The Indian Steel Association, an industry body representing companies accounting for 60 percent of the crude steel produced in the country, has sought Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma’s intervention to resolve the issue of shortage of rail rakes. The lack of movement of raw materials like iron-ore and coal from mines as well as ports has forced steel manufacturers to scale back production.

The problem is more acute in case of movement of iron-ore from south eastern and east coast railways, and imported coal docked at Paradip, Dhamra and Vishakhapatanam ports.

The affected producers include state-owned manufacturers like Steel Authority of India and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, private companies like Jindal Steel & Power and Bhushan Steel, and many smaller plants located in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.

In a December 13 letter written to Sharma, Indian Steel Association’s Secretary General and Executive Head Bhaskar Chatterjee requested the secretary to take up the matter with the Railways “at the highest level”.

“We request your urgent intervention to restore the rake supply to steel sector pre-October levels and meet its demand. The steel industry needs a minimum of 35-40 additional rakes per day for meeting its raw material requirements then (sic) than is being available at present,” Chhatterjee wrote in the letter, a copy of which was seen by Moneycontrol.

The shortage of rail rakes has led to a piquant situation, according to the letter.  While on one hand, it has led to a shortage of raw material supplies to steel plants, there is also an inventory pile-up of the finished steel product which is hurting both its domestic as well as export volumes.

The letter pointed out that iron-ore stocks at several steel plants had reached critical levels and some companies could be forced to suspend production.

State-run SAIL, the only supplier of rails to the Indian Railways, supplied 6.20 lakh tonnes of rails to the national transporter, Parliament was informed today.

This supply was about 40 per cent less against the demand of 10.05 lakh tonnes made during 2016-17, Parliament was informed today.

To a question whether SAIL is “lagging behind to meet the demand for new rails of the Indian Railways for track renewal and capacity augmentation,” Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai said in 2014-15, railways ordered 5.81 lakh tonnes of rails and received 5.84 lakh tonnes.

In 2015-16, the PSU steel major supplied 6.46 lakh tonnes of rails as against the order of 8.12 lakh tonnes. In the following fiscal, the PSU supplied 6.20 lakh tonnes to the public sector transporter as against the order of 10.05 lakh tonnes, the minister informed the Lok Sabha through a written reply.

SAIL has taken steps to augment its capacity by setting up a rail mill at its Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh, the minister said.

“During April-November 2017, SAIL supplied 5.55 lakh tonnes to the railways, which is an increase of 43 per cent over corresponding period last year, when it was 3.89 lakh tonnes,” Sai said.

Until now, as per an MoU, state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is the only company supplying rails to the railways. SAIL manufactures 260-metre long rails at its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh.

The Ministry of Railways recently floated a global tender to procure 7 lakh tonnes of rails worth Rs 3,500 crore. This is the first time that the railways has come up with such a tender.

Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), the only domestic player holding experience in rails making and supplying, is interested in the tender. Its Raigarh plant has a capacity to produce 1 million tonnes of rails, about 30 per more than the railways requirement

Analyze the root cause of problems and find out the solutions related to safety to ensure safety and punctuality in train operations, said Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager, SCR. He also advised the officials to trust the lower cadre to build the confidence and improve the work culture to work effectively. He conducted intensive review meeting on Safety, Punctuality and Freight loading etc., i.e., 18^th December, 2017 at Rail Nilayam, Secunderabad along with Principal Heads of Departments. The Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) of all six Divisions i.e. Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Guntur and Nanded attended the meeting through video conference.

Vinod Kumar Yadav conducted a detailed review of all the safety measures to be taken to ensure safe running of the trains. He discussed the factors hampering the Safety and punctuality on the zone including minor incidents like yard derailments, signal failures, Level crossing gate open incidences and Loco failures etc., The General Manager also reviewed all the ongoing and pending works pertaining to passenger amenities and bridge works and other infrastructural works etc and instructed the officials to speed up the works to achieve the target.

The General Manager indicated the DRMs to make advance loading program to meet the demands in supply of the wagons for loading Cement, Sand, Lime stone and Coal etc. Further he instructed the branch officials to work with co-ordination of the adjacent zonal officials to overcome the issues like loco shortages etc. He instructed the officials to re-engage the retired employees on contract basis as per feasibility in commercial department to fill-up the gap of shortage of ticket checking staff to curb the ticket less travel.

John Thomas, Additional General Manger; K.V.Siva Prasad, Principal Chief Engineer; N. Madhusudana Rao, Principal Chief Operations Manager; M.G.Sekharam, Principal Chief Commercial Manager; Arjun Mundiya, Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer; Vijay Agrawal, Principal Chief Administrative Officer (Construction); V.M.Srivastava, Principal Chief Signal & Telecommunications Engineer; A.A.Phadke, Principal Chief Electrical Engineer; D.K.Singh, Chief Safety Officer; P.K.Sangewar, Principal Chief Material Manager; N.V. Ramana Reddy, Principal Chief Personnel Officer; Dr. K.H.K.Dora, Principal Chief Medical Director and Sanjay Sankrityayan, Chief Security Commissioner were amongst the officials present.

