The Institution of Railway Signal and Telecommunication Engineers, Chennai Chapter, Southern Railway organised a seminar on ‘Achieving safety through Modern Signalling in Railways’ today (20^th March, 2018).

Shri R.K. Kulshrestha, General Manager, Southern Railway inaugurated the seminar and Shri M. Elavarasan, Principal Chief Signal and Telecommunication Engineer, Southern Railway gave the presidential address.

Shri R.K. Kulshrestha, General Manager, Southern Railway during his keynote address said that the Signal & Telecommunications Department of Southern Railway is an important and modern department.  This department plays a vital role in enhancing the safety of train operations.

The General Manager emphasised that utilisation of Data Loggers and other devices have enhanced the reliability of signalling.  The General Manager was also happy to state that instances of signal failures in Southern Railway have come down remarkably.  During the occasion, the General Manager also released posters and booklet on safety.

Technical sessions were conducted during which discussions on various topics such as Data Loggers, Surge Protection Devices, Bio metric devices for reliability and safety of signalling gears, etc. were held.  Shri N. Ramachandran, Senior Divisional Signal and Telecommunication Engineer gave descriptive details regarding the present maintenance and also his vision for achieving safety and reliability of signalling.  The role of telecommunication in modern signalling was also discuss

South East Central Railway informed Media about GPS based 3-Phase technologically upgraded EMU Local having CCTV Cameras in Ladies Coach to be flagged off from the New Complex of Howrah Station on 22/3/2018 at 13.00 hours, in the presense of S.N.Agrawal, General Manager, KRK Reddy, Divisional Railway Manager, Kharagpur, South Eastern Railway.

The coaches of this 3-Phase EMU Local are fitted with LED lights, CCTV Camera in ladies compartment and many other attractive features. The new 12-coach rake with carrying capacity of 6050 passengers will be utilized in suburban sections of South Eastern Railway. With introduction of this 12-Car new rake, the passengers of suburban section will be greatly benefitted.

SECTIONAL SPEED ON SOUTH EASTERN RAILWAY INCREASED DUE TO MASSIVE ENGINEERING WORKS

South Eastern Railway has also undertaken massive Track Renewal and Engineering Works spreading over all its sections. As a result of these track renovation and engineering works, the mobility of trains has been increased considerably. This has been done by reducing permanent speed restriction, expeditious removal of temporary speed restrictions to maintain long restriction free stretches, running of trains with right powering to the extent possible, restriction free stretches 50 Km or more and sectional speed acceleration.

The raising of speed in some important sections  i.e. :  Bokaro N cabin-Talgoria section raising from 50 kmph to 60 kmph, Shyamchak –Kharagpur 3^rd line from 100 kmph to 110 kmph, Muri to Kotshila from 105 kmph to 110 kmph, Kotshila-Rajabera from 105 kmph to 110 kmph, Chandil-Muri from 95 kmph to 110 kmph, Rajharkharswan-Mahalimarup 3^rd line from 100 kmph to 110 kmph, Adityapur-Gamharia 3^rd line from 90 kmph to 110 kmph, Posoita-Manoharpur 3^rd line from 80 kmph to 110 kmph, Bhojudi –Gomoh from 105 kmph to 110 kmph, Burnpur-Joychandipahar from 100 kmph to 110 kmph, Adra-Bhojudih from 100 kmph to 110 kmph, Muri-Barkakana from 95 kmph to 110 kmph, Pendrasali-Jhinkpani 3^rd line 80 kmph to 90 kmph etc. along with some other sections over South Eastern Railway.

As a result the movement of freight trains will be increased without any hurdles achieving reduction of transit time under the jurisdiction of South Eastern Railway. The passenger trains over all sections of South Eastern Railway will also gain speed. The works have also been done in all suburban sections and the train movements in suburban sections will be smoother without any loss of punctuality.

The Railway Board Chairman, Ashwini Lohani has assured of preservation of the heritage character while restoring Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) that is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Lohani today visited the UNESCO World Heritage Railway to take stock of the ground realities of the famous hill railway and railway’s efforts to make it sustainable. Soon after arriving at New Jalpaiguri, Lohani started his inspection of the entire narrow gauge section from New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling on a special train. He has visited Tindharia workshop, Kurseong station and Loco shed, Ghum station and museum and Darjeeling Station and Loco Shed.

Lohani said that all restoration works in Darjeeling Himalyan Railway would be done by preserving the heritage character of the hill railway. In order to bring a heritage, feel, he ordered that all DHR staff be dressed in the original uniform being worn in early pre-Independence days.

