It seems that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is determined to get the monorail up and running by this month-end. The commissioner of railway safety is scheduled to inspect the corridor next week and if all goes well, the MMRDA will throw open the entire corridor from Chembur to Jacob Circle within two days of getting an approval, said an official.

The project was taken up in two phases—Chembur to Wadala and Wadala to Jacob Circle. The 8.8km monorail stretch from Chembur to Wadala was completed in the first phase and opened in February 2014. But on November 9, 2017, services were suspended after two monorail coaches were gitted. Metropolitan commissioner UPS Madan said, “As far as we are concerned, everything is ready. We can start services on the entire corridor within two days of sanction from the safety commissioner.”

Refuting reports that monorail services may not resume as there is no operator, the MMRDA said that L&T-Scomi Engineering, which was appointed in 2014 for three years, will continue to operate till a replacement is found. MMRDA had invited bids to appoint a new firm but it did not get much response. On March 3, it has again invited bids for the same.

“The existing operator will continue to undertake maintenance till we do no get a new one. It is legally binding on them do this,” said Madan.

He also clarified that L&T-Scomi Engineering had not refused to handle the operations. “No, they have not conveyed any such thing to us,” he said.

Meanwhile, though the corridor is still not operational, MMRDA has increased monorail fares by 100%. The new fare slabs are Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 30 and Rs 40. Earlier, a commuter travelling up to 3 km would have to pay only Rs 5, which will now be Rs 10. The complete phase 1 ride cost a commuter Rs 11 earlier, now it will cost Rs 20.

Also, following last year’s fire, MMRDA has decided to install CCTV cameras on both the ends of all monorail platforms so that evacuation measures can be taken up quickly during emergencies. Besides, evacuation chutes or midsection guideways are also being considered. Smoke detectors too will be installed inside all coaches.

CM Devendra Fadnavis had announced during last year’s budget session that the entire corridor will be thrown open in December 2017. Later, it was hoped that services would begin in February 2018, but it was delayed again. The Chembur-Wadala stretch had a daily ridership of 15,000 and MMRDA expects around 2 lakh on the entire corridor daily.

Delhi Metro’s Pink Line is set to commence operations with the stretch between Majlis Park- Durgabhai Deshmukh South Campus likely to be thrown open for public use later this week.

The Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) completed inspection of the 20.6km long Majlis Park- Durgabhai Deshmukh South Campus section of line 7 (Pink Line) of Phase III, Metro officials said on Sunday. The start of the line will connect north and northwest part of the city with the southern part of the city and reduce travel time for residents of west and north Delhi to the airport.

Senior Metro officials said Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is likely to receive the nod of CMRS within a few days after which the line will be opened for public. The section has 12 stations including four interchange stations: Azadpur, Netaji Subhash Place, Rajouri Garden and South campus.

The trains running on Pink line will cross Dhaula Kuan at a height of 23.6 metre (as high as a seven storey building) to reach South Campus from Majlis Park.

Once fully operational, the line will connect all the six lines of DMRC. With 10 interchange stations, the line will reduce passenger traffic from the existing interchange stations, especially at Rajiv Chowk, that is one of the most crowded stations in the city.

“Currently, four interchange stations will be operational and will help decongest the Rajiv Chowk station. The current section will connect with yellow line (Samaipur Badli-HUDA City Center) at Azadpur, Red line (Rithala-Dilshad Garden) at Netaji Subhash Place, Blue line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida/Vaishali) at Rajouri Garden and Airport line at Dhaula Kuan. The line is constructed in a way that it will decongest all the other lines. The line will come to northeast via west, south and east Delhi,” said a DMRC official.

The South Campus station will convert into an interchange station by June as the Foot Over Bridge, connecting the two stations, is not yet ready.

According to DMRC, the crisscrossing of Phase-III lines with the existing lines at many places will lead to emergence of several interchange stations, thus, shortening the distance between two different parts of the city by upto 15 km at some locations.

The Pink Line is also going to be the longest line of its network.

In a four-part series on Delhi Metro’s Pink Line, commuters will take a look at all the four major Metro stations — Azadpur, Netaji Subhash Place, Rajouri Garden and South Campus — of the Pink Line.

