The railway ministry will soon send a proposal to the cabinet seeking its nod for a Rs 60,000-crore programme to modernise Indian Railways’ signalling system, which will allow trains to run at a gap of 7-8 minutes, a senior government official said.

“We are revamping the signalling completely,” the official told.

The railways will upgrade the entire capacity in the country over five years. It will spend Rs 20,000 crore in the first year, he said.

Indian Railways is also working on a plan to electrify more than 30,000 km of rail lines in next five years to have 100% electrified network. Under the plan, railways will phase out diesel engines in five years, which will help it cut its Rs 26,500 crore annual fuel bill by Rs 10,500 crore, the official said.

Railways has a 64,000 km long network, of which a little less than half is electrified. “Electrification revamp would be done through a special purpose vehicle (SPV),” the official said.

“Golden quadrilateral would be prioritised and then its lateral corridors may be taken up. This proposal would be taken to cabinet soon for approval. SPV would be formed by public sector entities. It could be structured like Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT),” he said.

Railways has also decided to offer 99-year-long lease to contractors willing to invest in station and rail land redevelopment programme, to make the scheme more attractive, the official said.

The earlier scheme that offered 45-year lease for commercial exploitation of the railway station land, but it did not find many takers.

“We discussed with the industry as to what were the issues. They raised issue about lease being restricted to 45 years, which they felt was very short. They also raised issue about no provision for mortgage or resale,” the official said.

“We have now reworked it. It will have a 99 year lease and allow mortgage,” he said. Indian Railways has lined up 400 stations for redevelopment.

The Railways Ministry will float a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to manage the entire electrification work of railways network and arrange funding for it, an official said today.

“As far as funding for electrification is concerned, we are looking at funding through an SPV and getting that SPV to run the entire electrification of Railways,” a top official in the Railways Ministry said.

The SPV will be tasked to look after the whole electrification project of the Railways. It will be own and manage those assets, the official said.

“The ministry is still working to float this SPV,” the official said.

Earlier in September, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had said that his ministry is exploring ways to speed up the electrification process so as to cut down about Rs 16,000 crore expense on diesel.

“We are giving a relook to the ways of speeding up the electrification process” of rail lines across the country. The ministry is consulting all the people who are involved in the electrification process,” Goyal had said.

The Western Railway (WR) arranged a two-hour seminar at Mumbai Central Monday to teach Army officials details of railway functioning. Details of the operation of suburban trains and understanding of technical signage were given to the Army. Officials from the Bombay Sappers Group, Pune, are expected to make three foot overbridges at Parel-Elphinstone Road, Currey Road and Ambivali stations by January 31. The Army is expected to begin laying the foundation for bridges by the end of December. Railway officials said the Army was working on the technical design of the bridges.

“We had arranged a seminar for two hours between 3 pm and 5 pm to explain details of railway functioning to the Army. The seminar included details of the layout of the yard of Elphinstone Road station and nomenclature of technical details used in the Railways. They were further instructed about what is a safety zone and the precautions, which need to be maintained while working in the safety zone,” said Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager, WR.

A total of 15 officials from the Army were present at the seminar, official said, adding that 19 railway officials guided them. The Army is conducting preparatory works on building the bridges at the sites. The officials said the team would need to cross tracks to move the material and require understanding of the halt signage of local trains while working during day hours.

“We guided them on the precautions they need to maintain while piling, laying foundation of the bridges, pier construction, material transportation and especially during crossing of lines. We have also informed them about where our railway officials will be posted to inform them on the arrival of a train. We also asked them to be careful about the type of cable wires while digging and asked them to take the required technical blocks if they have to suspend rail traffic during the work,” Jain added.

The overhead wires run on alternating current system carrying a voltage of 25 kilowatts. Army officials were instructed to maintain due distance from the wires. The Railways has also helped the Army with certain technical instruments required for the work.

“We are giving them the required traffic block as asked. We arranged this session to facilitate their work on bridges. As this is the first time the Army is working in the suburban train section of the city, we wanted to provide them complete assistance,” said Jain.

The Railways is sourcing 80,000 bio-toilets from nine firms, of which almost 33,000 have been installed as of November-end.

The firms include JSL Lifestyle, Amit Engineers, Victoria Auto, Oasis Fabricators, Omax Auto, Hindustan Fibreglass Works, Mohan Rail Components and Rail Fab, and RailTech.

“These 80,000 biotank toilets will be fitted in 20,000 coaches with four toilets in each coach. The cost of these toilets is about ₹1 lakh each — resulting in an expense of about ₹4 lakh a coach,” a government official explained.

Use of these biotanks is a part of Indian Railway’s project to have coaches fitted with toilets that prevent passengers’ poop from emptying on the tracks — as is the case right now.

