The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has asked Railways to accord top priority to track maintenance works in the Thiruvananthapuram railway division to avoid late running of mail and express trains.

Punctuality of the trains and safety are rights of rail users, acting chairperson of the commission P. Mohandas noted in his order on Tuesday on a complaint filed by social worker Devadas on the speed restrictions.

Quoting media reports, Mr. Devadas had petitioned the commission that a speed restriction of 30 km an hour had been enforced on trains in the State in view of the defects in the Thiruvananthapuram-Shoranur rail corridor.

The SHRC chairperson had asked the Divisional Railway Manager to specially take care of punctuality of trains and safety of the commuters.

The Railways, in a report to the commission, had said no speed restrictions had been imposed to take up the track maintenance works. Steps had been taken to detect the fissures in the track and to rectify them.

The Railway Board is being informed of the track maintenance works and works are being taken up on the basis of the funds being made available by the ministry annually. Railways also have machinery and specially trained personnel to detect deficiencies in the railway track and to restore them.

Railways should ensure speedy travel through the rail network and safety of commuters taking into consideration the interests of the public, the chairperson noted.

After a brief hiatus, the feud between autorickshaw-taxi and online cab drivers has reared its ugly head yet again with a section of autorickshaw and taxi operators at both the railway stations in the city resorting to a flash strike on Monday, inconveniencing passengers. The issue began after the railway authorities reportedly gave permission to the online cab drivers to park their vehicles on the station premises in the morning. The autorickshaw and taxi drivers blocked the online cabs  that turned up at the Ernakulam Junction railway station in the morning in protest against the Railways’ decision to grant parking space for Uber cabs along with other autorickshaws and taxies at the station.

According to Shaji, a representative of the City Auto Union, a few online cabs were parked in front of the railway station in the morning disregarding the auto-taxi stand. “They were canvassing passengers by offering travel packages, which invited the wrath of auto-taxi operators at the railway station. Following this, the members of various auto-taxi unions affiliated to CITU, INTUC, AITUC, BMS, STU and TUCI called a flash strike,” he said.

“The District Auto-Taxi Coordination Committee has decided to continue with the strike until the Railways come up with a solution to this issue,” said M B Srumanthadan, secretary, Ernakulam District Auto-Taxi Coordination Committee. According to the auto-taxi operators, during the Sabarimala pilgrimage season, they get relatively more rides than the rest of the months.

“We are prepaid taxi drivers operating as per government-fixed charges. However, the Uber charges vary from morning to night. It will affect the services provided by the traditional operators,” said Sanil, a taxi driver.

“We heard the Railways had arrived at an agreement with Uber for three months and, based on this, they were canvassing passengers. Each taxi driver pays a minimum of Rs.4,000 every six months for using the space allotted to them on the station premises, he said. If Uber operates from here without any fixed charge, there is no point in paying the amount to the authorities,” said, Pradeep Kumar, CITU district joint secretary.

The railways’ ambitious move to execute the pending projects on a cost-sharing basis with the states is yet to bear desired results in many states, including Bihar where certain projects are hanging fire because of resource crunch.

According to a Railway Board official, Jharkhand and Karnataka have positively responded to the railways’ initiative. While the Jharkhand government has agreed to share 50% of the estimated cost of the railway projects, Karnataka is spending about Rs 2,500 crore on the railway projects, he said and added Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments were also funding the railway projects in their states.

“Railway projects worth over Rs 35,000 crore were allotted by the railway ministry to Bihar over the recent few years. However, some of them could not take off due to resource crunch,” said the official.

These projects include a diesel locomotive factory at Marhaura (Rs 2,025 crore), an electric locomotive factory at Madhepura (Rs 1,400 crore), a goods wagon repair workshop at Sonepur (Rs 92 crore) and a wagon repair workshop at Samastipur (Rs 33 crore). Of these, only the electric locomotive project at Madhepura is being executed on the public-private partnership basis, the official said.

The Bihar government is sharing with the railways the cost of building road over bridges at different places in the state. The state government has also agreed in principle to help the railways develop the infrastructure for the fast corridor project between Patna and New Delhi.

The railways is currently running mail and express trains at 90kmph on the Jhajha-Patna-Mughalsarai route. It is likely to increase the speed limit up to 130kmph on this route, sources said and added the tracks all along the route were being strengthened for the purpose.

Sources said the increase in the speed limit on the route would reduce the journey hours by at least 30 to 40 minutes between Patna and New Delhi on trains like Rajdhani Express. The tracks between Mughalsarai and New Delhi are already fit to run Rajdhani Express at 130kmph, the sources said.

he Palakkad Division of the Southern Railway has executed considerable amount of maintenance of tracks and other installations during April-November this year compared to previous years in view of increased train accidents in the country.

Though the Railways is caught between passengers’ expectations of punctuality and ensuring safe running of trains, it has given priority to the latter so that passengers travel safe, Palakkad’s Divisional Railway Manager Naresh Lalwani has said. Mr. Lalwani told that safe running of trains requires regular and proper maintenance of fixed assets, including track, overhead electrical installations, and signalling installations, which require no trains in the section. Maintenance is undertaken under a tight schedule in view of inadequate maintenance margins between trains in the present timetable.

While tracks have to be renewed once in 20 or 30 years, deep screening of track ballast is to be done once in 10 years and rebuilding of bridges, maintenance of overhead electrical installations, testing of signalling installations, and de-stressing of rails are to be done as and when required. Monthly programmes are prepared to undertake maintenance works providing for blocks for certain hours entailing regulation and partial cancellation of some trains. Despite attempts to cause the least disturbance, punctuality is affected to an extent.

