With over 35 lakh visitors expected for the Mahamastakabhisheka Jain festival that takes place once in 12 years, railway officials are on the overdrive to ensure passenger adequate amenities at the tiny Shravanabelgola railway station.A huge chunk of passengers are expected to reach the venue through rail, particularly in light of the railway line connecting Nelamangala with Shravanabelegola that was commissioned in March this year.

While the key days of the Mahamashtabhisekha festival (Grand Consecration) run from February 17 to 26, devotees and VIPs are expected to start pouring into this town right from mid-January to early March.

Sharavanabelegola railway station, being an ‘E’ category one wherein sale of less than 100 train tickets takes place daily, the passenger amenities here are in the process of being upgraded completely to cater to the crowds expected.

Four pairs of trains from Yesvanthpur pass through the Sharvanabelegola station daily. “We have now requested the Railway Board to permit us to run an additional four pairs of trains to the station at the earliest, “a top railway official of the Bangalore Railway Division said.Within the railway station, extra canteen stalls and food plazas are being built. “We will be deploying additional ticket checking staff there next year and will be creating extra parking facilities near the station,” the official said. Railways have also requested Ola, which does not run its services in the town, to open counters at the railway station temporarily to help transport passengers.Officials are expecting the transport aggregator to respond positively.

Rakesh Singh, Special Officer for the Mahamastakabhisheka festival, told that infrastructure was being beefed up across the town.“The State government has provided `200 crore for the event. We are upgrading infrastructure all over so that the town will have a permanent benefit from hosting the event. Roads, hospitals, the KSRTC bus stand, the water supply and underground drainage system are all getting a major facelift.” A separate area, Tyagi Nagar, has been readied to house the spiritual heads of the Jain community, he added.

South Western Railway (SWR) has taken a few development works to help passengers visiting Shravanabelagola in Channarayapatna taluk during Mahamastakabhisheka to be held in February. Senior officials of SWR Bengaluru division, including Divisional Railway Manager R.S. Saxena, visited the place on Tuesday.

The team visited the railway station in Shravanabelagola and met Charukeerti Bhattaraka Swamy of the Jain Mutt.

Senior Divisional Manager (Commercial) Sridharamurthy told presspersons that KSRTC would be appealed to provide bus services from the railway station to different locations in Shravanabelagola during Mahamastakabhisheka. The service of local buses would be required as the railway station is located far from the pilgrimage centre. “We have decided to prepare the ground around the station to park nearly 2,000 vehicles. A road to the station would be upgraded and a ramp would be built for the benefit of senior citizens and physically-challenged,” he said.

Additional ticket booking centres, restrooms, and a drinking water dispenser would be installed in the railway station. Around 200 security personnel would be hired for ensuring the safety of the passengers during the mega event, he said.

Rail Nilayam, the Zonal Head Quarters Office of South Central Railway has become the first fully LED lit Zonal Head Quarters Office Building on Indian Railways, marking another major mile stone in the Endeavour of SCR towards Energy Conservation. Shri Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager, South Central Railway appreciated the Electrical Department of the Zone and Hyderabad Division for this achievement.

The achievement has been attained by replacing 3048 conventional light fittings with Energy Efficient LED lights. The connected load earlier, of conventional light fittings of Rail Nilayam was 112.25 KW which has been reduced to 65.8KW after provision of the new LED lighting, lessening the connected load by 46.45 KW.  This initiative is anticipated to ensure savings of around 1.33 Lakh Units per annum, thereby reducing the expenditure by Rs.10.64 lakhs per annum.

In brightening up office spaces, the Rail Nilayam, zonal headquarters of the South Central Railway in Secunderabad has achieved the distinction of becoming the first in the Indian Railways to be fully lit with LED systems. “It marks another milestone in the SCR efforts towards energy conservation and use of newer technologies,” said Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager.

The exercise involved replacing 3,048 conventional light fittings with energy-efficient LED lights. The connected load earlier, of conventional light fittings of Rail Nilayam, was 112.25 KW which has been reduced to 65.8 KW after provision of the new LED lighting, bringing down the connected load by 46.45 KW. This initiative is anticipated to ensure savings of around 1.33 lakh unit a year, thereby reducing the expenditure by ₹10.64 lakh a year, according to a press release.

