The Indian Railways’ largest workers’ union has hit out at the Railway Board over its decision to hand over 15 of its stadiums to the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) to conduct “techno-economic studies for commercial development”.

In a reply to a query in Parliament in March this year, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had said that the national transporter has identified 87 land parcels, 84 railway colonies, four hill railways and three stadiums for asset monetisation so far.

He said that the Railways has planned to monetise assets, including Dedicated Freight Corridors after commissioning, railway land parcels, railway colonies, hill railways and stadiums.

“The All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) is with the sentiments of lakhs of railwaymen, their families, children and sports persons since strong resentment and anguish is seen all over the Railway Fraternity against arbitrary decision of the Railway Board to handover the railway sports grounds/complex and stadiums to the RLDA for commercial development,” Shiva Gopal Mishra, President, AIRF, said in a letter to Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma.

In the letter, Mr Mishra said that the railway sports complexes or stadiums and indoor stadiums are located in the heart of various important cities and are being used by sportspersons and other sports enthusiasts, besides common railwaymen (serving and retired) since many decades.

“These stadiums and sports complexes/grounds are not surplus and unusable railway land, which can be handed over to anybody else,” it said.

The move from the ministry has also found stiff resistance from the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) earlier who had protested the handing over of their stadium to the RLDA.

The RLDA is in charge of generating revenue for the Railways by leasing out parcels of railway land. It is also engaged in developing major stations in partnership with private companies.

On the list are sports complexes at production units in Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli; Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala; Rail Wheel Factory, Yelahanka, Bengaluru; Banaras Locomotive Works (formerly DLW), Varanasi; and Integral Coach Factory, Chennai.

The other facilities on the list belong to respective zonal railways – like the indoor stadium and cricket ground in Parel, Mumbai; a hockey stadium in Ranchi; and the sports complex at Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. The list also includes sports facilities in Gorakhpur, Patna, Lucknow, Secunderabad and Bhubaneswar.

3 Comments The RLDA has maintained that these stadiums will remain sporting facilities primarily but it will be accessed if they can be upgraded and at the same time opened up for commercial use by private parties.

A milestone of 20,000 metric tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) have been delivered across the country by the Indian Railways’ Oxygen Express during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Union Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.

A total of 300 Oxygen Express trains have completed their journey so far, he said.

#OxygenExpress trains have crossed the milestone of providing 20,000 MT of Oxygen for COVID-19 patients across 🇮🇳

So far, 300 Oxygen Express trains have completed their journey in service to the Nation. pic.twitter.com/dQpvxxhPA3
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 29, 2021

The Minister tweeted, “#OxygenExpress trains have crossed the milestone of providing 20,000 MT of Oxygen for COVID-19 patients across. So far, 300 Oxygen Express trains have completed their journey in service to the Nation”.

The states of Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, and Assam have been the key beneficiaries of these Oxygen Expresses.

In order to ensure that Oxygen relief reaches in the fastest time possible, the average speed of these critical freight trains is way above 55, in most cases over long distances on high priority Green Corridors.

The Northeast Frontier Railway is ready to help state governments in every way possible in the fight against COVID-19. The NFR today ran a special train to supply liquid medical oxygen to Assam – the first such train in the north-east.

The Oxygen Express train which left Tata Nagar in Jharkhand on May 22 carrying four containers loaded with 80 tonnes of oxygen arrived in Assam’s Amingaon on May 23.

This oxygen stock will be with Assam, but given to other north-east states when required, government officials said.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma along with the General Manager of NFR Anshul Gupta arrived at the Inland Container Depot in Amingaon to receive the first consignment of medical oxygen.

The railway created a green corridor for the Oxygen Express to pass quickly. The train covered 630 km in just about nine hours from Malda to Amingaon with an average speed of over 70 kmph, which is more than the average speed of the Rajdhani Express trains.

Comments The railways said it is continuing its journey of bringing relief by delivering medical oxygen to states. So far, the railways have delivered more than 15,284 tonnes in more than 936 tankers to states. 234 Oxygen Express trains have completed their journey.

Amid heightened efforts by the Centre to fulfill the gap between the demand and supply of liquid medical oxygen which is needed for combating spiralling cases of Covid-19 infections, Indian Railways’ has made four oxygen plants functional while 52 more have been sanctioned in 86 of its hospitals across the country.

Official sources said that apart from this, 30 more oxygen plants are under various stages of processing and all railway hospitals will be equipped with these plants soon.

General Managers have been delegated powers of up to ₹ 2 crores in each case for sanctioning oxygen generation plants, they informed further.

The number of beds for Covid treatment have been increased from 2,539 to 6,972. The ICU beds in Covid hospitals have been increased from 273 to 573.

Invasive ventilators have also been added and their number has been increased from 62 to 296.

Comments Railway officials said that medical equipments like BIPAP machines, oxygen concentrators and oxygen cylinders are also being provided in railway hospitals. They have also issued instructions that Covid affected employees may be admitted to empanelled hospitals on referral basis as per requirement.

The railways has reached the milestone of carrying 10,000 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen on Monday morning, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said.

The service started on April 19 from Mumbai and it now covers 13 states.

“We reached the milestone of carrying 10,000 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen on Monday morning on Oxygen Express… Oxygen Express delivered oxygen to 13 states,” Mr Sharma said.

The railways also said that on the day Cyclone Tauktae is expected to hit Gujarat, the railways carried more than 150 tonnes of oxygen which is more than the average of 134 tonnes being logged since 20 days.

