The first of 10 Prima M4 electric passenger locomotives for national railway ADY was unveiled at Alstom’s Belfort factory in France on October 9.

ALSTOM managing director for west and central Asia Mr Bernard Peille presented the first of 10 type AZ4A Prima passenger locomotives for Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) to ADY deputy chairman Mr Hijran Valehov at the manufacturer’s plant in Belfort, France, on October 9.

Speaking at the unveiling, ADY Deputy Chairman Hijran Valehov said important steps were being taken to modernise the operator’s locomotive fleet.

Alstom is building the 10 Type AZ4A passenger locomotives under a contract awarded by ADY on May 12 2014. The AZ4A is part of the manufacturer’s Prima M4 family, adapted to meet ADY’s specifications and the 1520mm-gauge locomotive is certified in accordance with Euro-Asian Council for Standardisation, Metrology and Certification GOST standards. The locomotives are intended to operate at a maximum speed of 160 km/h under 3 kV DC on the north–south corridor and 25 kV 50 Hz electrification on the east–west corridor.

The AZ4A is designed to offer longer intervals between servicing than older ADY locomotives, with lower power consumption and maintenance costs.

‘We are very pleased to deliver our first multipurpose Prima locomotive to Azerbaijan and become a part of ambitious projects to increase transit links between the Black and Caspian seas and between Russia and Iran’, said Bernard Peille, Alstom Managing Director for Western & Central Asia Cluster. ‘This technologically tailor-made product is the result of a solid relationship of trust between Alstom’s and ADY’s project teams.’

In May 2014 ADY awarded Alstom a €288m contract to supply 50 type KZ8A double-unit electric freight locomotives, but the order was amended to 40 freight locomotives and 10 passenger units the following year. The order was financed through a loan from a consortium of Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and the French branch of HSBC.

In a major safety lapse, Railway has found that out of 275 railway bridges across the country that need rebuilding for they are very old, speed restrictions for trains to pass through has been put only on 23 bridges. What poses a big threat to safe train operations is that trains continue to pass with usual speed on other 252 bridges that are in bad shape.

The Railway Board had sought details of bridges and it was observed that large number of bridges needing rehabilitation existed on some zonal railways since long. The Central Railways has 61 bridges, East Central Railways 63, South Central Railways 41 and Western Railways 42 bridges pending rebuilding.

“It is also observed that in most of the cases, no speed restriction has been imposed and special inspection schedule has also not been prescribed by chief bridge engineers. On the other hand, there are many bridges where speed restrictions have been imposed on condition basis but they are not categorized under ORN-1 or 2 categories,” said the order issued by A K Singhal, Executive Director Civil Engineering.

The railway bridges are divided in three categories – overall rating number 1, 2, 3. Bridges with overall rating number (ORN-1) rating require immediate rebuilding/rehabilitation, ORN-2 ratings are required to be rebuilt on the programmed basis while ORN-3 bridges require special repairs.

Railway Board has now pulled up zonal railways for failing to do a time bound planning for completing the rehabilitation work.

“It seems that proper time bound planning has not been done by railways for rehabilitation of these bridges which creates a doubt whether correct condition rating appropriate to the actual condition of the bridge has been assigned or not. It is also felt that there has been lack of due diligence at Division/headquarter level while revising/confirming the rating,” said Singhal in the order issued last month.

Railway Board has said that the chief bridge engineers (CBEs) should specifically review the position in respect of all bridges assigned in their respective railways and firm up the action plan for their rehabilitation on priority.

A CAG report in 2015 had found that delays in sanctioning of bridgeworks and completion of sanctioned bridgeworks resulted in operation of train services with speed restriction.

The Railways violated its own guidelines on foot-overbridges (FOBs) at stations which it had formulated in 2012-13 in the case of the one at Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai where a stampede occurred last month killing 22 people and leaving 33 injured. The breadth of the bridge was half what it should have been.

According to the standards that were set in 2012-13, the FOBs should have a breadth of 10 metres. But the breadth of the FOB at Elphinstone Road station is 4.5 metres. The schedule of dimensions which is issued by the Railway Board from time to time gives the standards that are to be followed for construction of FOBs and other infrastructure. “This schedule gives the ideal size of the infrastructure that has to be constructed at the railway stations and this is improved over time,” said a senior Railway official.

According to the official, FOB is a passenger amenity and it is still not considered a safety issue. Therefore the safety circular which is issued to all the chief safety officers will not include FOBs. “Safety circular is meant for operations of trains,” said the official.