The nearly two-year-long recruitment process for railway jobs may soon be over in just six months, if things go according to plan. Hit by severe staff crunch, Railways is mulling shortening the process by introducing online tests among other steps.

In a meeting of general managers with Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani soon after the derailment of the Vasco-Da-Gama-Patna Express on November 24, the zonal heads raised the issue of filling up of vacant posts in the railways, according to the minutes of the meeting available with PTI.

“The process of recruitment takes too long, taking almost two years since submission of application. Many candidates get alternative jobs, leading to the poor materialisation of indents (vacancy notice). With online tests etc the process should be speeded up,” General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway Chahatey Ram suggested in the meeting in the presence of 17 GMs.

In response, Lohani said that the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) should review the process “with a target to complete it within six months”. The board has instructed its departments to submit their proposals on the issue by December 20. As of December 2016, Railways has a staff strength of more than 1.3 million, while it has 225,823 vacancies in Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ categories.

According to data available with Railways, it has 122,911 vacancies in safety categories and a shortage of another 174,64 loco running staff. The vacancies range from profiles such as drivers, guards, gangmen and other technical staff.

Other general managers pointed out that zonal railways should be allowed to place vacancy notices directly to the RRB instead of going to the Railway Board, thereby reducing the time it takes to hire staff. Sources said that the board is considering the matter and is reviewing ways to “fast track” the process.

The Railways has a staff strength of more than 1.3 million and its employees take care of the country’s 66,030 km of tracks, 10,773 locomotives, 63,046 coaches and 2.45 lakh wagons. The transport behemoth ferries over 20 million passengers daily.

As part of its campaign to promote green/renewable energy, the Central Railway has installed a total 28 solar power plants with a capacity of 924 kilowatt peak (KWp) on its five divisions and at a workshop.

Mumbai and Solapur divisions have nine plants each, while Pune, Nagpur and Bhusaval have three plants each and one is at the Matunga workshop in Mumbai, an official said.

“Apart from above, wind and solar energy installations have been provided at eight locations with a total capacity of 44 KWp and stand-alone solar installations have been provided at various small stations, level crossing gates and street lights at 953 locations with a total capacity of 49 KWp,” the official stated.

The plants at Sanpada and Matunga Workshop having capacity of 1000 KWp each are in various stages of implementation. Once completed the expected energy generation of these plants will be 25 lakh units per year.

LED lights, which save energy as compared to conventional lights, have already been provided at 250 railway stations on Central Railway. LED lighting at remaining 188 stations will be provided by March 2018, the official stated. The estimated annual energy savings will be 1.4 crore units, which will result in savings of Rs 13 crore every year, the official added.

An agreement has also been signed in presence of CR general manager D.K. Sharma to provide LEDs in place of old fittings. Under this agreement Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL, a joint venture of PSUs under Ministry of Power, will provide Rs 30 crore funds initially.

The CR will pay back quarterly instalments to EESL from the savings achieved from energy bills by retaining some part of savings for the next five years, an official said. The agreement is for five years and during this period EESL will replace defective fittings and equipments, if any.

The South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) would get benefaction of Grade-11 raw coal done from its Korba fields in Chhattisgarh, officials informed. The company recorded 13.33 million tonnes (MT) of coal production against the target of 13.70 MT during November this year, the company informed in a regulatory filing.

Notably, Coal India Ltd (CIL) recorded offtake of 10.13 million tonnes (MT) of coal from its flagship subsidiary SECL against the target of 10.60 MT during September this year. The offtake of coal by Coal India Ltd from SECL had seen 15.8 per cent jump (provisional) at 60.99 million tonnes (MT) during April-August 2017, officials informed.

The coal offtake target during the period was 58.79 MT. SECL achieved total production of 28.178 million tonnes (MT) of coal from its open cast (OC) mines during April-June period of the current financial year. It so excavated 125.45 million tonnes (MT) of coal from its mines during the last five year period (2012-13 to 2016-17) from its Open Cast mines, the latest SECL data has revealed.

Notably, CIL had recorded offtake of coal from its largest subsidiary SECL at 124.34 million tonnes between April 2015 to February 2016. This was against the target of 123.89 million tonnes (MT)  which was a growth of 11.1 per cent.

The developing of rail track network in Eastern corridor would  facilitate coal traffic movement from Kharsia to Dharamjaygarh upto Korba with a spur line from Gare-Pelma Block in Northern part of Chhattisgarh, officials informed. The project would meet the logistic challenges foreseen on account of coal evacuation and to meet the growing coal needs of the country.

