People can now pay later for tickets booked under the tatkal quota on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) website, it was announced on Wednesday.

Till now, this service was available only for general reservations. For tatkal bookings people had to pay first via the standard online payment gateways before the IRCTC portal confirmed their ticket.

For tatkal tickets, IRCTC users will be able to pay via cash, debit card or credit card by opting to have tickets delivered at their doorstep, said IRCTC payment provider Anduril Technologies.

IRCTC processes 130,000 tatkal transactions daily. A majority of these tickets is booked within minutes of the quota opening.

The new feature eliminates the transaction failures as often the money gets debited and the ticket is not issued due to multiple reasons. The refund cycle is of about seven to 15 days.

“The pay on delivery feature completely circumvents the use of a payment gateway and will help users make the bookings in just a few seconds greatly increasing their chance of booking a confirmed ticket under the tatkal quota,” said Anduril Technologies CEO Anurag Bajpai.

He said it will hugely benefit millions of travellers.

After the CAG rap, the Railways has begun the process of doing away with providing blankets in AC compartments and is instead regulating the temperature inside the coaches so that passengers don’t shiver.
The ‘no-blankets rule’ has now been implemented in the third AC coach of the Jammu Mail, a senior official of the railway ministry said.

“The ministry has started the process of gathering data from passengers on the viability of not having blankets on trains. Once we find how many of them ask for blankets and how many say that they can do without these, we will come to a decision about replicating the project in other trains,” the official said.

The railways is using thermal control and regulating the temperature in the third AC compartment of the Delhi-Jammu train to around 24-26 degree Celsius from the current 19 degrees so that passengers are comfortable and do not need blankets.

The step to phase out blankets from trains was taken after severe criticism from the Comptroller and Auditor General in its report recently about dirty blankets and bedrolls.

Senior officials said that eventually the plan is to replace blankets with cotton sheets which would be enough for passengers given the revised temperatures being maintained in the compartments.

The no-blanket move would also be more economical for the Railways — it takes Rs 55 to clean the bedroll while passengers are charged just Rs 22 for it.

However, officials said blankets will be carried in the trains in case these are needed by passengers.

Railways offer blankets with covers in AC coaches after CAG picks holes in hygiene levels

Responding to a CAG report questioning the hygiene and cleanliness levels of bedrolls in trains, the Indian Railways has started providing blankets with covers in the first-class air conditioned compartments.

A Business Standard report, over the weekend, had suggested the railways could do away with blanketsaltogether as the costs of getting the laundry cleaned was not economical, as also monitoring hygiene standards for the linen was difficult due to absence of quality checks at departmental mechanised laundries.

“We now provide blankets with covers in AC first class. The service has been started in all the major railways’ divisions. By the end of this month, the service will be available across all divisions. These covers will be washed daily,” said railways spokesperson Anil Saxena.

Railways was also said to be considering raising the temperature to 24 degrees from 19 degrees to avoid providing blankets. Saxena clarified “We are looking into its feasibility and practicability.”

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had pointed out that norms pertaining to maintaining cleanliness standard of the laundry were not being followed. While guidelines stipulated by the railways require the linen to be washed after every use and dry-cleaned every two months, it was not being done.

The only surviving old coal-fired loco, which was brought to Coonoor loco shed for maintenance last February, is simply stationed there even after it has been readied for operation.Loco No.X-37384 is the only surviving coal-fired steam locomotive in the world and is in working condition. All other steam locomotives in the NMR section are oil-fired. The coal-fired loco (Swiss Class X) made in 1918 was earlier officially declared as decommissioned by the Salem division of Southern Railways.The loco was brought to Coonoor from Mettupalayam on February 17, 2017.

The very next day, it was shifted to Ooty railway station to be displayed at the station as a heritage ornamental piece.TOI reported on February 28 about the working condition of the 99-year old Swiss loco. The report made the railway officials take a decision to run the loco on charter for tourists. The loco was brought back to Coonoor shed for maintenance. Harishankar Varma, Divisional Railway Manager, Salem Division/Southern Railway, told “Yes.  He added, “Many tourists and NMR lovers are waiting for its early chugging on the NMR track, at least as photo charter.” According to him, most of the tourists, especially foreigners, are keen on experiencing a coal-fired loco chug. Udhagamandalam: The only surviving old coal-fired loco, which was brought to Coonoor loco shed for maintenance last February, is simply stationed there even after it has been readied for operation.Loco No.X-37384 is the only surviving coal-fired steam locomotive in the world and is in working condition. The loco was brought back to Coonoor shed for maintenance. Harishankar Varma, told “Yes. But it is simply lying at the loco shed in Coonoor.”

