Four out of ten trains in the country are being delayed not because of fog, vagaries of nature or accidents, but because of railways’ large scale repair work, according to official data.

Passengers, it seems, are paying the price of heavy track maintenance work which has seen a 43 percent increase in the period between April and December, 2017 as compared to the same period in 2016.

While during that period in 2017, 1,09,704 trains were delayed, in 2016, the number was less by 16,092 trains.

While five percent of these trains were delayed due to accidents, including those in which cattle were run over, 20 percent was due to asset failure and 40 percent due to repair work. The rest has been attributed to inclement weather conditions.

Officials say that given that safety is the top priority for railways in the coming year, passengers have to bear the brunt on account of repair and maintenance work.

A senior official of the railways told RailNews that on an average, between April-November 2017, railways have increased the block hours for maintenance by 18 percent as compared to the previous year, resulting in delays across the network.

Indian Railways is slated to spend Rs 1,000 crore a month over six months starting October 2017 to replace old and out- of-date tracks with new ones.

Rail minister Piyush Goyal has set a target of track renewal for the current fiscal at 3,600 kilometres, an 80 percent jump over the average 2,000 km of tracks renewed by railways every fiscal.

In fact railways have completed a record 476-kilometres track renewal in the month of December and expects to touch 3,500-kilometres of track renewal in 2017-18, officials said.

“Safety is our topmost priority. Repair and maintenance work is the only way we can ensure that”, said a senior official of the railways.

While punctuality of trains has suffered due to repair work – from April to December in the current fiscal, punctuality was recorded at 74.5 percent, which was around 3.73 percent lower compared with the same period in the last financial year.

Railways have increased the hours given for repair works per day all over the country from around 3,000 hours per day to around 5,000 hours per day.

As the officials of Ambala rail division showcased the new features, which have been added to the coaches of the Chandigarh–New Delhi Shatabdi Express (12046/45), during an interaction at the Chandigarh Railway Station on Saturday, division’s railway manager Dinesh Chand Sharma, however, said the services and facilities still remained the same for passengers.

“Only the interior has been modified to present a better look. We have also emphasised on the training and behaviour of the staff. The entire exercise has been done to improve the passengers’ satisfaction,” Sharma said.

This is the only train that has been upgraded till now by the Ambala Division. Only the interior has been made to look better by spending ₹2.2 lakh.

Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of the Ambala Division, Dinesh Chand Sharma, said, “It has been done to improve the passenger’s satisfaction. Only the interior has been modified to give it a better look.”

Gold standard features that have been added include Vinyl wrapped interiors in doorway, gangways, toilets, luggage rack panels, ceiling, destination boards and coach no. plates; improved toilet fittings; improved signages/posters and anti graffiti coating.

No new/upgraded facilities

No new facilities have been provided and no upgradation in the facilities has been done by the unit. The speed and timetable of the train will remain the same. Sharma said, “No upgradation has been done in facilities but now the train will look cleaner.”

He further added that the unit will go for modification of more trains in future. He also said that the changes will be done jurisdiction wise.

Passenger wish upgradation of facilities

When asked about how the passengers feel, they said that it looked a little better; however, the railway department should also work on the facilities.

A passenger, Avtar Kaur, said, “Shatabdi used to be really good when it had started but now the jerks take the comfort away. Further, the foot rests are of no use and provide no comfort.”

She further said, “Sajawat ton ki laina, washroom dian kundian tan tuttian hundian ne (What is the purpose of decorating when the toilet latches are broken)”, suggesting that the officials should work more on the facilities.

Another passenger, Nitya, said, “Though the interior looks better but the comfort is not as much as needed. Change will reflect itself if facilities are changed.”

Adding more coaches when airport closes

Chandigarh International Airport is to close down for two weeks in February. It is being done due to upgrade work of the runway.

Sharma said, “More coaches will be added in eth trains, and we will try to accommodate as many passengers as we can. This will depend on the waiting list.” He mentioned that there would probably be no need to add a new train.

