Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday visited the site in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district where the Bikaner-Guwahati Express train had derailed on the previous day, leaving nine dead and at least 36 injured.
Bikaner-Guwahati train mishap: “Preliminary inquiry shows there was a glitch in locomotive equipment. The Commission of Rail Safety is conducting an inquiry to find the root cause behind the accident,” says Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at the mishap site https://t.co/Hs4MR243cbpic.twitter.com/enlJI3gEDA

He conducted an inspection of the tracks and the locomotive involved in the accident, a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesperson said.

The cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained and a committee has been formed to investigate it, she said.

Twelve coaches of the Bikaner-Guwahati Express train had derailed and some of them capsized near Domohani in Jalpaiguri district on Thursday.

NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Guneet Kaur said that Vaishnaw arrived at Domohani railway station at 9.38 AM and proceeded to the derailment site within two minutes by a motor trolley.

“He conducted a trolley inspection to ascertain the condition of the track and fittings,” Ms Kaur said.

At the accident site, the minister conducted a thorough inspection of the underframe of the locomotive and its braking system, she said.

NFR General Manager Anshul Gupta reached the spot at 12.08 AM on Friday, and is supervising the restoration work of tracks for normalisation of train movement, Ms Kaur said.

“An inquiry committee has been formed to find out what caused the derailment,” Ms Kaur told PTI.
She said that the death toll in the incident has risen to nine, with three of the deceased yet to be identified.

The number of injured currently stands at 36. While 23 passengers are undergoing treatment at a super specialty hospital in Jalpaiguri, six are admitted to the North Bengal Medical College and seven at Maynaguri Rural Hospital, she said.

NFR GM Gupta visited various hospitals on Thursday night and early on Friday to check the condition of the injured patients.

The CPRO said that evacuation of passengers was completed at 10 PM on Friday night and a special train had left the accident site at 9.50 PM with 290 stranded passengers for Guwahati.

The special train has reached Guwahati railway station around 8.30 AM on Friday, Special DGP (Law and Order) GP Singh said in a Twitter post.

There were 1,053 passengers onboard the train at the time of the derailment, an NFR statement had said on Thursday.

The Railways has announced ex-gratia of ₹ 5 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in the accident, ₹ 1 lakh to the grievously injured, and ₹ 25,000 for passengers with simple injury.

“Now that the passenger relief operation at the site is complete, restoration work will start in full swing for normalisation of train movement under the supervision of the NFR general manager,” she said.

At least 10 trains, mostly intercity and DEMU trains, have been cancelled on the affected route on Friday, while a couple are being short-terminated or short-originated. Another 10 long-distance trains are being diverted through alternative routes, the CPRO added.

 

Long-distance train travel is likely to cost more for passengers boarding or alighting at redeveloped stations as the Railways is planning to levy a station development fee ranging from ₹ 10 to ₹ 50 depending on the class of travel.

Officials said the fee is likely to be added to the train tickets during booking. The fee will be levied only after such stations become operational.

The user fee would be in three categories. ₹ 50 for all AC classes, ₹ 25 for sleeper class and ₹ 10 for the unreserved class. No station development fee will be charged for suburban train journeys, according to a circular issued by the Railway Board.

It stated that platform tickets at these stations will also be costlier by ₹ 10.

“Station Development Fee (SDF) shall be collected from the passengers (boarding as well as alighting at such stations).

“Class-wise SDF for developed/redeveloped stations shall be charged as under: For alighting passengers at such stations, the SDF shall be 50 per cent of the rates indicated above. If both boarding/alighting such stations, in that case, SDF shall be 1.5 times of the applicable rate,” the circular stated.

SDF shall be uniform across all such stations and shall be charged as a separate component plus applicable GST, for which instructions shall be issued separately, it added.

1CommentsOfficials said that the levying of SDF will ensure a continuous revenue stream for the Railways and will make the model financially viable for the national transporter to lure private players Various stations are being redeveloped on Indian Railways to provide modern amenities. Rani Kamalapati station of West Central Railway and Gandhinagar Capital station of Western Railway have been developed and commissioned.

Only those with a double vaccination certificate would be allowed to travel by Chennai local trains from January 10 till 31 January, the Southern Railway announced today.

Passengers without the certificate will not be able to purchase tickets, the railways said amid the spurt in Covid cases due to the Omicron wave.

There won’t be any exception and the rule will also apply to season ticket holders too. The unreserved ticketing system (UTS) on mobile will not be available during the period.

Tamil Nadu reported 8,981 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. Chennai, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur accounted for a majority of the new cases with the state capital alone adding 4,531 cases.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu has reported 121 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 so far including 117 recoveries.

A total of eight people have died of Covid in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities in the state to 36,833.

3CommentsWhile 984 people have recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours. With this, the cumulative recoveries have risen to 27,08,763 in the state.

