Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu Inaugurated  the Following Passenger Initiatives:-

1.      Lift on Platform No. 4/5 at Bhopal Station.

2.      Foundation Stone of Mechanised Laundry at Bhubaneswar.

3.      WiFi at Sambalpur Station.

4.      WiFi at Vizianagaram Station.

5.      22163/64 Bhopal- Khajuraho Mahamana Intercity Express (Daily).

6.      22833/34 Bhubaneswar- Krishnarajapuram Humsafar Express  (Weekly).

 

Minister for Civil Aviation Shri Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ms Uma Bharti, Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri Jual Oram, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas(I/C), Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain, MP, Loksabha Shri Nagendra Kumar Pradhan were specially present to grace the occasion. Member Traffic, Mohd Jamshed & other Railway Board Members and senior officials was also present on the occasion.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said, “Indian Railways is contributing towards PM's Narendra Modi’s vision of bringing change in the lives of common people. Providing Better Passenger amenities is one of the focus areas of Indian Railways.Mechanized Laundry is inaugurated today, it adds more towards the travel experience of passengers.New Mahamana Express, New Humsafar  Express will bring more convenience to the passengers of Madhya Pradesh & Odisha respectively. In Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh investments related to Railway projects have been increased substantially.”

 

Salient Features of the Initiatives Launched:

RailTel and Google brings RailWire Wi- Fi at Sambalpur and Vizianagaram Stations

The Wi-Fi facility for the visitors & rail users of Sambalpur and Vizianagaram Railway Stations has been commissioned by RailTel in association with Google for providing high speed state of the art world class internet experience to the commuters.

The service built over the fiber network of RailTel is designed to offer high-speed broadband like experience to users. Travelers passing through these stations will now be able to easily stream a high definition video while they’re waiting, research their destination, download a book or a new game for their journey.

RailTel Corporation of India Ltd., a Mini-Ratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, has taken a lead in providing fast Wi-Fi for the use of passengers at A1 & A category Railway stations. RailTel roped in Google as the technology partner for setting up fast Wi-Fi network initially covering 400 A1 & A category stations. Under this partnership, we had a target of completing 100 stations by the end of December 2016. Surpassing the target, we completed 110 stations by the end of 2016. We now have taken up a target of completing 200 stations by the end of 2017 and as on date 127 stations have been enabled with fast RailWire Wi-Fi.

Odisha-

Stations where Wi-Fi services are available

4

Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur & Puri

Stations where Wi-Fi services will be available soon

8

Balasore, Bhadrak, Brahmapur, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road, Jharsuguda, Khurda Road, Rayagada, Rourkela

Andhra Pradesh-

Stations where Wi-Fi services are available

7

Tirupati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur,Palasa, Srikakulam Road & Vizianagaram

Stations where Wi-Fi services will be available soon

12

Anakapalle, Bhimavaram Town, Cuddapah, Eluru, Guntakal Jn., Kakinada Town, Nellore, Rajahmundry, Renigunta, SamalkotJn.,Tenali Jn., Tuni

 

Pan India-

The Railwire wi-fi service in association with Google is currently available at 127 stations across the country. We have around 6 million users per month across the stations This year we have plan to extend the service at 200 stations. Apart from this RailTel will start working for providing 200 rural railway stations across India. A Digital Service centre will be set up in these stations to extend digital literacy and various online services to rural population.

Wi-Fi services to passengers are being provided under ‘Railwire’, the retail Broadband distribution model of RailTel. Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, Railwire Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a working mobile connection on a smartphone. Railway stations are the places where the cross section of the society is available. This initiative is part of bridging the digital divide & providing high speed access network to all rail users with financial inclusion of Local Cable Operators. Once implemented this shall be one of the largest public Wi-Fi project in the World.

More details about the project is available at https://www.railtelindia.com/key-projects/station-wi-fi-project.html

 How to connect to access theWi-Fi network-

The user have to switch on the Wi-Fi mode in the smartphone and select the railwire Wi-Fi network. After the railwire homepage network automatically appears on the smartphone, the user has to enter his or her mobile number on this homepage. The user will get one time password (OTP) code in form of SMS in the message box which has to be entered in the home page of railwire. Users will be able to access high speed internet & can start internet browsing.