Safety and security at the station

When asked about the safety and security at the railway station and the lack of door frame metal detector (DFMD), the officials said that they will look into the matter. They said, “We will speak to the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF).”

The most recent train to have got a makeover is the Chandigarh-Delhi Shatabdi that has been modified under the Swarn project and is now totally fire-proof.

There is one executive coach and nine other chair cars in the Shatadbi 12046/12045 which was revamped under the same scheme.

As part of the makeover, 10 key components have been taken under consideration which include punctuality, cleanliness, linen, coach interiors, toilets, catering, staff behavior, security, entertainment, housekeeping and lastly, feedback.

Around ₹2.5 lakh has been spent for each coach and each compartment aisle of the new train has been marked with fluorescent strips for guidance and safety of passengers, similar to that of an airline.

With renovated interiors, upgraded toilets and automatic hygiene-control systems, this Swarn Shatabdi is said to be the best in terms of hygiene and security.

To top it off, installation of CCTV cameras along with an increase in the number of Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, Swarn has got us a full package.

In the age of smart cities and new metro rail lines being the latest trend, the Southern Railway has been a sleeping giant over the past eight years in Tamil Nadu and has been ducking over on projects proposed way back in 2006 for which even surveys and initial funds were allocated.

The common answer from railway authorities is that new lines are not commercially viable and this also applies to the Mayiladuthurai-Thirunallar-Karaikal a potential line that supports tourism and pilgrimage and a long pending demand of delta farmers and pilgrimages thronging the historical temples located along the Cauvery river basin.

“The Pattali Makkal Katchi, which had two ministers of state for railways in the recent past had also been insisting on Chennai -Puducherry line via Mamallapuram along east coast road and the incomplete Chennai Beach-Velachery-Alandur mass rapid transit system project is also a classic example, but there is no progress,” said a railway source attached to the Southern Railway Sangh. With the state not having a representation in the Union railway ministry and the scrapping up of railway budget, there is no transparency and the political pressure on the railway ministry seeking projects for TN, the insider added.

According to Arupathy P. Kalyanam, organiser, Mayiladuthurai-Tharangambadi Train Restoration Committee, the railway authorities have failed to realise the traffic potential along these lines connecting delta districts that support tourism and pilgrimage. Rail passengers and Delta farmers urge the speedy construction of the railway lines and from Tharangambadi, Thirunallar is just an 11-kilometre new route that needs land acquisition.

In his letter to Union railway minister Kalyanam also pointed out that from Thirunallar, Karaikal  is just a 6-kilometre stretch and that is now being implemented under Peralam-Karaikal link for which the work is already in progress. Further by implementing this project, the railways will have a full Cauvery delta circular rail link connecting Thanjavur-Kumbakonam-Mayiladuthurai-Tharangambadi-Karaikkal-Nagapattinam-Thiruvarur-Thanjavur covering a stretch 213 kilometre connecting major Hindu, Muslim and Christian pilgrimage centres with high traffic potential, the letter added.

All railway stations — nearly 8,500 across the country, including those in rural and remote areas — will be equipped with Wi-Fi facilities at an estimated cost of Rs. 700 crore ($110 million).

As part of the government’s ambitious Digital India initiative, the national transporter has currently commissioned Wi-Fi services at 216 major stations enabling about seven million rail passengers to log on to the free Internet facility.

“Internet access has now become an important requirement in day-to-day working and we shall be providing this facility at all railway stations in the country,” a senior Railway Ministry official said.

As per the plan finalised at a recent meeting, while 1,200 stations have been identified for this facility to primarily cater to rail passengers, about 7,300 stations have been earmarked to not only serve passengers but also local people in rural and remote areas.

The Wi-FI facility at these stations in rural and remote areas will be offered to the local population as part of the digital makeover of rural India to promote e-governance.

