Suburban Railway systems, like everything else for the Indian Railways, is overstretched by decades of underinvestment, which is one of the prime cause of the stampede on a foot overbridge at Elphinstone station — that led to the loss of 22 lives and injured over 30 — is a tragedy that was waiting to happen.

Changing ministers won’t prevent Elphinstone-like tragedies in the future. If one sacked a Railway Minister after each train or railway infrastructural accident, one would probably need a dozen new ministers every year. Watching the horrific scenes of the railway bridge stampede in Mumbai’s Elphinstone Station, we have to hang our collective head in shame.

For a government that supposedly believes in the Reaganomic mantra, ‘The government has no business to be in business’, with its own ‘Minimum government, maximum governance’ mission statement should show the courage to implement the Debroy Committee report on Railways released in 2015. It is fortuitous that Bibek Debroy, recently appointed as head of the Chief Economic Advisory Council to the PM, has spelt out detailed recommendations on reforming and overhauling the Indian Railways.

Politics aside, one of the major recommendations by the Debroy Committee is to separate the infrastructure of the railways from passenger train and freight operations, and make the infrastructure – tracks, signaling, etc – open to the private sector with a common user facility for a fee to infuse competition.

The Indian Railways, like the other ‘Navaratnas’, is a classic case of crony socialism. In the name of an ideology to help the poor, large resources are allocated through subsidies, huge government-owned corporations are created, and the people in power control these assets and resources by appointing their cronies to the boards of these organisations.

The Indian Railways is a huge dinosaur that offers employment to a little over 1.3 million people who live off government fat without accountability. The system fiercely opposes competition and tries to vigorously perpetuate itself. Its killer trains are unsafe — at any speed — and the tracks, compartments and railway platforms are hardly fit for use. Everything seems creaking, ancient, rickety and broken. Fixing footbridges is akin to applying a band aid to a lifethreatening wound.

The interest of the nation and the welfare of a 1.25 billion people cannot be mortgaged to pander to the wishes of lobbies with vested interests.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi must bite the bullet. Killer trains and murderous platforms will continue to take their toll, and more tragedies like Elphinstone are bound to recur if only ministers are changed but not the systems. The time has come to immediately commence deep structural reforms and usher in the private sector in phases, taking care that private sector monopolies are not created.

All cushions have been exhausted, including land for building additional tracks. The situation has been exacerbated by the lack of an overarching authority that looks at transport needs of a new development and how it can be provided.

The case of converting land available after closure of mills into office and commercial space is illustrative. It increased the burden on an overloaded suburban train system, which was then left to the Indian Railways (IR) to address.

IR has been doing its best to cope with the increasing demand for movement resulting from expansion of the central business district in the south, rather than dispersing across all areas. This has forced people to travel from their homes in the north to their places of work in the south.

As the demand for suburban transport has grown, IR has been adding new lines. Most of the network has four lines and a part of it even has six lines. It cannot add any more lines for lack of land for building tracks.

IR has also been increasing frequency of services and length of trains. It runs over 2,000 trains daily, with a 3-minute gap between trains. Over 7 million passengers use the suburban railway every day. The Railways has now reached a situation where adding more trains is problematic.

The result of the relentless increase in demand is that coaches are carrying nearly 16 persons per square metre, which is just not possible without people hanging from the coaches and falling off.

Nearly 20 people die every day falling from trains or crossing the tracks. No one talks about this though it has been happening for years. The stations need revamping, including foot overbridges. But there is no money to replace some of this over-age infrastructure as was brought out by the reply of the then railway minister Suresh Prabhu to an MP requesting replacement of this foot overbridge.

The problem has now reached a stage were IR is also a victim — of policies that have not coordinated land development with transport creation. Expecting the Railways to be able to provide enough transportation to meet the demand without massive injection of capital for revamping the system is being unrealistic.

An inquiry course has to be held in accordance with the Railway Act. But this will not go beyond immediate occurrence and, therefore, leave the problem unresolved.

To address the major challenges arising from existing shortfalls in the transport network — the results of decades of underfunding and the huge population and employment growth over the years — requires a political commitment to look at the ecosystem, develop the best strategies and investment programmes to support turning Mumbai into a world-class metropolis, meeting its economic and social objectives, as well as transport needs for the next 25 years.

IR is at the receiving end but that is being a bit unfair. The Railways management is professional and doing its best in a challenging environment created by lack of money.

The tragic accident has placed the ball in the minister’s court.

The only way to solve this problem to have consistent political direction in creating an arrangement at the highest political level, which coordinates land development and provision of transport of all types. Creation of funding mechanisms that provide for replacement of over-age infrastructure of the Railways by a modern system that can meet the needs of the city for the next 25 years and the rest of the Railways is also needed.