More works this year

Mr. Lalwani said 47.443 km track underwent through rail renewal in 2017-18 (96% of last two years), thorough sleeper renewal was undertaken for 50.263 km in 2017-18 (675% of last two years), thorough screening of ballast on plain track was undertaken on 59.856 km (42% of last two years), thorough cleaning of ballast on points and crossings was done on 15 km (30% of last two years), and de-stressing of rails was done for 67.962 km (39% of last two years). Through rail renewal involves replacement of both the rails of the track, thorough sleeper replacement involves sleeper replacement, and thorough screening of ballast involves cleaning of ballast to clear dust and muck to improve cushioning effect.

In the remaining period of 2017-18, more works would be undertaken, reducing arrears of maintenance works. As against budget allocation of ₹189 crore in 2017-18 for these works, the division has spent ₹65 crore so far.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal is embarking on surprise visits and inspections of railway stations and trains, aiming to improve passenger services as well as hear grievances of rail staff.

During a midnight inspection of Churchgate and CSMT stations in Mumbai on Friday, the minister was “distressed” with the condition of restrooms and waiting places for loco pilots and RPF personnel.

This was not the first time, Goyal since taking over as railways minister in September, made a surprise visit. In October, he had travelled in the Kota Jan Shatabdi to get first-hand feedback from passengers.

On November 27, the minister travelled in Mumbai local train and has also visited Elphinstone Road railway station.

The minister’s strategy seems to be aimed at restoring the national transporter’s image which was seriously dented due to a series of accidents in recent past and off late, train delays.

Goyal’s visit also aimed at motivating employees whose morale is at an all time low due to poor working conditions and declining public image of railways.

With just around 17 months left for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the minister is racing against time to make a ‘visible impact’ in the functioning of railways with some officers suggesting that the ruling BJP dispensation is already at a disadvantage having changed railway ministers three times in the last three and a half years.

Sadananda Gowda and Suresh Prabhu were Goyal’s predecessors since BJP wrested power at Centre in 2014. The transporter suffered due to changed priorities and focus areas due to change in political leadership.

Along with making surprise visits to make officials accountable, Goyal has been trying to fast-track decision-making, pushing long pending reforms in taming and revamping the colonial-era rail bureaucracy, though sometimes these attempts have rubbed officials the wrong way.

Goyal’s ‘corruption in railways’ remark, which was clarified by his ministry later, caused damage to morale, some observers have suggested. So was the decision to call in the Army to build foot-over-bridges in Mumbai suburban after Elphinstone tragedy.

Goyal’s, along with chairman railway board Ashwani Lohani’s much-publicised call to end ‘VIP culture’ in railways did not go down well with many officers who believed it portrayed a negative image in public eyes and it could have been done without making as much ‘noise’.

Retired from the railways, but yet to turn 65? Now, retired rail employees can seek re- engagement with the national transporter till they attain the age of 65 years.

In a letter written by the Railway Board to all the general managers on Tuesday, the age limit of the retired employees seeking re-engagement has been enhanced from 62 to 65 years, allowing more of such employees to lend their expertise to the railways.

“The board has decided to enhance the maximum age limit for re-engagement of retired hands to 65 years from the existing age limit of 62 years.

The board, in a letter dated October 16, had empowered the divisional railway managers (DRMs) to re-engage retired rail personnel in appropriate posts.

These norms, however, would remain the same, the letter written by the Railway Board today clarified.

Retired from the railways, but yet to turn 65? Now, retired rail employees can seek re-engagement with the national transporter till they attain the age of 65 years. In a letter written by the Railway Board to all the general managers today, the age limit of the retired employees seeking re-engagement has been enhanced from 62 to 65 years, allowing more of such employees to lend their expertise to the
railways.

“The board has decided to enhance the maximum age limit for re-engagement of retired hands to 65 years from the existing age limit of 62 years.

“Further, it has also been decided to extend the validity of the scheme of re-engagement of retired employees to January 12, 2019 as against the existing validity up to September 14, 2018,” the letter stated.

The board, in a letter dated October 16, had empowered the divisional railway managers (DRMs) to re-engage retired rail personnel in appropriate posts. It had also said that those re-appointed could only be in service till they turned 62, which has now been extended to 65 years.

The retirement age for the employees is 60.

The monthly remuneration of such employees would be determined by “reducing the pension amount from their last drawn salary”, the letter written in October had stated. It had also said the suitability or competence of the staff should be assessed before their re-engagement and their safety record as well as other operational requirements should be adequately addressed.

These norms, however, would remain the same, the letter written by the Railway Board today clarified.

Retired from the Railways, but yet to turn 65? Now, retired rail employees can seek re-engagement with the national transporter till they attain the age of 65 years.

In a letter written by the Railway Board to all the general managers on Tuesday, the age limit of the retired employees seeking re-engagement has been enhanced from 62 to 65 years, allowing more of such employees to lend their expertise to the railways.

“The board has decided to enhance the maximum age limit for re-engagement of retired hands to 65 years from the existing age limit of 62 years.”

“Further, it has also been decided to extend the validity of the scheme of re-engagement of retired employees to January 12, 2019 as against the existing validity up to September 14, 2018,” the letter stated.

The board, in a letter dated October 16, had empowered the divisional railway managers (DRMs) to re-engage retired rail personnel in appropriate posts.

It had also said that those re-appointed could only be in service till they turned 62, which has now been extended to 65 years.

The retirement age for the employees is 60.

The monthly remuneration of such employees would be determined by “reducing the pension amount from their last drawn salary”, the letter written in October had stated.

It had also said the suitability or competence of the staff should be assessed before their re-engagement and their safety record as well as other operational requirements should be adequately addressed.

These norms, however, would remain the same, the letter written by the Railway Board clarified.