relationship has further strengthened after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Gujarat in September last year.

“Last year in September, our PM Abe and Mrs Abe visited Gujarat. Both Abe and (Indian PM) Narendra Modi also inaugurated the high-speed train project, which would connect Ahmedabad and Mumbai in just two hours. This project should be completed by the end of 2023,” Noda told reporters here today.

In September last year, Modi and Abe had laid the foundation of the high-speed rail project, commonly known as Bullet Train project, between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Noda was in the city to present the ‘Order of the Rising Sun’, conferred by the Emperor of Japan, to city-based tax consultant Mukesh Patel, who is the president of Indo-Japan Friendship Association.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the function, Noda also said they were promoting Japan as a tourist destination among Indians, as “very few people” from India visit his country as compared to those from China.

“We are promoting our tourism among Indian people, as there is a huge gap between those coming from China and those from India to our country. While around 2.6 million Chinese tourists visit Japan (every year), only 1,20,000 come from India,” he said.

“By 2030, over 50 per cent of Indian population will be of middle-income group. Therefore, we see a great potential. To attract more Indian tourists, we are trying to soften our visa process. We have recently introduced multi-visa system to encourage Indians (to visit Japan),” Noda said.

Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd floated tender to onboard a Consultant to carry out the Social Impact Assessment and Social Safeguards Action Plan for Panvel-Virar New Suburban Corridor project for seeking finance from the World Bank towards the cost of the proposed Suburban Corridor Panvel – Virar (70.4 km) of Central & Western Railway.

The Consultant will work towards identification of potential Social Impact of the project, recommendation with specific measures to avoid/mitigate the impacts, formulation of implementable Social Management Plan (SMP) integrating specific measures to avoid the identified impacts along with appropriate monitoring and supervision mechanism, review the project component and identified possible social issues to be addressed during planning, design construction and operation of project and recommend suitable institutional mechanism to monitor and supervise effective implementation of EMP. The draft Terms of Reference for this assignment can be found at www.mrvc.indianrailways.gov.in . The short listing criteria are:

1. Experience of major similar assignment completed/in progress in past 10 years for infrastructure works/projects with preference for experience on Railway Projects.
2. Financial status with consultancy turnover of past 5 years
3. Availability of appropriate skills among key personnel, team composition etc.
4. Response to TOR
5. Credentials of the firm

Consultant will be selected in accordance with the QCBS method set out in the World Bank’s Procurement Regulation for IPF Borrowers, July 2016 issued by World Bank.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway network on Central and Western Railways has about 376 route Kms. Every day about 7.6 million people travel in Suburban section in more than 2900 train services. There is severe overcrowding in the Suburban trains and during peak hours passengers carried are more than four times the carrying capacity. Given the geographical constraints, spread of the population and location of business areas, the rail network will continue to be the principal mode of mass transport in Mumbai. The cost of the project is shared equally by MOR & GoM.

MRVC has accordingly completed MUTP Phase I in 2012; works of MUTP Phase II sanctioned in 2008-09 are under progress and expected to be completed by 2019-20. MUTP Phase III has been sanctioned in November 2016. Panvel-Diva-Vasai road – Virar New Suburban corridor project included in the Railway Budget 2017-2018 in Parliament of India and is under process of sanction by Ministry of Railways.

Panvel-Virar Suburban Corridor is 70.17 Km long double line project having 24 stations. It is 17 Km elevated and 53Kmat Grade. The Corridor is planned almost parallel to existing section except a small length from Nilje to Kopar.

Panvel-Virar is being considered for funding by World Bank. Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and Management Plan including Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) are required as per World Bank safeguard policy.

The DPR for Panvel-Virar has been carried out by MRVC and study reports are available. Work of Interim Consultancy (IC) is under process of finalization . The relevant details from these consultancies will be shared with the SIA consultant.

NEW DELHI: All General Managers of Zonal Railways have been advised to strictly monitor the e-auction of scrap. Total scrap sales till December 2017 of current financial year has reached to Rs. 1837 crores which is 22% higher than the corresponding sales of Rs. 1503 crores upto December 2016 of the year 2016-17

Earnings from sale of Railway scrap not only augments Railways revenue but also helps in keeping the Railway track, stations, workshops, depots neat and tidy.  In this regard, Ministry of Railways has directed all Zonal Railway & Production units to achieve Zero scrap balance by end of March 2018.  General Managers of all the Zonal Railways/PUs have been advised to regularly monitor this activity and to intensify supervision at senior officers’ level so as to promptly identify scrap and offer it for e-auction.

