Indian Railways expects to raise INR 30,000 crore in the current financial year from its first asset monetisation drive so as to give a boost to its capacity expansion plans for the next financial year. The Railways has lined up 30,000 km of its power transmission lines for monetisation and is in talks with two public sector units that are willing to invest in the project. The railways will sell power lines to these companies and lease it back by paying a fixed fee.

A top Railway official said that a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be set up to operate and maintain these power lines. The official however refused to name the PSUs that have shown interest in buying power transmission assets of the railways, which expects to earn nearly INR 30,000 crore from the sale.

As part of its land monetisation drive, the railways is lining up three land parcels in prime localities of Delhi and Mumbai. Land has been identified in Sarai Rohilla and Ashok Vihar in Delhi and Bandra in Mumbai. Though the size of the land is yet to be ascertained, the railways expects to raise INR 2,000 crore from the sale of these land parcels.

Tenders for the land parcels will come out next year, the official said. Union Minister of Railway Piyush Goyal had said in November that the Railways is not looking at more funds in the Union Budget for 2018-19 as it is focussed on monetising assets within. He said that “Railways is looking at innovative ways to finance its expenditure.”

 Indonesia’s main aviation hub opened a new railway service to Jakarta on Tuesday, in an effort to tackle massive traffic congestion that has choked the city’s roads and highways for years. Jakarta had been one of the few Asian capitals lacking a rail connection to its main airport.

The new railway service, with a price tag of 5 trillion rupiah ($369 million), was inaugurated by President Joko Widodo, following a week of public testing. It links Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, in Tangerang, Banten Province, with two other stations — including the Sudirman Baru station in the heart of Jakarta’s business district.

The 34-kilometer rail journey from Jakarta to the airport takes nearly an hour. That compares with a two- to three-hour — or more — drive by car, depending on traffic conditions. The new rail service is expected to alleviate the worsening gridlock to and from the airport, which has seen an increasing number of passengers over the years and is anticipating further growth.

Once fully operational next year, the railway will have a total of five stops and stretch 37 kilometers — most of which will be on existing tracks already in use by greater Jakarta’s commuter lines, and which partly explains the airport service’s limited speed.

The Soekarno-Hatta station is linked to the airport’s three terminals with the newly launched Skytrain, an automated people mover service.

Meanwhile, work is underway to connect some of the stations in Jakarta with other public transportation — including the existing commuter lines and TransJakarta bus system, as well as the metro and light-rail transit networks that are currently under construction.

“They will all be integrated — busway, MRT, LRT and the airport railway,” Widodo said to reporters after the launching ceremony. “We hope the public will use less private cars, and instead move to safe and convenient public transports that we can use together across greater Jakarta and to the airport.”

He added that “the grand scheme” includes connections with the high-speed railway linking Jakarta and Bandung in West Java Province, whose construction has been significantly delayed; and the medium-speed railway that will connect Jakarta and Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya in East Java Province, which is still in the planning stage.

The construction of the airport link began in 2014, near the end of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s term. It is Indonesia’s second airport railway — with the first connecting Kualanamu Airport in North Sumatra with Medan, the provincial capital, that began operation in 2013.

Both projects are owned by Railink, a joint venture between state-owned railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia and airport operator Angkasa Pura II. Railink is mulling a third railway project that would connect Yogyakarta Province, a tourism hub on Java island, with a planned new airport.

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is setting up rail related projects mainly New Ore Load Yard and Coal Tippler Yard under its modernisation and expansion plan at the Bhilai Steel Plant.

SAIL has set a target of increasing hot metal manufacturing capacity of BSP from 15.41 million tonnes per annum to 23.5 million tonnes post the ongoing modernisation and expansion project, officials informed.

Notably, the company has the highest rail making capacity of 2.0 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) at one location–the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), officials informed.

Commercial production of world class 130 metre long rails from the new Universal Rail Mill of Bhilai Steel Plant began in November last year.

The new URM established at a cost of about Rs. 1200 Cr. is part of SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant’s modernization programme that would scale up capacity to 7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

Notably, the world’s longest 130 metre rails rolled at the new Mill are welded at the new Rail Welding Plant adjacent to URM and loaded for despatch from the Mill’s loading complex.

The new 1.2 MTPA Universal Rail Mill would help SAIL to meet the increased demand for 260 metre rails from the Indian Railways.

Continuing to operate well above the rated capacity in all major areas of production, the Bhilai Steel Plant has concluded the financial year 2016-17 with an annual production of 5.04 Million Tonnes of Hot Metal, 4.74 Million Tonnes of Crude Steel and 4.00 Million Tonnes of Saleable Steel.