A railway committee constituted by railway minister Piyush Goyal has recommended deputing in a train a service captain identifiable by his uniform to address problems of passengers while they are travelling.

According to the report, the service captains will be tasked with addressing complaints related to cleanliness, amenities on board trains and issues related to berth accommodation and other operational issues.

The report has been submitted to the railway board and suggests that the national transporter provide single window supervision for all on board amenities for swift resolution of passengers complaints and issues.

A railway supervisor, service captain, be deputed on all mail and express trains… Every division should form a pool of on-board supervisors, the report said.

Explaining the logic behind having a single in-charge for all passenger-related issues on a train, the report said while railways operated a number of on-board services in trains, passengers are currently expected to contact different personnel for each service.

There is hence a need for ensuring availability of a single supervisor to coordinate onboard services and one who can be approached by customers as a single window for all types of available onboard services, the report said.

As of now, passengers have no option but to approach the TTE for all grievances and more often than not, they turn out to be of no help. Former railway minister Suresh Prabhu had encouraged grievance redressal through Twitter but overflow of complaints, often frivolous, turned out to be a deterrent.

The report said service captains should be appointed for a minimum of two years from among serving employees of the level of a junior engineer or master craftsman by a committee of senior officials of the division.

The duties of the service captain include supervising of cleaning, coordinating with different department regarding complaints of linen, repairs and operational issues, supervise coach maintenance issues such as missing passenger amenity items, issues of berths, windows, doors and pest and rodent control issues.

The committee has also recommended that the service captain be given a pre-defined dress so that he can be easily recognised and a set of hand tools and tool kit to assist him in attending to the job. A tailor-made training module along with competency certification at the senior scale should be introduced so that the service captain is adequately trained for the above duties, the report stated.

The committee has also suggested that since the deployment of service captains would require significant input of men, the scheme should be introduced in a phased manner in 10 select trains in at least four zonal railways as a pilot project first.

ArcelorMittal has signed a joint venture formation agreement with Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) in relation to its offer to acquire Essar Steel India Limited (Essar Steel).

The Company’s subsidiary ArcelorMittal India Private Limited (AMIPL) submitted a Resolution Plan for Essar on 12 February, which outlined the intention to have NSSMC formally join its bid for Essar Steel. Should the submitted Resolution Plan be selected and formally accepted by India’s National Company Law Tribunal, ArcelorMittal and NSSMC would jointly acquire and manage Essar Steel.In its Resolution Plan, AMIPL set out a detailed industrial and turnaround plan aimed at restoring Essar Steel’s fortunes, enabling it to realise its full potential and participate in the anticipated steel demand growth in India.

Commenting, Mr. Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO, ArcelorMittal, said:“Partnering with NSSMC for Essar Steel was always our intention and adds further strength to our offer. Combining our experience and expertise creates a powerful partnership that has a proven track record – our rich history of positive collaboration dates back more than 20 years with three joint ventures in the US. We believe that together we can contribute our knowledge and technology to support a rapid turn-around in Essar’s performance, enabling it to increase production, enhance its product capabilities and make a meaningful contribution to the future growth of India’s manufacturing sector and the development of its economy.”

ArcelorMittal and NSSMC have operated I/N Tek and I/N Kote in Indiana, USA, under joint venture agreements since 1987. I/N Tek and I/N Kote are high-added value downstream steel finishing facilities which serve the automotive and domestic appliance markets. More recently, in 2014, ArcelorMittal partnered with NSSMC on the acquisition of AM/NS Calvert, a state-of-the art downstream finishing facility in Alabama, USA.

The facility, which opened in 2010 and has a 5.3 million tonne capacity, was the largest newly constructed steel facility in the US in 40 years but had failed to reach its potential. A major investment programme has been undertaken following the acquisition.

The programme focussed on improving the facility’s finishing lines to enable the production of higher-added value steel products, including production of Usibor®, ArcelorMittal’s flagship advanced high-strength steel for the automotive sector, and increasing slab staging capacity and efficiency. These investments have helped to facilitate a rapid improvement in AM/NS Calvert’s performance: capacity utilisation rates have improved by over 20 per cent; shipments to the automotive sector more than doubled between 2015 and 2017; and productivity at the hot strip mill has increased by over 1 million tonnes since the acquisition.

ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading steel and mining company, with a presence in 60 countries and an industrial footprint in 18 countries. Guided by a philosophy to produce safe, sustainable steel, we are the leading supplier of quality steel in the major global steel markets including automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging, with world-class research and development and outstanding distribution networks.

ArcelorMittal leader in rail production, has manufacturing facilities in Rodange (Luxembourg), Gijón (Spain), Dabrowa Gornicza and Chorzow (Poland) and Steelton (USA), which combine their long experience with a high level of technology . These factors allow us to provide a lane of excellent quality, capable of satisfying the present and future needs of the most demanding users. Discover our materials, ArcelorMittal rails track elements and all the features of rail and tram elements.

ArcelorMittal, a leader in steel rail manufacturing with sites in Gijón (Spain), Rodange (Luxembourg), Dabrowa Gornicza and Chorzow (Poland) and Steelton (USA), combines long experience with a high technological level. These factors allows us to supply a rail of excellent quality, capable of meeting the present and future needs of the most demanding users.​

ArcelorMittal produces UIC 54 rail commonly used for low traffic loads and UIC 60 rail for medium and heavy traffic, as well as many other types of rails.

The rails and track fittings manufactured by Arcelormittal are supplied worldwide and exported throughout the world for high speed tracks, heavy haul tracks, urban transport system etc..

“Through the Company’s core values of sustainability, quality and leadership, we operate responsibly with respect to the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, contractors and the communities in which we operate,” it said. For us, steel is the fabric of life, as it is at the heart of the modern world from railways to cars and washing machines. We are actively researching and producing steel-based technologies and solutions that make many of the products and components people use in their everyday lives more energy efficient. We are one of the world’s five largest producers of iron ore and metallurgical coal. With a geographically diversified portfolio of iron ore and coal assets, we are strategically positioned to serve our network of steel plants and the external global market. While our steel operations are important customers, our supply to the external market is increasing as we grow.In 2017, ArcelorMittal had revenues of $68.7 billion and crude steel production of 93.1 million metric tonnes, while own iron ore production reached 57.4 million metric tonnes.

ArcelorMittal is listed on the stock exchanges of New York (MT), Amsterdam (MT), Paris (MT), Luxembourg (MT) and on the Spanish stock exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia (MTS).

Indian Railways would soon announce a Rs 10 lakh-crore high-speed train corridors construction plan to connect all major cities in the country, covering almost 10,000 kilometres, along the lines of the government’s Bharatmala highways development programme.

“The plan would be announced in April,” a top rail ministry official said. “We’ll unveil the routes that would be connected along with the funding mechanism,” an official from Railway Board told. Trains would be able to run at 200 km per hour on the new rail lines that would come elevated atop the existing or upcoming national highways or on rail land that runs parallel to existing rail routes, the official said.

Railways would come out with large tenders, inviting all global majors, to keep the cost of construction minimal. The government plans to build double lines on single pillars to halve the cost of construction from Rs 200 crore per km to Rs 100 crore per km. Also, light-weight aluminium coaches would be specifically designed for trains to be run on electric traction.

The mechanism of funding would most likely be borrowings from financial institutions and multilateral agencies along with monetising land bank. “The operational profitability of such projects is high as the revenues would also come from non-fare box such as commercial exploitation of stations as metro has done,” the official said. Railways minister Piyush Goyal has asked his officials to work on speed, scale and skill to achieve early implementation of these projects.

The government is currently constructing a 534 km-long bullet train corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad at a cost of over Rs 1 lakh crore. The project is likely to be completed by the end of 2022.

Feasibility studies for various other corridors including Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata and Bengaluru-Chennai have already been done.

At the recently held Summit, Goyal had laid down his blueprint for the transformation of railways in country that included bringing high speed technology to the country along with overhauling the signalling network on rail routes

Passengers may soon have access to one-man complaint redressal cells on-board trains, if a set of recommendations by a railway committee is approved by the Railway Board. The suggestion of deputing in a train a ‘service captain’ identifiable by his uniform to address problems of passengers was made in a report of a committee of senior officers formed by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal after a meeting with all zonal heads last December.

