Increasing train speed up to 200 km per hour on the Delhi-Chandigarh route will cost Rs 11,000 crore ($1.7 billion), a study conducted by French railway said.

The 245km Delhi-Chandigarh corridor, one of the busiest routes in north India, is slated to be the first semi-high speed project being taken up by the state-owned transporter to run trains at maximum speeds of 200 kmph with French help.

The 1,700-page detailed report submitted by the French railway (SNCF) will be taken up for finalisation in Indian Railways on Monday for preparing tendering documents and drawing out an action plan as a way forward.

The railways will sign a MoU with SNCF next year expanding the scope of cooperation in the rail sector, including training of drivers of semi-high speed trains and safety and security of train networks.

The total travel time between the two cities is expected to be reduced to 2 hours and 2 minutes with two stoppages at Panipat and Ambala, according to the report.

Currently, the Shatabdi Express covers the distance in about three hours and 30 minutes travelling at a maximum speed of 110 kmh.

SNCF has submitted the execution strategy and implementation model with detailed project cost involving an upgrade of the route with details of cost analysis and technical parameters.

The report has pegged the total estimated cost at Rs 11,218 crore, which includes the cost of signals upgrade, main civil works and rolling stock among others.

Senior officials from both sides will examine the report and a final cost will be decided after the discussion on Monday, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

There will be re-alignment as there are about 20 major curves spanning over 32.7 km on the existing Delhi-Chandigarh rail route. However, there will be no acquisition of fresh land for the re-alignment as it will be done within the Railways right of way.

Beside Delhi-Chandigarh, there will be upgrades of seven more routes totalling about 4,000 km, including Mumbai-Goa, Chennai-Hyderabad, Mysuru-Chennai, Delhi-Kanpur and Nagpur-Secunderabad.

Owing to onset of fog, the North Eastern Railways (NER) has suspended eight trains from December 1 to February 13, an official said on Monday.

These trains include the Agra Intercity, 12179 Lucknow Junction-Agra Cantt Express, 15209 Saharsa-Amritsar Express, 14674 Amritsar-Jainagar Shaheed Express and Lucknow-Anand Vihar Express.

NER Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Sanjay Yadav said that the cancellation of the trains has been done due to foggy weather.

Some trains have also been partially cancelled. These include Gwalior-Barauni Express, which will terminate at the Lucknow junction and would also start from here only.

Jainagar-New Delhi Express, Azamgarh-Delhi Kaifiyat Express, Barauni-Ambala Hariharnath Express will remain suspended on every Thursday between December 1 to February 13.

The Jainagar-Amritsar Express will not ply on Friday of every week between December 1-February 13. The cancellations of train is likely to hurt the daily commuters the most.

In a significant move, Indian Railways did a makeover of the Rajdhani Express, introducing ‘Swarna’ Coaches to its passengers. Initially, the new set up has been made available in the Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express.

The Ministry of Railways on Wednesday took to Twitter and announced the new upgradation. “Ministry of Railways launched 1ST Swarna Rajdhani ( Train no 12314 New Delhi- Sealdah Rajdhani) rake today. A Major Leap in Improving Passenger Experience on Rajdhani Trains:14 Rajdhani Trains and 15 Shatabdi Trains will be upgraded under Project Swarna,” read the tweet.

Earlier in the month, Indian Railways had announced that the passengers of Rajdhani and Shatabdi would get text messages on their mobile phones if their scheduled trains get delayed by more than an hour.

Railways made the much-needed facility operational for all Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project, adding that the SMS facility would be extended to other trains too in a phased manner.

In a bid to promote digital payments, the Indian Railways on Thursday said it will bring UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payment system at all its ticket reservation counters across the country from Friday.

“We are going to roll out UPI-based payment system at all reservation counters across the country,” Railway Board Member (Traffic) Mohammad Jamshed said in New Delhi.

He said the system will currently be launched only for reserved tickets.

He said over 97 percent of the tickets sold at Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters daily are through cash and only two-three percent of transactions at the reservation counters are through debit or credit cards.

According to railway officials, about 7.5 lakh tickets are booked daily. Five lakh tickets are booked at PRS counters.

“Now a passenger does not have to carry his credit/ debit card, as they will be able to book it through BHIM app through a mobile phone,” Jamshed said.

He said the Railways is working to develop Bharat QR code option for booking tickets “Once it’s completed, passengers just need to scan the QR code to make payments,” the official said.

The Railways earns around Rs. 110 crores daily by selling reserved tickets – Rs. 80 crores from e-ticketing and Rs. 30 crores from tickets sold at reservation counters.

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Indian Railways has extended the facility to pay for train tickets through UPI/BHIM to railway counters. The facility of payment through UPI/BHIM for booking of e-tickets online was already implemented on the IRCTC website. Bharat Interface for Money or BHIM app is developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), based on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI). The BHIM app is inter-operable with other Unified Payment Interface (UPI) applications and bank accounts. In less than a year, the number of daily transactions through BHIM app has reached 2.8 lakh.

Train Ticket Booking Through BHIM/UPI: 10 Things To Know

The facility to book train tickets at railway counters though the BHIM app will be implemented from December 1, 2017.

The Railways said this facility will be available for booking of reserved tickets from Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters and season tickets (monthly/quarterly) from Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) counters.

There would be no transaction charges for a period of three months from passengers for the new train ticket booking facility.

