South Central Railway has successfully organized All India Railway Tennis Championship for men for the first time from 19 th to 23 rd March, 2018 at Railway Sports Complex, Secunderabad.

A total of eight teams from different Zonal Railways and Production Units have taken part in this championship. South Central Railway won the Championship, whereas Integrated Coach Factory stood second.

Shri Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager, South Central Railway graced the closing ceremony and gave away the prizes to the Winners and Runners. He complimented the SCR team for putting up their best efforts and bringing laurels to Zone and Indian Railways also.

A Parcel Cargo Express Train consisting of 15 Parcel Vans and 1 SLR was flagged off from Sankrail Goods Terminal Yard on 22.03.18. M/s GATI Limited, Mumbai has been awarded leasing contract to run the Parcel Cargo Express Train (PCET) on round trip basis between Sankrail Goods Terminal and Kalyan, Mumbai for a period of 6 years.  There will be 2 round trips per month.

The composition of the Parcel Cargo Express Train (PCET) will be 15 VPs (23 Tonnes each) and 1 Brake Van (2 compartments of 5 Tonnes each) for the first six months of the contract. This will subsequently be increased with composition of 20 Parcel Vans and 1 Brake Van (470 Tonnes) which will further be extended up to 24 parcel vans on mutual consent basis.

This railway will generate revenue earnings of Rs.30 lakhs per round trip, thus an assured amount of Rs. 7.23 crores per annum. The contract value for six years period is Rs. 43.38 crores.

In an attempt to increase passenger amenities and to give an aesthetic makeover to the most visited stations across Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways has formulated the plan to redevelop 90 stations across Indian Railways. The redevelopment plan of 90 stations is assigned to different zones/ nodal agencies. Given that some stations are important pilgrimage hubs and report over 45,000 footfalls per day, Indian Railways would strive to ensure that passenger’s get best services at the stations even during peak seasons.

It may be noted that Indian Railways isin the process of redevelopment of more than 600 stations. While doing this, efforts would be made to showcase local culture or history to reflect in the station façade.

For instance, Aurangabad station is to be developed on lines of Ajantha or Ellora, Agra station is to be developed on lines of Taj Mahal, Ujjain station is to be developed on lines of Mahakaleshwar temples, Nagpur station to have a big orange in the premises. Since Belgaum has history of Mahatma Gandhi visiting there, Belgaum station to have a big Charkha at the front.

Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) is keeping elements of local heritage in facade/redevelopment of station buildings. For instance in Charbagh (Lucknow) elements of existing heritage building are incorporated in second entry NE Rly station, similarly in Gomti Nagar, elements of Awadh culture with Jali wok has been incorporated, in Triputi station, Lord Tirumala temple design has been incorporated, in Pondicherry, French colonial architectural elements are provided. Similar action will be taken for Goa Kota Nellore Ernakulam stations.

IRCON, NBCC, RITES, IRSDC, Zonal Railways and few State Governments will executive the job as per the List of Stations given below for upgradation as per the above plan:

