Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the Indian Railways, is offering 50 per cent discount on fares on Maharajas’ Express. “Now when you make direct bookings on the website, you pay for one and get flat 50% discount on your companion’s bookings!,” said IRCTC on microblogging website-Twitter. The payment for the first adult will be as per the normal terms and the second adult availing 50 per cent discount will have to make full non refundable payment, according to the IRCTC Maharajas’ Express website.

Under this offer, on ticket booking of first adult on twin sharing at full cost, the second adult sharing the same cabin will get 50 per cent flat discount on the adult cost, according to the website. The discount offer on Maharajas’ Express is applicable for all nationalities. However, the discount scheme is not transferable and cannot be clubbed with any other offers.

Maharajas’ Express has 23 carriages and runs on five circuits, covering destinations like Delhi, Agra, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Varanasi, Mysore among others. The train features five carriages for deluxe cabins, six for junior suites, two for suites and one for a grand presidential suite. In-house movies and live television keep passengers entertained through the royal journey, said Maharajas’ Express. Prices of cabins and suites of the luxury train start from $2,910 and goes up to $26,070.

IRCTC is also offering a 50 per cent discount on fare on Buddhist Circuit Tourist Train. The train starts from Delhi and covers destinations such as Bodh Gaya, Rajgir (Nalanda), Varanasi (Sarnath), Lumbini, Kushinagar, Sravasti and Agra, according to IRCTC.

A man committed suicide along with his two sons by jumping in front of a speeding train in West Bengal’s East Bardhaman district, a Government Railway Police (GRP) official said on Tuesday.

The incident took place in East Bardhaman district’s Masagram railway station in the wee hours of Tuesday.

“Rakesh Singh (28) jumped in front of a train at Masagram station, taking with him his two children, Ajay Singh (5) and Bijoy Singh (3). All three were hit by the train and died on the spot,” an officer from the Kamarkundu GRPS said.

“Their bodies have been recovered and sent for autopsy. Primary investigation suggests the man committed suicide due to disputes with his wife and other family members,” he said.

The police said that none of the family members have been called for interrogation as no complaint has been lodged in the case so far.

Union minister Piyush Goyal along with the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani will dedicate to the nation on December 15 India’s first railway university and third such in the world after Russia and China, a senior official of the national transporter said Friday. The National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI) in Vadodara, Gujarat opened its doors to the first batch of 103 students from 20 states in two fully-residential undergraduate courses in September this year.

Two under-graduate programmes — B.Sc. in Transportation Technology and BBA programme in Transportation Management — started, while the university aims to start masters programme from 2019-20 academic session in areas such as Transportation and Systems Design, Transport Systems Engineering, Transport Policy and Economics, among others.

“It is a matter of great pride that such a unique institute offering such diverse courses will be dedicated to the nation on December 15,” the official said. The student body is highly diverse with 17 girls and 86 boys coming from 20 states. Forty-one students are admitted in BBA — Transportation Management — and 62 students in B.Sc (Transportation Technology) programme.

Kevadiya, a small town with a population of 6,788 people and just 3.5 km from the Statue of Unity in Gujarat, is all set to get its own railway station, sources involved in the planning told mews agency PTI.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are slated to lay the foundation stone for the same on December 15, they said.

The Statue of Unity of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is located in Gujarat’s Narmada district and to reach it, one has to reach Kevadiya first.

“During the first 11 days of its opening, the monument has already been visited by around 1.3 lakh tourists. This is great news for tourism in the state. However, this area is plagued by connectivity issues and we needed to address that. This will be a modern railway station and will see huge footfall. Other than a boost in tourism, the project will lead to development in the area, create employment among other things,” a source said.

Currently, there is no direct air or train connectivity to Kevadiya. The nearest stations to Kevadiya are Vadodara (71.94 km), Bharuch (75.36 km) and Ankleshwar (77.95 km). A smaller station, Miyagam Karjan is 63.02 km from the town.

By air, one has to take a flight to Surat. Kevadiya is 83 km from Surat. From the Ahmedabad airport, the Statue of Unity is almost 200 km away.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Governor Om Prakash Kohli will also be present at the foundation stone laying function, the source added.

The statue is being touted as the latest in Gujarat’s list of tourist attractions and the government is keen to ensure that no stone is left unturned to ensure a regular tourist inflow, the sources said.

In fact, the Gujarat government has written to the chief ministers of all states to consider setting up guest houses near the Statue of Unity and a few states have already shown interest, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Gujarat’s minister for Education, Law, Justice and Civil Aviation said in Kolkata on yesterday.

The Gujarat government built the 180-feet statue of Sardar Patel at a cost of around Rs. 3,000 crore.

On an average, 15,000 visitors visit the statue every day, according to the state government.

A Railway Protection Force (RPF) team of Northern Railway arrested three people on-board Telangana Express with a cache of silver worth Rs. 75 lakh.

The three were travelling in a coach meant for disabled people, with seven packages containing the silver.