Passengers will be able to receive information on the fare to be paid at the railway counters by sharing their travel details..

If a customer opts to pay through UPI/BHIM, the counter person will select UPI as payment option and request for passenger’s Virtual Payment Address (VPA).

The railway counter person will enter the Virtual Payment Address (VPA) to initiate the transaction in the terminal.

The passenger will receive a payment request on the mobile to confirm payment. The passenger will be required to accept the payment request and the passenger’s linked account will be debited the fare amount.

Once the transaction is successful and verified on the system, the counter person will print the ticket and hand it to the passenger.

Besides promoting the government’s initiative of increasing digital/cashless transaction, the new payment mechanism at railway counters will offer additional payment option to customers availing railway services. There is no need to share bank account or credit/debit card number.

The BHIM app is easy to use and supports payment through multiple banks on a real time basis.

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani on Thursday said train accidents had decreased by 40 per cent in the country and over 1.25 lakh people were being appointed to the railways’ safety department.

The number of accidents between April 1 and November 30 this year had gone down by 40 per cent in comparison to the corresponding period in 2016, he told reporters in Dhanbad.

“The safety wing is being strengthened. The maintenance work of the tracks is going on on a war footing and new tracks are being laid,” Lohani said, while acknowledging that there were certain cases of train accidents recently.

A large number of posts were lying vacant in the railways and the process was on to fill up these posts, particularly those associated with the safety of the trains and tracks, he added.

“In the safety category, 1.25 lakh group C and group D staff will be appointed on a priority basis,” Mr Lohani said.

To a question, the railway board chairman said officials of the Dhanbad division of the East Central Railway and the Bharat Coking Coal Limited would attend a meeting in Delhi on December 8 to decide on the revival of the closed DhanbadChandrapura route.

The 34-km-long route was declared closed on June 15 on the recommendation of the directorate general of mines safety because of underground mine fire.

The DVC operates a thermal power station at Chandrapura.

Mr Lohani said the board had short and long-term projects for an alternative to the Dhanbad-Chandrapura route, for which a proposal would be put up in the next budget.

A coach of a New Delhi-Ghaziabad passenger train derailed at Okhla Railway Station on Tuesday, an official said. No one was hurt.

Northern Railway spokesperson Nitin Chowdhary said, “The wheel of one coach – second from the motor coach of the MEMU (Mainline Electric Multiple Unit), came off the rail at Okhla station at 9.45 a.m.”

“No passenger was injured in the incident,” he said.

He also said that the passengers onward journey continued on other trains.

The derailed wheel of the MEMU coach was being put back on rails. Senior officials of the Northern Railway rushed to the Okhla station after the incident.

“An inquiry has been ordered to look at the cause of the derailment,” the official added.

The Indian Railways today suspended a senior section officer-in-charge of tracks in connection with the November 24 derailment of the Vasco Da Gama Express which left three passengers dead.

Thirteen coaches of the Patna-bound passenger train had derailed near Manikpur Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh.

“A permanent way inspector also called a senior section officer, Rajesh Verma, who was in-charge of Manikpur has been suspended over the incident pending investigation”, railway spokesperson Anil Saxena told PTI.

While the real reason behind the accident will be ascertained only after a probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety, initial investigations suggested that a rail fracture led to the derailment.

A state-owned French rail company on Monday submitted its report on upgrading the Delhi-Chandigarh railway route and reducing travel time between the two cities by almost an hour and 30 minutes.

The 245-km corridor project will be the first semi-high speed venture of the Railways with French aid which would enable some trains to run at a maximum speed of 200 kmph.

“SNCF, France’s state-owned rail company, started the study in January 2016 and submitted the final report today,” Railway spokesperson Anil Saxena said.

The study was under the consideration of the railway board, he told PTI.

Sources said that in its over 1500-page report, the company stated that the upgrading of the route would cost more than Rs 10,000 crore. The figure, however, could not be confirmed officially.

The journey, which is at present covered in three hours and 30 minutes by the Shatabdi, travelling at a maximum speed of 110 kmph, will take around two hours and two minutes with a halt in Panipat and Ambala after the upgrade.

The project is expected to be launched in January 2018 when French President Emmanuel Macron is likely to visit India, officials said.

The Railways plans to upgrade 4000 kilometres of networks across seven routes, which include Mumbai-Goa, Chennai- Hyderabad, Mysuru-Chennai and Delhi-Kanpur.

Why elephants get spooked by the sound of the honeybee swarm? Science can surely help us answer that, but the Indian Railways has found an ingenious way to make the best use of that!

Despite their thick skin and size, elephants are terrified of bees, particularly of being stung on the sensitive trunk. Such is the fear, that a “bee alarm” almost immediately goes off in the elephant herd with the slightest of buzz.

The state government plans to use the bee sound to keep the endangered pachyderms off the railway tracks, a major source of their accidental deaths.

The Northeast Frontier Railway has deployed devices which amplify the buzz of swarming honeybees, which scares away the elephants.

The device, which costs about Rs. 2,000 and audible to an elephant 600 meters away, was successfully tested near the rail tracks earlier this week.

In 2016 alone, 16 elephants were killed in train-hits, while this year, the figure already crossed half a dozen.

According to an elephant census conducted by the Assam forest department in 2011, there were around 5,600 elephants in the state.

Between 2006 and 2016, around 225 elephants were reportedly killed in train-hits and growing man-animal conflicts.