Sr No.	Station	State	Executing Agency
1	Tirupati	Andhra Pradesh	NBCC
2	Nellore	Andhra Pradesh	NBCC
3	Visakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh	Zonal Railway
4	Guntur	Andhra Pradesh	Zonal Railway
5	Guntakal	Andhra Pradesh	Zonal Railway
6	Kurnool City	Andhra Pradesh	Zonal Railway
7	Vijayawada	Andhra Pradesh	Zonal Railway
8	Guwahati	Assam	Zonal Railway
9	New Tinsukia	Assam	Zonal Railway
10	Rangiya	Assam	Zonal Railway
11	Patna	Bihar	Zonal Railway
12	BapudhamMotihari	Bihar	Zonal Railway
13	Hajipur	Bihar	Zonal Railway
14	Patliputra	Bihar	Zonal Railway
15	Sonpur	Bihar	Zonal Railway
16	Chandigarh	Chandigarh	IRSDC
17	Bilaspur	Chhattisgarh	Zonal Railway
18	Raipur	Chhattisgarh	Zonal Railway
19	Rajnandgaon	Chhattisgarh	Zonal Railway
20	Safdarjung	Delhi	IRCON
21	AnandVihar	Delhi	IRSDC
22	Bijwasan	Delhi	IRSDC
23	Delhi Main	Delhi	Zonal Railway
24	Sarai Rohilla	Delhi	NBCC
25	Madgaon	Goa	NBCC
26	Gandhinagar	Gujarat	IRSDC
27	Surat	Gujarat	IRSDC
28	Ahmedabad	Gujarat	Zonal Railway
29	Rajkot	Gujarat	Zonal Railway
30	Vadodra	Gujarat	Zonal Railway
31	Bhavnagar City	Gujarat	Zonal Railway
32	Valsad	Gujarat	Zonal Railway
33	Ambala	Haryana	Zonal Railway
34	Shimla	Himachal Pradesh	Zonal Railway
35	Jammu Tavi	Jammu & Kashmir	Zonal Railway
36	Ranchi	Jharkhand	Zonal Railway
37	Barkakana	Jharkhand	Zonal Railway
38	Yeshwantpur	Karnataka	Zonal Railway
39	Mysuru	Karnataka	Zonal Railway
40	Dharwad	Karnataka	Zonal Railway
41	Ernakulam Jn.	Kerala	NBCC
42	Kozhikode	Kerala	Zonal Railway
43	Kottayam	Kerala	Zonal Railway
44	Palakkad	Kerala	Zonal Railway
45	Habibganj	Madhya Pradesh	IRSDC
46	Jabalpur	Madhya Pradesh	Zonal Railway
47	Bhopal	Madhya Pradesh	Zonal Railway
48	Itarsi	Madhya Pradesh	Zonal Railway
49	Ratlam	Madhya Pradesh	Zonal Railway
50	Burhanpur	Madhya Pradesh	Zonal Railway
51	Shivaji Nagar	Maharashtra	IRSDC
52	Lonawala	Maharashtra	Zonal Railway
53	Sholapur	Maharashtra	Zonal Railway
54	Igatpuri	Maharashtra	Zonal Railway
55	Wardha	Maharashtra	Zonal Railway
56	Pune	Maharashtra	Zonal Railway
57	Bhubaneswar	Odisha	Govt. of Odisha
58	Cuttack	Odisha	Zonal Railway
59	Sambalpur	Odisha	Zonal Railway
60	Jharsuguda	Odisha	Zonal Railway
61	Puduchery	Puduchery	NBCC
62	Kota	Rajasthan	NBCC
63	Jaipur	Rajasthan	Zonal Railway
64	Udaipur	Rajasthan	Zonal Railway
65	Bikaner	Rajasthan	Zonal Railway
66	Jodhpur	Rajasthan	Zonal Railway
67	Madurai	Tamil Nadu	Zonal Railway
68	Chennai Egmore	Tamil Nadu	Zonal Railway
69	Tiruchchirappalli	Tamil Nadu	Zonal Railway
70	Salem	Tamil Nadu	Zonal Railway
71	Warangal	Telangana	Zonal Railway
72	Mughalsarai	Uttar Pradesh	Zonal Railway
73	Gomtinagar	Uttar Pradesh	NBCC
74	Lucknow	Uttar Pradesh	NBCC
75	Allahabad	Uttar Pradesh	Zonal Railway
76	Jhansi	Uttar Pradesh	Zonal Railway
77	Mathura	Uttar Pradesh	Zonal Railway
78	Varanasi City	Uttar Pradesh	Zonal Railway
79	Varanasi Jn	Uttar Pradesh	RITES
80	Ayodhya	Uttar Pradesh	RITES
81	Izzatnagar	Uttar Pradesh	Zonal Railway
82	Gorakhpur	Uttar Pradesh	Zonal Railway
83	Dehradun	Uttarakhand	Zonal Railway
84	Haridwar	Uttarakhand	Zonal Railway
85	Asansol	West Bengal	Zonal Railway
86	Howrah	West Bengal	Zonal Railway
87	Sealdah	West Bengal	Zonal Railway
88	Darjeeling	West Bengal	Zonal Railway
89	Alipurduar	West Bengal	Zonal Railway
90	Adra	West Bengal	Zonal Railway

The wait for intercity suburban electric train services on the Mysuru-Bengaluru section, which will benefit thousands of commuters, is set to get longer.

