A 19-year-old man from Badoi in Uttar Pradesh who was facing a case for allegedly kidnapping a girl jumped from a speeding train in Thane district of Maharashtra and died four days later, the railway police said on Friday.

The man, badly injured and unconscious, was found on the tracks between Kopar and Diva stations on the night of June 19 and died at Sion hospital in Mumbai on June 23, said senior inspector of Dombivli Railway Police Satish Pawar.

As the man never regained consciousness, police could not get information from him. By calling people in the contact list of his mobile phone, police identified him as Sahil Hashmi of Durgaganj in Badoi in UP, he said.

Probe revealed that Mr Hashmi had run away with a girl aged around 16 on June 15 and was heading for Mumbai.

The family members of the girl registered a kidnapping case at the Durgaganj police station against the boy and alerted the girl’s brother in Mumbai. The brother found them on the train, and when Mr Hashmi saw him, he allegedly jumped out of the train, the police officer said.

The girl and her brother have since returned to UP, he added.

The victim had no signs of assault on his body and therefore no foul play was suspected, Mr Pawar said, adding that further probe was on

As Bengaluru opens up after COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the city is reminded of one of its major challenges: mobility. For years, activists have pushed for a good suburban rail network which would help in cutting down the number of vehicles on the road and also reduce commute time for those using the railways.

The long- pending ₹ 15,767 crore Bengaluru suburban railway project is aimed at doing just that. The project is being executed by K-RIDE, a joint venture of the Karnataka government and the Ministry of Railways.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa inspected the progress of the project on Thursday, travelling from the Bengaluru cantonment station to Heelalige railway station.

“If the Bengaluru suburban rail project is completed swiftly, traffic congestion in Karnataka’s capital will be reduced drastically. People will be able to commute easily in the suburban areas and to the Kempegowda International Airport,” Mr Yediyurappa said.

The project will include 4 corridors with a total route length of 148 km. These corridors are: KSR Bangalore City to Devanahalli and Bengaluru International Airport (41.40 km), Baiyyapanahalli to Chikkabanavara (25 km), Kengeri to Whitefield (35.52 km) and Heelalige (Chandapura) to Rajankunte (46.24 km).

The cost of the project will be shared on 20:20:60 basis between the Government of Karnataka, the Ministry of Railways and external funding.

In addition to the project, work on doubling the single rail line between Yeshvantpur- Channasandra and Baiyyappanahalli- Hosur had also been sanctioned in 2018-2019. These projects will also be executed by K-RIDE and the cost of the projects will be shared on 50: 50 basis between the Government of Karnataka and the Ministry of Railways.

The 22 km long Yeshvanthpur- Channasandra railway doubling project has an estimated cost of ₹ 315 crore with the state’s share being ₹ 157 crore. The work on the project started in October 2020 and is estimated to be completed by December 2023.

3CommentsThe 48 km long Baiyappanahalli- Hosur railway doubling project, which began in October 2020 and is expected to be completed by December 2023, is being implemented at an estimated cost of ₹ 499 crore. In 2020-21, the state government released ₹ 65 crore for this project.

The Ranipettai railway station, constructed in 1858 – one of the Indian Railways’ oldest on the network, is set to become a developing hub for freight traffic, according to the Southern railway zone. After a gap of 25 years, the station which was suspended due to operational reasons in 1995, became functional for freight movement on January 20, 2021. The station – now a goods terminal for Ranipettai in Tamil Nadu, comes under the administration of the Chennai division of the Southern railway zone.

• The first loading transported 1,300 tonnes of fertilizers to Tadepalligudam and Dwarapudi in Andhra Pradesh as a two-point rake, which fetched a revenue of Rs.15.32 lakhs for the railway authorities, according to the Chennai division of Southern railways.
• The second rake was operated to Siliyari, in Chattisgarh on March 3, 2021, which carried 1,326 tonnes of fertilizers, fetching a sum of ₹ 25.88 lakhs as revenue for Indian Railways.
• The third rake transported 1,329 tonnes of fertilizers to Tadepalligudam and Eluru in Andhra Pradesh as a two point rake on March 16, 2021, which fetched a revenue of Rs.13.72 lakhs for the railway authorities.
• For the current financial year 2021-2022, the first loading of goods from the Ranipettai station started on June 15, 2021. It was operated as a two-point rake from Ranipettai, where 11 wagons were loaded to Tadepalligudam (701 tonnes) and 10 wagons to the Krishna Canal junction (637 tonnes) in Andhra Pradesh.
• This resulted in transporting a total of 1338 tonnes of chemical manure or single super phosphate for M/s Coromandel International Limited, Ranipettai. This generated a revenue of ₹ 11,69,790, according to Southern railways.