Railway stations in rural areas will have kiosks with Wi-FI that will become digital hot spots offering services like digital banking, Aadhaar generation, issuing government certificates, including birth and death certificates, and filing taxes and paying bills, among others.

The kiosks will also enable the local populace to order and receive goods from e-commerce portals.

“These kiosks will be operated at stations with private participation for the local population,” said the official, adding, “The modalities of setting up such digital hot spots are being worked out with the Telecom Ministry.”

As per the timeline, while 600 stations are targeted to be provided with the Wi-FI facility by March 2018, the Railways aim to cover all 8,500 stations by March 2019.

COMMENTSOur aim is to ensure that more and more people get connected to the rail Wi-FI system as the Wi-Fi broadband access to these rail users will aid in implementing the government’s Digital India initiative, he said.

During the month of December last year, the Northern Railways achieved the highest-ever freight loading in history.

“Northern Railways has achieved a revenue loading of 5.01MT during December 2017 which is the highest. Northern Railway has also surpassed the current year target of 4.99 MT for December and loading of 4.32 MT achieved in December last year. Loading in December is 0.02 MT (0.40 per cent) which is more than the target and 0.69 MT (15.97 per cent) more than last year,” said an official note.

There has been an increase in Revenue Loading Earning by 145.4 crore (21.50 per cent) and the Jumbo Loading per day has increased from last year.
“Jumbo Loading has increased from a level of 35.03 jumbo per day in December 2016 to 40.58 jumbos per day in December 2017 registering an increase of 15.84 per cent,” it added.

There has been a surge in throughput that has increased from 12731 wagons per day in December 2016 to 15213 wagons per day in December 2017 registering an improvement of 19.50 per cent.

Wagon Holding has also shown significant improvement during December 2017 it was 22,365 wagons per day against 24,642 wagons last year an improvement of 9.24 per cent over last year. Wagon turn round has improved from 1.91 in December 2016 to 1.66 achieved in December 2017 registering an improvement of 13.09 per cent in December 2017.

The long haul running has also increased substantially. During December 2017, 228 long hauls were run as compared to 41 long hauls in December 2016 registering an increase of 456.10 per cent.

During December 2017, a total of 703 crack trains were run against 423 cracks last year showing an increase of 66.19 per cent.

The Indian Railways need to buy 3,350 truckloads of cow dung at Rs 42 crore in 2018 to “recharge”–add bacteria to activate degradation–leaky, malfunctioning ‘bio-toilets’ that it has fitted on 44.8% of trains and hopes to expand to all trains by 2018, according to IndiaSpend projections of data released by the national auditor to Parliament.

Bio-toilets are small-scale sewage-treatment systems beneath the toilet seat: Bacteria in a compost chamber digest human excreta, leaving behind water and methane. That’s how they were supposed to work.

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on these bio-toilets echoes the findings of our November 2017 investigation into their widespread malfunctioning: The CAG found 199,689 defects in 25,000 toilets.

Responding to the CAG findings, the railway ministry said its criticism was “not correct” and that “some problems of choking were occurring on account of misuse of toilets by passengers”. An official note from December 20, 2017, said: “These issues are being dealt with promptly.”

“By November 2011, the performance issues of each design of bio-toilets were clearly showing up,” the note said. “Therefore, the ministry did not wait until the end of the trial period to make the decision (to order the procurement of bio-toilets from private manufacturers).”

Our November 2017 story quoted studies from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and IIT Kanpur that said the bio-toilets were no better than “septic tanks” and the water they let out no better than “raw sewage”.

Each bio-toilet requires 60 litres–or three large bucketfuls–of inoculum, a mix of cow dung and water, according to the December 19, 2017, CAG  report. This inoculum begins the process of breaking down 3,980 tons of human excreta that is released untreated by trains on rail tracks nationwide every day.

The bio-toilets originally used a bacterium found in Antarctica by a defence scientist, who cultured it in 2005 and 10 years later, got a patent on its use. Over seven years to 2017, 97,761 such toilets were fitted in new coaches or retrofitted in existing Indian trains.