The work on the 220 kV transmission line from Yeliyuru substation to Tubinakere, a stretch of 4 km, is yet to commence though the Ministry of Railways deposited ₹13.09 crore to the Karnataka Power Transmission Ltd. (KPTCL) exactly a year ago. A letter dated March 23, 2017, written by the railway authorities to KPTCL, sought immediate commencement of the transmission line works by finalising the tenders. This would enable commission of electric traction and introduction of the Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) services on the Bengaluru-Mysuru section.

The project entailed establishing railway traction substations to feed overhead electric traction in the section; at Bidadi, Yeliyuru and Mysuru. Though the railway was initially advised to execute the project on its own by KPTCL, it could not be completed as it is not the domain expertise of the railways. Hence it reverted to KPTCL, which has expertise in laying transmission line and it has now promised to expedite the process.

A senior official told that 220 kV line was mandatory to operate MEMU services. Without this, only 1 or 2 trains can be operated at a point of time given the present electricity feed from the Bidadi substation. Once the Yeliyuru substation is connected with the 220 kV line at Tubinakere, there will be sufficient load to operate additional trains, he added.

The public is infuriated by the delayed response by KPTCL, a State government body. Incidentally, the project has been completed on a cost-sharing basis with the government chipping in 50% of the cost of electrification (about ₹220 crore).

Though the electrified lines have been commissioned and six pairs of long distance trains are now operational, railway authorities say MEMU services cannot be operated with the present power supply. “MEMU electric services has advantages like better acceleration and faster service,” said the official. “The Tubinakere power line will enable us to operate 6 pairs to 10 pairs of MEMU services,” he added.

Vizag Steel to touch record 5-mn tonnes production this fiscal. Despite this target, Railways is unable to tap the potential of diverting the traffic from Seaways and Roadways.

VISAKHAPATNAM:  The Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited – Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) for the first time is going to touch the five million tonnes production mark by the end of the current fiscal year, said its Chairman and Managing Director P. Madhusudan here.

However, Railways would be loosing the opportunity to transport steel by Railways. Mr. Madhusudan said the VSP was focusing on waterways for logistics aggressively rather than the railways and roadways would be used to transport steel to Vijayawada.

After a dealers’ meet, Mr. Madhusudan told media the Vijayawada branch had registered a considerable growth with sales of 1.40 lakh tonnes against 35,000 tonnes in the last fiscal. The Amaravati and Vijayawada region emerged important and a sale of two lakh tonnes steel was expected in the next year, he added.

About the overall production, he said after increasing the production capacity from 3 million tonnes to 6.3 million tonnes, the plant had almost reached 5 million tonnes.

Also, the sales turnover was going to cross ₹16,000-crore mark for the first time registering a growth of 35%.

“In the coming fiscal year, the plant’s capacity and production are going to increase by one million tonnes and about 1.3 million tonnes respectively and will reflect in the production of more than 7 million tonnes,” Mr. Madhusudan said.

Globally the steel market had been dull in the last three to four years and this year we could see recovery signals during the past four months and the demand would go up, he said.

“This year the plant registered an EBITDA margin (operating margin) of about ₹200 crore which is ₹400 crore more than the last year’s margin of ₹200 crore.

New branch in Guwahati

To explore the markets in the northeast, “We will open a branch in Guwahati and start sales outlets. Also we are trying to reach out to customers there using government’s e-platforms.”

The Indian Railways has decided to redevelop 68 major stations on its own under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model after getting a lukewarm response from private investors.

The rail ministry has conveyed to all its zones to start the work immediately and complete the project within a year. The letter to zonal general managers informing them about the number of stations and the deadline for completion was sent on Thursday.

All these stations would get state of the art amenities including elevators, a modern passenger announcement system, shopping complex, new platforms, swanky waiting rooms and airport like entry and exit systems.

“We can’t wait for private investors anymore. We’ll redevelop these stations on our own and could monetise them later through commercial exploitation,” a top rail ministry official said.

According to rough estimates, railways could spend around Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 crore towards station redevelopment.