The Union cabinet has cleared a proposal for setting up the country’s first rail university aimed at building skilled human resources but no related ministry scrutinised the plan, raising eyebrows among academics and lawmakers.

According to the plan, the NRTU would be a deemed university under the de novo category in keeping with the University Grants Commission’s regulations. New institutions offering courses in innovative areas are given deemed status under this category.

For deemed university status, an institution needs to send a proposal to the HRD ministry, which forwards it to the UGC for its recommendations. But before the proposal was sent to the HRD ministry or the UGC, the PIB release claimed the “government is working towards completing all approvals by April 2018 and to launch the first academic program in July 2018”.

Official sources said the proposal to establish the National Rail and Transport University (NRTU) in Vadodara – a brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – was taken to the cabinet without inter-ministerial consultations between Ministry of Railways, Ministry of HRD.

“At times, top-secret proposals are taken to the cabinet by the ministry concerned without any consultation to avoid leakage. But any welfare measure is always discussed with related ministries,” a senior law ministry official said.

Several senior bureaucrats spoke to said that the inter-ministerial consultations enriched proposals, but the railway ministry decided against going by the usual practice. A cabinet meeting chaired by Modi had cleared the plan on December 20. A media release issued by the Press Information Bureau the same day said: “This innovative idea, inspired by the Prime Minister, will be a catalyst for transformation of rail and transport sector towards New India.” But it did not give any details.

Modi had in October 2016 announced the government’s intent to set up the university in Vadodara in his home state Gujarat.

K. Keshav Rao, a Rajya Saha MP and former member of a House committee on human resource development, said: “Any proposal for a university should be examined by the related ministries. It is a healthy convention.”

Official sources privy to the NRTU concept said the plan was to offer bachelor of engineering (BE) courses in railway engineering and such courses would be non-specialised programmes unlike specialised B.Tech courses.

This means, students may learn some aspects of civil, mechanical, electrical and signal engineering while doing the course.

An IIT Delhi teacher disapproved of the idea. “In IITs, every student has a specialisation even though they get a little bit of other branches. There must be a core discipline. Otherwise, the pass-outs may not be able to do the core job after recruitment,” he said.Two emails were sent to the PIB officer, who handles media queries related to the railways, on December 21 and 22. The officer was requested to confirm the information that the NRTU would offer non-specialised courses.

The railway ministry’s perspective was also sought regarding no prior consultations and concerns related to the course. Neither has replied so far.

Ambala Railway division’s first woman locomotive driver, Rajni Devi, died in civil hospital at Ambala City after delivering a baby this morning, with her husband alleging lack of proper arrangement while transferring her from maternity to emergency ward.

However, Dr Vinod Gupta, the civil surgeon said he had already inquired into the matter and no negligence on the part of doctors or nurses concerned was found.

Shiv Shakti said he had got his wife, Rajni Devi (32) admitted to the hospital three days ago after she had labour pain. She was shifted from maternity ward to the emergency ward early this morning when her condition became critical after the delivery.

He alleged that there was no proper arrangement for carrying her from the maternity ward to the emergency ward.

“I myself had to carry the oxygen cylinder while shifting her to the emergency ward,” he claimed.

Dr Gupta said, “After the normal delivery the patient had a sudden heart attack and died.”

COMMENTSWhen the matter was brought in the notice of Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij, he said if any complaint of negligence was received from the husband of the deceased he would order an inquiry into the matter.

A parliamentary panel has expressed concern over the huge number of ticketless travellers in the railways and said the national transporter could “ill-afford” the substantial losses on this count.

In its report on vigilance in the railways, tabled in Parliament last week, the Railway Convention Committee also rued the fact that recoveries made from ticketless travellers do not correspond with number of such persons detected during the period, but stopped short of saying there was corruption involved.

“The committee are deeply concerned to note the huge number of persons detected travelling without or with improper tickets in Indian railways during the year 2016-2017.

“They are equally concerned to find the amount of railway dues realised from the ticketless travellers during the same period,” the report said.

To illustrate the point, the report states that Rs 935.64 crore was collected from more than two crore ticketless travellers during 2016-2017 across railway zones, the highest being made in Northern Railway (26.40 lakh).

It was followed by South Central (25.86 lakh) Central Railway (24.24 lakh), Western Railway (20.24 lakh), East Central Railway (18.62 lakh), North Central Railway (16.56 lakh) and North Eastern Railway (12 lakh), the report said.

It also said that other than these zones, all other zones reported single digit detection of ticketless travellers.

