In Karnataka, scenes from Hollywood film ‘Unstoppable’ played out in real life. A runaway train engine that travelled nearly 13 kilometres without a driver was brought to a halt after a dramatic chase on a bike.

On Wednesday afternoon, a Mumbai-bound train arrived at Karnataka’s Wadi Junction where the electric engine is swapped with a diesel engine as part of the onward journey (Wadi to Solapur) isn’t electrified. After switching the two engines, the loco pilot got off it and to his horror, the diesel engine began moving in the opposite direction.

What happened next is straight out of a movie as a railway staff member chased the rogue engine on a motorbike. The engine moved at a speed of 30km/hour, reported Times Of India. Railway officials alerted the next few stations to clear the signals and tracks to avoid any accident. Trains from opposite direction were also halted, officials said.

After a 20-minute chase, the ghost engine slowed down which is when the bike-riding official managed to board it and bring it to a stop. The engine finally came to a halt ahead of Nalwar station, nearly 13 kilometres away.

A special probe has been launched into why the engine ran amok, railway officials said. No mishap was reported in the dramatic chase, reported The Hindu.

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.

SAIL’s Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), Chairman, PK Singh has laid emphasis on giving value addition to its products and tailoring the product quality rather than focusing only on the volume aspect.

He said the DSP’s modern 1MTPA (million tonne per annum) capacity medium structural mill (MSM) is capable of producing world-class structural steel products, having a high demand for various on-going and upcoming infra and construction projects in India.

Singh also said with the Railways replacing its conventional coaches with German technology carriages in the next few years, wheels for new LHB Railway Coaches are in advanced stages of validation at Durgapur plant. The metallurgical testing of the wheels has already been completed.

He said that DSP is a plant designed to produce 7.5 lakh tonnes of semis (type of steel product), where SAIL-DSP in association with Centre for Engineering & Technology (CET) will tap the huge market for special grade semis. The semis would also explore possibilities in transmission line towers (TLT) and forging areas.

At DSP, the mill is producing parallel flange beams, joists, channels and angles, which are primarily used by infrastructure and construction segments. There is an increased demand of these products in the sectors like infrastructure, metro and construction, he said.

While expressing displeasure over tardy progress in critical areas of strategic importance, he said “SAIL must ramp up production from New Rail Mill in Bhilai without wasting any more time, and meet all the requirements of its major customers. Company should chalk-out a time bound action plan to cater to the Indian Railways’ increasing demand. SAIL must take its joint ventures at international level to logical conclusion at the earliest. Company must leverage its position in the industry, instead of not being able to fulfill its commitments and agreements.”

In October, the Minister for Steel Mr.Birendra Singh also directed to the company management to submit quarterly plans and targets, which will be reviewed after every three months. Steel Minister will also be meeting CEOs and EDs of Steel plants next month, to get direct feedback about constraints, bottlenecks and issues of concern.

The CEOs have to understand their direct accountability and responsibility for performance of the Unit under their charge, the Minister added. Mr.Singh emphasised that accidents in the Plants must be curtailed and highest safety standards must be adhered to in all Units. Safety should be a prime focus of all the plant heads and stress should be given on repair and regular maintenance to avoid unforeseen breakdowns, downtime and resulting loss of production. SAIL should focus on ensuring raw material security to avoid the vagaries of coal supplies currently afflicting the company, he added.

Birendra Singh said that SAIL should explore possibilities for developing new markets by adopting new technology and adding value added products to its basket, like non corrosive steel products for construction in coastal areas. SAIL should also focus on product differentiation to create value for the shareholders, thereby creating an exclusive space for the company. Efficiency improvement and product quality improvement at individual plant level should be focused upon to meet the customer requirements and to improve the financial performance of the company.

In the meeting, SAIL’s overall performance as well as that of individual Integrated Steel Plants (ISPs) on critical techno-commercial parameters were reviewed. Chairman/SAIL Mr.P. K. Singh made a presentation on action taken on the recommendations by Group of Experts appointed by Ministry of Steel.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Steel, Vishnu Deo Sai, the Secretary Steel Dr. Aruna Sharma, senior officials from Ministry and SAIL including CEOs of SAIL Steel Plants.