There is, of course, an immediate need to replace old, dilapidated foot overbridges and encroachments, which should be done immediately.

(Railway minister) Piyush Goyal has the challenging task of finding a way around the conundrum of increasing demand, lack of capacity and no money to create new capacity. The advantage he has is that the Railways management is capable of implementing, if he can provide the funds and political support where required.

In the aftermath of the stampede at Elphinstone Road railway station that claimed 23 lives, the railway administration has expressed hope that the introduction of the Integrated Ticketing System (ITS) — a single smart card-based system that can be used on multiple modes of transport including the upcoming Metro Railway lines — will regulate entry and exit to railway stations. However, experts believe that while the ITS may regulate crowds to some extent, much more needs to be done to discipline crowds

The ITS envisages a common ticketing card for suburban commute on local trains, Metro rail and on buses. Different agencies including the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) and the Railways are working on the proposal along with a consultant.

“There can be two ways in which ITS can work, which included showing one’s card at the entry/ exit point of the station or a system that can read the card that is with the commuter irrespective of where it is. We will do a complete study before the system is implemented,” a senior railway official said.

Experts have expressed caution. “Once, they had tried to stop exit points at Churchgate and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and people had to stand in queues for an hour. So, ITS is a useful idea but an alternative on regulating entry and exit points at stations should be considered,” said Subhash Gupta, railway activist. The Central and Western Railways together witness a commuter ridership of 84 lakh on a daily average. According to studies by railways, during peak hours, a commuter may take 7-8 minutes to reach the platform from the entry of a station or from the train to the exit.

A V Shenoy, a transport expert, said: “At present, the entry and exit points at railway stations are many. Implementing the ITS on a standalone basis will not help. There is a need to implement the Station Area Traffic Improvement System that can equally regulate the movement of commuters entering from outside. Transport authorities must receive co-operation from the urban local body.”

Another railway official said introduction of technology, if done right, can ease crowds at stations. “Escalators were never deemed beneficial but they proved successful,” the official added.

Officials assured that the ITS would be implemented carefully as it is a key part of planning for the future. “Proper study will need to be conducted to ensure the system matches with a rising number of commuters at the respective station. An ITS will check mischievous elements of ticketless commuters, it will record movement on CCTV cameras, prevent entry of stray animals and regulate movement of hawkers. It will also lessen the Acrowds and discipline the system,” said Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager, Western Railway.

EAS Sarma, former secretary of the Government of India, has demanded the Railways and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to give priority to safety in Railways. Pointing out to specific reference from a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Mr Sarma cautions the Railway Minister to leave everything else and concentrate on safety instead of waiting for another accident to occur.

Mr Sarma has been sending warning to Railway Ministers about lackadaisical attitude of railways towards safety. In his recent letter, he says, “I thought that Railways, after the successive accidents, would drop the idea of taking up bullet trains and, instead, focus on the safety of tracks, modernisation of unmanned level crossings etc. The stampede on the narrow footbridge at the Elphinstone station in Mumbai has once again raised public anger against the warped priorities of the Railways.”

“What surprised me is Report No13/2016 of CAG on Railways. I reproduce a portion of Para 6.8.8 of that report, that says, ‘Foot over Bridge (FOB) is a critical element of crowd management and is prone to stampede. It was observed that FOBs were not strong enough to sustain crowd pressure at 25 stations of seven Zonal Railways’,” Mr Sarma says.

According to the former Secretary, what the CAG had said so clearly ought to have woken up Rail Ministry in time to save the innocent lives of the people. He says, “Who is responsible for the inaction that has cost people’s lives? Is it not ironic that the Prime Minister should spend so much effort on buying bullet trains from Japan instead of thinking of investing on safety improvements first? Is not the government misguided by warped priorities?”

“It is criminal on the part of the Railways to act indifferently towards modernising the 14,000 unmanned level crossings, strengthening the railways tracks, installing modern advance alert systems, crowd management systems and safety of women travelling by train,” Mr Sarma added.

In his earlier letter on 28 December 2016, Mr Sarma had said, “To the ordinary citizen not affiliated to any political party, the blame goes to everyone. Something is wrong with the safety systems in place in the Railways and the priority given to safety in the Railway budget. What is the use of merging the Railway budget with the general Budget, when the priority is for Wi-Fi and bullet trains, and not for the safety of passengers?”

“Once again, as a responsible Minister in charge of the Railways, you have the obligation to bring in technology into safety systems. Instead of holding the small fry responsible for these accidents, you will do well to hold those in the higher echelons answerable. Otherwise, you will only encourage the business-as-usual approach that will continue to consume human lives and cause human trauma,” the former Secretary wrote to the then Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu.