The move of having bio-toilets is aimed at not just preventing tracks from getting soiled, but also avoiding them from getting corroded.

In these biotanks, the Railways uses a bunch of bio-digesting bacteria that do not require oxygen and consume human faecal matter — converting it to disinfected water that gets discharged on, carbon dioxide and small volumes of hydrogen and methane gas.

Implementing the project has been challenging. The challenges include tanks getting choked with plastic bottles and sanitary napkins. The Railways is considering placing dustbins in the toilets, the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said in a conference recently.

The Railways is also tracking the performance of the bio-toilets and deal with causes that lead to choking and other reasons that lead to failure of these toilets.

To get funds for the project — which meets the twin objectives of cleanliness and safety — the Railways had been trying to source money from its depreciation reserve fund account and the Swachh Bharat Kosh.

In an eco-friendly measure to cut power consumption, the Indian Railways today said it planned to make all stations cent per cent LED lit by March 31, 2018.

The railways said it was actively working to provide 100 per cent LED lighting for energy needs in railway staff colonies, stations and platforms.

“Ministry of Railways has decided to make all railway stations 100 per cent LED lit by the end of current financial year by March 31, 2018. It is a huge initiative to provide energy efficient lighting which will eventually greatly help in the conservation of environment as well,” it said in a statement.

LED or light-emitting diode bulbs are more energy efficient and have a longer lifespan than traditional lamps.

Till November 2017, about 3,500 railway stations had already been provided with cent per cent LED lights. About 20 lakh such lights were installed.

The initiative will reduce consumption by about 10 per cent of the total energy being utilised for its non-traction uses, conserving about 240 million units of electricity, which will save the Railways about Rs. 180 crore annually, it said.

The Railways has also issued directives to Zonal Railways to provide LED light fittings to residential quarters.

Zonal Railways had distributed about 20 lakh LED lights to railway staff till October, 2017, under the government’s Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP) Scheme.

The national transporter also aims at providing these lights on all coaches/EMUs. Already, the lights in 1300 non-AC second-class and 3-tier sleeper coaches have been fully converted to LED.

Three months after the Ministry of Railways and Odisha Goverment met to iron out the issues that have been delaying the Haridaspur-Paradip and Angul-Sukinda railway link projects, the problems linger.

Construction works for the two projects have not gathered speed despite an agreement in the meeting that Rail Vikash Nigam Limited (RVNL), the executing agency, will transfer responsibility to the special purpose vehicles (SPVs) formed to implement the two projects.Since RVNL is a stakeholder, its status as the executing agency was pointed as a conflict of interest at the meeting between Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal in September last.

Subsequently, Managing Director of RVNL, Satish Agnihotri wrote a letter to Haridaspur-Paradip Railway Company (HPRC) Ltd and Angul-Sukinda Railway (ASR) Ltd asking them to take over construction work.However, the transfer of construction works from RVNL to SPVs has not gone anywhere since detailed guidelines are yet to be laid down while an official go ahead from the Ministry of Railway is still awaited. In such an event, the two projects are in a limbo of sorts.

Though RVNL advised the two SPVs to take over the construction process, neither HPRC Ltd nor ASR Ltd have the resources and wherewithal to take the massive work forward. With deadlines approaching and banks breathing down their neck, the SPVs have a target to meet.

Apart from RVNL, the two projects have several companies like Paradip Port Trust, Bhusan Steel and mining companies as stakeholders of the SPVs but their functioning has been marred by infighting which had also come up for discussion at the high-level meeting between the Railways Minister and Odisha Chief Minister in September.Delay in land acquisition, law and order problems, obstruction by locals and extortion by local mafia have hindered progress of the two projects.

The land acquisition for new rail route from Thoothukudi to Madurai via Aruppukottai is gaining momentum with the district administration handing over 24 acres of land on Monday.

Twenty-four acres land acquired from private land owners for the laying of the new railway route from Tuticorin to Madurai through Aruppukottai was handed over to the Madurai Division of Southern Railways by the Tuticorin District Administration on Monday.

District collector N Venkatesh handed over certificate for the acquired land to the executive engineer (construction) of Southern Railways S Chandru Prakash.

The land, running for 8.5 km, in Vadakkusilukanpatti, Saminatham and Sillanatham is part the first phase of land for the 18.7-km on Milavittan-Melamarudur section. The total cost of the land in the entire stretch is ₹100 crore.

The project is to lay new rail line for 143.5 km.

Collector N. Venkatesh here on Monday handed over the land acquisition certificate to S. Chandru Prakash, Executive Engineer (Construction), Southern Railway. The required land would be acquired in three phases.