In March, the Nampally station was equipped with a rooftop solar power plant, which is meeting the electricity requirements. The historic Hyderabad Deccan Railway Station was built in 1907 by Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad. It is among the first stations in the country to tap solar power.

Persistent Tech’s gesture

IT major Persistent Technologies pitched in to donate solar power plant of 222.5 kWp installed capacity. The plant will generate minimum of 3.15 lakh units of electricity a year. On a bright sunny day, it will generate 1,000 units of electricity.

The ₹1.3-crore project has been implemented by Sunshot Technologies. It is expected to save up to ₹25.6 lakh a year without any upfront investment. It will also make the station greener by reducing 260 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

Rajkot, Morbi and Jamnagar Railway stations are all set to get a pleasant makeover.

Passengers will soon get an eye-pleasing view of beautiful paintings on different themes at these railway stations. The railway authorities have roped in ‘Chitranagari,’ a voluntary organization of artists, to create artworks based on the flavour of respective cities at the stations. This is envisaged on the lines of Mumbai’s Churchgate station.

Rajkot railway station will tell the history of Mahatma Gandhi’s historic Dandi March through paintings. Currently, the station wall is being refurbished so that artists can paint on it. The staircase of the station will be painted on the theme of tigers.

Railways have also decided to convert the heritage gallery outside the station into a museum. At present, old equipment like manual signalling systems are stocked there.

Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Sr.DCM) of Rajkot Division, Ravindra Shrivastav, said, “We have planned a makeover for Rajkot, Morbi, Jamnagar and Makansar railway stations on the lines of Churchgate. There are several railway stations in the country which have got beautiful paintings but we are the first in Gujarat to initiate this kind of project.”

Chitranagari had painted several walls of Rajkot and beautified the routes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s road show with different themes in July.

Jitendra Gotecha, managing trustee of the NGO, said, “We will start the work at Rajkot railway station within 2-3 days and thereafter will paint at the Morbi railway station. Railway officials have finalized the theme and we are working on design. “

Morbi railway station will have paintings depicting the erstwhile royal era of the princely state Morbi as well as the culture of Kutch. “The station is the entry point to Kutch. Therefore, we chose this theme,” said Shrivastav.

For Jamnagar, the theme currently under discussion is the royal era of Jam Saheb. However, it is yet to be finalized.

The Indian Railways has decided to go digital in accepting fines and for paying additional fare. Now, passengers will be able to pay penalty or any additional fare by swiping their debit and credit cards.

The new system will help railways check shady cash transactions, and it will be convenient for the passengers too. The decision was taken in a railway board meeting recently. The final call will be taken before January 15.

According to reports, ticket examiners will be given a tablet computer and a POS machine. Several meetings were organised in railways’ connection, co-operation and dialogue programme. Railway board chairman Ashwini Lohani told the officers to decide the target date for completion of various works undertaken by the ministry.

A railway officer told Dainik Bhaskar that if a TTE often charge people for allotting berths– now passengers can pay that using debit and credit cards. Reservation fare and supplementary charge can also be paid through POS machine. Often passengers have no money to pay the fine– in these cases, either the passenger is let off or is handed over to police. Now, TTEs will be able exact fine using credit and debit cards. By giving TTEs tablet computers, the TTEs will have the details of reservation and will also feed revenue details.

A total of 76 route kilometres have been identified for Railway electrification in Chhattisgarh, the Union  Railway Ministry has informed in a press release.

Notably , Indian Railways has prepared an Action Plan to electrify 38000 Route Kilometers in five years (2017-18 to 2021-22) for 100% electrification of its Broad Gauge (BG) rail routes in the country.

Railway Electrification projects are not confined to State boundaries.

To achieve 100% electrification of Broad Gauge (BG) rail routes, pace of electrification has been increased from present average of 1700 route kilometer per Annum to 4000 Route Kilometer/Annum which will further be increased to 6000 Route Kilometers in 2018-19.

Further, to expedite electrification of railway lines in the country, various steps have been taken, which inter-alia include award of Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts, better project monitoring mechanism, enhancing power of field units for award of contracts including sanction of estimates and increasing the number of executing agencies from existing three to six by entrusting electrification works to new agencies viz.  IRCON, Rail India Technical and Economic Services ad Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.

Notably, the Centre has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) each with the States of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh for critical coal connectivity projects to improve transportation .

Agreement for World Bank loan of US $ 1100 million for Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) (Phase-2) have also been signed, they stated.