With the concerted efforts by all the Railways, total scrap sales till December 2017 of current financial year has reached to Rs. 1837 crores which is 22% higher than the corresponding sales of Rs. 1503 crores upto December 2016 of the year 2016-17.

Indian Railways have been selling its internally generated scrap entirely through   online e-auction.  Majority of the scrap material comprises of worn-out rails and track fittings released from track renewal/gauge conversion, steel scrap generated in course of overhaul /repairs of rolling stocks, other non-ferrous and miscellaneous scrap.

The e-auction module is part of the IREPS (Indian Railways E-Procurement System) which is a single portal of Indian Railways handling all procurements tenders and e-auctions digitally. All the Zonal Railways and Production Units use this single platform for online sales of scrap.  Monthly on an average, 200 e-auctions are conducted by Materials Managers in Divisions and Stores Depots spread all over Indian Railways.

Auction schedules and details of saleable materials are published regularly on IREPS website & updated online. The endeavor shall be continued so as to achieve the task of Zero scrap balance by end of March 201

Subway No.40 situated between Andheri and Jogeshwari will remain closed for road traffic from 00:00 hrs during 26^th & 27th^th January, 2018 to 08:00 hrs of 30^th January, 2018 for 4 days approx. for re-girdering work on Up & Down through lines (Fast Line). During Re-girdering, machineries and equipment will be placed in the subway. Hence, the subway will be occupied by these equipments during the re-girdering work. The subway will thus be closed for vehicular road traffic. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted by Western Railway.

प्रेस विज्ञप्ति क्रः 2018/1 – मुंबई, 23 जनवरी, 2018

अंधेरी एवं जोगेश्वरी स्टेशनों के

बीच का सबवे 4 दिन रहेगा बंद

अंधेरी तथा जोगेश्वरी के मध्य स्थित सबवे संख्या 40 पर अप तथा डाउन (फास्ट लाइन) पर री-गर्डरिंग कार्य के कारण यह सबवे 26 एवं 27 जनवरी, 2018 की मध्य रात्रि को 00.00 बजे से 30 जनवरी, 2018 को 8.00 बजे तक लगभग 4 दिनों हेतु सड़क यातायात के लिए बंद रहेगा। री-गर्डरिंग के दौरान सबवे में मशीनरी/उपस्कर लगाये जायेंगे। री-गर्डरिडग कार्य के दौरान ये उपस्कर सबवे में मौजूद रहेंगे। अतः यह सबवे सड़क वाहनों के लिए बंद रहेगा। इस व्यवस्था के कारण होने वाली असुविधा के लिए पश्चिम रेलवे द्वारा खेद व्यक्त किया गया है।

The clashes in Western Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj town have led to tragedy for three families — one of them lost a 22-year-old while two others have their loved ones recovering in local hospitals. So far, 112 people have been arrested for the fresh violence that erupted on Saturday after the cremation of the young man, who died during the clashes on Friday.

Chandan Gupta died of a bullet injury in the clashes that broke out during a “Tiranga bike rally” by activists of the RSS-backed students’ group, ABVP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. He was participating in the rally.

A student of commerce at a local college, Chandan Gupta he was involved with a local non-profit. His parents say he participated in activities like blanket distribution and blood donation drives. His family is now staging a dharna in Kasganj asking for swift justice in the case.

A cellphone video of the rally accessed by NDTV shows hundreds of young men, many holding saffron flags, standing at one of the streets.  Reports say they were asked by locals to move off, but they refused. In the video, they could be heard saying they won’t change route. Slogans were being shouted, that said everyone will have to say “Vande Mataram” if they wish to live in India.

Reports say the violence started soon after, during which stones were thrown and gunshots were heard.

Naushad, a labourer who was on his home from his work, got caught in the crossfire. A bullet hit his leg. “I could not react in time. Before I knew it, I felt a deep pain in my leg,” said Naushad, who is at a local hospital. Doctors say he is out of danger.

His eye has been operated upon at a hospital in Aligarh, where he is still admitted.

“I never imagined something like this could happen,” Mr Akram said. He said he saw the mob but in the darkness, thought they were cops. “Soon that mob set on me. I folded my hands and pleaded with them. But they assaulted me. After beating me and threatening to set my car on fire, they let me go. I guess some of them had some sanity left,” he said.