“The money that you spend in the budget on Railways is the money given to you by the tax-payer of this country to spend prudently, not fritter away on foreign companies to introduce ‘bullet trains’ and so on. May I request you to recall what all I have been saying on the need to launch a mission of ‘Zero Tolerance for Accidents’, make the senior officers of the Railways responsible for lapses and assure the nation of an accident-free railway system in a time bound manner?” Mr Sarma asked.

A Chinese man who was trying to transport 50 venomous serpents in his suitcase for making snake wine has been detained by authorities at a railway station in eastern China, media report said today.

The man, who was not named, said he had bought the vipers in eastern Zhejiang province and was taking them home to the southern city of Guangzhou to make snake wine, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

Snake wine has been used as a tonic in traditional Chinese medicine for millennia, and remains popular in some regions of the country and in other parts of Southeast Asia.

The passenger, who was aged in his 50s, was quoted as saying that he had travelled to Zhejiang to buy 4kg of pit vipers as they were cheaper there. At the railway station, security guards became suspicious after seeing a writhing mass inside the suitcase when it was passing through the scanner. When they asked him to open it they found the vipers inside a bag that had been wrapped in a towel, the report said.

The snakes were confiscated and handed over to the local forest police, who confirmed they were wild animals and not factory reared. The man was also detained for questioning, it said.

Snake wine is made by soaking serpents in a large jar of rice wine or other strong alcohol – sometimes with added herbs – and leaving them to steep for several months until their “essence” and venom dissolve into the liquor. It is regarded as a panacea for all types of health problems – from hair loss to leprosy – and as an aphrodisiac, the report said.

Two wheels of the motorman’s coach of a local train derailed this afternoon at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) here, disrupting the service on two platforms of the station, a railway official said.

No injury or casualty was reported in the mishap, which took place just two days after a stampede at the Elphinstone Road railway station in which 23 people died and over 30 were injured.

The two wheels of the train, headed to Karjat in neighbouring Raigad district from CSMT in South Mumbai, derailed a couple of minutes after it left from platform no 5 at 1.43 pm, Central Railway’s Public Relations Officer AK Singh said.

Around 50 to 60 passengers were on-board the train when the mishap occurred. The passengers later alighted from it to take alternative trains to their destinations, he said.

No injury was reported in the incident, he said.

The suburban train services on platform no 5 and 6 at CSMT were affected due to the derailment, the official said.

Senior railway officers were at the spot, he said, adding that the work to put the train back on track was underway.

Indian Railways carries over two crore passengers daily. Train ticket cancellation charges and refund rules are one of the most common queries from rail passengers. The cancellation charges vary, depending on the class of travel and the time when the ticket is cancelled. With effect from November 2015, certain provisions of Railway Passengers (Cancellation of tickets and refund of fare) rules have been amended and comprehensive Railway Passengers (Cancellation of tickets and refund of fare) Rules 2015 have been notified through Gazette Notification G.S.R. 836(E). dated 04.11.2015.

Train ticket Cancellation Rules In 10 Points:

1) If a confirmed ticket is cancelled up to 48 hours before the scheduled departure of train, cancellation charges will be deducted at Rs. 240 for AC First Class/Executive Class, Rs. 200 for AC 2 Tier/First Class, Rs. 180 for AC 3 Tier/AC Chair car/ AC 3 Economy, Rs.120 for Sleeper

Class and Rs.60 for Second Class. Cancellation charges are levied on a per passenger basis.

2) If a confirmed ticket is cancelled within 48 hours and up to 12 hours before the scheduled departure of train, cancellation charges will be 25 per cent of the fare subject to the minimum flat rate mentioned above.

 

3) Between 12 hours and up to four hours before the scheduled departure of train, cancellation charges will be 50 per cent of the fare paid subject to the minimum cancellation rate. No refund of fare shall be admissible on the ticket having confirmed reservation in case ticket is not cancelled or TDR (ticket deposit receipt) not filed online up to four hours before the scheduled departure of the train, says IRCTC website.

Cancellation of Wait-Listed, RAC Tickets

 

4) Refund will be granted on an RAC (reservation against cancellation) ticket or wait-listed ticket up to 30 minutes before the departure of train.

5) The e-tickets should be cancelled through internet and the refund of fare will be credited to the account from which the booking transaction took place, after deducting the applicable charges.

6) No cancellation charge is levied and full fare is refunded to passengers holding confirmed, RAC and wait-listed tickets if the journey is not undertaken due to late running of train by more than three hours of scheduled departure, subject to the condition that the ticket is surrendered prior to actual departure of train.

7) In case of cancellation of trains, for e-tickets, an automatic refund is granted. Filing of TDR or ticket deposit receipt is not required.