Ministry of Railways has notified the East Rail Corridor in the State of Chhattisgarh as a ‘Special Railway Project’ to provide national infrastructure for a public purpose and directed for acquisition of land under the Railways Act, 1989.

The South East Central Railway (SECR) conducted as many as 27 Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Surveys (PETS) during the Five Year Plan Period 2012-17 for new line projects, the Central Government has informed.

Reconnaissance/Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Survey is pre-requisite for consideration of any new investment proposal for new projects to assess the likely investment, traffic potential and return from the same. Based on the outcome of Reconnaissance/ Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Survey, projects are sanctioned/included in Budget Document (Pink Book) on the basis of remunerativeness, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon throwforward of ongoing project, overall availability of funds and competing demands.

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 thirdrailway 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 channelised 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 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 DoubleRailway 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.

Notably, the development of two key Rail corridors in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh is now set to expand the Railway line network by 45 per cent in the State, officials stated.

The completion of Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur, East and East-West Railcorridor projects will comprise a total of 535 kilometers Railway-line during the next two to four years, they stated.

The East West Rail Corridor project is expected to get completed in 2018-19.

The corridor is to facilitate movement of about 60 million tonnes of coal to various parts of the country apart from providing passenger train facility for the local populace of the region.

The length of the rail track would be 135.30 kms.The Chhattisgarh East West Railway Ltd is the implementing agency for the project.

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.

Notably, the development of two key Rail corridors in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh is now set to expand the Railway line network by 45 per cent in the State, officials stated.

The completion of Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur, East and East-West Rail corridor projects will comprise a total of 535 kilometers Railway-line during the next two to four years, they stated.

The East West Rail Corridor project is expected to get completed in 2018-19.

The corridor is to facilitate movement of about 60 million tonnes of coal to various parts of the country apart from providing passenger train facility for the local populace of the region.

The length of the rail track would be 135.30 kms. The Chhattisgarh East West Railway Ltd is the implementing agency for the project.

Tokyo prosecutors have raided the headquarters of at least two of Japan’s biggest construction firms for alleged antitrust violations linked to $80 billion worth of magnetic levitation (maglev) train line projects.

Shimizu Corp (1803.T) and Kajima Corp (1812.T) were raided early on Monday morning, spokesmen for the two companies separately said.

Another construction firm, Obayashi Corp (1802.T), is already under investigation for suspected bid-rigging over maglev-related contracts.

A spokeswoman for the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office said it could not comment on individual cases.

The other member of the so-called “big four” group of Japanese construction firms involved in the maglev project, Taisei Corp (1801.T), had not been raided, a spokesman said.

Kajima shares plunged as much as 4.6 percent and Shimizu shares fell as much as 3.7 percent on news of the raids. Taisei shares were also down 3.3 percent on media reports it would be raided next. The Tokyo Stock Exchange was 1 percent higher.

The investigation relates to a 9 trillion yen ($80 billion) maglev line that is under construction linking Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.

Trains running at speeds of up to 500 km (311 miles) per hour, through tunnels deep under mountainous terrain, will cut train travel time between Tokyo and Nagoya to 40 minutes from 100 minutes or more when operation begins in 2027.

The big four contractors have won roughly an equal number of orders for about 70 percent of the projects, according to Japanese media reports.

Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. and Southern Railway have recommended to the Railway Board to cancel Mangaluru Central-Madgaon-Mangaluru Central Intercity Express (22636/22635) in view of poor patronage.

Introduced about four years ago at the behest of the then Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP K. Jayaprakash Hegde, the train leaves Mangaluru Central at 8.15 a.m. to reach Madgaon at 2 p.m. In the return journey, the train leaves Madgaon at 4.15 p.m. to reach Mangaluru Central at 10 p.m. during the non-Monsoon period.

As per information provided by Southern Railway, Mangaluru Central-Madgaon service earned an average of ₹ 19,913.33 per day during 2016-17 with 40.09 % occupancy in reserved classes.

Occupancy and earnings through non-reserved classes are not available. Earning for the whole year was just ₹ 62,81,470 from the Mangaluru Central-Madgaon service.

Meanwhile, Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. is yet to furnish information on passenger patronage for the Madgaon-Mangaluru Central service.

While KRCL Managing Director Sanjay Gupta told that the decision of the board is awaited, Divisional Railway Manager of Southern Railway Palakkad Division Naresh Lalwani said that the Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee would take a call on KRCL’s proposal sent to it by the board.

President of Rail Prayanikara Hitharakshana Samithi, Kundapur, K. Somashekara Shetty said that the inter-city train’s poor patronage was because the train does not halt at many important stations. If its schedule is changed, patronage would improve, he said.