The railways went ahead with the toilet installation even though the flaw in the basic model designed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had been pointed out by an expert panel in 2007. In an interview (to be published tomorrow), Vinod Tare, an IIT professor of environmental engineering, who headed this panel, told us that these bio-toilets had been found ineffective at two venues: Kumbh Mela, the massive gathering of Hindu pilgrims held every 12 years at a river bank, and the army base-camp at Siachen glacier.

The panel’s two-year study was completed in November 2017 by IIT Madras.

The railways bought 3,600 litres of inoculum for Rs 68,400 in May 2016, said the CAG report. Based on this cost, we estimate that to recharge the 97,761 bio-toilets currently in use, the railways will need 23.46 million litres–or 3,350 truckloads–of cow dung.

With the railways failing to produce enough bacteria, the cow dung will be sourced from private sector at Rs 19 per litre. The railways have a workshop–with an installed capacity to generate 30,000 litres of bacteria each month–in Nagpur, but no action has been taken on a 2011 proposal to set up two more facilities, at Kapurthala and Perambur.

No clarity on funds or manpower for bio-toilet project

There is no clarity on two other critical issues relating to bio-toilets on trains: The infrastructure costs involved in installation, including procurement and installation of evacuation machines and hydraulic lifts, and anticipated expenses on training and deployment of manpower.

Further, if all 54,506 rail coaches are to be fitted with vacuum toilets atop the bio-toilets being installed–as is being planned–there will be an additional cost of Rs 10,900 crore. The current market price of a vacuum toilet unit is approximately Rs 200,000.

The additional expense might have been worth it if the bio-toilet scheme, 24 years in the making, had been efficient. But the CAG has amplified concerns about its performance and has endorsed the findings by external agencies too.

The flaws in bio-toilets, according to the CAG

In an evaluation of 25,000 toilets for the period under review (2016-17), the CAG detected 199,689 defects and deficiencies. Here are some major issues, according to the report:

• Highest number of problems/ defects (41,111) found at the Bengaluru coaching depot, followed by Gorakhpur (24,495) and Wadi Bunder (22,521);
• Complaints per bio-toilet were highest at the Bengaluru coaching deport (98), followed by Wadi Bunder (32), Rameshwaram (28) and Gwalior (17);
• Of the 102,792 instances of choking, 10,098 (10%) cases reported in March 2017;
• Of the 102,792 cases of choking in 25,080 bio-toilets, the highest (34%) were reported from Bengaluru. This implied that one bio-toilet got choked 83 times a year;
• Choking incidents have risen from 2015-16: One bio-toilet got choked four times a year during 2016-17.

Quantity and quality of material used criticised by CAG

In an email dated May 21, 2016, to then defence minister Manohar Parrikar, Y Ashok Babu, a scientist at the DRDO, had alleged that a “nexus of bureaucrats and industrialists” was pushing for what was “nothing but gobar gas plants involving no technology”.

The CAG report too slammed the railways for the “quality and quantity” of material being procured.

As the report observed, there were complaints pending against seven of the nine firms against with which the Railway Board placed orders. These are: Ms JSL Life Style Limited, Ms Omax Auto Limited, Ms Mohan Rail Components Limited, Ms Rail Fab, Ms Amit Engineers, Ms Hindustan Fiber Glass Works and Ms Rail Tech.

In July 2017, the railways ministry barred three companies (Ms Rail Tech, Ms Rail Fab and Ms Hindustan Fiber) from being considered for railway contracts for an unspecified period. The ministry also proposed that the contract of another company, Ms Mohan Rail, be cancelled.

Negligence in testing of effluents and bacteria culture

The CAG report found that 12 coaching depots of nine railway zones had not finalised the annual maintenance and operating contracts (AMOCs) for bio-toilets.