The report, a copy of which is with PTI, has been submitted to the board and suggests that the national transporter provide a single window supervision for all on-board amenities for swift resolution of passengers complaints and issues. “A railway supervisor, ‘service captain’ be deputed on all mail and express trains… Every division should form a pool of on board supervisors…,” the report said.

Explaining the logic behind having a single in-charge for all passenger-related issues on a running train, the report said that while railways operated a number of on-board services in trains, passengers are currently expected to contact different personnel for each of these services. “There is hence a need for ensuring availability of a single supervisor to coordinate the above on-board services and one who can be approached by customers as a single window for all types of available on board services,” the report said.

It also said that such service captains should be appointed for a minimum of two years from among serving employees of the level of junior engineer or master craftsman by a committee of senior officials of the division. The duties of the service captain include supervising of cleaning, coordinating with different department regarding complaints of linen, repairs and operational issues, supervise coach maintenance issues such as missing passenger amenity items, issues of berths, windows, doors and pest and rodent control issues.

The committee has also recommended that the service captain be given a ‘pre-defined’ dress so that he can be easily recognised and a set of hand tools and tool kit to assist him in attending to his job. “A tailor-made training module along with competency certification at the senior scale level so that the service captain is adequately trained for the above duties,” the report stated.

The committee has also suggested that since the deployment of service captains would require significant input of men, the scheme should be introduced in a phased manner in 10 select trains in at least four zonal railways as a pilot project first.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has raised red flags over the tender process of the Indian Railways’ Rs 2,700 crore trainset project –  which has resulted in a single bidder outcome –  and has sought clarification from the state-run transport on alleged deviations from the Modi government’s public procurement policy.

A trainset is a set of coaches coupled mechanically and electrically with driving cabins at both ends and distributed traction power across the train.The acceleration and deceleration is faster in a trainset as compared to other trains hauled by locomotives.

In a letter to Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek has observed that the eligibility conditions set in the trainset tender “prima facie seem to be non-compliant to the public procurement (preference to make in India) order.”

Formulated by the finance ministry, the policy aims to ensure that the tender conditions are strictly in sync with the public procurement order and take into account taking into account the interest of Indian manufacturers.

Equipped with improved passenger comforts, automatic door system and 160 km per hour maximum speed, the trainsets with both seating and sleeper berths are expected to run on Rajdhani routes.

The global bidding for the Rs 2,700 crore project, which involves manufacturing 291 aluminium-bodied coaches at the integrated coach factory (ICF) near Chennai, drew only one consortium on the last day of the tender submission on February 6, 2018 due to certain pre-bidding conditions.

Among others, one of the pre-conditions was that potential manufacturers should have an existing make-in-India facility for bidding and five years experience of supplying to G-8 countries.

Though the pre-bid meetings had attracted around seven global players and the last date of the bid submission was extended from January 29 to February 6, the Stradler-Medha consortium emerged the only bidder after the final submission.

After the last date of submission, a leading Indian rolling stock manufacturer complained to the DIPP, drawing attention to the alleged violation of the public procurement order which resulted in the elimination of other players.

Taking note of the complaint, the DIPP pointed out “The stipulated requirement that the bidder should have an prior experience in supplying to G8 countries in the last five years would most certainly go against the domestic manufacturers and in favour of a restricted number of global players – there is no justification for taking supply to G8 countries as a condition.”

According to the tender’s conditions, the first train set of 20 coaches shall be manufactured complete in all respects at the successful bidder’s premises and shall be dispatched to the ICF.

From the second trainset onwards, the successful bidder “shall supply the components, electrics, furnishing material etc. sourced from themselves or their vendors to ICF and assembly of the trainset car body, bogie, painting and furnishing shall be carried out at ICF”.

There is an option to manufacture up to 10 trainsets at the successful bidder’s premises and ship these to the ICF. However, the last four trainsets and spare coaches should be assembled at the ICF.

Seeking a closer examination of the issue, the DIPP secretary has sought an action-taken report from the Railways.

“I would therefore request you to examine the grievance and take appropriate action for compliance of PPP-MII order. This department may please be informed of the comments/action taken in this regard,” the secretary’s letter to the CRB concluded.

Sources said the concerned officials are currently examining the issue and will respond to the DIPP’s query.

