On Wednesday, the century-old Krumbiegel Hall in Lalbagh was reduced to a rubble by the Horticulture Department without prior consultation with either conservationists or the public whose culture scape it belonged to.
Even as politicians created a brouhaha over celebrating Tipu Sultan’s ‘jayanti’ earlier this month, the 18th-century ruler’s last-remaining armoury in Kalasipalyam continued to languish. In July, the heritage Murphy Town library was demolished to make way for the chief ..
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today condoled the death of three passengers, who died after 13 coaches of the Patna-Vasco Da Gama express derailed in Uttar Pradesh’s Manikpur. He ordered a probe.
“Immediate rescue and relief operations started and an inquiry ordered into the derailment of Vasco Da Gama-Patna Express at Manikpur, UP. My sincere condolences to the families of the deceased,” Mr Goyal said in a tweet.
The train going towards Patna, met with an accident at 4.18 am at the Manikpur Station.
Railway Ministry spokesperson Anil Saxena told IANS that railways has announced an ex-gratia of Rs. five lakh to the kin of the deceased, while Rs. one lakh for the passengers with grievous injuries and Rs. 50,000 for those with simple injuries.
“Chairman Railway Board Ashwani Lohani has rushed to the accident site,” he added.
The 13 derailed coaches comprise S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, S10, S11, two extra sleeper coaches and two general coaches.
Two of the victims were identified as Deepak Patel and his father Ram Swaroop from Betia, Bihar.
Three people were killed and at least nine persons left injured after a Patna-bound train derailed near Manikpur railway station in Uttar Pradesh early this morning, police said. Thirteen coaches of the Vasco Da Gama-Patna Express derailed at 4.18 am after it left the Manikpur station, less than 12 hours after a Bolero jeep collided with a passenger train near Lucknow killing four and injuring two.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has ordered an inquiry into the incident and announced a compensation of Rs. 5 lakh each to the family of the dead, Rs. 1 lakh for those with grevious injuries and Rs. 50,000 for the injured. “Immediate rescue and relief operations started and an inquiry ordered into the derailment of Vasco Da Gama-Patna Express at Manikpur, UP. My sincere condolences to the families of the deceased,” Mr Goyal said in a tweet.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also conveyed his sympathies to the families of the victims and wished speedy recovery to the injured. The chief minister also declared Rs. 50,000 each to the seriously injured and Rs. 25,000 to those who suffered minor injuries.
The train derailed soon after leaving platform number 2 of the Manikpur Railway Station, about 250 km from Lucknow, officials said. The train hadn’t picked up speed which is why the casualties were not heavy. Chitrakoot Superintendent of Police Pratap Gopendra Singh said a man and his six-year-old son from Bettiah district of Bihar died on the spot while the third person died at a hospital. Two of the injured are said to be serious.
Railway officials are on the spot and investigating the reasons that led to the accident. According to Additional Director General (Law and Order), Anand Kumar, fractured railway track could have derailed the coaches. “Another possible reason being cited is that due to some technical problem, emergency brakes were slammed, causing the derailment,” he said, adding that it can be confirmed only by railway authorities. The Uttar Pradesh government has asked the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to probe the tragedy, the ADG said.
Exactly a year ago, over 100 people were killed and nearly 200 injured when 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna Express jumped the rails near Kanpur. The number of deaths due to train accidents has already reached over 200 this year, the highest in a decade.
Earlier in August, about a dozen carriages of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express ran off the tracks in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar. At least 23 people were killed and more than 70 injured in the accident. A few days later, over hundred people were injured when 10 bogies of the Kaifiyat Express derailed in Auraiya district of the state.
Former Railway Board chairman AK Mittal had resigned taking responsibility for frequent train accidents. Ashwini Lohani, the former chairman of national carrier Air India, replaced him as the new chief of the board. The then Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu, had also offered to quit, but was told to wait by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group and French automotive group Peugeot SA have discussed proposals to invest as much as $6 billion combined in India, a move that would boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to attract foreign capital in Asia’s third-largest economy, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Lotte may invest between $3 billion and $5 billion in the next five years, the person said asking not to be identified as the proposals are preliminary. The South Korean firm intends to invest in retail, chemicals, food processing and real estate, as well as develop railway platforms in the country, the person said. Separately, PSA Group, the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, plans to spend about 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to build a car factory and an engine plant in southern India, the person said.
PM Modi’s flagship “Make in India” plan encourages foreign firms to manufacture locally by offering easier land acquisition, pruning the number of approvals and, in some cases, offering incentives. The efforts have helped India move up in the World Bank’s ease of doing business survey and achieve an unexpected credit rating upgrade last week by Moody’s Investors Services.
“Lotte is exploring various business opportunities in India and other countries, but there is nothing confirmed or discussed in detail as to which areas to enter and how much money to invest,” Lotte said in a statement. A Paris-based spokesman for PSA referred to a statement in January on the cooperation with C.K. Birla Group in India, which included an initial investment of 100 million euros.
Lotte plans to develop urban real estate by adopting railway stations and maintaining them, the person said. In return, the railways will allow the South Korean firm to operate restaurants, hotels and shops, the person said. The confectionery arm of Lotte is in the process of setting up a new factory in India, according to the person.
The Indian government is discussing more than 550 foreign investment proposals worth about $85 billion, offering competitive terms to companies and ensuring uninterrupted supply of power and water to plants, the person said. The proposed projects include setting up factories in the areas of food processing, electric vehicle components and electronics among others, the person said.
The railways has registered savings of Rs 5,636 crore in power bills from April 2015 to October 2017, the transport behemoth said today.