“Evaluation of performance is a continuous process resulting in addition or deletion from the approved list,” the railways ministry said in a press note in response to the CAG report. It added that “all major coaching depots now had the AMOC contract, while this was progressively being extended to other depots”.

As the CAG found, Indian Railways have not adhered to the guidelines on testing the effluents released by bio-toilets. The tests had not been conducted at all at the Dhanbad coaching depot and records of the samples sent for testing and the results of these tests were not maintained at five coaching depots.

At the Lower Parel workshop in Mumbai, 18 drums of bacteria procured at a cost of Rs 68,400 in May 2016 had been lying unused even after their shelf life had expired.

After 2011, the railways placed bulk orders for the supply, installation and commissioning of approximately 80,000 bio-toilets. The CAG criticised the railways for failing to come up with a “standardized design” for these units. It also pointed to the “large scale proliferation” of 10,000 tanks in November 2011 “before test results of trials on seven different variants had been analyzed”. Earlier reports had suggested that the land-based variants of these toilets were unsuccessful.

The Centre has plans to connect the Indian Railways with Asian countries for effective implementation of the BJP-led government’s Act East Policy, Union Minister Rajen Gohain said on Friday. He also said that India is more strongly connected with Asian nations than China in terms of traditional and cultural bonding since ages unknown. “India has been the mother of culture and traditional heritage across the entire Asian region. India is the heart of entire Asia”, he said.

The North Eastern Region is being connected with neighbouring Bangladesh through the Agartala-Akhaura rail line, and survey was underway in Manipur for extension of railways up to Moreh on the India-Myanmar border, he said.

Tripura’s capital on Friday was linked with Bengaluru by “Humsafar Express”, becoming the second city in the northeast to get a newly introduced train, equipped with modern facilities. Gohain, the Union Minister of State for Railways, was speaking at the flagging-off ceremony of the Agartala-Bengaluru Cant Hamsafar Express from the Agartala railway station here. Friday’s event was a formal inaugural and services for the public will start on January 9. The weekly train will link the two state capitals via Kamakhya, Howrah, Cuttack and Vijayawada.

He said that the entire North Eastern Region was growing fast in terms of rail and road connectivity due to centre’s Act East Policy.

Gohain, however, said rail works were progressing faster in Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, but progress in Sikkim and Meghalaya was slow owing to land acquisition problems.

The Agartala-Bengaluru Cant Hamsafar Express, with 11 air-conditioned three-tier coaches, would initially run once a week, but the frequency would be increased within a short span, the minister said.

It would cover a distance of over 3,000 km in 64 hours.

The Rajdhani Express, which also runs once in a week, would be made more frequent, he said.

Gohain added that work for electrification of 30,000 km tracks across the country is underway to make trains faster and modern.

“By 2020 all the remaining state capitals would be linked by broad gauge railway line.” The capitals of Agartala, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam are already connected by broad gauge railway lines. Works for extension of railway lines in Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland are going on with top priority basis, while in Sikkim and Meghalaya, some land related problems have become a hurdle.

The 3,030 km train service was launched from Kamakhya (near Guwahati) to Bengaluru on December 25, 2016. Now it has been extended to Agartala.
According to the Northeast Frontier Railways’ (NFR) General Manager Chahatey Ram, the train, the first connecting southern India with Tripura, will halt at seven stations between Agartala and Guwahati and at 28 stations in between Agartala and Bengaluru Cantonment station in its 3,614 km long journey across six states.

The Humsafar Express train, which is a fully AC 3-tier service, has 14 coaches, provided with on board Wi-fi and infotainment, he said.

“Better than the Rajdhani Express, ‘Humsafar Express ‘ train coaches are equipped with facilities like GPS (Global Positioning System) based passenger information system, and fire and smoke detectors,” said Ram, adding that they will also have mobile charging points and reading lights for each passenger along with easy upper berth climbing arrangement.

The Humsafar Express, promised in the budget, will also have facilities like baby nappy changing pads, and tea and coffeemakers.

