A Patna-bound train was stranded for nearly three hours between Tundla and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh after it ran over cattle, the railways said on Monday.

The incident took place around 8 pm between the Kanchausi and Jhinjak railway stations, a spokesperson of the railways said.

Some trains were delayed due to the stranding of the Vikramshila Express. The engine of the Patna-bound train was changed too, he said.

“Cattle being run over is a huge problem in this section and it happens almost everyday,” he said, adding the section was cleared for traffic in an hour.

The brake system of the train was damaged in the incident, the spokesperson said.

Indian Railways has certain luggage carrying rules under which each passenger is permitted a free allowance. This is the weight limit up to which the passenger can carry luggage in the compartment without paying additional charges. The free allowance varies for different classes of travel, according to Indian Railways’ website, indianrail.gov.in. However, passengers can book and carry excess luggage beyond the free allowance limits in the compartment based on the booking class. Such luggage is chargeable at 1.5 times the applicable luggage rate, according to the Indian Railway website.

Here are the key things to know about luggage rules of Indian Railways:

1. Here are the free allowance and paid allowance limits applicable to carriage of luggage in the compartment, according to indianrail.gov.in:

2. Trunks, suitcase and boxes having outside measurement of 100 cms x 60 cms x 25 cms (length x breadth x height) will be allowed to be carried in the passenger compartments as personal luggage.  If the trunks, suitcases and boxes, which in outside measurement exceed any one of the dimension, such articles are required to be booked and carried in the brake van, according to the Railways website.

3. However, the maximum size of the trunk/suitcase that can be carried in the AC 3 tier and AC chair car compartment is 55 cms x 45 cms x 22.5 cms.

4. The luggage of larger dimension is to be carried only via a brake van for which the minimum charge is Rs. 30. There is no restriction on carriage of luggage in brake van of passenger trains as far as quantity and type (personal or merchandise) of luggage is concerned.

5. Children aged five and below 12 years are allowed half of the free allowance subject to the maximum of 50 kgs, according to railway’s website

Railway Junior Engineer exam will begin on May 22 and admit cards will be released online May 18 onwards. This is the first selection process, to be conducted by the railway recruitment boards (RRB), for recruiting Junior Engineer, Depot Material Superintendent and Chemical & Metallurgical Assistant posts. Candidates who have registered for the exam can check the exam city and date beforehand. “Link will be published in RRBs’ official websites shortly and candidates will be informed through their Registered Mobile and e-Mail ID,” reads the official notification released on RRB portals.

The RRB JE exam will comprise 100 questions and candidates will be allowed 90 minutes to attempt the exam. For every negative answer, one-third of the total marks will be deducted from the total marks allotted to the particular question.

Mock tests will be available online on RRB portals and candidates can take the exams and acquaint themselves with the online test pattern.

On the exam day, candidates should carry the original ID proof, e-call letter and passport size color photograph to the exam hall.

On the other hand, RRBs will conduct the aptitude test for ALP, technician posts on May 10. The exam, however, has been postponed in Odisha (except for Rourkela).

Indian Railways issues season tickets to passengers who travel regularly between residence and their place of work or study. Season tickets are issued for suburban as well as non-suburban sections. Fares for first class monthly season tickets (MST) are four times the second class MST fares. Mumbai local trains are one such example of suburban railway system being run by Indian Railways. Passengers who regularly travel in trains usually opt for season tickets in order to save time on buying tickets from counters. (Also Read: Tatkal Ticket Charges, Rules, Booking Timings Other Details Here)

Here are details of rules, distance covered and validity of season tickets being issued by Indian Railways:

1. Season tickets are issued up to 150 kilometres only. Season tickets for more than 150 kilometres are issued only on those sections where they were being issued prior to 1951 (except on those sections where they have been withdrawn due to lack of demand), according to Indian Railways website http://www.indianrail.gov.in.

2. Season tickets are not valid for travel in reserved coaches and trains. They are valid for travel by passenger trains. In the case of mail/ express/superfast trains, they are valid for travel by only those mail/express/superfast trains where it has specifically been permitted by Railway administration, Indian Railways noted.