A video shared by the Ministry of Railways shows how an alert train driver hit emergency brakes in the nick of time to save the life of a man lying on the tracks. The video was filmed at the Sewri station on the Harbour line of the Mumbai suburban railway network. The 50-second clip begins with the man wandering onto the railway tracks. Abruptly, he lies down on the tracks as the train approaches.

Within a few seconds, we can see the train slowing down and then coming to a complete halt as the loco pilot applied emergency brakes. Soon, three railway police personnel could be seen running up to the man and escorting him to safety. From the time stamp on the video, it’s evident that the incident occurred around 11.45 am on January 2.

In the tweet, the Ministry of Railways applauded the “work done by the motorman”, and added, “At Sewri station in Mumbai, the motorman saw a person lying on the track, he saved the life of the person by applying the emergency brake with promptness and understanding. Your life is precious, someone is waiting for you at home.”

The Uttar Pradesh government has renamed Jhansi Railway Station as ‘Veerangana Laxmibai Railway Station’ after Rani Laxmibai.

The announcement was made by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday in a tweet in Hindi.

“The Jhansi Railway station will now be known as ‘Veerangana Laxmibai Railway Station’,” he wrote.

A notification to this effect has been issued by the UP government and the Railways has started preparations to implement the change, Chief PRO of North Central Railway, Prayagraj, Shivam Sharma, said.

Earlier the Mughalsarai Railway station was renamed as Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya junction and the Faizabad Railway station as Ayodhya Cantt.

1CommentsSince coming to power, Mr Adityanath government has changed names of several establishments including those of Faizabad and Allahabad districts, which were renamed as Ayodhya and Prayagraj, respectively.

A man has been arrested for stealing luggage bags of senior citizens from railway stations and Kashmere Gate ISBT bus stand on the pretext of helping them, the Delhi police said on Thursday.

Fifty-four-year old Suraj Parkash from Ghaziabad would approach senior citizens and women, who were alone and in need of some help and disappear with their luggage and bags. He used to present himself well in order to win the trust of people.

A 56-year-old woman from Haryana’s Hisar lodged a complaint at the Kashmere Gate police station on October 18, stating that the accused offered to help her with bags at ISBT and then disappeared with everything.

The stolen bag comprised clothes, a mobile phone, some jewellery and documents, the police said.

A case was registered at the Kashmere Gate police station. During the investigation, the photos of the suspect were circulated across bus stops and railway stations, the police checked CCTV footages and spotted one suspicious individual following the complainant, the police said.

Thereafter, more footage were analysed to ascertain the suspect, and it was found that he committed similar thefts earlier also, police said.

On December 21, the accused visited Kashmere Gate bus stand again and was caught. A raid was conducted, 51 bags and 26 stolen mobile phones were recovered from his home, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

During interrogation it was disclosed that the accused, who is a B.Sc graduate from Meerut University, used to run a medical store but closed it due to losses and started committing crime around two years ago, Mr Kalsi said.

Suraj Parkash has been involved in nearly 150 thefts near ISBTs and railway stations. He also claimed that he has never been arrested earlier, the police said.

The accused never used any vehicle for any of the crimes. At home, when asked about the number of bags with him, he told his wife that he works in a ticket booking center, those bags belong to passengers and he will return them soon.

Suraj Parkash has a daughter and son who are studying in Class 10 and 12.

A railway engineer in Bihar has been suspended and booked for trying to illegally sell off a vintage steam engine as “scrap”, a senior official said on Tuesday.

According to Alok Agrawal, DRM of Samastipur Division under East Central Railway, an FIR was registered on the previous day against seven persons, including the engineer Rajiv Ranjan Jha, at Banmankhi in Purnea district.

The matter involves a metre gauge engine stationed in Purnea for public display which Mr Jha was caught trying to get dismantled on December 14 with a gas cutter which was being handled by helper Sushil Yadav.

When a sub-inspector deployed at the RPF outpost, MM Rehman, came to enquire, the engineer brandished a letter claiming that the Divisional Mechanical Engineer had ordered that scrap material from the engine be taken to the diesel locomotive shed nearby.

Mr Jha also wrote a memo confirming the same to Mr Rehman before leaving the spot with scrap material laden on a pick up van.

The lid was blown off the racket a day later when RPF personnel Sangita brought to the notice of her superiors that the scrap had not reached the diesel shed.

Further investigation revealed that no order for transportation of scrap had been issued and the letter which Mr Jha was armed with, was fake.

Demanding a complete waiver of farm loans and compensation to the relatives of those who died during the anti-farm laws stir, farmers blocked railway tracks at various places in Punjab for the second day on Tuesday, affecting the movement of 156 trains.

According to Ferozepur division railway officials, 84 trains were cancelled, 47 short-terminated and 25 short-originated.

Farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee launched the agitation on Monday, demanding a complete loan waiver, compensation to the families of those who died during the year-long anti-farm laws stir and withdrawal of the criminal cases slapped against them.

