At a time when Indian Railways is besieged by accidents, Titagarh Wagons is set to introduce technology-driven track diagnostic vehicles, which would be manufactured by its joint venture (JV) with Mermec SpA of Italy.

These automated vehicles would be replacing the century-old system of linesmen manually checking the tracks by hitting them with iron rods.

“This is company which is a world leader in diagnostics with presence in signalling, with 80% of its 1,000 staff into designing. We would finalise the joint venture soon and manufacturing would happen in Uttarpara (West Bengal) by next year. To head the JV, we have brought in Lalit Tejwani, who was responsible for ABB’s railway business in the Middle East, Africa and India,” Umesh Chowdhary, vice chairman and managing director of Titagarh Wagons, told DNA Money.

The JV, to be named Devadoot, was signed during Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni’s visit to India and will design and manufacture cost-effective track-side signaling systems and also high-tech systems and measuring trains for the safety of the railway lines and trains.

“The accessible market for the venture is around €1.5 billion,” a statement issued by industry body Ficci during Gentiloni’s visit on October 31 said.

Titagarh has been looking at opportunities within and outside the country by either acquiring foreign technology-led companies or forming JVs with them.

Its maiden acquisition was French wagon maker Arbel Fauvet Rail in 2010.

The wagon maker is now strategising to turn its domestic units into manufacturing bases for its foreign units.

“It’s not that we are closing down manufacturing there. We had acquired stressed assets having very high technology expertise and in the first phase we are turning them around, a process which is complete for our French unit. The second step involves lowering the costs for these overseas units by manufacturing the basic units in India and finishing them and putting some value-addition there,” Umesh said on the sidelines of a CII-organised event on doing business with the Railways.

“We are doing it in a subtle manner but in a solid way,” he added.

For the French unit, all required approvals are in place and Titagarh is currently exporting wagons designed and finished in France but manufactured in India.

The ticket price of around 48 mail and express trains would be increased as Indian Railways would impose a superfast levy.

The hike comes after Railways followed a new time table with a focus to decrease halt time and increase the designated average speed by approximately five kilometres per hour from 50 kmph.

After the superfast levy, passengers will now have to shell out Rs 30 more for Sleeper, Rs 45 for Second and Third AC and Rs 75 for First AC class.

In a bid to reduce halt timings of around 500 long-distance trains, Indian Railways has rolled out a new timetable which would be applicable from November 1 onwards.

According to the new timetable, now the running time of popular trains will reduce by 15 minutes to two hours from tomorrow. Coupled with track and infrastructure upgrade, automatic signalling and the new Linke-Hofmann-Busch coaches that allow a 130 kmph top speed, trains are expected to run faster.

The world’s tallest bridge over the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district, currently under-construction, will be able to withstand up to 8 magnitude earthquakes and high-intensity blasts, according to railway officials.

The arch bridge, a part of an ambitious railway project connecting Kashmir to the rest of the country, will have a “security setup” against possible terror threats and quakes, the officials said.

“The bridge has been designed in such a way that it will withstand an earthquake measuring eight on the Richter scale. There will be no damage to the bridge,” Mr Gupta said, who began the work on putting the main arch on November 5.

He said that a detailed, site-specific seismic analysis has been carried out by experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

The overall length of the bridge is 1,315 metres, having 17 spans, of which the main steel arch portion across the Chenab river is of 476 metres in length and its height is 359 metres above the river bed.

“There are certain unique and unparallelled features in the under-construction bridge. It is for the first time in India that a concrete-filled steel arch is being used as the main arch,” he said.

He said that the work on viaduct portion of the bridge at Srinagar end was nearing completion.

The project work is being carried out by AFCONS Construction Company through Konkan Railway.

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project will be completed by March 2021, he said.

Officials overseeing the project on the ground said that more than 1,300 workers and 300 engineers have been working round-the-clock to complete the bridge in time. Over 70 per cent of the work has been completed, they added.

The construction work started in 2004, but the work was briefly stopped in 2008-09 in view of the safety of rail passengers due to frequent high-velocity winds in the area.

A heritage steam engine named ‘Akbar’, which has featured in over two dozen Bollywood and other movies, was damaged in a derailment after it ran without a pilot in Haryana’s Rewari, a railway official said on Sunday.

The incident occurred at the Heritage Loco Shed in Rewari on Saturday. No one was injured in the episode, said railway officials.
As the 52-year-old Akbar started moving on its own, scared loco pilot Bharatbhushan jumped off as he believed there was a malfunction.

The engine broke the main gate wall of the shed and rolled on for about 2 kilometres towards the main track of the Rewari-Rohtak-Hisar route, before getting derailed just four metres away from it.

“Akbar was brought out of the shed for a trial on Saturday afternoon, two hours before a scheduled inspection by the Executive Director and his team in the day,” said a loco official.

But as Bharatbhushan switched on the ignition, the engine started moving on the tracks on its own.