“We have sought budgetary requirements from the divisional rail managers who’ll asses the amount of money that would be needed to upgrade these stations. The money would be released immediately,” the official added.

The stations that would be upgraded include Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi, Shimla, Mathura, Valsad, Ambala, Varanasi, Dehradun and several other major junctions across the country. “These stations are additional from the ones being redeveloped by National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC),” the official added.

NBCC is undertaking redevelopment of 10 stations including Lucknow on its own. The corporation is funding the project by leasing out space in station complex to private companies.

The government had earlier identified 100 major stations for redevelopment on priority basis in phase one. “Two stations including Surat and Habibganj are already under redevelopment. NBCC is working on 10 stations and now we’ll undertake 68 on our own. So by the end of the tenure of the government, we would have redeveloped 80 stations,” the official said.

NCR is ready with its plan to redevelop its three stations – Mathura, Allahabad and Jhansi. Talking about the redevelopment plan, NCR GM MC Chauhan said that the upgradation of stations has to be taken up an “immediate measure”. “The works on the identified stations are to be completed by December 2018 and the emphasis would be on having a visible change in the station without unnecessary construction all over,” Chauhan said.

NCR CPRO Gaurav Krishna Bansal said, “The redevelopment plan of three stations is part of the total 70 stations assigned to different zones. The NCR has chalked out a detailed strategy to revamp all the stations.”

“As per the plan, NCR would increase passengers’ amenities by installing escalators, lifts, and construction of boundary walls among others. Given that stations are important pilgrimage hubs and report over 45,000 footfall per day, the NCR would make it sure that passenger’s get best services at the stations even during peak seasons,” Bansal told.

The 70 stations are apart from the 600 stations that have to be redeveloped by the Indian Railway Station Development Corporation and would be developed by Zonal Railways in whose jurisdiction they are located.

“There are as many as 20 parameters across which the redevelopment will be done. The stations would be developed by improving the façade of the station building, platform surface with granite (flame burnt) and vacuum dewatered concrete, washable apron to improve sanitation wherever needed, etc,” the CPRO said.

Improvement to existing waiting halls, waiting rooms, retiring rooms, toilets etc along with the provision of modular water kiosks and water ATMs are also in the top priority of station redevelopment plan, the official said, adding that solar lighting would also be provided at stations.

The NCR has completed 8.7MW of solar production out of the total target of 11.2MW.

Pursuing Ministry of Railway’s initiative to provide energy efficient lighting to help conservation of environment, Southern Railway achieved the status of providing 100% LED lighting at Railway Stations opened for traffic.

As a part of energy conservation measures, Southern Railway has switched over to 100% energy efficient LED lightings in place of conventional Fluorescent Lamps, T5 lamps, CFL lamps, and high wattage MH lamps.  LED lighting is the latest technology in the lighting industry, and LEDs used in lighting will give better illumination, and is expected to last longer(i.e.,longer life).  With the prevailing competitive markets for LED lighting, the payback period is also very attractive.

All 714 Railway stations (which are opened for traffic) have been provided with 100% energy efficient LED lights. The total number of LED luminaries provided are 86291 Nos. It was done by 15.03.2017, before the target date of 31^stMarch 2018.

 Other stations in Gauge conversion area will also join the group of LED lighting provided stations where the section is opened for traffic.

This will result in electrical energy saving of 7.98 million units per annum, which translates into a saving of Rs.6.408 Crores per annum in energy bill as well as better illumination.

The investment made for providing 100% LED luminaries at these stations is around Rs.5.92 crores with the payback period as around 11 months.

Further, the provision of 100% LED lighting in Service buildings and Railway Quarters is also under progress and is expected to be be completed shortly.  This will also result in substantial savings both in terms of electrical energy and cost.

The Green and clean City of Mysuru, one of the busiest tourist place in Karnataka has a busy railway station too.

Mysuru Division is constantly striving to keep Station Platforms, track and station premises clean.

With close to 62 thousand footfalls every day, 6 platforms of the station often get very busy during arrival and departure of trains.

During peak periods of the day it is observed that considerable no. of water bottles are found littering the platforms.