The railways have planned to complete the 143.5 km track laying project in three sections. The first phase, which is the smallest phase, covering 18.7 kms from Milavittan to Melamaruthur is estimated to be completed at Rs. 100 crore. The 51.3 kms in the second section will be from Melamaruthur to Aruppukottai, followed by the third section of 73.5 kms from Aruppukottai to Madurai. The second phase of 51.3 km from Melamarudur to Arupukottai and the third phase of 73.5 km. from Arupukottai to Madurai would be acquired subsequently, the Collector said while addressing the media.

The officials concerned were instructed to proceed expeditiously to complete the land acquisition, the Collector said.

District Revenue Officer M. Veerappan, Assistant Collector (Training) Saravanan, Tahsildar (Land Acquisition) K. Lenin, Senior Section Engineer of Southern Railway B. Rajendra Muthukumar and others were present.

Recently acquiring land from private land owners for the stretch covered in the six villages in the first phase. Beginning the works in the first section required acquisition of 185 acres, including 175.67 acres from private landowners from six villages. The 24 acres acquired so far is for 8.5 kms covering Vadakkusilukanpatti, Saminatham and Sillanatham villages.

Karnataka is among the three worst states in the country with regard to electrification of railway lines, behind only Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. According to the railway ministry, only 19 of existing lines in Karnataka are electrified, while it’s 18% in Gujarat and 13% in Himachal Pradesh. Karnataka, which has a total network of 3,281km, has just 632km electrified, way behind other southern states.

With a total rail network of 297km, Himachal Pradesh has 40km electrified, while Gujarat has managed to electrify only 970km of its 5,259km network. Kerala has the most electrified lines in the country (83%), followed by Odisha (78%), Andhra Pradesh (76%), New Delhi (75%) and Chhattisgarh (72). Nationally, only 30,012km (45%) of the total 66,687km had been electrified till April this year.

Indian Railways recently decided to electrify its entire network in four years at an estimated cost of Rs 35,000 crore, which is expected to save Rs 10,500 crore a year in the fuel bill. The move to phase out diesel locomotives is also expected to reduce greenhouse gas emission.

Union minister of state of railways Rajen Gohain on Friday said in the Rajya Sabha that they have identified 13,675km of railway lines for electrification, which includes 1,051km in Karnataka, which will be included in the 2018-19 budget.

“Indian railways has prepared an action plan to electrify 38,000 km broad gauge lines across the country in five years. It has also decided to increase the pace of electrification from the present average of 1,700km per annum to 4,000km a year, which will be further increased to 6000km a year in 2018-19,” he said in a written statement.

Indian Railways invites on December 22 an international tender for 487,000 tonnes of heavy steel rails and bidders for that tender are revealed.

From Europe, they are Voestalpine of Austria, British Steel (former Tata Steel UK) of the UK and ArcelorMittal of France. From Russia, they are Evraz Group and Mechel and from Japan, they are Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal and JFE Steel.

From China, Anshan Iron & Steel is expected to make a bid.

From India, JSPL will participate in the tender. They are 9 companies in total. They attended a briefing session on the tender held by Indian Railways.

Meantime, as an electronic bidding system is introduced, a source is observing that new companies other than above may also make bids.

Indian Railways’ pre-notice quantity was 718,000 tonnes. However, the formal tender quantity is decreased to 487,000 tonnes. The reason of a large decrease in quantity is unknown.

Nepal may have to pay the price for a mistake it did not commit, as locals of the Indian town right across from Birgunj have issued warnings that they will prevent Nepal-bound cargo vehicles from passing through their locality if concerned Indian authorities do not address their problem.

Locals of the Indian town of Raxaul have long been saying that improper management of cargoes of clinker, a key raw material used in the production of cement, has caused a rise in air pollution, posing severe health risks. If this problem is not resolved by December 25, locals claim that they will halt movement of vehicles on the Indian national highway.

Most of Nepal’s imports are channelled through Raxaul, which also serves as the final transit point for vehicles ferrying goods to Nepal. A disruption to the movement of cargo vehicles in this town will a trigger shortage of petroleum products, raw materials and other essentials in Nepal. It is, therefore, essential that concerned Indian authorities hold dialogues with locals and address their demands.

Locals have been reckless in the handling of Nepal-bound clinker cargoes that arrive at the railway station from Indian states such as Jharkhand and Odisha. The haphazard handling of consignments has filled the town’s air with clinker dust.

Clinker dust is harmful for health. If this issue is not solved immediately, residents of Raxaul will continue to develop allergies and respiratory problems. So, Indian authorities must act fast before the slow poison starts killing people.

Earlier, the High Court in Patna had also directed the Indian government to immediately control pollution in Raxaul. Following this, the Indian Railways had started building another station for the transportation of clinker. But locals of the area where the new station is being built have said they will not allow their town to be turned into a clinker clearing house. Their concerns are genuine and the Indian government should not coerce people to compromise on health related issues.