Work on the proposed Foot Over Bridge (FOB) between Platform number 10 of Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (Bengaluru City) Railway station and the KSR Metro station via M G Railway Colony Road came to a halt three months ago. The reason — BMRCL is yet to release Rs.90 lakh sought by Bangalore Railway Division to complete the work.

The bridge is meant to ensure that both Metro and Rail passengers can easily commute between the two transportation modes. This FOB will be connected with the railway bridge in KSR station which connects all platforms from Platform 10.

As per the agreement entered between the two agencies, Railways will do the construction work while BMRCL will fund it. The FOB has missed two deadlines given by top railway officials — March and July.

According to Senior Divisional Engineer, Co-ordination, Bengaluru Railway Division, R K Singh, the FOB was initially estimated to cost Rs.93.48 lakh in 2013 when the proposal was made. “The cost was revised to Rs.188 lakh, with a maintenance cost of 30 per cent that Railways will incur along with other charges,” he told.

A letter written by a top BMRCL official to Railways last month requesting to waive off the maintenance charges as it was not listed in the initial estimate. The letter states that Railways needs to bear the maintenance charges. However, Railways insists that BMRCL bear the full cost. Asked about the reasons for the FOB showing no signs of completion, Divisional Railway Manager R S S Saxena said, “Work relating to the covering shelter and landing facilities for the bridge have not been completed due to paucity of funds. The moment they release it, we can restart the work.”

The DRM also said that in a meeting held with BMRCL officials on November 5, “The Metro MD promised to release funds within a week’s time.”Singh said the contractor carrying out the work for Railways is yet to be paid his dues of Rs.30 lakh. “If BMRCL releases Rs.99.29 lakh, the FOB will be ready for use by February 2018.

A diesel locomotive train engine moved a couple of kilometres without a pilot from Wadi Junction in Kalaburagi district on Wednesday afternoon. However, no untoward incident was reported as the railway staff followed it on motorcycles along the trackside and stopped the engine and brought it back to Wadi.

As per sources in the South Central Railway, the diesel locomotive was supposed to take the Chennai-Mumbai Mail (11028) from Wadi Junction at 3 p.m. towards Mumbai on the non-electrified section of the track. However, when the staff were engaged in engine-changing, the diesel locomotive began to move in the opposite direction (towards Nalwar) on its own without a pilot. The exact cause was yet to be ascertained.

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.

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In order to clear extra rush of passengers, the following Special Trains will run between Tirupati – Dharmavaram – Tirupati as detailed below:-

Train No. 07402/07401 Tirupati–Dharmavaram–Tirupati Special Trains:

Train No. 07402 Tirupati – Dharmavaram Special train will depart Tirupati at 05:00 hrs from 8^th November to 14^th November 2017 and arrive Dharmavaram at 10:40 hrs on the same day.

In the return direction, Train No. 07401 Dharmavaram – Tirupati Special train will depart Dharmavaram at 13:00 hrs from 8th November to 14^th November 2017 and arrive Tirupati at 19:10 hrs on the same day.

Enroute, these special trains will stop at Pakala, Piler, Madanapalle Road and Kadiri stations in both the directions.

These trains will comprise of one AC II Tier, two AC III Tier, ten Sleeper Class and four General Second class Coaches.

Special Trains between Kakinada Port- Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam 

In order to clear extra rush of Passengers during spiritual festivities of  Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai  Baba from 12^th to 26^th November, 2017  at Puttaparthi, SCR will run four special trains between Kakinada Port – Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam – Kakinada Port  as detailed below:-

Tr.no. 07248/07245  Kakinada Port – Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam – Vijayawada Special Trains (2 Services):

Train No. 07248 Kakinada Port – Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam special train will depart Kakinada Port at 14:30 hrs on 18^th November, 2017 and arrive Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam at 06:25 hrs on the next day.