8) For a PRS (Passenger Reservation System) counter ticket, when the train is cancelled, a refund of fare is permissible within three days excluding the scheduled day of departure of train.
Cancellation Of Tatkal Tickets

 

9) Under the existing rules, no refund is granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets. If a train is running late by more than 3 hours or train is cancelled, you can file TDR with proper reason for claiming refund, says IRCTC website.

10) In case of e-ticket issued for travel of more than one passenger, some passengers have confirmed reservation and others are on RAC or waiting list, full refund of fare , less clerkage, shall be admissible for confirmed passengers, subject to the condition that the ticket shall be cancelled online or online TDR shall be filed for all the passengers up to thirty minutes before the scheduled departure of the train, says IRCTC website. Other details about rules on railway cancellation and refund can be checked in this notification.

The Indian Railways’ catering wing, IRCTC, has delisted a juice brand after former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi complained that he was served a “contaminated” drink onboard a premium train.

Mr Trivedi, who was travelling on board the Kathgodam-Delhi Shatabdi on Dussehra on September 30, was served lemon juice of a well-known brand, which, he said, had ‘kachra’ (contamination).

“The IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) really needs to pull up its socks. The railways needs to put in checks and balances so that there is some accountability of its subsidiary departments,” Mr Trivedi told PTI.

The railways has reacted to Trivedi’s complaint swiftly and delisted the brand pending laboratory investigation, IRCTC spokesperson Siddharth Singh said.

“We have delisted the agency pending lab investigation. The brand will not be seen anymore on any train for the time being,” he said.

This incident comes months after a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which revealed glaring lapses in rail catering services.

Mr Trivedi said the rail minister could not be blamed for such lapses as the departments need to be held accountable.

Candidates shortlisted for document verification, against vacancies advertised in CEN 03/ 2015 can appear for document verification on 9, 10 and 11 October for RRB Ahmedabad zone. Eligible candidates from the zone who were absent during the verification scheduled from 28 August 2017 to 26 September 2017 can now appear for the same as per the new schedule. ‘This is the final call to absentee candidates for appearing in Document Verification, failing which their candidature will be rejected without further correspondence. No further chance will be given for document verification for any reason whatsoever. These candidates are advised to visit RRB Ahmedabad’s website to download their e-Call letters for final Document Verification.

Email and SMS are also being sent to these candidates to download their e-Call letters,’ said RRB Ahmedabad.

A total of 193 candidates have been called for document verification.

The venue for the same is Railway Recruitment Board, 1st Floor, Meter Gauge Railway Station Building, Kalupur, Ahmedabad – 380 002, Gujarat. Document verification will be held from 9 am to 1 pm on the above mentioned dates.

RRB NTPC graduate exam: How to download e-call letter for document verification

Go to the official website of the RRB zone
Click on the relevant link displaying ‘Download Call for 2nd & Final Document Verification’
Enter the user id and password

Candidates can also view their normalized marks and cut off marks for the document verification for NTPC (Graduate) posts against CEN No. 03/2015.

A possible rail accident was averted after the driver of a goods train alerted railway officials about concrete blocks being placed on the tracks near Kandari village in the district, police said today.

Concrete blocks were placed by unidentified persons on tracks on the both up and down routes near Kandari village in Karjan tehsil last evening, sub-inspector of Karjan police station, KM Rawal said.

At around 7:40 pm, the train hit some stones and the driver felt a strong jerk and the stones broke into pieces, said senior divisional security commissioner, Vadodara (Western Railway), Hemant Kumar.

The driver then informed officials at the Kashipura railway station. It was later found that six hexagonal concrete blocks, three each on the two tracks, were placed by unidentified persons, which could have caused a major accident, Mr Kumar said.

A case has been registered by the local police and it has launched a probe.

The blocks were placed with a mala fide intention to cause an accident, Mr Kumar said, adding that the railway officials acted promptly and averted a possible mishap. He said the concrete blocks were carried to the tracks from a nearby railway gate, which was unmanned after 7 pm.

Visuals have emerged showing some people allegedly stealing jewellery from a victim of the stampede at a railway station here, prompting the Mumbai Police to launch a probe.

The victim, Sumalata Shetty, was among the 23 people who lost their lives in the deadly crush at the Elphinstone Road station.

While there were samaritans who helped the injured in the time of distress, others saw an opportunity to make a quick buck in the face of tragedy.

“Acting on the visuals which were circulated on social media, we have initiated investigation in the ornament theft case,” Assistant Commissioner of Police, Dadar, Sunil Deshmukh said.

The police action comes after photographs and videos of unidentified persons stealing ornaments from Ms Shetty’s body went viral on social media.

“No complaint in connection with the theft has been lodged as of yet, but we took suo motu cognizance and have started the investigation,” Mr Deshmukh said. The officer said CCTV footage of the spot is being examined.

The police is also checking some mobile phone clips, which were recorded by commuters at the time of the stampede, he said.