He assured that he would look into the possibility of reduction of fares in the narrow-gauge hill railway to make it more economical and added that second-class coach service would be started to make the journey on the train more accessible for general public.

He inspected Tindharia workshop and ordered for a facelift of the workshop to be completed by 1st April this year. He also said that Senior Supervisors working in DHR would be sent for foreign training to make them aware of the superior standards being practised in maintenance and operation of narrow-gauge railways abroad. He instructed that two rail buses be made in the workshop within next six months.

In a significant decision, Shri Lohani stated that all 14 steam engines, which are the primary USP of the Hill railway, would be revived. He also said that, air-brake modification of steam engine to be done to increase efficiency and reduce manpower requirement. It may be mentioned here that railways have already entered into a MoU with Heavy Engineering Corporation for design, fabrication/manufacture and supply of spares for the steam locomotives in DHR.

Inspecting the museum at Ghum, Lohani appreciated railways effort to showcase the heritage of the hills railway for the benefit of the visiting tourists and enthusiasts.

Though Modi embraced his humble roots much to the dismay of those who ridiculed him, it appears that the Union Railway Ministry has done little in the way of making life easier for people who earn their livelihood as the Prime Minister once claims to have done.

An organisation called the Chaiwala Welfare Association has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging a rule restricting the operation of stalls/trolleys on railway station platforms.

By way of background, the Railways has been issuing Catering Policies with a view to streamlining how railway stations across the country function optimally. A common theme of the past few policies has been the decongestion of railway platforms, which are usually choc-a-bloc with vendors and stalls. To this end, the Catering Policy 2010 sought to restrict the renewal of licenses of these stalls and vendors.

On being refused renewal of their licenses, a few of these vendors approached the High Court of Judicature of Hyderabad, which in 2013 directed that their licenses be renewed by the railway authorities. On appeal, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court judgment in 2016, albeit with the following caveat:

“We, however, make it clear that only those licensees may be eligible for renewal of their licenses who can declare on affidavit that they do not have the license of more than one shop or kiosk in their name or benami license at the railway stations with periodical reasonable increase of license fee.”

Subsequently, the Railway Ministry issued the Catering Policy 2017, which was initially not in tune with the Supreme Court ruling. However, a circular was later issued stating stipulating that only those units would be eligible for renewal of their licences who declare on affidavit that they don’t have license for more than one refreshment room/catering stall/trolley etc.

Later, as it was found by various vendors’ societies and co-operative firms representing individual vendors, the railway authorities were granting only one license for each society/firm, and refusing affidavits submitted by the individual vendors that form these organisations. This, the petition states, is a violation of the individual vendors’ fundamental right to livelihood.

The petition, filed through Advocate-on-Record LR Singh and drawn by Wasim Qadri, reveals,

“It is humbly submitted that in the said judgment this Hon’ble Court took a pragmatic view and directed that only one unit will be renew in respect of one individual vendor, with an object to eliminate the concentration in one hand. However said direction is not applicable to Association/Partnership Firms for obvious reason that the trolleys/ Shops are given to the Society/Partnership Firms, which consist of its member who don’t own anything individually…

…the members thereof jointly form a body corporate and they run the Co-operative Society/ Firms jointly but by individual efforts and the members are poor section of the society and need protection in consonance with the principle laid down under the Directives Principles of State Policy.”

Apart from the Chaiwala Welfare Organisation, other societies have already approached the Supreme Court over the very same issue. A Bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao had issued notice in that petition, which was argued by Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid. It has been prayed that the present petition be heard along with the existing one.

It has also been prayed that the Court direct the railway administration to not eliminate individual vendors who have been selling food and beverages on railway platforms for decades.

Centre of Excellence, a state-of-the-art maintenance facility for Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) air brake system was inaugurated at Perambur Carriage Works recently.

According to sources from Railways, Southern Railway General Manager R K Kulshreshta inaugurated the maintenance facility during his annual inspection to the workshop and also gave an cash award of Rs 50,000 to the centre in recognition of good work being done by them.

Perambur Carriage Works has been maintaining LHB coaches of Southern Railways for the past seven years. Railway Board had advised to identify key areas for development as Centre of Excellence.

Owing to the increasing trend of LHB coaches holding in Indian Railways, it was felt to develop an indigenous overhauling facility to maintain airbrake system of LHB coaches and Centre of Excellence in Carriage Works, Perambur was taken as a pilot project.