The next rake is likely to be operated on June 23, 2021, from Ranipettai to Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Indian Railways’ total freight loading in fiscal 2021 stood at 203.88 million tonnes, compared to 184.88 million tonnes in the financial year 2020, marking a 10 per cent growth year-on-year.

All 15 railway stations in the Kashmir valley have been integrated with 6,021 other stations across the country under the wireless fidelity or Wi-Fi network of Indian Railways.

Public Wi-Fi, provided under the brand name of RailWire, is available at all the 15 stations namely Baramula, Budgam, Srinagar, Pampore, Avantipura, Bijbehara and Anantnag among others, which are spread out in four districts headquarters of the Union Territory of Kashmir, the Railway Ministry has said.

Wi-fi service is already available at 15 stations in the Union Territory of Jammu, official sources said.

The telecommunication arm of the Ministry of Railways, RailTel was mandated to provide public Wi-Fi at all the railway stations and it is now available in more than 6,000 stations across the country.

Comments The Wi-Fi facility service at railway stations will be available to any user who has a smartphone with working mobile connection for know your customer (KYC) considerations.

A Civil Defence personnel was apprehended on Sunday for posing as Delhi Police Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) at the Old Delhi Railway station.

According to the police, the man, identified as Kishan Yadav, wore the uniform of an ASI Delhi Police to travel “hassle-free” to his native Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh by Farakka Express train with his brothers, Jay Singh Yadav and Himanshu, as they had only two confirmed tickets.

The police stated that Sunday at 7:38 pm, a PCR call was received at Old Delhi Railway Station regarding a person standing in uniform of ASI of Delhi Police, who claimed to be appointed in 2019, and seemed to be an imposter.

As per a statement issued by the police, Mr Yadav was spotted by caller Constable Yogesh Kumar posted in 7th Battalion, who pointed out towards a young person who was wearing the police uniform.

The, caller being in Delhi Police, spotted this person because he found him very young and on asking how he got promoted at such a young age to the rank of ASI, the imposter could not give a satisfactory reply, said the police.

A passenger trying to board a moving train at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai narrowly escaped a mishap, thanks to a Railway guard and a Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel.

The guard, in turn, was pulled away from the train in time by the RPF constable when he lost his balance. Railways have said all three are fine.

The chilling incident, which took place last night, was captured by a CCTV camera installed on the platform. The footage shows a man trying to board the Mumbai-Mangaluru special train as it is leaving the platform.

The man trips and is dragged along the platform when RPF constable Narsingh Kanojiya comes running and Railway guard Jitendar Pal gets off the train to save the man. While the man is pulled away from the train, Mr Pal loses his balance and falls and is dragged along the platform before Mr Kanojiya rescues him. The train was later stopped by the station staff and the guard boarded it again.

The Central Railway said in a tweet that “there are two heroes in the incident”.

Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway, Shivaji Sutar said, “Railways has been trying to create awareness through various platforms against this fatal behavioural issue and has requested passengers not to try boarding or getting off a moving train as it can be dangerous.”

2 Comments Besides boarding and deboarding moving trains, travelling on the footboards of trains and carelessly crossing tracks are among the other acts that lead to railway accidents and loss of lives every year.

A passenger trying to board a moving train at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai narrowly escaped a mishap, thanks to a Railway guard and a Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel.

The guard, in turn, was pulled away from the train in time by the RPF constable when he lost his balance. Railways have said all three are fine.

The chilling incident, which took place last night, was captured by a CCTV camera installed on the platform. The footage shows a man trying to board the Mumbai-Mangaluru special train as it is leaving the platform.

The man trips and is dragged along the platform when RPF constable Narsingh Kanojiya comes running and Railway guard Jitendar Pal gets off the train to save the man. While the man is pulled away from the train, Mr Pal loses his balance and falls and is dragged along the platform before Mr Kanojiya rescues him. The train was later stopped by the station staff and the guard boarded it again.

The Central Railway said in a tweet that “there are two heroes in the incident”.

Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway, Shivaji Sutar said, “Railways has been trying to create awareness through various platforms against this fatal behavioural issue and has requested passengers not to try boarding or getting off a moving train as it can be dangerous.”

Comments Besides boarding and deboarding moving trains, travelling on the footboards of trains and carelessly crossing tracks are among the other acts that lead to railway accidents and loss of lives every year.