FOBs  inside railway stations as well as at the entry and exit points are a responsibility of the Railways. In the past eight years, the Railways have sanctioned 36 FOBs for the Mumbai suburban railway. Out of these 22 have been constructed.

Railway officials said there is regular inspection of all the infrastructure at the general manager and divisional railway manager level. But the issue of the narrow FOB at Elphinstone Road station and vulnerability of people was apparently never raised. A survey of footfall at the station, an indicator of over-strained infrastructure, was also never carried out.

Now a new FOB has been sanctioned at the Elphinstone Road station by the GM Western Railways at a cost of Rs 10 crore. It is to be constructed parallel to the old FOB and will meet the standards that have been set by the Railways in 2012-2013. “The old FOB will not be destroyed as it will be a tedious task. Instead a new FOB will be constructed,” said the Railway official.

Illegal hawkers who encroach on the FOBs in the Mumbai suburban railway network have been blamed for the stampede. A campaign has been started to drive out the illegal hawkers which is being conducted by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP).

It further said that instances of continued operation of speed restriction were noticed on 87 bridges of 13 zones ranging between four to 591 months. Audit assessed an extra expenditure of Rs 103.40 crore on account of operational cost due to continuation of speed restrictions.

“The above demonstrates the casual approach on part of Railways in sanctioning/executing and monitoring of bridgeworks. This resulted in delay in execution of bridgeworks that were identified for rehabilitation leaving the possibility of compromising passenger safety during operation of train services on these bridges. Railways need to ensure an effective monitoring system to be in place for timely execution and completion of bridgeworks,” the CAG report has added.

More than 100 footover bridges (FOBs) along Mumbai’s busiest suburban railway lines — Central and Western — fall in the top three fatal zones which require urgent attention, an internal Railways survey shows.

The list of dangerous bridges collated by the Railways shows that there are 61 bridges on the Central Railways (CR) and 42 bridges on the Western Railways that require urgent repair, DNA reported.

The East Central Railway zone with 63 bridges that need repairs are the most fatal zones. The report said that one of the bridges in the Lucknow Division, under the Northern Railway, is in a precarious condition and needs to be immediately rebuilt.

Western Railway officials did not confirm if the Elphinstone Road FOB was a part of the list. On September 29, 23 passengers were killed and 36 were injured in a deadly rush-hour stampede that occurred on a narrow foot overbridge connecting the Elphinstone Road railway station to Parel station.

The report stated that the Railway Board had issued a letter to 16 zones on Indian Railways where they had identified 275 railway bridges that need to be built immediately on September 21, a week before the stampede.

In 2017-18, the railways plan to come together to rehabilitate 114 bridges, of which CR will rebuild 20 bridges and WR will rebuild 13 bridges.

”It seems that proper time-bound planning has not been done by the railways for rehabilitation of these bridges. This creates a doubt whether the correct rating, appropriate to the actual condition, of the bridge, has been assigned or not,” states the letter.

Earlier, the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had called for innovation in making the railways safer while stressing that enough money is available for the purpose.

“The railway minister has asked the zones not to worry about funds as far as work on safety is concerned. And so work on rehabilitating and rebuilding these railway bridges will be expedited,” AK Saxena, Director General (PR), Railway Board said.

The letter also stated that the field officers in charge of maintaining and studying the health of railway bridges need to be educated by the Chief Bridge Engineers so that the officer can determine the correct condition of bridges and take necessary remedial measures for safe movement of trains.

The Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, a premium railway production unit here, has rolled out the first indigenously manufactured Linke Hoffman Busch (LHB) coach. The technology for these coaches was acquired in 1995 by railways from Linke-Hofmann-Busch, a German company.

Although, ICF produced its first LHB coach in 2013, it was manufactured using imported materials. Over the years, the factory has been gradually reducing its import requirement with locally made substitutes. As the final step, the import of under-carriage materials has now been stopped. “We have thus been able to reduce the cost by around Rs.2.25 lakh per coach,” said a factory official.

At present, each LHB coach costs Rs.2.5 crore, which is estimated to be less than half of its original import cost.

The ICF General Manager Sudhanshu Mani inspected two LHB coaches with 100 per cent indigenous content, one a three-tier AC coach and the other a second sleeper compartment. These two coaches, he said, were to promote ‘Make in India’ efforts.

It has been proved that LHB coaches do not climb over one another during collision or derailment. Faced with a spate of accidents involving conventional coaches, the ministry had decided to replace them with LHB type.