With the establishment of this facility, it not only scales down the dependency on OEM but also improves the sustainability in maintenance of airbrake system of LHB coaches.

Perambur Carriage works has developed all the gadgets and test stands in-house which are required for the overhauling and testing of air brake components and valves.

The Centre of Excellence will focus on overhauling of centrifugal air strainer/filter, check valve, emergency brake accelerator, valve,  BP/FP hose coupling, brake cylinder, wheel sliding protection, brake indicator and others.

This facility will result in considerable reduction in maintenance cost (Rs 70 lakh approximately) of one coach during its life time.

It is interesting to note that attention to the air brake system of the LHB coaches plays a vital role in safe operation of coaches.

As per vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Indian Railways is playing a pivotal role in developing cordial relations with the neighboring countries. India and Myanmar have been long enjoying cooperation in the Railway sector over the last two decades.

To further boost the cooperation between two countries, Shri Rajen Gohain, Minister of State of Railways attended the formal handing over ceremony of 18^th AC-DC 1350 HP diesel electric locomotive to Myanma Railways, supplied by RITES and manufactured by Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, India.

These 18 locomotives are fitted with micro-processor control based system. 1350 HP AC/DC main line diesel locomotives with maximum speed of 100 KM PH have been customised for Myanma Railways, built by Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, India. They are extremely fuel efficient are eqquipped with the latest features. Most of these supplies in the railway sector have been carried out under Indian Line of Credit. As per the agreement schedule, all locomotives were to be delivered by September, 2018. They have been delivered six months ahead of the schedule.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Rajen Gohain, Minister of State of Railways expressed his pleasure on the close cooperation between the two railway systems on regular basis since last 20 years. He congratulated Indian Railways in completing the project, much ahead of delivery schedule and providing locomotives with many contemporary new features over the earlier supplies. He thanked the Indian Embassy in Myanmar for their full coordination and assistance with the Myanmar authorities in easy facilitation of the project. The Minister said that this association will help strengthen friendly border relations with India.

On the occasion, HE U.Thant Sin Moung, Minister of Transportation and Communication mentioned the valued cordial relationship between the two countries and how it can go beyond the present interaction. He showed keen interest in the training programmes offered by the Indian Railways and on the Signaling and Telecommunication systems.

RITES, a Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Railways is the export arm of the railways undertaking various projects worldwide. RITES has engaged in the supply of Railway rolling stock (locomotives, coaches, wagons, permanent way maintenance vehicles), maintenance of railway infrastructure, technical studies, training of Myanmar Railway officials. Soon, RITES would take up the study for upgradation & maintenance of workshops. A team of experts from Diesel Modernization Works, Patiala would visit Myanmar soon.

The Robertsganj railway station in Uttar Pradesh has been renamed Sonbhadra, an official has said.

Construction work on the eastern railway freight corridor has picked up the pace with construction order for the single-track corridor from Khurja to Pilkhani was awarded to engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

L&T on Friday said it has won a single-track corridor package on the eastern dedicated freight corridor worth Rs 28.64 billion for construction of the 222km line.

“This is Larsen & Toubro’s first EPC Civil, Structure & Track project in the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor. In the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, L&T already has a share of 71 per cent in the civil packages and 100 per cent share in the electrical packages,” the company said in its statement to BSE.

“The scope of work includes construction of single railway track including yards, 75 major & 588 minor bridges, 1 rail over bridge modification, 4 rail flyovers, 21 stations along with construction of all associated works. The project is planned to be executed using completely mechanized means of track linking using the latest technology in railway construction,” the company said in its statement.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is a special purpose vehicle of the Indian Railways, mandated to build dedicated freight corridors. The project won by L&T will be funded by World Bank (WB) and is a part of the 1856 km Eastern Corridor.

The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor consists of two distinct segments: an electrified double-track segment of 1409 km between Dankuni in West Bengal & Khurja in Uttar Pradesh & an electrified single-track segment of 447 km between Ludhiana (Dhandarikalan) – Khurja – Dadri in the state of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. DFCCIL has completed awarding of all civil, electrical and signalling and a telecom contract have been awarded for the western corridor and is in the process of completing awards for the eastern side.

According to DFCCIL, Rs 519.06 billion worth of contracts have been awarded so far. The dedicated freight corridor is to be developed in phases, of which the first phase is to be completed in November this year and the last phase is to be ready by end of 2020.