Railway officials are looking to increase non-fare revenue by selling advertising space on the uniforms of its staffers including ticketing checkers and stationmasters.

“The option is to either look for sponsorship for uniforms or allow advertisers to print their logos on them,” said a Western Railway official. Currently, railways earns non-fare revenue through advertising on hoardings and compartments and audio system on platforms and trains.

Railways also plans to allow commercial development on vacant land and stations, lease out space for marriages and allow wi-fi facilities among others.

According to a study by MRVC in Mumbai, in 2014, only 6.5% of the total revenue was non-fare revenue.

In what can be called as a good news for Delhiites, the Delhi Metro Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has decided to increase the number of trains by 45 per cent. At present, DMRC runs 227 trains including four, six and eight-coach rakes but after the completion of the project, the number of trains will go up to 328. Simultaneously, the number of coaches will also rise to 2,158 from 1,468.

According to the reports,  Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will start commissioning in phases two of its upcoming corridors — Magenta Line (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden) and Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar) this October. Both Magenta and Pink line are likely to be completely operational by March 2018.

Reportedly, of the total 690 new coaches,  504 will be used for the Magenta and Pink Lines. The number of trains will also be increased from 227 to 244 in the existing corridors to get rid of the crowd. Meanwhile, it has also been said that six-coach trains will be converted into eight-coach ones to accommodate more passengers in a train.

Most number of trains will be allocated to the Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21-Noida City Centre/Vaishali) as it is considered as the network’s busiest corridor. Whereas on the second busiest corridor, the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli–HUDA City Centre), the number of eight-coach trains will be increased from 38 to 52.

Meanwhile, the Pink, Magenta as well as the newly opened Violet Line (Kashmere Gate-Escorts Mujesar) will have only six-coach trains as the passenger rush on these corridors is less compared to that of Blue and Yellow Lines, says TOI report.

Reportedly, the four-coach trains on DMRC’s first operational corridor Red Line (Dilshad Garden-Rithala) will be converted into six-coach, which means the number of six-coach trains will go up to 39 from 10.

Apart from trains, DMRC will deploy 3,000 staffers, including train operators, station controllers, and customer care executives, to the existing 9,000

The Indian Railways is going full steam to achieve the target of covering the 245-km long Delhi-Chandigarh distance in flat two hours despite many curves on the proposed semi-high speed route.

The Delhi-Chandigarh corridor, one of the busiest routes in north India, is slated to be first semi-high speed project being taken up by the state-owned transporter to run trains at maximum speeds of 200 kmph with French help.

There are about 10 major curves spanning over 32 km on the existing Delhi-Chandigarh rail route.

The public transporter will not go for land acquisition required for straightening up several curves on the Delhi-Chandigarh semi-high speed corridor and instead opt for slowing down while negotiating the track, according to the railways.

The earlier plan was to straighten up these curves to facilitate uninterrupted speed on the semi-high speed route, said a senior Railway ministry official involved with the semi-high speed project.

However, since it requires acquiring land for the purpose which is a time-consuming process, railways decided not to go for land acquisition to avoid delay.

In a recent review meeting with the French team, it was decided to avoid land acquisition and instead make some adjustment on curves as much as possible on the existing railway land, he said.

However, the official said, despite curves, the target of reaching Chandigarh in two hours will be achieved.

SNCF, the French railways, has been assigned the task of submitting the execution strategy and implementation model with detailed cost of the semi-high speed project involving upgradation of the Chandigarh route.

The French team will submit the final report with details of cost analysis and technical parameter by October.

According to a rough estimate, it is likely to cost over Rs 10,000 crore with about Rs 46 crore per kilometre for running trains at 200 kmh, which includes rolling stock and signal and track upgradation on the Chandigarh corridor.

Currently, the Shatabdi Express covers the 245 km distance in about three hours and 30 minutes travelling at a maximum speed of 110 kmh.

Tarun Tyagi, a Faridabad resident, visits Nizamuddin railway station six to eight times a week as he commutes back and forth from work. Only a year and a half ago, to kill time time as he waited for his train, the 24-year-old would read newspapers or roam different platforms. Now he uses that time to download a couple of movies and to update all the apps on his Android smartphone using RailWire’s free Internet.
Tyagi is one of the six and a half million passengers who visits one of over 100 railway stations in India that offer Internet access at over 24Mbps speeds for half an hour at no charge every day. Post this period, the commuters are free to use it the entire day, should they want, but the speed drops to about 1Mbps.
Announced in 2015, RailWire’s Internet is a joint project by Google and state-owned telecom infrastructure provider RailTel that aims to bring free Wi-Fi access to railway stations across India. Google has already deployed RailTel routers and switches at 140 railway stations, and the company says it is on track to double that number by the end of next year.