3. Season ticket can be renewed 10 days in advance of the date of expiry. In such cases, it will be made valid only after the date of expiry and not from the date of renewal, Indian Railways said.

4. Season tickets to students are issued for first and second class up to the maximum distance of 150 kilometres.

5. The student monthly season tickets are charged at half of the normal adult season ticket fare and student quarterly season tickets will be charged at 2.7 times of the student MST fare, according to Indian Railways.

A 22-year-old woman delivered a baby on a local train coach at Mumbai’s Virar station, earlier today. The mother and the baby are in good health and have been admitted to a hospital, reports news agency ANI.

On Thursday, a 36-year-old woman delivered a baby at the Virar railway station near after she went into labour on her way for a regular medical check-up.

The woman, Sweety Sheikh, who was travelling in a local train, began feeling labour pain at around 7.15 am. She got off the train at Virar, where she was escorted to the Government Railway Police office located at the station.

Head constable Priyanka Mane arranged curtains to cover the office where Sweety delivered the baby after some time.

Last month, Thane railway station in Maharashtra saw two successful childbirths.

Last week, on-board the Konkan Kanya Express, a 20-year-old woman went into active labour and was taken to “One Rupee Clinic” at Thane station when the train stopped.

On April 7, a woman delivered a baby boy at the Thane railway station after she went into labour while travelling to Kurla. The woman officials of the Railway Protection Force took the woman to the “One Rupee Clinic” where the staff helped her deliver the baby.

The National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test, better known as NEET, decides whether students can get into medical college. Thousands sat for the examination in Bengaluru on Sunday afternoon.

However, many others heading to Bengaluru from north Karnataka could not make it on time for the test because of the Hampi Express getting delayed.

The South-Western Railways is now hoping that it can help the students get another chance. “SWR will write to the Ministry of HRD to conduct re-exam for students (who travelled by Hampi Express that reached SBC/Mysuru today) who missed NEET. We will send a letter tomorrow morning…” its public relations officer said in a message, referring to a media group.

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy expressed his concern over the students’ career getting jeopardised due to the delay in train services. “Hundreds of students from North Karnataka districts have missed the #NEET Exam being held today at Bengaluru due to a 7-hour delay of the Hampi Express. A last-minute change in the exam centres and lack of proper communication of the same has created confusion among students. I request PM @narendramodi, Rail Minister @PiyushGoyal, @HRDMinistry , @PrakashJavdekar to intervene and ensure that students who have missed the opportunity today get another chance to write the #NEET2019 Exam,” he tweeted.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed that the central government was to blame for the incident. “Mr. @narendramodi, You pat your own back for others’ achievements but will you also take the responsibility for your cabinet min’ incapabilities. Hundreds of students in Karnataka may not be able to take up NEET because of delay in the train services,” he tweeted.

“Mr. @narendramodi, Ask @PiyushGoyal to work properly for next few days and then we will set it right. Also, ensure that the aggrieved students get another chance to write NEET exam,” the Congress leader added.

The examination has already been postponed in cyclone-hit Odisha, and a fresh date will be announced soon. Students who missed the Karnataka exam are hoping that they will be given another chance.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), under the Ministry of Railways, provides the customers with booked tickets with a option to change the boarding point of train before starting the journey. IRCTC, which is the online ticketing arm of the Indian Railways, enables users to book train tickets online through its mobile application and website. The booking options include wait-listed, reservation against cancellation (RAC) and confirmed tickets. (Also Read: IRCTC Offers Concession To Select Categories Of Passengers. Here’s How To Avail It)

Here’s how to change the boarding point of the train on IRCTC ahead of a journey:

A passenger who has booked e-tickets can change his/her boarding station online before 24 hours of the scheduled departure of the train, according to IRCTC’s portal, irctc.co.in.

In case a passenger has changed the boarding point he will lose all the rights to board the train from the original boarding point. If found travelling without any proper authority to travel, passenger will have to pay fare with penalty between original boarding point to changed boarding point, according to the IRCTC website.