Yet the Indian government should not turn a blind eye to concerns of Nepal as well, which relies on India for almost all of its imports. If the protest is allowed to go on, Nepal will definitely face supply disruptions, which will trigger shortage of goods, thus allowing black markets to flourish and build inflationary pressure.

Clinker imports have gone up in Nepal due to a jump in demand for cement, as post-earthquake reconstruction works and other construction activities have started gathering pace. But Nepal will not have to rely on Indian clinker forever because the country has a huge deposit of limestone. Lately, foreign companies have started eyeing these deposits and are investing in Nepal to extract the mineral. Also, domestic cement factories have started producing clinker.

But until the time Nepal becomes self-sufficient in clinker production, it will have to rely on India. So India should make necessary arrangements to ensure uninterrupted flow of clinker to Nepal, while containing the health hazards created by movement of the raw material in the bordering Indian town.

The Samastipur Divisional Railway authorities says that the railway which has a depot and rack point for dumping material like coal, cement and clinker which is shipped to Nepal at Raxaul Railway Station is in the process of shifting the rack point to village Ramgarhwa which is 12 kilometers from the site.

According to sources in the Railways the decision to shift the rack point to Ramgarhwa has been taken as traffic has been increasing on the Raxual Railway Station. However local residents are up in arms at the Railways decision. They say that the rack point is a source of major air pollution and the residents of Raxaul had been protesting against the rack point for several years.

Since the material involved is coal, cement and clinker enroute to Nepal it leads to air pollution by increasing the suspended particulate matter in the ambient air, say environmental experts. This can lead to lung related infections in the individuals who live near the area, they add.

Now the residents of Ramgarhwa will face a similar fate if the rack point is shifted from Raxual to Ramgarhwa says Chowdhary the principal of the Ramgarhwa High School.

In view of the fact that several people reside in the area of Ramgarhwa railway station and it is densely populated, Chowdhary says that the Rack Point should be shifted to Masladih Railway Station which is half way between Raxaul and Ramgarhwa and where there is hardly any population. This way the Railway will be able to shift the rack point and the people of Ramgarhwa will not be inconvenienced, says Chowdhary.

Clinker has turned out to be a major cause of respiratory disorder for residents of this India-Nepal border town.

The stony residue from burnt coal or from a furnace consists of inferior limestone that contains rich volume of silicon dioxide, which is very harmful for lungs.

Clinker is used as raw material in cement-manufacturing units and the dust-like component is stored in Raxaul, around 210km north of Patna. The clinker is usually transported from Madhya Pradesh, which is supplied to nearly two dozen cement factories in Nepal.

Confirming the adverse impact of clinker on human body, physician Mahendra Singh said he knew at least two of his patients Ashok Bajaj (57) and Dhruv Prasad (50) who died of lung cancer because of infection caused by clinker dust that fills the Raxaul air.

The Duncan Hospital, a Christian missionary-run health facility, in its report submitted to the local administration confirmed the impact of the raw material on human health.

The report stated that more than half of Raxaul’s population was suffering from different kinds of lung and eye diseases caused by clinker. The population of the sub-divisional town of East Champaran district is around 1.25 lakh.

Another doctor in the town Prashant Kumar said the harmful clinker dust gets mixed in the air at the time of unloading and loading of the raw material.

The unloading is done when the raw material reaches the town by train from the mines of Madhya Pradesh. This raw material is then loaded in vehicles heading to the cement factories in Nepal.

Alarmed over the impact of this stony material on human health, Raxaul resident Mahesh Agrawal filed a writ petition in Patna High Court seeking its intervention on the issue. The matter, said Agrawal’s counsel Gautam Keriwal, has not yet been listed for hearing in the court.

The petitioner has made railway officials as well as those from the state pollution control board party in the case.

Throwing light on the problem, college teacher Anil Sinha, who has been actively raising issues concerning residents of Raxaul, said the situation was not that alarming around 15 years back when the clinker dumped near Raxaul railway station was transported to Nepal within 24 hours but things deteriorated and at present the stock remains dumped outside the Raxaul railway station at least for a week after its arrival.

Railway sources said more than 60 rakes of clinker reach Raxaul every month and the raw material is stored in the open near the railway station.

Though railways has assured corrective steps to make the town free of the problems caused by clinker dust, till date nothing substantial has been done to fulfil the promise.

The then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, in a letter sent to local MP Sanjay Jaiswal, who had drawn the attention of the problem, had made the promise. Concerned over the failure of the railway ministry, teacher Sinha said residents will resort to agitation to draw the attention of authorities towards the problem which was taking a toll on the health of the residents.