The Western Railway carried 137 tonnes of the life-saving gas on Sunday and 151 tonnes on Monday from Gujarat to various parts of the country, it said.

 The Western Railway started carrying oxygen tankers from April 25 and it is carrying an average of 134 tonnes oxygen daily

Railway Recruitment Cell (RRC), Western Railway, Mumbai has notified apprenticeship for class 10 pass, class 10+2 pass candidates having ITI certificate affiliated to NCVT / SCVT. The registration link will open on May 25. Candidates can fill and submit the online application forms till June 24.

“Western Railway invites ONLINE applications from interested applicants for engagement as Act Apprentices against the 3591 slots notified for training in the designated Trades under Apprentice Act 1961 at various Divisions, Workshops within the jurisdiction of Western Railways for the year 2021-22,” reads the job notice.

“The applicants should have completed 15 years of age and should not have completed 24 years of age as on 24/06/2021,” the notice adds.

RRC Apprenticeship: Important Points

• Vacancies are available in programming and systems administration assistant, fitter, welder, wireman, electrician, turner, machinist, carpenter, and other trades.
• Candidates awaiting final results are not eligible to apply.
• Engineering Graduates and Diploma holders are not eligible to apply for Apprenticeship in response to this notification as they are governed by a separate scheme of Apprenticeship, RRC Mumbai has said.
• The application fee for this recruitment is ₹ 100 which has to be deposited along with the application form. No fee is required to be paid by SC, ST, PwD, and women applicants.
• Candidates will be selected by taking the average of the percentage of marks obtained in both matriculation (with minimum 50% (aggregate) marks) and ITI examination giving equal weightage to both. There will be no written test or viva.
• Selected candidates would undergo apprenticeship training for a period of 1 year.

The railways has reached the milestone of carrying 10,000 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen on Monday morning, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said.

The service started on April 19 from Mumbai and it now covers 13 states.

“We reached the milestone of carrying 10,000 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen on Monday morning on Oxygen Express… Oxygen Express delivered oxygen to 13 states,” Mr Sharma said.

The railways also said that on the day Cyclone Tauktae is expected to hit Gujarat, the railways carried more than 150 tonnes of oxygen which is more than the average of 134 tonnes being logged since 20 days.

The Western Railway carried 137 tonnes of the life-saving gas on Sunday and 151 tonnes on Monday from Gujarat to various parts of the country, it said.

1 Comments The Western Railway started carrying oxygen tankers from April 25 and it is carrying an average of 134 tonnes oxygen daily.

The Ministry of Railways on Saturday informed that Andhra Pradesh has received its first Oxygen Express in Nellore with 40 metric tonnes (MT) of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO).

“Overcoming all hurdles and finding new solutions, Indian Railways is continuing its journey of bringing relief by delivering LMO to various states across the country. So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 8700 MT of LMO in more than 540 tankers to various states across the country. It may be noted that 139 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various States,” the ministry said.

Oxygen Expresses have been delivering nearly 800 MT of LMO to the Nation each day for the last few days.

The ministry further said, “It is Indian Railways endeavour to deliver as much LMO as possible in the shortest time possible to the requesting states. Andhra Pradesh has got its First Oxygen Express in Nellore with 40 MT of LMO. One Oxygen Express is racing towards Kerala with 118 MT of load to boost Oxygen supply in the region.”

So far, 521 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 2350 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 430 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 1228 MT in Haryana and 308 MT in Telangana.

As many as 40 MT LMO has been delivered in Rajasthan, 361 MT in Karnataka, 200 MT in Uttarakhand, 111 MT in Tamil Nadu, 40 MT in Andhra Pradesh and more than 3084 MT in Delhi.

“Running of new Oxygen is a very dynamic exercise and figures keep getting updated all the time. More loaded Oxygen Expresses are expected to start their journeys later in the night. Railways have mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and keep itself ready with any emerging need of the States. States provide tankers to the Indian Railways for bringing LMO,” the ministry added.

Railway authorities on Monday decided to suspend train services in the Kashmir Valley for six days, starting Tuesday, in view of the worsening COVID-19 situation.

“The train services between Banihal-Baramulla section and vice-versa will remain suspended with effect from 11.05.2021 to 16.05.2021 in view of worsening COVID situation in Kashmir,” an official of the Northern Railways said.

The step to shut down services comes three days ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr amid reports that migrant labourers were using it to enter the Valley to escape mandatory COVID-19 testing at Qazigund.

The biggest single-day delivery of 718 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen in 41 tankers is being carried out across the country today by the special Oxygen Express trains, the centre said.

Uttar Pradesh is the biggest recipient at 222 metric tonnes, while Haryana will get 180 tonnes, it added.

Amid a rapid surge in coronavirus cases during the virulent second wave, the demand for medical oxygen in the country has gone up many times.

To plug the gaps in supply, the centre had earlier diverted oxygen meant for industries for medical use in the country amid depleting reserves of the critical component in the treatment of Covid patients.

There have been multiple reports across states of people dying for lack of oxygen and beds. At least 40 people have died in Delhi in recent days due to hospitals’ inability to provide timely oxygen.

Scores of people are complaining of breathlessness, requiring oxygen support. However, the supply of oxygen has become severely limited due to the sudden jump in demand across cities and towns.

The Railways has delivered 2,960 tonnes of medical oxygen to states across the country since April 19 in 185 tankers, the national transporter said on Friday. Forty-seven Oxygen Express trains have completed their journey so far, it added.

Earlier, the Railway Ministry was approached by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to explore if liquid medical oxygen tankers could be moved by the rail network.