As summer is approaching the requirement of water bottle naturally increases and the waste generated by used plastic bottles will be affected the cleanliness of Mysuru – one of the cleanest Railway stations in India.

A innovative way to dispose of hundreds of plastic bottles generated Station is thought off at this Railway.

To respond to this passenger need, an automatic, noiseless Pet Bottle Crushing Machine has been installed on Platform No. 1 at Mysuru at cost of Rs.3,04,000/-.

The Machine starts and stops automatically based on the plastic bottle feed.

Once a bottle is inserted machine starts automatically and disintegrates the bottle into fine piece of plastic which are then released.

Mysuru Railway Division is in the process of entering in to MOU with plastic manufactures for collecting the crushed plastic pieces which will give sundry revenue also to the Division.

Based upon the experience gained, more such machines shall be installed in other important stations of SWR.

Railway is trying to explore the avenue of Corporate Social Responsibility organisations also to promote installation of this ecofriendly system.

To upgrade the facilities and services to the suburban commuters, South Eastern Railway put into service newly built GPS based 3-phase indigenous EMU (Electrical Multiple Unit) train in Suburban Section of Kharagpur Division this afternoon (22.03.2018).

Sri S N Agrawal, General Manager, South Eastern Railway and Sri K R K Reddy, Divisional Railway Manager, Kharagpur graced the occasion while the senior most Motorman, Sri Kamal Ahmed flagged off the newly built GPS based 3-phase indigenous EMU train.

3-phase (Alternating Current) EMU rake with Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) based propulsion system is being introduced in suburban service of S. E. Railway. Following are the salient features/advantages of this new rake in comparison with existing single phase EMU rakes.

Safety for woman passengers:

1. CCTV camera: To increase woman passenger’s safety CCTV cameras have been installed in Ladies Compartment.
2. Flasher light indication with buzzer: Flasher light indication unit with buzzer has been provided outside Ladies & disabled passenger coach. In case of passenger alarm chain pull (ACP) this unit outside that coach will start glowing with buzzer sound and information will be available to both the motorman & guard.

Passenger comfort:

1. Better Ventilation: For better ventilation inside coach, Roof mounted ventilation unit (RMVU) have been provided in each coach along with 450 mm sweep fan.
2. Better illumination: The full rake is equipped with LED light for better illumination & energy saving as compared to normal fluorescent light provided in conventional rake.
3. GPS based Passenger Information System (PIS) with in coach display:GPS based Passenger Information System (PIS) with in coach display unit, in-coach speaker and LED based Head code has been provided in this rake. This system announces as well as displays the present station, next station and various safety messages.
4. Compartment Doors : The rake is fitted with easy to slide, light weight sliding doors supported by imported sliding mechanism including user friendly locks, latches and maintenance free rollers.

Passenger safety items:

Various passenger safety items have been incorporated in this rake such as anti slipping arrangement (knurling) in doorway vertical bar (for easy gripping), safety net in every window, ladder in every coach etc.

Aesthetics: Aero-dynamic design, magenta-white PU paint and all stainless steel furnishing gives this rake a pleasant aesthetics.

Another 3 rakes of these types is ready for commissioning and it has been planned to induct within a week. Total 6 rakes have been allotted to South Eastern Railway and all the 6 rakes will be brought into service in a very short span.

Indian Railways have large number of assets including land assets that need to be effectively monitored, managed and maintained.  As railway operations have wide spatial coverage, GIS mapping of assets on Indian Railways can be used for better management.

All Indian Railways assets are to be mapped and these will be subsequently used to develop Indian Railways’ GIS portal.  Work is in progress for GPS based mapping of Indian Railways assets including land assets on GIS platform likely to be completed by December, 2018.

MOU has been signed with Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) to this effect and CRIS is developing this Application.

In this Application land plans of Indian Railways will be available for viewing overlaid on Satellite Imagery.  Satellite imagery is being taken from Bhuvan Platform of ISRO.  MOU between Ministry of Railways and ISRO has been signed for mutual cooperation in various phases.

After development of GIS portal, it may be possible to identify new encroachment all around station by comparing the images of Satellite Imagery which are updated by ISRO after a regular interval.