Usually, as per rules, ticketless travellers are supposed to pay base fare plus Rs 250 towards compounding action as fine. Those entering on platform without mandatory ticket also have to pay Rs 250, besides the platform ticket price, as fine.

Though the report does not give any number regarding actual losses, for two crore ticketless travellers, the railways should have recovered a minimum of Rs 500 crore, with the fine being Rs 250.

While the Northern Railways made maximum detections, it was Central Railway which tops the list for the recovery amount at Rs 125.13 crore.

Northern Railway made a recovery of Rs 116.52 crore, followed by Western Railway with Rs 84.09 crore, East Central Railway with Rs 72.52 crore and North Eastern Railway with Rs 60.80 crore.

The committee said that all other railway zones made recoveries of less than Rs 50 crore.

The report states that while the railways has identified defaulting zones where number of checks conducted are less or the ticket checking earnings are low, more needs to be done.

It has suggested the national transporter step up its monitoring mechanism to detect ticketless travellers.

“The committee desire that the monitoring mechanism be stepped up to ensure special drives and surprise checks to detect ticketless travellers as the railways can ill afford to lose substantial money on this count”, the report said.

Train services remained disrupted for over six hours on Sunday owing to a traffic-cum-power block on both up and down lines between Kantadih and Urma stations on Chandil-Adra section under Adra division of South Eastern Railway.

The traffic block began at 10.10am and continued till 4.10pm to facilitate the launch of a low-height subway,which replaced an unmanned level crossing, around 100km from the steel city.

Both Tatanagar-Asansol MEMU Passenger and Asansol-Tatanagar MEMU Passenger were short-terminated at Barabhum railway station and Purulia, respectively.

The Tatanagar-Dhanbad Subernarekha Express and Tatanagar-Jammu Tawi Express were also rescheduled on Sunday.

While Tatanagar-Dhanbad Subernarekha Express left the originating station at 3pm instead of 1.20pm, Jammu Tawi Express left Tatanagar station at 4.50pm, two hours behind schedule.

The Tatanagar-Hatia Passenger ran on a diverted route via Chandil and Muri instead of Chandil, Purulia, Kotshila and Muri.

Movement of several trains were affected including Danapur-Tatanagar Express, which got detained for 40 minutes between Asansol and Purulia railway stations due to the traffic block.

“The traffic-cum-power block took place to facilitate the construction of a low-height subway. It affected movement of trains for about six hours. Train services got restored once the work got over around 4.15pm,” said a spokesperson of Chakradharpur railway division.

Passengers were equally inconvenienced.

“I came to know about the rescheduling of Tatanagar-Jammu Tawi Express only after reaching the railway station along with my wife and children. We had no option but to wait at the station for over two hours,” said Gurucharan Singh, a businessman and resident of Mango.

Railway sources said that a similar traffic-cum-power block had taken place on Adra railway section in January 2017.

The Western Railway (WR) braces for a challenging first day of 2018 as it is the D-Day to operate the newly inaugurated air-conditioned local train up to Virar. On Sunday, WR officials were busy with the final checks of the AC locals as beginning Monday, the local will run for 60 kms.

Over the past two days, the WR carried out basic maintenance checks and inspection in the AC rake. “Primary checks were carried out. The AC train will run on the Churchgate-Virar route as scheduled,” said Ravindra Bhakar, Chief PRO, Western Railway.

After its launch on December 25, up to December 29, the AC local ran six services daily which will be upped to 12 services from January 1. Of these, eight services will run the Churchgate-Virar stretch and the remaining on the Churchgate-Borivali route.

As per the decided schedule for the AC local, authorities will operate one service each during the morning and evening peak hours.

Initial runs from the last week have mostly received negative feedback from commuters owing to the high fares, while some are of the opinion that the AC local is eating into the regular train services.

“By replacing the existing local train services on the Churchgate-Borivali route with the AC train, almost 50,000 people have been affected,” said passenger activist Anil Galgali.

Authorities are even more concerned about reactions once the AC local runs up to Virar.

“The Railways should have at least lowered the fares. Who will spend Rs 205 one way from Virar to Churchgate when a second class season pass can be bought in almost the same amount,” said A Parab, a resident of Virar.

A monthly pass for the AC local from Churchgate to Virar will cost Rs 2,040, fortnightly Rs 1,555, and weekly Rs 1,070. The daily ticket up to Vasai and Bhayander will cost Rs 195 and Rs 175 respectively.

Between Churchgate and Virar, the AC local will halt at Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra, Andheri, Borivali, Bhayander and Vasai. Similarly, three fast services will run between Churchgate and Borivali and the remaining one service will run as a slow service from Mahalaxmi to Borivali.