The train runs in between the Mangaluru Central-Madgaon-Mangaluru Central Passenger and the Bengaluru-Karwar-Bengaluru Express and hence attracts few passengers, said Anil Hegde, advisor to West Coast Rail Yatri Abhivriddhi Samithi, Mangaluru.

The samithi had, in fact, demanded a passenger train service leaving Madgaon early morning reaching Mangaluru Central in the afternoon and leaving Mangaluru Central in the afternoon reaching Madgaon during night, opposite to the existing Mangaluru Central-Madgaon service.

For some reason, an intercity leaving Mangaluru in the morning was introduced, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Jayaprakash Hegde said that he would discuss the issue with KRCL in detail soon.

The Indian Railways has cleared a Rs. 12,000-crore proposal to equip electric locomotives with the latest European train protection system.

At its meeting on December 15, the Railway Board cleared the proposal to equip 6,000 electric locos with European Train Control System (ETCS) Level-II to help drivers – or pilots — to prevent rail mishaps, a senior Railway Ministry official told IANS.

Besides, the Board also decided to install the ETCS Level-II system on the entire 9,054 km-long Golden Quadrilateral route connecting the four metros to make it a fully accident-free corridor.

The entire project to ensure ETCS Level-II compliance is expected to cost around Rs. 12,000 crore.

There are cases where accidents occur due to error of locomotive pilots who generally have to work in very stressful conditions.

Known as a “train protection warning system”, the facility based on ETCS Level-I has been implemented on about 342 km of rail route. Gatiman Express, running at 160 kmph between Nizamuddin and Agra, safely runs at this speed protected by the system.

However, it was decided to upgrade the system to put it on par with world standards as the ETCS Level-I has limitations.

In a train protection warning system, information regarding the condition of the signals ahead — whether it is showing red, yellow or green — is communicated to the locomotive and is shown on a display screen called DMI (Driver Machine Interface) in the front of the loco pilot.

In the ETCS Level-I system, this information regarding the condition of the signal ahead is periodically received in the loco whenever it passes over a device called “balise” which is fitted in the middle of the track at certain intervals.

Thus this has a limitation that the information regarding the signal ahead is received only when a loco passes over a balise — and the driver has to wait till he passes over the next balise to get updated information.

This disadvantage of the ETCS Level-I is overcome in ETCS Level-II, which ensures that the status of the signal ahead is continuously available in the loco through a wireless radio medium using a GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communication-Railways) network.

GSM-R is similar to the mobile GSM network with some special features for Railway applications. With the status of the signal continuously available, the driver can now run the train more efficiently, as per the movement authority available to him, thereby improving overall speed and the section capacity of the route.

With the implementation of ETCS Level-II, the balise fitted on the track for communicating the status of signals are no longer required.

The Indian Railways has cleared a Rs. 12,000-crore proposal to equip electric locomotives with the latest European train protection system.

At its meeting on December 15, the Railway Board cleared the proposal to equip 6,000 electric locos with European Train Control System (ETCS) Level-II to help drivers – or pilots — to prevent rail mishaps, a senior Railway Ministry official told IANS.

The entire project to ensure ETCS Level-II compliance is expected to cost around Rs. 12,000 crore.

There are cases where accidents occur due to error of locomotive pilots who generally have to work in very stressful conditions.

Currently, the Railways has a basic automatic train protection system based on the ETCS Level-I specification to provide a back-up to loco pilots on a limited stretch.

Known as a “train protection warning system”, the facility based on ETCS Level-I has been implemented on about 342 km of rail route. Gatiman Express, running at 160 kmph between Nizamuddin and Agra, safely runs at this speed protected by the system.

However, it was decided to upgrade the system to put it on par with world standards as the ETCS Level-I has limitations.

In a train protection warning system, information regarding the condition of the signals ahead — whether it is showing red, yellow or green — is communicated to the locomotive and is shown on a display screen called DMI (Driver Machine Interface) in the front of the loco pilot.

In the ETCS Level-I system, this information regarding the condition of the signal ahead is periodically received in the loco whenever it passes over a device called “balise” which is fitted in the middle of the track at certain intervals.

Thus this has a limitation that the information regarding the signal ahead is received only when a loco passes over a balise — and the driver has to wait till he passes over the next balise to get updated information.

This disadvantage of the ETCS Level-I is overcome in ETCS Level-II, which ensures that the status of the signal ahead is continuously available in the loco through a wireless radio medium using a GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communication-Railways) network.

GSM-R is similar to the mobile GSM network with some special features for Railway applications. With the status of the signal continuously available, the driver can now run the train more efficiently, as per the movement authority available to him, thereby improving overall speed and the section capacity of the route.

With the implementation of ETCS Level-II, the balise fitted on the track for communicating the status of signals are no longer required.