They are also demanding a compensation of ₹ 50,000 per acre for damaged crops, the release of the pending dues for the sugarcane crop and the abolition of the contract system.

Satnam Singh Pannu, a farmer leader, said they will not lift the “dharna” till the demands are met.

“During a meeting on September 28, we were given an assurance by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, but the state government later backed out. Besides the four places where farmers are sitting on a dharna, we will start the protest at three more sites in Punjab from Wednesday,” he said.

The farmers are presently squatting on railway tracks at different places in Ferozepur, Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur.

Paramjit Singh Ghloti, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), said, “We are agitating against the non-implementation of the promises made by the Punjab government, led by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. The government is befooling farmers.” The protest will continue on Wednesday, he added.

CommentsGhloti said their main demands include compensation to the families of the farmers who committed suicide for the non-payment of their debt and ₹ 360 per quintal for sugarcane.

The CBI has arrested Northeast Frontier Railway Chief Electrical Engineer V K Upadhyay and recovered ₹ 2.19 crore in connection with a bribery case in which his deputy Ranjit Kumar Borah was arrested while allegedly receiving ₹ 15 lakh bribe, officials said on Wednesday.

The agency had carried out searches at the premises of the accused in nine locations, including Guwahati, Patna and Noida, on Tuesday, leading to the recovery of around ₹ 2.19 crore in cash and several incriminating documents.

“Out of this, cash of ₹ 2.13 crore (approximately) and details of three flats in Noida were found at the premises of Chief Engineer (Upadhyay),” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.

He said that during searches at the premises of Borah, the agency recovered around ₹ 6 lakh in cash and details of six flats, including in Guwahati, in his name and that of his family members.

It is alleged that Borah was favouring a Patna-based company, Sun Shine Device Pvt. Ltd., in projects of Northeast Frontier Railway, they said.

After registering the FIR, the CBI carried out a raid when Niraj Kumar, an employee of company director Chintan Jain, was delivering the bribe to Borah, they said.

Borah, Jain and Kumar were arrested by the agency. During investigation, the role of Upadhyay also surfaced who was then taken into custody.

It is alleged that the company had given Borah two benami properties in return for favours extended by him, they said.

“It was alleged that the public servant while posted earlier as Deputy Chief Electrical Engineer (Construction) in NFR had obtained two immovable properties, viz. benami flats, as alleged illegal gratification from the director of the private company,” Joshi said.

It was further alleged that the accused demanded a bribe of ₹ 2.10 crore from Jain in lieu of the flats for extending undue benefits to him in the past and promising such help in future, officials said.

The company allegedly had made partial payments in several installments in the past, they said.

The CBI got information that ₹ 15 lakh cash from the alleged bribery will be paid on Tuesday in Maligaon, Guwahati following which the raid was organised and Borah was nabbed in the process of receiving the money, they said.

The CBI has arrested Northeast Frontier Railway Chief Electrical Engineer V K Upadhyay and recovered ₹ 2.19 crore in connection with a bribery case in which his deputy Ranjit Kumar Borah was arrested while allegedly receiving ₹ 15 lakh bribe, officials said on Wednesday.

The agency had carried out searches at the premises of the accused in nine locations, including Guwahati, Patna and Noida, on Tuesday, leading to the recovery of around ₹ 2.19 crore in cash and several incriminating documents.

“Out of this, cash of ₹ 2.13 crore (approximately) and details of three flats in Noida were found at the premises of Chief Engineer (Upadhyay),” CBI spokesperson R C Joshi said.

He said that during searches at the premises of Borah, the agency recovered around ₹ 6 lakh in cash and details of six flats, including in Guwahati, in his name and that of his family members.

It is alleged that Borah was favouring a Patna-based company, Sun Shine Device Pvt. Ltd., in projects of Northeast Frontier Railway, they said.

After registering the FIR, the CBI carried out a raid when Niraj Kumar, an employee of company director Chintan Jain, was delivering the bribe to Borah, they said.

Borah, Jain and Kumar were arrested by the agency. During investigation, the role of Upadhyay also surfaced who was then taken into custody.

It is alleged that the company had given Borah two benami properties in return for favours extended by him, they said.

“It was alleged that the public servant while posted earlier as Deputy Chief Electrical Engineer (Construction) in NFR had obtained two immovable properties, viz. benami flats, as alleged illegal gratification from the director of the private company,” Joshi said.

It was further alleged that the accused demanded a bribe of ₹ 2.10 crore from Jain in lieu of the flats for extending undue benefits to him in the past and promising such help in future, officials said.

The company allegedly had made partial payments in several installments in the past, they said.

The CBI got information that ₹ 15 lakh cash from the alleged bribery will be paid on Tuesday in Maligaon, Guwahati following which the raid was organised and Borah was nabbed in the process of receiving the money, they said