Freight train with speed of maximum 100 kms per hour will pass through Chhattisgarh in the East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai).

The train will traverse through the States of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra as the Ministry of Railways has sanctioned implementation of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) with freight train speeds of maximum 100 Kmph.

The Central Government’s approval for construction of 165 km long third railway line between Anuppur and Katni in Madhya Pradesh is expected to facilitate additional coal transportation traffic from parts of Chhattisgarh.

The coal transporation traffic from IB valley, Korba area, East Corridor and Gevra – Pendra Road Project in Chhattisgarh would be channelized through the aforesaid route to the respective destinations, officials stated.

The Centre has approved the project at a cost of Rs  1595.76 crore. The project is likely to be completed in 5 ¼ years spanning over 12th and 13th plan period.

The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has also approved construction of six Railway lines and a Railway bridge to cater to both increased passenger and freight needs in various areas of the country.

Public sector IRCON International Ltd has also commenced work in connection with the construction of new ‘Broad Guage Electrified Double Railway Line’ in Chhattisgarh on the East West Corridor.

The work is being undertaken in  Gevra Road-Pendra Road and Dipka, Kathghora, Sendurgahr and Pasan sections, officials stated.

The Railway Ministry on Saturday announced to move forward on the path of connecting (sampark), improving co-ordination (samanvay) and finding solutions (samvad) to the critical issues facing Indian Railways and emphasised for a new railways for India by 2022.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal asked the railway employees to think out of the box to enable game-changing reforms and bring about transformational results.

Speaking at a high-level conclave titled “Sampark, Samanvay, Samvad”, Goyal stressed the need to gear up Railways for New India by 2022 and his vision of New Railways 2022, which would ensure speed, safety and service for consumers.

The Railway Ministry conducted the brainstorming conclave to deliberate on the vision for a new railways. The conclave was attended by the Minister of Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal, the Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain and more than 250 senior members of Indian Railways from across the country.

The meet focused on transforming Indian Railways to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘New India’ by 2022, sources said adding it was in continuation of the previous conclave, Rail Vikas Shivir, held in November 2016 during the tenure of Goyal’s predecessor Suresh Prabhu.

Goyal laid out 10 principles, which have helped in delivering results earlier in making India a coal surplus nation as well as in the

rapid electrification of around 18,500 villages including in the remotest corners of the country.

These principles include (1) Partnership with all stakeholders, (2) Decisive leadership, (3) Outcome oriented action, (4) Root cause analysis), (5) Rule of law and transparency, (6) Prioritisation of issues, (7) Time bound execution and fast dispute resolution, (8) Innovative financing, (9) Technology focus, and (10) Accountability and close monitoring.

Guest speaker, Sonam Wangchuk, renowned educationist, scientist and innovator, who was also the inspiration for the popular Three Idiots film, spoke to the audience about his personal story of facing challenges and innovating in the face of adversity.

Western Railway will flag off its air-conditioned local services tomorrow with a Borivali-Churchgate service commencing at 10:30 am.

WR chief spokesperson Ravinder Bhakar said that the last technical trial run was conducted today in the presence of the senior officers and it was successful.

The official said that the AC local will initially run only in the Churchgate-Borivili section. From January 1, it will run from Churchgate to Virar having 12 services per day, he added.

Charting out the train’s operational routine, a WR statement said that out of 12 services of the AC local train, eight will run as fast local trains between Churchgate and Virar, stopping only at major stations like Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra, Andheri, Borivali, Bhayander & Vasai Road in both directions.
Three fast services will run between Churchgate and Borivali stopping at Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra and Andheri stations in both directions, it went on to add.

One slow service of the AC local will operate between Mahalaxmi to Borivali early morning.

Briefing about the fare, the statement said that the base fare of the single journey of AC local shall be 1.3 times of the base fare of existing fare of single journey first class ticket.

However as an introductory offer for a period of initial six months, the base fare of single journey of AC EMU shall be charged 1.2 times, the statement said.

Weekly, fortnightly and monthly season tickets shall be charged equivalent to five, 7.5 and 10 single journeys of AC local respectively, the statement added.

It added that no other type of season tickets shall be issued for the time being and that AC local ticket-holders would be allowed to travel in the first class compartments of non-AC local trains.

The statement informed that the services of AC local train will replace existing 12 non-AC services, keeping the total number of services on WR’s suburban section static at the current 1355 services.