Enroute, this special train will also stop at Kakinada Town, Samalkot, Rajahmundry, Nidadavolu, Eluru, Vijayawada, Guntur, Narsaraopet, Donakonda, Markapuram Road, Giddalur, Nandyal, Betamcharla, Dhone, Gooty, Anantapur and Dharmavaram stations.

In opposite direction, Train No. 07245 Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam – Vijayawada special train will depart Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam at 17:45 hrs on 19^th November, 2017 and arrive Vijayawada at 05:15 hrs on the next day.

Enroute, this special train will also stop at Dharmavaram,  Anantapur,  Gooty, Dhone, Betamcharla, Nandyal, Giddalur, Markapuram Road, Donakonda, Narsaraopet and Guntur stations.

Tr.no. 07246/07249  Vijayawada – Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam – Kakinada Port Special Trains (2 Services):

Train No. 07246 Vijayawada – Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam special train will depart Vijayawada at 23:10 hrs on 23^rd November, 2017 and arrive Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam at 11:30 hrs on the next day.

Enroute, this special train will also stop at Guntur, Narsaraopet, Donakonda, Markapuram Road, Giddalur, Nandyal, Betamcharla, Dhone, Gooty, Anantapur and Dharmavaram stations.

In opposite direction, Train No. 07249 Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam – Kakinada Port special train will depart Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam at 16:20 hrs on 24^th November, 2017 and arrive Kakinada Port at 09:30 hrs on the next day.

Enroute, this special train will also stop at Dharmavaram,  Anantapur,  Gooty, Dhone, Betamcharla, Nandyal, Giddalur, Markapuram Road, Donakonda, Narsaraopet,  Guntur, Vijayawada, Eluru, Nidadavolu, Rajahmundry, Samalkot and  Kakinada Town  stations

*These special trains will have AC II Tier, AC III Tier, Sleeper Class and General Second class coaches.

Train No. 04428/04427 New Delhi – Kochuveli – New Delhi Superfast Special Trains via Warangal, Vijayawada (2 Services):

 Train No. 04428 New Delhi – Kochuveli superfast Special Train will depart New Delhi 11:50 hrs on 8^th November, 2017 (Wednesday) arrive/depart Warangal at 12:20/12:25 hrs, Vijayawada at 15:5/15:50 hrs on the next day and arrive Kochuveli at 15:45 hrs on Friday.

In the return direction, Train No. 04427 Kochuveli – New Delhi superfast Special Train will depart Kochuveli at 23:00 hrs 12^th November, 2017 (Sunday) arrive/depart Vijayawada at 21:00/21:15 hrs, Warangal at 23:40/23:45 hrs on the next day and arrive New Delhi at 04:00 hrs on Wednesday.

Enroute, these superfast special trains will stop at Gwalior, Jhansi, Bhopal, Itarsi, Nagpur, Balharshah, Warangal, Vijayawada, Renigunta, Jolarpettai, Salem, Erode, Coimbatore, Thrisur and Ernakulam Town stations in both the directions.

These trains will have AC III tier, Sleeper Class, Second General and Brake Luggage cum Generator Car Coaches.

Train No. 07230/07229 Hyderabad – Kochuveli – Hyderabad Special Trains (2 Services):

Train No. 07230 Hyderabad – Kochuveli Special Train will depart Hyderabad at 21.00 hrs on 09^th November, 2017 (Thursday) and arrive Kochuveli at 03.20 hrs on Saturday.

In the return direction, Train No. 07229 Kochuveli – Hyderabad Special Train will depart Kochuveli at 20:00 hrs on 11^th  November, 2017 (Saturday) and arrive Hyderabad at 03:40 hrs on Monday.