“Coach No. LACCN 111 and LSDD 166 with 100% indigenous content was flagged off after inspection from Member Rolling Stock of the Railway Board,” an ICF official told FE Online. Out of the two ‘Make in India’ coaches that have been rolled out by ICF, the non-AC one has 100% indigenous components. The AC coach has one imported component. “The non-AC coaches are fitted with wheel disc manufactured at Rail Wheel Factory at Bangalore. The AC coach has an imported wheel that has been assembled at ICF with some value added component,” the ICF official said.

Asked about how soon the AC coaches will also have 100% indigenous components, the official said, “Member Rolling Stock has said that talks are on with local manufacturers. We should be able to zero in on someone soon. Once that happens, the AC coaches too will have all indigenous components.”

Given the spate of rail accidents over the last year, Indian Railways has decided to stop production of traditional ICF coaches in 2017. Now, ICF Chennai will make only LHB coaches. LHB coaches boast of stainless steel bodies and have anti-climbing features. This ensures that in case of a derailment, the coaches do not pile onto each other, hence making them safer. The LHB coaches also have a graduated release modular braking system the axle mounted disc brakes.

But, will all of them be 100% ‘Make in India’? Not yet, that’s a gradual process, says the ICF official. “We have been asked to almost double our production of LHB coaches, so 100% ‘Make in India’ will take some time to be absorbed completely,” he says, adding that focus is on meeting the twin goals of safety and ‘Make in India’.

Meanwhile, ICF is also working on project ‘Train-2018’ – a technological leap for the coach factory under which ‘Make in India’ self-propelled train sets will be manufactured. The ‘first of its kind’ semi-high speed self-propelled train set has been proposed for inter-city superfast travel.

An Intensified Immunization vaccination drive “Mission Indradhanush Programme” was conducted at Central Hospital, Lallaguda on 08.10.2017. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. K.H.K Dora, Chief Medical Director, SCR.

The aim of this mission is to identify the unimmunised and partially immunised children and immunise them against 7 preventable diseases under cover of Universal Immunisation Programme including pregnant women also.  A team of Paramedical staff were sent to Railway Colonies and surrounding areas to educate parents about this mission and to identify drop out children and immunise them. Wide publicity was given in Railway Colonies and Workshops regarding the programme. Railway Employee Children’s and Outsiders were also vaccinated.

Dr.T.S.R.Murthy, Medical Director; Dr. C.K.Venkateswarlu, Chief Health Director; Dr. S. K. Mahapatra, Chief Physician; Senior Doctors and Nursing staff of Central Hospital, Lallaguda Secunderabad were also present and conducted the program.

Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager of South Central Railway stressed upon according top priority to ensure safety related works and instructed the Officials to ensure elimination of  all Unmanned Level Crossings (UMLCs) on the zone by the end of 2018. He informed that the safety aspects related to UMLCs are monitored by the Hon’ble Minister for Railways on a regular basis. General Manager conducted an intensive review meeting on Safety, Punctuality, Freight loading, Passenger amenities and cleanliness today i.e., 9^th October, 2017 at Rail Nilayam, Secunderabad along with Principal Heads of Departments. Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) from all six Divisions i.e. Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Guntur and Nanded attended the meeting through video conference.

Vinod Kumar Yadav, held an intensive review of all the safety aspects on the Zone including minor incidents of unusual happenings like yard derailments, gate open cases etc.,. He instructed the officials to conduct focused inspections on the safety aspects and  to counsel the staff to avoid unusual incidents and to ensure safe rail travel. Further he instructed all DRMs to send the proposals for safety related works immediately as it is the top priority item related to safety and monitored by the Railway Board. Further he advised to speed up the elimination of  UMLC gates works over the zone.

Speaking on the punctuality, General Manager, South Central Railway instructed the Officials to make action plans to improve the punctuality above 95% over the zone General Manager instructed the officials to focus for early completion of  ongoing foot over bridge (FOB) works and widening of platforms and instructed to take proper initiatives in crowd managements. Vinod Kumar Yadav complimented the officials for good maintenance of the employees facilitation hub at Head quarters in solving the grievances and he advised the officials to establish these type of facility hubs at all the divisional offices also. Further, he instructed the officials to take up the quarters repair works as priority item over SCR and to complete early.

Earlier, Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager, South Central Railway  presented “Man of the Month” safety awards to sixteen employees for showing alertness in the duty and taking timely action to prevent unsafe conditions.