It also projected a cumulative saving of Rs 41,000 crore in the next ten years.
“This cumulative figure is likely to further go up to Rs 6,927 crore by the end of the current financial year which is around Rs 1,000 crore more than the stipulated target,” the ministry said.
The Open Access policy under the Electricity Act, 2003, allows consumers with electricity load above 1 MW to procure power directly from markets.
The railways currently sources power through open access route in seven states–Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka–and Damodar Valley Corporation area.
Five more states namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have also agreed to permit the railways for flow of power though open access route which is likely to start by next year, the ministry said in a statement.
“The estimated savings on these accounts indicates that in ten years (2015-’25), these initiatives can generate a cumulative saving of about Rs 41,000 crore,” the statement said.
As of now out of total requirement of about 2,000 MW of the IR for electric traction power more than 1,000 MW is flowing under open access. This has reduced the average cost in these states, where power is flowing under open access, to about Rs 5 from earlier cost of more than Rs 7 per unit.
These savings, the statements said, will be utilised for taking up electrification of the rail network as part of Mission Electrification.
This will further reduce the diesel bill and multiply the savings in energy bill, taking it to about Rs 10,500 crore per annum in the next few years on 100 per cent electrification of the IR network, the ministry said.
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission had allowed the railways to undertake transmission and distribution of electricity as a deemed licensee under the Electricity Act through an order in November 2015.
The railways consumes around 2.8 billion litres of diesel a year, costing Rs 18,000 crore, and 17.5 billion units of electricity. Currently, nearly 30 per cent of the fuel bill goes into paying state taxes.
However, sanitation experts and various studies — including those commissioned by the railways — have pointed out that most of the new “bio-toilets” are ineffective or ill maintained and the water discharged is no better than raw sewage.
With the likely upfront receipts of Rs 30,000 crore, the Indian Railways will take on projects that deliver higher returns.
“The O&M will be handled by our engineers. The funds raised through this sale will be utilised in projects that have a return of more than 12%,” a top railway official said.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today met José María Oriol, the CEO of Talgo, who offered to build the light-weight, energy efficient Spanish Talgo trains in the country under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, ministry officials said.
The meeting is significant as the project to introduce these trains has been in cold storage since the Indian Railways conducted trials last year to validate their speed potential.
Sources say that during the meeting Oriol told Goyal that the company was open to “everything” – from manufacturing the coaches to entire train sets in India.
The minister was assured that the company supported the government’s Make in India campaign and “risked coming to India at their own cost” because they wanted to “manufacture” in the country, a ministry official said.
During the trial run in September last year, the train clocked a top speed of 180 km per hour and completed the 1,384 kilometre journey between New Delhi and Mumbai in 11 hours and 40 minutes, compared to the 15 hours and 50 minutes taken by the Rajdhani Express.
What made Talgo trains attractive for Indian Railways was the fact that it can be deployed on existing tracks. The lightweight design and advanced suspension technology allows Talgo trains to travel faster, minimises risks of accidents and puts less force on existing tracks during high-speed manoeuvre.
While the average speed of Rajdhani and Shatabdi coaches is around 70 kmph, Talgo trains can run at an average speed of 105 kmph on the same tracks.
The successful trial of Talgo trains was even highlighted in the list of the NDA government’s achievements in its first two years.
However, a question mark hangs over the fate of the project after the Indo-Spanish joint statement issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Spain in May this year did not mention it.
Three people were killed and at least nine nine persons left injured after a Patna-bound train derailed near Manikpur railway station in Uttar Pradesh early this morning, police said. Thirteen coaches of the Vasco Da Gama-Patna Express derailed at 4.18 am after it left the Manikpur station, less than 12 hours after a Bolero jeep collided with a passenger train near Lucknow killing four and injuring two.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has ordered an inquiry into the incident and announced a compensation of Rs. 5 lakh each to the family of the dead, Rs. 1 lakh for those with grevious injuries and Rs. 50,000 for the injured. “Immediate rescue and relief operations started and an inquiry ordered into the derailment of Vasco Da Gama-Patna Express at Manikpur, UP. My sincere condolences to the families of the deceased,” Mr Goyal said in a tweet.
Chitrakoot Superintendent of Police Pratap Gopendra Singh said a man and his six-year-old son from Bettiah district of Bihar died on the spot while the third person died at a hospital. Two of the injured are said to be serious.
Anil Saxena, Railway spokesperson, said medical relief is being provided to the injured. “Patients have been admitted to Manikpur and Chitrakoot Hospital and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has been closely monitoring the situation. Ashwani Lohani, railway board chairman, has been asked to rush to the spot,” he said.
Railway officials are on the spot and investigating the reasons that led to the accident. According to Additional Director General (Law and Order), Anand Kumar, fractured railway track could have derailed the coaches. The incident has disrupted the movement of trains on the Patna-Allahabad route.
Exactly a year ago, over 100 people were killed and nearly 200 injured when 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna Express jumped the rails near Kanpur. The number of deaths due to train accidents has already reached over 200 this year, the highest in a decade.
Earlier in August, at least a dozen carriages of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express ran off the tracks in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar. At least 23 people were killed and more than 70 injured in the accident. A few days later, over hundred people were injured when 10 bogies of the Kaifiyat Express derailed in Auraiya district of the state.
Former Railway Board chairman AK Mittal had resigned taking responsibility for frequent train accidents. Ashwini Lohani, the former chairman of national carrier Air India, then replaced him as the new chief of the board. The then Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu, had also offered to quit, but was told to wait by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.