The railway authorities since 2016 are operating the Kanchanjunga Express — between Agartala and Sealdah (Kolkata) via Assam’s Silchar and Guwahati twice a week, and the weekly Tripura Sundari Express between Agartala and Delhi’s Anand Vihar station besides Rajdhani Express.

The NFR is now extending the railway lines up to southern Tripura’s border town Sabroom, 135 km south of Agartala.

Gohain, in the presence of Tripura Transport Minister Manik Dey and other Members of Parliament, also flagged-off the passenger train services on the newly-laid 9.2 km track between southern Tripura’s temple city Udaipur and Garjee.

This new broad gauge section is a part of Agartala-Sabroom railway project being executed to get access the Bangladesh’s Chittagong sea port, which is just 72 km away from Sabroom.

The revenue of the railways from both passenger traffic as well as freight movement has gone up by more than five and eight per cent respectively between April-December 2017 as compared to the same period previous year, a senior official of the railway board said on Friday.

The revenue from passenger fare rose to Rs 37,134 crore in 2017 as compared to the revenue of Rs 35,295 crore generated in the corresponding period in 2016. This shows a growth of 5.2 per cent, Mohd Jamshed, Member, Traffic, Railway Board, told reporters here.

He also said that earning from freight went up by 8.39 per cent during the same period. While in 2017 (April- December), it generated Rs 80,691 crore, in the same period in 2016, it earned the railways Rs 76,288 crore.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal recently said that the railways had set a target to triple its freight traffic to three billion tonnes by 2030 from the existing 1.1 billion tonnes.

The Indian Railways had to invite a global tender for procuring more than four lakh metric tonne of rails to meet the shortfall of supply from SAIL, Parliament was informed on Friday.

Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain informed the Rajya Sabha that the requirement of rails for Indian Railways for year 2017-2018 was 14.59 lakh metric tonnes.

“SAIL as per their latest projection has given commitment to supply 9.5 lakh metric tonne rails during 2017-2018. To meet the shortfall of supply from SAIL, Railway has invited a global tender…”, Gohain said.

The pre-bid conference for this tender was held on November 21. The technical bids of tender for procurement of 4,87,000 metric tonnes of 60 kg-UIC rails was opened on December 22, 2017, he said.

This was the first time that the national transporter floated a global tender for procuring rails. State-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has always been its sole supplier.

The additional rail tracks will help the railways towards clearing the track renewal backlog, officials said.

The railways has a track length of around 1,15,000 km, making it the world’s largest network under a single management.

Indian Railways offers accidental insurance to passengers who buy tickets online from IRCTC. The Indian Railways had launched an Optional Travel Insurance Scheme with effect from September 1, 2016. The insurance scheme is available on optional basis for all reserved classes (SL, 1AC, 2AC, 3AC) and trains except passenger trains and sub-urban trains. But the only condition is that the tickets should be booked online on the IRCTC websites.

This insurance scheme provide financial support to the family/legal heir in case of death/injury of reserved passengers due to train accident/untoward incidents as defined under section 123 read with Sections 124 and 124A of the Railways Act, 1989, subject to the qualification that the coverage will be valid from the actual departure of train from the originating station to actual arrival of train at the destination station including ‘process of entraining’ and ‘process of detraining’ the train.

The sum insured to be given to passengers are as follows: (A) Rs. 10 lakh in case of passenger’s death (B) Rs. 10 lakh in case of permanent total disability of pasenger (C) upto Rs.7.5 lakh in case of permanent partial disability (D) Rs. 2 lakh in case of hospitalization expenses for injury (E) Rs. 10,000 in case of transportation of mortal remains.

There is no increase in fare. The Insurance Scheme is optional for passengers and if any passenger opts for scheme then only the premium of Rs.0.92 (inclusive of taxes) per passenger is charged. The accident insurance scheme was launched on pilot basis in 2016-end.