John Thomas, Additional General Manger along with Sr. Officials were amongst the officials present.

With most public service undertakings in the country making the transition to digital services with increasingly less requirement of paper-based communication, the move accentuates the railway ministry’s efforts in keeping up with time and technology.

In another significant uphaul by Indian Railways to exit unproductive ventures, all the printing presses have been directed for shutting down, and the staff employed in these units will be reassigned to other departments.

Part of the national transporter’s strategy to redirect its resources to more integral schemes, the move was given the nod during an extensive meeting held between railway minister Piyush Goyal, Railway Board members and general managers of all 17 railway zones.

Currently, 14 printing presses fall under the jurisdiction of the railways. With most public service undertakings in the country making the transition to digital services with increasingly less requirement of paper-based communication, the move accentuates the railway ministry’s efforts in keeping up with time and technology.

Phasing out printing machinery that is not just old but outdated as well, all printing works will be carried forth only through tenders hereafter

“Traditionally, a lot of paper, such as forms were used by the railways. But now these are getting automated. These are moribund 19th-century units which are not required anymore,” explained a former railway employee.

While the units were mostly used for printing books, forms and tickets, important documents like that of railway budget were being reportedly printed at a security press that wasn’t operated by railways. Now that even tickets are being booked online, the requirement of printing units to print tickets is nothing more than a cost deficit.

As per a former finance commissioner of the railway, a lot of printing units were shut when the internal requirements of the railways dropped in recent years.

“Earlier, these units were used to print tickets which were then supplied to stations. Now, they have been computerised. The real estate of these units can be put to more productive use,” he added.

The staff, who have been working in these units, will now be redeployed and given training accordingly.

The market-linked pension scheme would have 10 per cent contributory fund by Government and 10 per cent by the employees. In this, Government knows the money is being used, but the employee does not have any information regarding the use of its funds, said AIRF General Secretary, Shivagopal Mishra

The Government of India, in its different departments, has recruited over 5 lakh employees since 2004, including one lakh employees in the Indian Railways. The new officials and employees, recruited under the new pension scheme are not finding the new scheme workable.

The market-linked pension scheme would have 10 per cent contributory fund by Government and 10 per cent by the employees. In this, Government knows the money is being used, but the employee does not have any information regarding the use of its funds, said AIRF General Secretary, Shivagopal Mishra while addressing the press conference on Tuesday at the West Central Railway Employees’ Union (WCREU) office. He is in city to attend the Youth Zonal Conference of WCREU.

He added that the new pension scheme has various lapses. First, it is market-linked and has limited provisions for withdrawal. Its provision is against employee’s benefits that is benefits provisions would end if the service is not complete. On this issue, when the AIRF gave a notice of strike to the Government, the present Government constituted a committee to review the demands of AIRF. “We are demanding guarantee pension scheme for the employees that is 50 per cent of last salary. On death or permanent disability of the employee, the compensation should be given as per old scheme. On this, the Government has shown some positive response, while also, the committee constituted has given recommendations in this direction, asking the Government to accept this demand,” he said.

He further said that, every year, around 400 to 500 employees die on duty. In these incidents, a number of linemen and trackmen lose their lives. We are demanding that like the Indian Army has been exempted from the new scheme, the Indian Railways employees and officials should be exempted from the new pension scheme provisions.

Commenting on the outsourcing trending in Railways, Mishra strongly criticized the ongoing outsourcing and said that outsourcing of important works in Railways would not be tolerated. We are demand the Government to fill all 1.25 lakh vacancies in safety and security departments, as without manpower of Railways, proper instrumentation and equipment, the security of Railways is not possible, he added.

After recent incidents, the Government has ordered to fill all vacancies in Railways and now, following pressure, now again the decision is being reviewed. He lastly added that if Railways does not have any option for privatisation of every work, the AIRF would have no other option left, but to go on strike. He said, Railways is the lifeline of country’s economy. If we go on strike, it would add fuel to the ongoing impact of recession in the country.

The Railway Board on Wednesday approved South Western Railway’s (SWR) proposal to divert Bengaluru-Karwar/Kannur-Bengaluru night express through the shortest route, via Kunigal and Shravanabelagola, four days a week.

The train would run via Mysuru, the present route, during the remaining three days. The diversion via Shravanabelagola reduces the travel distance by about 90 km. The rail-road distance between Bengaluru and Mangaluru Central is about 447 km via Mysuru, and about 357 km via Shravanabelagola.