Bharatbhushan said he had only switched on the ignition and had not pressed the accelerator.

But “it suddenly became uncontrollable and started running on the tracks at a notable speed. I got scared and jumped off the engine. It continued the run for about nearly five minutes, covering around 2 kilometers without me.

“Akbar (WP 1761) has suffered a lot of damage. A crane was called from Delhi to put it back on the tracks,” he added.

The engine was inducted in 1965 after being manufactured at the Chittaranjan locomotive factory in Bengal.

It has featured in Sunny Deol’s “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha”, Salman Khan’s “Sultan”, “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”, “Rang De Basanti”, “Gandhi My Father”, “Gangs of Wasseypur”, “Qarib Qarib Singlle”, Malayalam movie “Pranayam”, Tamil movie “Vijay 60”, “Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero” and some documentaries, an official told IANS, adding it earned the railways lakhs of rupees per hour during film shootings.

“A large sum of money is spent on its maintenance every year. Now repairs may require a lot more money,” he added.

  Central Railway has collected a record Rs. 100.67 crore as fine from ticketless travellers from April to October under a special drive carried out by the commercial department, an official said.

“The Central Railway registered a record ticket checking earnings of Rs. 100.67 crore for the period April to October 2017 and credit for this goes to the intensive campaign against ticketless and irregular travellers launched by the commercial department,” said the official.

During the seven-month period, a total of 19.82 lakh cases of ticketless or irregular travel and unbooked luggage were detected by the commercial staff as against 16.37 lakh cases during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 21.08 per cent in number of cases, he said.
An amount of Rs. 100.67 crore was realised from them as fine against Rs. 80.02 crore during the same period last year, an increase of 25.81 per cent in earnings, he added.

The Central Railway has been taking regular steps to provide better services to its bonafide rail users and also to curb the ticketless travel, he said.

A fire broke out in the railway yard here yesterday evening in which two coaches of a stationary train were gutted and as many damaged, a railway official said.

A general and a sleeper coach of the Amrapali Express, which was scheduled to leave late tonight for Amritsar, was destroyed while two other coaches were damaged by the blaze.

No casualties have been reported yet, officials said, adding that the reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained.

“The fire has been brought under control. Fire brigade personnel and engineers are on the spot. An inquiry will be ordered to ascertain the cause of the fire,” Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Katihar, D L Meena, said.

The fire was noticed at around 6 pm by railway personnel engaged in the yard who informed the RPF and the fire brigade was called subsequently.

By the time flames were extinguished, a general and a sleeper coach were gutted and two other coaches were badly damaged.

Railway officials said the train would run as scheduled with fresh coaches attached to it in place of the affected ones.

Amrapali Express (15707/15708) runs between Katihar and Amritsar. It operates as train number 15707 in Up direction from Katihar Junction of North east Frontier railway to Amritsar of Northern Railway and as train number 15708 in the reverse direction.

Amrapali Express covers the distance of 1799-km between Katihar and Amritsar in 37 hours. As the average speed of the train is below 55 km/hr, its fare does not include a Superfast surcharge.

Minister for shipping Nitin Gadkari, on Tuesday said the focus of the government would be on transporting liquid cargo such as LNG, LPG, methanol, CNG and edible oils by Railways and waterways instead of roads, in a bid to reduce pollution and traffic congestion.

He also said that all ports would be turned into green ports.

The minister further said the Centre would fund the setting up of a centre of excellence at IIT-Chennai to provide technical support for cost-effective dredging at all ports and to study and advise the ministry on marine engineering-related matters. He also said logistic parks would be developed in Paradip, Chennai and Vizag to handle freight.

“We are trying to bring this cost down to around 12 per cent which would make Indian goods more competitive in the international market,” Gadkari said, adding that the government was prioritising coastal transport and inland waterways compared to road and rail mode as costs were significantly lower for the former.

“For every Rs 10 of transportation cost by road, it is Rs 6 for railways and only Rs 1 for waterways. That means you would be able to transport goods spending only 10 per cent of the current cost,” said Gadkari, who is also the Road Transport and Highways Minister.

“There are 111 rivers which we have decided to develop as inland waterways. Out of these, work has already started on 10 rivers,” he said. “These waterways will significantly reduce logistics cost.”

Even as the government was focusing on developing waterways, work was simultaneously being done at a fast pace to bring down logistics cost on roads as well, the minister said.

For the first time in five years, Central Railway will induct 13 brand new local trains in Mumbai. The first of these already reached Mumbai from Chennai’s Integral Coach Factory of Indian Railways on Monday. Most likely, the new trains will ply on Harbour line.

All 72 trains procured in last five years under the second phase of Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP-II) were given to Western Railway.

Commuters on the Harbour line travel on old dual current (AC-DC) locals which are suffocating as they have very poor illumination and ventilation.

Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation spokesperson quoted in the report said that new locals are procured under nine-coach to 12-coach extension project and all new trains are expected to be delivered by March next year.