The free Internet that works
Gadgets 360 spent some time at the Nizamuddin railway station Monday on Google’s invitation and spoke to several passengers who were using RailWire. Several regular passengers and vendors say the service works as advertised, even when the place is crowded.

A Google executive said the company has deployed the RailWire network at stations in such a way that a passenger would always receive optimum signals. At any point, a passenger is under the coverage of three to four switches – two from the same platform and rest from the adjacent platforms.
“As we scaled our efforts, we have ensured that the network can serve every passenger,” the executive said. However, the company has also reduced the access duration for the fast free Wi-Fi from an hour to 30 minutes.
In a conversation with Gadgets 360, Gulzar Azad, Country Head of Connectivity at Google India said the company is pleased with the way it is scaling the RailWire project, and with the quality of Internet it is providing. “The data speeds that we offer to millions in India with RailWire, and the reliability of the connection, you wouldn’t find it at most international public places,” he said.
But even as Google scales its RailWire project and brings the service to more stations, has the appeal of its free Wi-Fi waned over the past one year as mobile data become more affordable in India? Azad doesn’t think so. He said the arrival of Reliance Jio last year was certainly “a learning experience” for the company, but it hasn’t impacted the growth of RailWire. In addition, people at the railway station continue to use RailWire service.

“At that time [When Reliance Jio was just launched] we were at five million monthly active users with our RailWire project. But since then we have added about 30 to 40 stations and we haven’t seen any decrement in number of users,” he said. A spokesperson for RailTel told Gadgets 360 that the company has observed a “steady growth in both volume of data used by a customer and in adoption of RailWire.”
Moving forward, Google plans to work on two things, in addition to expanding RailWire to another 260 railway stations. The company will make it easier for passengers to sign-in with RailWire. At present, passengers login to the service by providing their mobile number and authenticating themselves by a one-time password they receive on their phone. Azad said the company plans to make the login experience easier. “Later this year, commuters will see multiple ways to login to RailWire,” he said, without offering any further details.

The other challenge for Google is finding a model to sustain the service. It is working with the Indian Railways and RailTel on this. Today, a commuter only sees one ad when using the RailWire service. It’s the ad that appears on the login page. Would Google ever serve more ads on the RailWire service? Azad told us that there are many ways to monetise, and it doesn’t have to be just ads.
In general, he said, when a user accesses fast-Internet at the railway stations, they are more likely to consume more Internet when they go home as well. This helps several businesses, he said.
Google plans to complete the roll-out of RailWire at 400 railway stations by the end of next year, or early 2019. That would conclude the project. With RailWire, the company only intends to provide free Wi-Fi at railway stations, Azad said.
But the company won’t stop with its connectivity efforts there, he said. Next on the agenda is a project which Google is already working on – turning several Indian cities to smart cities. This is part of Google Station project, which the company announced last year. The idea of the project was conceived based on the feedback received on the RailWire project, Azad said.
“As a result of this great usage that we are seeing here, we created Google Station as a product platform. Through this we believe, we can create the same experience at other point of convergences. We are looking to partner with various ISPs, exploring several venues, and wherever there is an opportunity to do public Wi-Fi, we will make it happen,” he said. “We are working on smart cities and we are looking at some more partnerships.”

In the meanwhile, people at the railway station continue to enjoy the free Internet. Many say that there is no alternative to Google’s service when it comes to a fast Internet that “always works.”

There has been a slight decline in the number of train accidents after implementation of a series of safety measures, including use of modern technology, according to Railway Ministry data.

In 2014-15, the number of accidents was 135 which decreased to 107 in 2015-16 and further to 104 in 2016-17, the report said.

This year, train accidents decreased from 29 to 15 during April-June in comparison to the corresponding period of 2016, an improvement of 48.3 per cent.

Safety measures, including speedy track renewal, ultrasonic rail detection system and elimination of many unmanned level crossings on priority basis, have been undertaken to prevent rail accidents.

The 2016-17 fiscal saw elimination of 1,503 unmanned level crossings and 484 manned level crossings by construction of road over-bridge and under-bridge, a record so far, the official said.

Since unmanned level crossings are responsible for maximum number of train accidents, the railways intends to eliminate all such crossings on broad gauge section by 2020.

Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh, a special safety fund, was created in the Budget 2017-18 with a corpus of Rs. 1 lakh crore over a period of five years for financing critical safety- related works.

The railways has also inducted LHB coaches replacing conventional ones in a phase-wise manner resulting in reducing the chances of derailment and mitigating the possibility of grievous injury or death in case of accidents, the official said.

LHB coaches have anti-climbing features and provision of superior braking and lesser chances of uncoupling of coaches in case of accidents.