Enroute, these special trains will stop at Secunderabad, Kazipet, Warangal, Mahabubabad, Khammam, Vijayawada, Tenali, Ongole, Nellore, Gudur, Renigunta, Tirupati, Chittoor,  Katpadi, Ambur, Vaniyambadi,  Jolarpettai, Salem, Erode, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Palakkad, Ottapalem, Thrisur, Aluva, Ernakulam Town, Kottayam, Tiruvalla, Chengannur, Kayankulam and Kollam stations in both the directions.

These trains will have  AC II tier, AC III tier , Sleeper Class and Luggage cum Brakevan  Coaches.

Additional Stoppage to Guwahati – Kochuveli – Guwahati Special Trains at Kishanganj Railway Station

With the view to facilitate the passengers, additional stoppage for five minutes is provided for Train No. 05616/05615 Guwahati – Kochuveli – Guwahati Special Trains at Kishanganj Railway Station as detailed below:-

1. Train No. 05616 Guwahati – Kochuveli Special Trainwill arrive / depart Kishanganj station at 17:00/17:05 hrs.
2. Train No. 05615 Kochuveli – Guwahati special Train will arrive / depart Kishanganj station at 22:03/22:08 hrs.

Meanwhile, Railway had issued a press release on the diversion / cancellation of certain trains.

Trains Diverted­­­­ With Additional Stoppage Provided at Hijli

In order to facilitate infrastructure development works at Kharagpur Station in South Eastern Railway a line block is imposed, consequently the following trains are diverted to run without touching Kharagpur Station and with provision of additional stoppage at Hijli Railway Station on the following dates.

1)     Train No.22603 Kharagpur – Villupuram Bi- weekly Express Train scheduled to depart Kharagpur on 17^th November, 2017 will arrive/depart Hijili 14.12/14.17 hrs.

2)     Train No.12514 Guwahati – Secunderabad Express Train scheduled to depart Guwahati on 16^th November, 2017 will arrive/depart Hijili at 03.00/03.05 hrs.

3)     Train No.22604 Villupuram – Kharagpur Bi- weekly Express Train scheduled to depart Villupuram on 16^th November, 2017 will arrive/depart Hijili at 19.05/19.10 hrs.

4)     Train No.12508 Guwahati – Thiruvantapuram Express Train scheduled to depart Guwahati on 17^th November, 2017 will arrive/depart Hijili at 03.00/03.05 hrs.

5)     Train No.22502 New Tinsukia – KSR Bengaluru Express Train scheduled to depart New Tinsukia on 17^th November, 2017 will arrive/depart Hijili at 03.00/03.05 hrs.

6)     Train No.12509 Bengaluru Cantt – Guwahati Express Train scheduled to depart Bengaluru Cantt on 15^th November, 2017 will arrive/depart  Hijili at 07.45/07.50 hrs.

7)     Train No.12253 Yesvantapur – Bhagalpur Express Train scheduled to depart Yeshvantapur on 18^th November, 2017 will arrive/depart Hijili at 19.50/19.55 hrs.

Train No.15227 Yesvantpur – Muzaffurpur Express Train scheduled to depart Yesvantpur on 15^th November, 2017 will arrive/depart Hijili at 10.50/10.55 hrs.

Trains Diverted due to recent floods in Samastipur Division of East Coast Rly

1)      Train No. 07091 Secunderabad – Raxaul Special train which has left Secunderabad on 7^th November, 2017 is diverted via  Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Sagauli and Raxaul instead of  Samastipur, Darbhanga , Sitamarhi and Raxaul stations.

2)      Train No. 07092 Raxaul – Secunderabad Special Train scheduled to depart Raxaul at 12.45hrs  on  10^th November, 2017 is diverted via Raxaul, Sagauli, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur instead of  Raxaul, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and Samastipur Stations.

Trains Cancelled due to Sudden Foggy Weather in Northern Railway ­­­

1)      Train No. 04426 Nizamuddin – Kochuveli Special Train  is cancelled on 11^th , 18^th and 25^th November,2017.

2)      Train No. 04425 Kochuveli – Nizamuddin  Special Train  is cancelled on 13^th , 20^th and 27^th November,2017.