Popularly known as Medha local as the electric control system in the trains are developed by Medha Servo Drives in Hyderabad, they cost Rs 42 crore each and can run at the speed of 110 kmph.

Visually, Medha locals are similar to the trains procured from Bombardier and are equally advanced as other MUTP I and MUTP II locals. The only difference is the electric system that includes traction motors and train control system fit in the rakes.

The 12-car train will carry 33 percent more load on the Harbour line than the existing trains. All 13 trains have cost the Railways Rs 714.1 crore. Presently, total 51 old local trains run in Mumbai, 41 on Central Railway and 10 on Western Railway.

The report also says that these trains will replace the existing rakes instead of being introduced as new trains in addition. The officials are also considering running the new trains on the main line and trans-harbour line.

Central Railway runs the main line (CST to Karjat, Kasara and Khopoli), Harbour line (CST to Panvel) and trans-harbour line (Thane to Navi Mumbai).

In September, Rail Minister Piyush Goyal had said that in next three years, the number of trains running on the suburban network will be doubled.

He also unveiled a roadmap for 100 new services in next four months for the commuters of local trains in Mumbai.

To facilitate passengers, the Central Railway (CR) has decided to demolish over 3,000 unauthorised structures located on railway’s land, including 63 religious structures with the help of local authorities.

After the stampede at Elphinstone Road station, in a joint meeting headed by minister of railways Piyush Goyal held at Churchgate, several multi-disciplinary teams were formed, which audited the stations on the city’s suburban network and submitted a report.

“During the audits of the station premises, many unauthorised structures were found which were creating inconvenience for the passengers,” said a railways officer, who was also a part of the disciplinary team.

In all, 63 religious structures such as, a Ganesh Mandir at GTB Nagar and Matunga stations; Saibaba Mandir at GTB Nagar, Sion, and Dadar stations; Hanuman Mandir at Dadar station; Mahadev Mandir at Dadar station, Datta Mandir at CSMT, and Masjid/Dargah at CSMT have been shortlisted for demolition by the railway officials. Officials also added that they do not want to hurt religious sentiments, and are only trying to safeguard the Railway safety and commuters’ lives.

Railways, BMC evict squatters from Elphinstone, Parel stations

The railways and BMC have finally decided to make peace with each other over whose responsibility it was to remove the encroachments near the foot overbridge (FOB) of Elphinstone Road and Parel stations. A week after reports in the media highlighted that nothing had changed since the stampede took place, teams of the Central Railway, civic body, Railway Protection Force and Mumbai Police demolished the hutments lining the approach road to the FOB.

Sunil Udasi, CPRO/Central Railway, said, “It was a special drive conducted by the Mumbai division. About 33 hutments were removed from the Parel side. The space will now be protected so that the structures don’t come up again.”

Sources said that though the FOB on the western side of the Elphinstone Road-Parel station, where the stampede had taken place, has been opened up after removing the panels on the side; the authorities concerned are planning to widen the staircase.

The encroachments that had come up in the area had narrowed down the approach road to the station and was also making it difficult for commuters to move about freely. Sources said that once all the encroachments, including an illegal temple, are removed, there would be a lot of space for free movement.

BMC chalks ‘laxman rekha’ outside Mumbai’s local railway stations to fend off hawkers

Saint Valmiki in the ancient Indian poem ‘Ramayana’ mentioned the ‘Laxman Rekha’ as an imaginary line that was drawn to ward off evil spirits and keep Sita safe.

As part of their drive to make railway surroundings and premises safer for commuters, India’s richest civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) along with the Railways has decided to adopt a similar concept in keeping hawkers stationed outside railway stations from entering the premises or vending in restricted zones.

Demarcation lines marking 150-metre zones to restrict hawkers from vending in the restricted areas were drawn by the civic body on Monday outside Mahim, Matunga, Dadar and Sion railway stations to ward off the ‘nuisance’ of hawkers.

The move comes in the wake of Bombay High Court’s order banning hawkers from vending on foot overbridges and near railway stations.

We have drawn lines indicating a 150-metre perimeter around railway stations. We have deployed a special team comprising senior inspectors and four workers with a van to monitor hawker encroachment. Currently, they work two shifts. But these nuisance detectors will work for 24 hours. We will also demarcate zones outside schools and religious places, assistant commissioner G (north) ward Ramakant Biradar told.

This move by the civic body has affected the daily livelihoods of hawkers pushing their trades near local railway stations. The BMC has become strict but we want to see how long this lasts, said one of the affected hawkers.

A major stampede at the Elphinstone Road station that claimed 23 lives on September 29 can clearly be noted as the reason behind the crackdown on hawkers vending outside and around local railway stations in Mumbai.

A list of habitual offenders who move around from one spot to the other near various stations is also being prepared and additional security personnel have been deployed to monitor the situation, said a spokesperson with the Railways.