The sheds of all the 10 platforms of the Allahabad Junction , of North Central Railways (NCR), would do more than saving the passengers from sunlight and rains .

The rooftops of these platforms would harness 683 kilowatt of solar energy through the solar panels installed on the entire length of these roofs.Apart from installing solar panels on the platforms of Allahabad Junction, rooftops of various buildings of not only Allahabad division but also of several stations of NCR would be installed with such solar panels after which NCR would save an amount of around Rs 30 lakhs annually.Of these, the rooftop of GM office, Subedarganj, would produce 266 kilowatt (KW) of electricity, divisional railway manager (DRM) office would produce 150 kw, Allahabad Junction 166 KW, Loco shed Kanpur 349 KW, Kanpur junction 100 KW.

In totality, 16.42 lakh unit of electricity would be produced.

These already installed units have started saving electricity charges of NCR worth Rs 30 lakhs, informed chief public relation officer, NCR, G K Bansal.Besides, solar panels, for generating 2.7 MW of electricity would be installed on rooftops of various buildings under NCR.

Under this proposal, solar panels, for producing 683 KW of electricity would be installed at Allahabad junction alone.The panels, already installed at roof tops of Allahabad Junction is producing 166KW of electricity which would be saving an amount of worth Rs 4.9 lakhs per annum.

 Following is the text of Statement by Union Minister of Railways Shri Piyush Goyal in context of Students Agitation in Mumbai this morning:-

“Indian Railways is currently in the midst of a massive recruitment exercise.  Indian Railways has come out with a policy to ensure a fair, transparent and competitive recruitment process that follows the law and the guidelines laid down by Hon’ble Supreme Court.

We have already reserved 20% posts for ‘Course Completed Act Apprentices’ who were engaged in Railway establishments under the Apprenticeship Act. This has been done as per Section 22(1) of the Apprentices Act and the various judgements pronounced by the Hon’ble Supreme Court from time to time. Applicants who completed the Apprenticeship course have also been given an age relaxation equal to the period of apprenticeship.

This is the single largest recruitment ever undertaken by any organisation in India and also the largest opportunity for all sections of youth, including the apprentices to join the Indian Railway in a very transparent and fair manner.

I appeal to my young friends to apply for these large numbers of jobs, for which the last date of application is 31/03/2018, and join the process of recruitment so that all applicants get a fair and equal opportunity to serve the country,” said the Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal.

मुंबई: आज सुबह मुंबई में छात्र आंदोलन के संदर्भ में केन्द्रीय रेल मंत्री श्री पीयूष गोयल के वक्तव्य का मूलपाठ निम्न है:-

“भारतीय रेलवे में वर्तमान में व्यापक स्तर पर भर्ती की प्रक्रिया चल रही है। सर्वोच्च न्यायालय द्वारा निर्धारित दिशानिर्देशों व कानून का पालन करते हुए भारतीय रेलवे ने एक नीति बनायी है जो कि एक निष्पक्ष, पारदर्शी और प्रतिस्पर्धात्मक भर्ती की प्रक्रिया सुनिश्चित करा रही है।

हमारे द्वारा पहले से ही 20% पदों को ‘Course Completed Act Apprentices’ के लिए आरक्षित किया गया है, जो अपरेंटिस अधिनियम के तहत रेलवे प्रतिष्ठानों में शामिल थे। यह निर्णय Apprentices Act के section 22 (1) और समय-समय से आये माननीय सुप्रीम कोर्ट के विभिन्न निर्णयों के अनुसार लिया गया है। वह Apprentices’ जिन्होंने प्रशिक्षण पूरा किया है, उन आवेदकों को प्रशिक्षण की अवधि के बराबर आयु छूट भी दी गई है।

यह भारत में किसी भी संगठन द्वारा की गई सबसे बड़ी भर्ती है। युवाओं के सभी वर्गों के लिए जिनमें अप्प्रेन्टिसेस भी शामिल हैं, इन सभी के लिए पारदर्शी और निष्पक्ष तरीके से भारतीय रेलवे में शामिल होने का बहुत बड़ा अवसर है।

मैं अपने युवा मित्रों से अपील करता हूं कि इन बड़ी संख्या में नौकरियों (जिसकी आखिरी तारीख 31/03/2018 है) में आवेदन करें, और भर्ती की प्रक्रिया में शामिल हो जिससे सभी आवेदकों को देश की सेवा करने का निष्पक्ष और समान अवसर प्राप्त हो।”