Besides, the railways has speeded up the use of modern technology such as ultrasonic system to detect defect on tracks, train protection warning system (TPWS) and train collision avoidance system (TCAS) to prevent accidents, the official said.

While the TPWS has been installed on 342-km route, the TCAS is being tried on 350-km route.

Good track condition is crucial for safe running of trains and so track renewal has been undertaken on a priority basis and adequate fund has been allocated for this, said the official.

The allocation for track renewal has been almost doubled from the last five years average of Rs. 5,548.6 crore to Rs. 9,961 crore in the Budget Estimate of 2017-18.

Plagued with complaints of dirty blankets, the Indian Railways has firmed up an action plan to increase the frequency of washing blankets and replace the existing ones with designer, lightweight blankets in a phased manner.

Besides, used blankets would be sanitised on a regular basis before being given for further use.
Though the directive is to wash the blankets every one or two months, a CAG report had recently highlighted the unhygienic condition of blankets which were not washed for even six months.

However, smelly blankets may soon become a thing of past on trains.

The railways have roped in the National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFT) to design lightweight blankets with less wool content. A trial of ‘thin, cold washable blankets’ is also being carried out in the Central Railway zone as a pilot project. “Our aim is to provide washed blankets along with fresh linen in trains for each journey,” said a senior Railway Ministry official in the housekeeping directorate who is involved in the task.

Currently about 3.90 lakh sets of linen are provided per day comprising two bedsheets, a towel, pillow and blanket for each passenger in AC classes. The plan envisages increasing the frequencies of washing of blankets to begin with and replacing the existing ones with the newly designed lightweight blankets made of soft fabric in a phased manner, he said.

Railways have already started changing the cover of blankets in some sections while frequency of washing is being increased from monthly to fortnightly and weekly, said the official. Railways had recently held a meeting on linen management which was attended by various stakeholders including mechanised laundry operators, suppliers of cleaning chemicals, linen suppliers and senior railway officers.

It was decided to implement the plan for improvement of linen management with aim of providing clean, hygienic and good quality linen to passengers travelling in AC classes. Preparations are are being made to introduce lightweight blankets made of soft fabric and these will be washed after every use, the official said.

There are about 50 mechanised laundries operational at the moment and ten more will be opened shortly.

Indian Railways has asked NIFT (National Institute of Fashion technology) to redesign the blankets that it provides to passengers in AC coaches. The move is part of several measures that the Suresh Prabhu-led Indian Railways says it is taking to maintain standards of hygiene in the linen and blankets used in trains.

The steps assume significance in the backdrop of the recent CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report that sharply rapped Indian Railways over the cleanliness standards of blankets and linen. Talking about the plans, Anil Saxena, Spokesperson of Ministry of Railways told FE Online, “We are taking several steps to make sure that the blankets that are given to passengers are clean and sanitised. We have asked NIFT to redesign the blankets so that the material used is easily washable. NIFT has also been asked to reduce the overall size of the blanket since currently, it tends to touch the train floor – hence accumulating dirt fast.”

Asked whether reports of Indian Railways doing away with blankets in AC-1st class coaches are true, Saxena said, “The proposal is under consideration. There is a thought process that if the average temperature in AC-1st class coaches is increased from 19 degree to 24 degree, then the need for blankets won’t arise. However, nothing has been finalised yet.” According to Saxena, Indian Railways has already started providing covers with blankets for AC-1st class coaches. “This will be complete for all trains soon. These covers will help maintain hygiene. But, the number of blankets in AC-2 tier and AC-3 tier coaches is very high, for that we are considering washing them every 15 days and sanitizing them as frequently as possible,” Saxena elaborated.

Meanwhile, there are plans to increase the number of mechanised laundries across the country. “Presently 55% of the total linen of Indian Railways is washed in mechanised laundries. Passengers don’t complain of linen that is washed in mechanised laundries. The – ones are not as clean. By March 2018, we plan to take this percentage up to 70%,” Saxena added.

CAG, in a report tabled in the Parliament recently, has come down heavily on Indian Railways saying that the washing and sanitation of linen and blankets are not done as per Railways norms. The audit report has also highlighted the need to increase the pace of setting up of mechanised laundries and prescribe norms for quality standards for washed linen, reported PTI. A report by CAG has also called food in Indian Railways “unfit for human consumption”.

Indian Railways is the national carrier – a fact that makes it even more important that it maintains cleanliness and provides better passenger amenities. Even as it focuses on introducing new trains such as Tejas and Humsafar that enhance passenger comfort and experience, it should look to improve its service standards at all levels in the existing trains as well. Passengers would be a lot more willing to pay a premium for clean linen, blankets and hygienic food if they are sure of the quality and standards being maintained.