Premium charges during festivals such as Diwali, Durga Puja and discounts for travelling odd-hours, choosing a less popular route or train or one having no pantry services are some of the proposals the Railway board is considering on dynamic pricing.

During a meeting with senior officials last week, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal as well as the board underlined the need for flexible dynamic pricing in order to offer competitive fares vis-a-vis airlines.

Three railway zones – the Eastern, the Western and the West Central – have prepared presentations, copies of which are with news agency Press Trust of India, suggesting ways to introduce dynamic pricing.

The zones have suggested that passengers be offered discounts on trains reaching destination at inconvenient times, for example between 0000-0400 and 1300-1700 hours. They have also suggested that 10-30 per cent discount be offered for first leg as well as the last leg vacant berth. The different zones have also proposed the railways go for premium charges (10-20 per cent additional) for peak days and festival seasons.

Since there is higher passenger volume on weekends and during festivals such as Diwali, Durga Puja, Chhath and Christmas, these periods could be earmarked for additional charges, the presentations suggest.

Passengers could also be asked to pay extra for choosing high speed trains over others on the same route. The additional amount could be charged on per hour basis depending on the time a passenger saved while travelling in the faster train, the zones have suggested.

They have also recommended premium charges for overnight trains, trains with pantry cars, for allowing confirmed booking through e-auction a week in advance on popular trains. Differential pricing for preferred berths like inside lower ones, cabins near doors on either side and an upgradation fee of Rs. 20 per berth have also been suggested.

Officials in the Railway Ministry said a final blueprint for introducing dynamic pricing through premiums and discounts will be finalised by December 31.

Indian Railways board is contemplating a dynamic pricing model wherein the state carrier will charge premium charges during festivals such as Diwali, Durga Puja and will also offer discounts for travelling in the odd- hours. There could be a discount for choosing a less popular route or train or the one with no pantry services. During a meeting with senior officials last week, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, as well as the board, underlined the need for flexible dynamic-pricing in order to offer competitive fares vis-a-vis airlines. Officials in the Railway Ministry said a final blueprint for introducing dynamic-pricing through premiums and discounts will be finalised by December 31.

Three railway zones–the Eastern, the Western and the West Central–have prepared presentations suggesting ways to introduce dynamic-pricing.

Five Things To Know By Any Regular Train User

1. The zones have suggested that passengers be offered discounts on trains reaching destination at inconvenient times, for example between midnight to 4 am, and between 1 in the afternoon and 5 in the evening.

2. The Railway zones have also suggested that 10 to 30 per cent discount be offered for first leg as well as the last leg vacant berth.

3. The zones have also proposed that the railways go for premium charges (10 to 20 per cent additional) for peak days and festival seasons. To leverage higher passenger volume on weekends as well as during festivals such as Diwali, Durga Puja, Chhath and Christmas, the railways might charge you more.These periods could be earmarked for additional charges, the presentations suggest.

4. The zones also suggested that passengers be asked to pay extra for choosing high speed trains over others on the same route. The additional amount could be charged on per hour basis depending on the time a passenger saved while travelling in the faster train, the zones have suggested. They have also recommended premium charges for overnight trains, trains with pantry cars, for allowing confirmed booking through e-auction a week in advance on popular trains.

5. The railway zones suggested differential pricing for preferred berths such as inside lower ones, cabins near doors on either side. There was also a proposal of an upgradation fee of Rs. 20 per berth.

A Bhopal court today sentenced four men to life imprisonment for raping a 19-year-old woman near the Habibganj railway station in the city in October.

The sentence was awarded within 52 days of the incident.

The judge held Golu alias Bihari Chadhar (25), Amar alias Ghuntu (24), Rajesh Chetram alias Raju (26) and Ramesh Mehra alias Raju (45) guilty of raping the woman near the railway station when she was returning home after attending a coaching class on October 31.

“They will remain behind bars for the rest of their lives,” the court said.

The four men were convicted under IPC sections pertaining to attempt to murder, gangrape, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful confinement, wrongful restraint and other relevant sections, additional public prosecutor Reena Verma told reporters.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 5,000 on each of the four men, she said.

Taking a serious note of incident, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had directed the sessions court to ensure that the case was heard on a day-to-day basis once the chargesheet was filed.

A 200-page chargesheet in the case was filed 16 days after the woman was allegedly raped.