EXTENSION OF TEMPORARY DIVERSION OF TRAIN

Train No. 22691/22692, KSR Bengaluru – Hazrat Nizamuddin – KSR Bengaluru Rajdhani Express will continue to run via diverted route, Gooty – Kalluru till 31^st March, 2018 for operational reasons.

CANCELLATION OF TRAINS

1.    Train No. 12245, Howarah – Yesvantpur Duranto Express journey commencing on 19^th November, 2017 is cancelled.

2.    Train No. 12246, Yesvantpur – Howarah Duranto Express journey commencing on 21^st November, 2017 will remain cancelled for want of rake.

TEMPORARY DIVERSION OF TRAINS

Train No. 12509, Bengaluru Cantt. – Guwahati journey commencing on 15^th, 16^th & 17^th November, 2017; Train No. 15227, Yesvantpur – Mujaffarpur journey commencing on 15^th November, 2017; Train No. 12503, Bengaluru Cantt. – Kamakhya journey commencing on 17^th November, 2017; Train No. 12253, Yesvantpur – Bhagalpur journey commencing on 18^th November, 2017 will be diverted via Hijilli, Nigatpur, Asansol instead of Kharagpur, Howrah.

Train No. 22502, New Tinsukiya – KSR Bengaluru journey commencing on 17^th November, 2017 will be diverted via Asansol, Nigatpur, Hijilli instead of Howrah, Kharagpur.

 

The Indian railways on Tuesday reported a rise of over 12 per cent in its cashless revenue stream generated from the reserved segment of e-tickets till August, 2017 from the period of 2016-17.

The massive rise in cashless revenue stream from the reserved segment category was attributed to various steps initiated by the railways, a railway ministry official said.

“The cashless revenue from reserved segment (e-ticket) has increased from 62.55 per cent in 2015-16 and 64.76 per cent in 2016-17 to around 76 per cent till August 28, 2017,” a railway ministry official said.

“The online booked ticket constitute to about 64.5 per cent of total tickets (till August 28, 2017).”

According to the railways, about 13 lakh tickets are booked every day against a reserved accommodation of 10.5 lakh berths across all classes.

The official added that even in the unreserved tickets segment the income through digital payment has gone up by two per cent.

“The railways sold about 6.5 per cent unreserved tickets by August 2016, which has now gone up to 8.99 per cent till September 30, 2017,” he said.

Even in the freight segment, the revenue from cashless mode increased from 97 per cent to 99.8 per cent.

Digital payment in booking tickets in railways was promoted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year announced to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to curb “black money and corruption”.

In a slew of measures to promote digital payment, the railways had on November 23, 2016 withdrawn the service charges from tickets booked through the Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

The railway official also said the service has been extended till March 31, 2018.

After demonetisation, the railways had withdrawn the service charge of Rs 30 applicable on transactions against credit or debit cards at the reservation counters.

To promote digital payment, Indian Railways also provided a discount of 0.5 per cent on season tickets purchased digitally.

Beside these, the railways also provided a discount of five per cent on payment made online for opting services like ordering food, booking retiring room.

The railways and the IRCTC also slashed all additional charges being levied either by the Indian Railways or IRCTC on e-tickets.

In order to bolster the spirit of Team Bhilai and personally convey the challenge of supplying enhanced quantity of world class rails to Indian Railways, CEO Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), the flagship unit of the public sector SAIL, M Ravi took the initiative of interacting with cross section of executives of RSM, URM, RTS and RCL departments at BTI Assembly Hall, where inspection officials of RITES were also present.

The interactions were organised on Friday and Saturday and at the end of each of the three shift, thus CEO met the officers and executives.

During these synergy sessions, Ravi informed the participants that the Railways have forecast a huge requirement of rails, for further developing the infrastructure of rail transport in India as well as for increasing passenger safety and comfort.

As such, in order to keep any competition at bay, the plant needs to immediately augment the quantity of rails being supplied to the Indian Railways at least to the extent of 90,000T per month, in order to meet the Railways enhanced requirement.