This comes as a relief to people who had been demanding complete diversion of the train for faster commute between the State capital and the coast. A public interest litigation writ petition by Sanjay Revankar of Kadwad village, Karwar, is also pending before the Karnataka High Court.

Sources in the Railway Board and SWR confirmed about the approval of the diversion. SWR sources said advanced reservation for the train on Mysuru route has to be frozen immediately and the diversion date has to be decided considering the advance reservations already made.

The journey hours between Bengaluru and Karwar are expected to come down by two hours from the present 18 hours.

Sources in the Railways said there may not be any advancement in the arrival timing of the Karwar Express either at Mangaluru Central or Karwar. The train might have a delayed departure, at around 10.20 p.m. from Bengaluru. There could be some changes in the arrival timing of the train at Bengaluru, though its departure timings at Karwar and Mangaluru Central are likely to remain the same.

Opposition from Bengaluru Division

The Bengaluru Division (SBC) of SWR, from where an average of 620 passengers board Bengaluru-Karwar/Kannur Express every day towards Mangaluru and beyond, had stiffly opposed the zone’s proposal to divert the train to the shortest route.

The division had said the proposal was not feasible either technically or commercially. If the train is diverted via Shravanabelagola, maintenance of its rake, stabling it and shunting it back to the platform for departure becomes difficult. Many people’s representatives too have opposed the diversion as it is the only train from Mysuru towards the coast, the division had informed the zone.

Seven of the 12 major ports are run by officers from the Indian Railways cadre while four are headed by IAS officers. Port officers say they are “systematically been deprived” of selection to top posts.

“Major port trusts have become the new hunting ground for Railway officers,” lamented a port official.

The rules framed by the Shipping Ministry in January 2008, on the appointment of chairmen/deputy chairmen in major port trusts, had said: “…it has been decided that in the six major ports in Category I (Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Jawaharlal Nehru, Visakhapatnam and Kandla), two posts of chairman/deputy chairman will be filled from among port officers. Similarly, three posts of chairman and deputy chairman in Category II ports (Paradip, Cochin, Mormugao, Tuticorin and New Mangalore) will be filled from among port officers.”

World Bank report

The rules were framed after the World Bank favoured such a plan in its ‘India Port Sector Strategy Report’.

“The present system of lAS recruitment is frustrating for port professionals,” the World Bank wrote. “There are advantages in the employment, as chairmen, of senior civil servants…However, to be effective and accepted, they must have the long-term development of ports, in all its many facets, as their primary goal, rather than their career as senior civil servants.

“A mixed solution is therefore recommended for consideration. First, chairmen should increasingly be recruited from among ports/shipping professionals. Second, the position of deputy chairman, recruited only among professionals of the port industry, should be upgraded, with increased possibility of acceding to the position of chairman.”

From the Railway cadre are I Jeyakumar, Chairman of Mormugao Port Trust and additional in-charge of VO Chidambaranar Port Trust; Rinkesh Roy, who heads Paradip Port Trust and is additional in-charge of Kamarajar Port; P Raveendran, Chief Executive of Chennai Port Trust and additional in-charge of Cochin Port Trust; and Vinit Kumar, the newly appointed full-time Chairman of Kolkata Port Trust.

Currently, there are no port cadre officers eligible for selection to the top post. MA Bhaskarachar, PC Parida and SAC Bose, the last three port cadre officers, retired recently as Chairmen of Kamarajar Port, New Mangalore Port Trust and VOCPT, respectively.

A port officer can become a head of department (HoD) after 15 years of service. He/she needs another five years as HoD to become empanelled for the deputy chairman’s post.

HODs with 15 years’ experience are still waiting to be promoted as deputy chairman in Category II ports.

A port cadre deputy chairman in a Category II port should work as deputy chairman in a Category I port for two years to become eligible for chairman of a Category II port. He/she needs a further two years’ experience to become eligible for chairman of a Category I port. These rules, however, don’t apply to Railway officers.

“One can see how norms are framed systematically to deprive port officers from being made chairmen and deputy chairmen. It is practically impossible for port officers to become the chairman of a Category I port,” added the port officer.

Court ruling

To rub it in, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) excluded deputy chairmen (from port officers) of major port trusts from applying for the post of CMD at Kamarajar Port.

This was set aside by the Chennai High Court two months ago on a petition filed by one of the port officers. The DoPT and the PESB are now looking to challenge the high court order.