With Mumbai being lashed with heavy rains, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that both the financial capital of India and the Railways need to be fully prepared for the monsoon.

The union railway minister on Thursday reviewed the preparations and road map of Mumbai Suburban Railways for all contingency solutions in the rainy season, a statement from the ministry said.

The Minister examined the current status of vulnerable areas and reviewed plans for the smooth functioning of trains.

Mr Goyal said that Railways is committed to ensuring that no inconvenience is caused to Mumbaikars as the monsoon begins.

The meeting was attended by senior officials of the Railway Board and Mumbai.

While reviewing the preparedness of the Suburban Railways, the Minister advised the Railways to partner with Institutions like IIT Mumbai to study the efficiency of technical and civil work initiatives of Railways in handling monsoon rains.

He said innovation and hard work must go together to ensure that Railway services continue to operate safely and in an uninterrupted manner.

Even during the Covid pandemic, the Railways had undertaken a major exercise to for the cleaning of muck/garbage/earth of 2,10,000 cubic meters from suburban section by deploying three “No muck special” including specially modified EMU rakes in Mumbai.

Flooding spots of the previous monsoon were identified and customized solutions were devised for each spot that is in Bandra, Andheri, Mahim, Grant road, Goregaon.

In order to have real time and authentic rain data, the railway ministry said that four numbers automatic rain gauge (ARG) have now been installed in association with India Meteorological Department (IMD) and ten numbers installed by WR independently.

The Indian Railways authorities will restore some special train services from this month to ensure state-wise mobility and for the convenience of passengers. Several Indian Railways train services across the national transporter’s network were canceled due to a surge in COVID-19 cases amid the severity of the second wave of the pandemic in the country. The special train services come under the administration of the Northern Railways zone – headquartered in New Delhi. According to recent official updates from Northern Railways, passengers need to follow COVID-19 protocol during the journey.

According to the official circular issued by the Northern railway zone, the authorities have decided to resume the special train services across few routes of the zone. Some of these train services along with details of train number, routes, frequency are as follows:

• Train Number 02433 will start from Chennai Central on June 18
• Train Number 02055 will start from New Delhi on June 15
• Train Number 02434 will start from H.Nizamuddin on June 16
• Train Number 02056 will start from Dehradun on June 14
• Train Number 02058 will start from Una Himachal on June 15
• Train Number 02057 will start from New Delhi on June 14
• Train Number 02402 will start from Dehradun on June 14
• Train Number 02401 will start from Kota on June 15
• Train Number 02039 will start from Kathgodam on June 14
• Train Number 02264 will start from H.Nizamuddin on June 14
• Train Number 02263 will start from Pune on June 15

Despite severe restrictions on entry at railway stations without confirmed tickets in view of the coronavirus pandemic, over 27 lakh people were caught travelling on trains ticketless in the last fiscal, an RTI query has revealed.

This was, however, less than 25 per cent of the number of cases recorded the previous financial year and that is attributable to the restrictions imposed to check the COVID-19 contagion, say officials.

The data made available by the Railway Board following an RTI query made by Madhya Pradesh-based activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur showed that between April 2020 and March 2021, 27.57 lakh people were caught travelling ticketless and ₹ 143.82 crore was levied as a fine from them.

In the 2019-2020 fiscal, 1.10 crore people were caught travelling ticketless and in total, a fine of ₹ 561.73 crore was realized from them.

“Traveling ticketless or with an unauthorised ticket is a long-standing challenge before the Indian Railways. On its part, the Railways makes informative, educative and punitive measures to discourage people from doing the same,” said Railway spokesperson D J Narain.

The 2020-2021 financial year was the period when the Railways ran the least number of passenger trains in its history due to the coronavirus pandemic and there were severe restrictions on the movement of people inside railway premises, including non-issuance of platform tickets.

It includes the lockdown period between April 14 and May 3 when the Railways was not operating any passenger trains except the Shramik Specials which started from May 1. These trains were run at the request of the state governments and the tickets were issued only to those authorised by the states.

In June last year, the Railways began running special trains and issued strict guidelines — e-ticketing through IRCTC website or through mobile App, no tickets booking at reservation counter, only passengers with confirmed tickets to be allowed entry at station and screening to be done before boarding with only asymptomatic passengers allowed to enter the train.

Fully waitlisted passengers and unreserved passengers were not allowed to travel on trains as the unreserved coaches were booked as reserved second sitting coaches to ensure that the necessary Covid-related protocols are followed.

“Accordingly, in line with these instructions, without ticket passengers at railway premises and trains were being identified and charged as part of normal as well as special ticket checking drives.