CEO further stated that although Bhilai Steel Plant is committed to meet the complete requirement of rails of Indian Railways, during financial year 2017-18, the plant has been lagging behind in fulfilling commitment of rail supplies, mainly because of low productivity at the newly commissioned URM.

Ravi, however, appreciated that stabilization of new mill takes some time, meanwhile the performance at URM has gradually improved enabling enhancement of supply level from 4,000 tonnes in April 2017 to 20,000 tonnes in October 2017.

The mill has also overcome all the problems which have come in the way, be it the problem of stamping machine or collaring in BD-2 stand. CEO desired that the new technology at URM should be quickly grasped by the mill personnel so that the mill can steadily achieve higher goals.

CEO also noted that RSM has been producing consistently at a level of around 60000 tonnes per month and needs to further enhance performance both in terms of quality and tonnage. Performance of RSM did suffer during October 2017 due to short supply of blooms, it will be however ensured that availability of blooms doesn’t become a constraint for production of higher quantum of rails from RSM.

Ravi took the opportunity to praise the efforts put by the entire team involved in production of rails including the RITES inspectors who ensure the quality of each and every rail so that it does not fail in its entire service life.

He further emphasised that each and every individual concerned needs to give his 100 percent in maximizing production both from RSM & URM immediately, as the present  situation demands a “now or never” approach from Team Bhilai.

Uncertainty looms large over the much-needed “crucial” Ferozepur-Amritsar rail link, which has the potential to shorten the distance between the northern states, including Punjab, to trade capitals of Gujarat and Maharastra to large extent.

When constructed, it will also reduce the distance between two border districts of Ferozepur and Amritsar from the present 118 km to 86 km. The distance between Amritsar and Mumbai will be cut down by over 200 km. However, the project has been hanging fire due to red-tape for the last several years.

The rail link between Majha and Malwa was earlier snapped at the time of Partition when the province of Punjab was divided and some part of Ganda Singh Wala (now in Kasur) fell into the share of Pakistan for which now an alternative broad-gauge link between Ferozepur and Patti needs to be constructed.

Though the link was given “green signal” in the rail budget during 2013 and subsequently the go-ahead by the ministry and ratification by Niti Aayog, the matter is still hanging in the balance.

Last month, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had also written to the Railway Ministry to expedite the process for the construction of this broad-gauge link between Gharyala on the Amritsar-Khemkaran line and Mallanwala on the Ferozepur-Jalandhar line as it will give a major fillip to trade and industry in the border region.

Earlier also, the matter had been taken up by Rajya Sabha MP Shwet Malik and dozens of representations had been sent to the Railways, but nothing tangible has come out yet.

Railway officials had maintained that since the Internal Rate of Return (IPP) was negative for the project, the ministry had asked the state to provide 50 per cent of the funds besides the land for the project. However, the “cash- strapped” state government was reluctant to foot the bill for the project, which also included two bridges across the Sutlej and Beas, on which an amount of Rs 300 crore was likely to be incurred.

Social worker Ranjan Sharma said, “This rail link is extremely vital to join the two strategically located border districts of Ferozepur and Amritsar, besides connecting them to Rajasthan, Maharastra and Gujarat to boost their economy.” “It will be a boon for the farmers who will be able to send vegetables and fruits to the markets in Mumbai and other areas within 2-3 days,” he added.

Kulbhushan Gautam, president, Bharat Vikas Parishad, said the project would not only benefit the people from Punjab, but also a number of other states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and those of south India.

When contacted, Vivek Kumar, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Ferozepur Division, said the process for acquiring land for the project had been initiated by the state government. “Once the land is provided, we will immediately start work on the line, for which funds are no constraint,” he added.

Will reduce Amritsar-Mumbai route by 200 km 

• When constructed, it will reduce the distance between two border districts of Ferozepur and Amritsar from the present 118 km to 86 km.
• The distance between Amritsar and Mumbai will be cut down by over 200 km.