 

Boarding point change is allowed only once and boarding station can be changed before 24 hours of the scheduled departure of train, according to IRCTC.

Boarding point change is not allowed if the ticket is seized and boarding point change is not allowed for the PNRs with VIKALP option.

Online boarding point change is not allowed for I-Ticket and boarding point change is not allowed for current booking ticket.

An altercation between Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Odisha BJP vice-president Baijayant Panda touched a new low on Sunday, with the latter claiming that there are occasions when his former party chief “cries like a schoolboy”.

Mr Panda said this to news agency ANI while trashing Mr Patnaik’s claims that he had lobbied with the centre to get railway lines laid to his mining companies rather than Kendrapara district. “Utter rubbish. I am disappointed that Naveen (Patnaik) has reduced himself to making wild, unsubstantiated allegations. Sometimes he cries like a schoolboy, sometimes he says I’m complaining about his health, sometimes he says I’m coveting his chair,” he said.

The BJP leader is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Kendrapara, which will vote on April 28. He will face-off against the Biju Janata Dal’s Anubhav Mohanty.

The Odisha Chief Minister had made the allegation against Mr Panda while describing the sequence of events that led to him quitting the Biju Janata Dal for the BJP. “I found that Kendrapara was the only district on the coast where the railways were hardly developed. That was when a former Railways Minister laughed, saying that my parliamentarian (Baijayant Panda) was only concerned about providing rail links to his mining companies. This shocked me,” he said.

Mr Panda claimed that the people of Kendrapara know how much he had “slogged” to get the railway project started. “For 18 years, Naveen Patnaik did not find anything dubious about me. There were close relations between his family and mine for nine decades, but none of these allegations came up until last year,” ANI quoted him as saying.

He also questioned the Naveen Patnaik government’s claims that most development projects were successfully completed. “I had conducted a survey during my first tenure. While 8,700 permanent houses were constructed in Kendrapara on paper, an audit found only 160. Over 8,500 remained on paper,” the BJP leader said.

The Chief Minister had earlier posted an exercise video on social media to dispel rumours allegedly spread by Mr Panda that all was not well with his health.

The dead body of a young girl, without clothes, was found near a railway track in the town of Bathinda in Punjab, the police said on Wednesday.

The body was beheaded and thrown under a bridge near the railway track in Bathinda’s Sheesh Mahal Colony, the police said.

“We have started the investigation. The case will be solved soon,” police officer Tarjinder Singh said.

The police have registered a case and started the investigation.

Two Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)  engineers, arrested after the foot overbridge collapse near Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) railway station, have moved separate bail pleas before a Mumbai sessions court claiming the case against them is “false and concocted”.

The engineers, Anil Patil and S F Kakulte, were working with the bridges department of the BMC. They were both arrested days after the 40-year-old bridge, connecting the area near the Times of India building with the CSMT railway station in south Mumbai, collapsed on March 14, killing six people.

Earlier, their bail pleas had been rejected by the Metropolitan Magistrate court.

In their fresh applications moved before additional sessions judge MS Azmi Monday, the two engineers claimed they have been “falsely implicated” in the case and have nothing to do with the said offence.

The allegation against them is “false and concocted” and there is nothing on record to involve them in the crime directly or indirectly, they said.

The accused claimed that even admitting that they had not done their job properly, in the worst case scenario it can merely be dereliction of duty and not the Indian Penal Cod sections applied in the case.

In its reply filed before the court Tuesday, the police said the engineers were not present on the spot during the structural audit of the bridge even for a single day. It is mandatory to carry out the inspection of such bridges before and after the monsoon, but the accused never did so, the police said.

Their bail applications will come up for hearing Thursday, public prosecutor Mangesh Arote said.

Besides the engioneers, police have also arrested structural auditor Neeraj Kumar Desai in connection with the incident.

Neeraj Desai, who worked with a private firm, had allegedly given clearance for continued use of the ill-fated bridge after a structural audit.

A preliminary report into the collapse submitted by the BMC had said the structural audit of the FOB was not carried out properly.