The Railways will now have to take a call on whether to go ahead with the only consortium or opt for retendering with revised conditions, said a senior railway official with knowledge of the matter.

To be manufactured at the ICF, the project known as Train-20, envisages rolling out 15 light weight aluminium-bodied trainsets, a first for Indian Railways.

Flawed bidding processes

The railway ministry’s attempts at procuring modern trainsets has had a unfruitful past. In June 2015, the-then railway minister Suresh Prabhu announced a global tender for “procurement-cum-maintenance and manufacture of 15 train sets with 315 coaches”.

However, by May 2016, none of the five short-listed bidders decided to submit quotes. According to media reports from the time, all the companies asked for an increase in “the quantum of work under the tender”.

This tender was in 2017 split into two different procurement processes (called the Train-18 and Train-20 projects).

South Central Railway (SCR) used be adversely affected when electric locomotives would be shifted to workshops for periodic overhaul. Identifying the need for high-capacity loco sheds, SCR commissioned capacity enhancement works at Vijayawada and Vizag sheds.

Vijayawada loco shed, which is the largest one in SCR division, used to hold 175 locos. After the systemic rejig, Vijayawada shed can accommodate upto 219 locos.

R Dhananjayulu said they did not want to wait for the capacity enhancement to be fully complete and have already started homing number of locos. “After the completion of the loco shed enhancement, we will soon begin homing three-phased locos which is soon going to be the future of locomotives in Indian Railways,” Dhananjayulu told.

Railway officials said the works were commissioned in the last three years. With around 589 electric locomotives, SCR has the highest number of such locomotives in Indian Railways. Due to the lack of appropriate sheds, they were forced to send them to other workshops at Dahod in Gujarat, Perumbur in Tamil Nadu and Bhusawal in Maharashtra till 2017.

SCR general manager Vinod Kumar Yadav announced the novel measure at the 38th meeting of the electric-loco maintenance study group held in July 2017. The measure is expected to reduce maintenance time and other related costs as well as facilitate seamless running of trains. Officials said SCR is working on the idea to develop loco sheds that can maintain both diesel and electrica

The first Antyodaya rake is to be operated as a bi-weekly daytime special train between Tambaram and Sengottai from Monday. The rake comprising 16 unreserved Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches will start running from Tambaram.

Compared to the conventional coaches, the interiors and exteriors of LHB coaches have been wrapped with vinyl sheets to ensure that train sports a new look. Every coach reportedly has a drinking water vending machine to ensure comfort of passengers. Besides, a fire extinguisher has also been mounted.

The Antyodaya coaches have a vestibule to enable passengers to move from one coach to the last coach of the train, a senior railway official said. Proposed in the 2016 Union Budget, the Antyodaya coaches are ideal for night travel trains, with the added facilities.

To cater to more unreserved passengers in highly congested routes, the Railways announced that two Antyodaya Express trains would be introduced from Tambaram to Tirunelveli and Sengottai.

To begin the daily service, railways required two rakes of Antyodaya coaches. The second rake of 20 coaches had been handed over to Southern Railway only a week ago.

“After completing the mandatory safety procedures, the second rake would be put to use and accordingly the bi-weekly special train will be converted as regular Antyodaya Express,” he said.

According to a press note, Tambaram-Sengottai unreserved special train will leave Tambaram at 7 am on March 5, 7, 12 and 14 and reach Sengottai at 10.30 pm the same day.

Similarly, in the return direction, Sengottai-Tambaram unreserved special train will leave Sengottai at 6 am on March 6, 8, 13 and 15 and reach Tambaram at 10.30 pm the same day.

The trains will stop at Chengalpattu, Melmaruvathur, Villupuram, Chidambaram, Mayiladuthurai, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tiruchy, Pudukkottai, Karaikudi, Manamadurai, Aruppukkottai, Virudhunagar, Sivakasi, Rajapalayam, Sankarankovil and Tenkasi.

Facilities in the new rake
• Interiors and exteriors wrapped with vinyl sheets
• Vestibule running from the first to the last coach
• Drinking water vending machines inside the train
• It comprises 16 unreserved LHB coaches
• Ideal for trains that take night-long journeys
• Will help address demand for unreserved coaches