The officials seized 262 kg of silver from them.

“During checking at Ballabgarh Railway Station on December 10, at 8:20 am, the team of RPF outpost Ballabgarh apprehended three persons in disabled coach. During interrogation, they disclosed that they are carrying white raw metal and white metal ornaments for which they did not present any documents. Besides, they were travelling ticketless,” a statement from the railway ministry said.

The three were booked under Section 155B of the Railways Act and a case has been registered at RPF outpost in Ballabgarh.

Shyam Sundar Besra, Chief Inspector of Ticket, working in Asansol Division of Eastern Railway of Indian Railways has been conferred the coveted Sahitya Akademi Award. Mr Besra has been awarded for his novel “Marom” in the Santhali language.

“Marom” is primarily based upon natural, social, economic and political conditions of Santhal Pargana, one of the divisions or commissionaries of Jharkhand headquartered at Dumka.

The novel highlights the situation emerged after the industrial development of the Santhal area after Independence, mainly, Masanjore Dam at Dumka and Railway locomotive workshop at Chittaranjan.

Two of his works, ‘Dullar khatir‘ and ‘Damin Riya (udas) Kahani Ko‘ are part of syllabus for Post Graduation courses in Sidhu Kanhu University, Jharkhand.

Mr Besra writes in the name of GB Rarek in Santhali language and as Santhal praganvi in Hindi.

He had completed his MA (Hindi Literature) and MA in Santhali in 1987.

He has been conferred many awards at the state level and also Dr Ambedkar Fellowship by Bhartiya Dalit Sahitya Academy in the year 1992.

Mr Besra was felicitated for the rare honour by DRM Asansol.

Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Awards in 24 languages on December 5, 2018. Seven books of poetry, six novels, six short stories, three literary criticism and two essays have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2018.

The Awards were recommended by distinguished Jury members representing 24 Indian languages and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi which met on December 5, 2018 under the Chairmanship of Dr Chandrashekhar Kambar, President, Sahitya Akademi.

Almost a month after the official announcement, Railway Recruitment Boards or the RRBs have assured candidates that the revised results for Assistant Loco Pilot and Technician exam will be released by December 20. Further, the second exam has been postponed by a month. ‘RRB ALP recruitment 2018’ as it is popularly searched for, was notified on February 3, 2018. 36 lakh candidates had appeared for the first stage exam which was held in phases from August 9 to September 4.

The second test, which will also be computer-based, will be held on 21, 22 and 23 January.

The second exam will be a lengthy one and will assess the trade or professional knowledge of the candidate as well. The exam will comprise two sections.

While the first section will be much similar to the first stage exam, except a basic science and engineering part, the second section will have questions from the trade syllabus prescribed by Director General of Employment & Training (DGET).

In order to qualify the first section candidates have to score atleast 40% marks (30% for OBC and SC categories, 25% for ST categories). The pass mark for the second section, which will have trade-based questions, is 35%.

Merit list will be decided on the marks obtained in the first section, only for those candidates who have qualified the second section.

A group of unidentified men allegedly snatched and fled with an AK-47 rifle of a Railway Protection Force (RPF) jawan in Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh, a senior police officer said Thursday.

Two RPF personnel were injured in the incident which took place near Badnagar, said Ujjain Superintendent of Police (SP) Sachin Atulkar.

RPF jawans on patrol duty along the railway track in Sundarbad area spotted about ten persons loitering around and asked them to stop, the SP said.

“The miscreants pelted stones at them, in which two jawans sustained minor injuries. The AK-47 rifle of one of them fell down. It had 20 rounds loaded,” police said.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said land acquisition for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor would be completed by December this year.

He also said that five more high speed corridors are being planned, including Agra-Varanasi, Delhi-Chandigarh and Mumbai-Bengaluru.

The minister was speaking at The Economist India Summit 2018.

“Land acquisition procedure for the first bullet train project (Mumbai-Ahmedabad) will be over by December this year. We are taking more time because we engage land owners and hold dialogue for acquisition. We want to take them into confidence,” he said.

He claimed that, despite a slight delay in land acquisition, the project may be completed before deadline due to developments in the engineering sector.

He informed that work related to designing and assembling machines to build a 27 km under-sea tunnel as part of the project was progressing.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation, a special purpose vehicle of the Railways and the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat, is implementing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor with technical and financial assistance from Japan.

“There are five more corridors being planned for high speed trains. Agra-Varanasi, Delhi-Chandigarh and Mumbai-Bengaluru are being worked on,” he said.

Mr Goyal, however, did not mention the other two routes on which such high speed trains were being planned.

“I am personally passionate about the Agra-Varanasi train project. It could be semi-high speed but it will be very helpful,” he said.

Varanasi is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.

Talking about future plans, he said, “There are some coal transporting routes which I completed on priority. Some are nearing completion, which have solved several problems of coal transportation and its availability forever.”

Another big plan, the minister said, was to extend the free Wifi service from 700 stations currently to 5,300.