About RailTel

RailTel Corporation a "Mini Ratna (Category-I)" PSU is one of the largest neutral telecom services providers in the country owning a Pan-India optic fiber network covering all important towns & cities of the country and several rural areas covering 70% of India’s population. RailTel is in the forefront in providing nationwide Broadband Telecom & Multimedia Network in all parts of the country in addition to modernization of Train operations and administration network systems for Indian Railways. With its Pan India high capacity network, RailTel is working towards creating a knowledge society at various fronts and has been selected for implementation of various mission-mode Govt. of India projects in the telecom field.

 

22163/22164 BHOPAL-KHAJURAHO EXPRESS (DAILY)

Indian Railways introduced a new 22163/22164 Bhopal-Khajuraho Express (Daily) between Bhopal and Khajuraho, which is not connected with train, at present. 

The abstract schedule timings, details of the train services are as under:

22163 BHOPAL-KHAJURAHO EXPRESS (DAILY)	↓  STATION  ↑	22164 KHAJURAHO-BHOPAL EXPRESS (DAILY)
06.50	BHOPAL	22.55
08.45/8.55	BINA	20.30/20.40
09.40/09.42	LALITPUR	19.0/19.22
10.50/10.52	TIKAMGARH	18.10/18.12
12.13/12.15	CHHATARPUR	16.48/16.50
13.30	KHAJURAHO	16.15

 

Stoppage: Vidisha, Ganj Basoda, Mandi Bamora, Bina, Lalitpur,Tikamgarh and Chhatarpur.

Traction: End to End Diesel.

Total Distance: 369 Km

Days of Run: Daily

Primary Maintenance: WCR

Composition: 1 ACCZ+11 GSCZ +2 SLR =14

Average Speed: 55.35 kmph

 

 

22833/22834 Bhubaneswar-Krishnarajapuram Humsafar Express (Weekly)

Indian Railways introduced a new Humsafar train viz. 22833/22834 Bhubaneswar-Krishnarajapuram Humsafar Express (Weekly).

The abstract schedule including timings, composition, stoppages etc. of the train services to be introduced is as under:

 

Bhubaneswar-Krishnarajapuram Humsafar Express (Weekly)		↓	Station	↑	Krishnarajapuram-Bhubaneswar Humsafar Express (Weekly)
Arr.	Dep.				Arr.	Dep.
-	12.00 (Mon)		Bhubaneswar		17.45 (Wed)
13.00 (Tue)			Krishnarajapuram			16.05 (Tue)

 

Ø   Days of run: Ex-BBS: Mon

                           Ex-KJM: Tue

Ø   One way distance: 1537 Kms.

Ø   Journey time:

From Bhubaneswar to Krishnarajapuram: 25 HR. 00 Min

From Krishnarajapuram to Bhubaneswar: 26 HR. 40 Min

Ø   Average Speed:

From Bhubaneswar to Krishnarajapuram: 61.48 KMPH

From Krishnarajapuram to Bhubaneswar: 57.25 KMPH

Ø Stoppages: Khurda Road, Brahmpur, Palasa, Srikakulam Road, Viziangaram Jn., Visakhapatnan, Duvvada, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Vijaywada, Nellore, Gudur, Renigunta, Ongole, Katpadi, Jolarpettai, Bangarpet

Ø   Composition of regular service: LWACCN-16, LWLRRM -2= 18 coaches

Ø   Primary Maintenance: Bhubaneswar (ECoR)

Ø   Nature of Service: Humsafar Express

 

Inauguration of lift at Bhopal station on Platform No. 4/5

Bhopal Station of West Central Railway is an A-1 category station. It handles 58133 passengers per day. The Annual earning is 256.21 cr.

All minimum essential amenities viz, Booking Facility, drinking water, waiting hall platform shelters, urinals, FOBs Lighting, Signages, etc have been provided at this station.

Further desirable amenities viz Waiting Room including upper class waiting room for both gents and ladies, apart from retiring room, 2 dormitories with facility of cloak room, all other facilities enquiry office refreshment room, catering stall, Food Plaza, FOB (1), ATMs etc have also been provided. One lift has already been installed at PF No. 1.

-         Cost: 44.39 lakhs,

-         Capacity 13 passengers

-       This facility will help the passenger especially for Divyang persons to commute on the station.

Foundation Stone of Mechanized Laundry at Bhubaneswar

·        This is a tunnel type batch washing machine, so far only two such machines have been installed/finalized or IR.

·        The laundry shall be set up under BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) mode.

·        The capacity of laundry to be setup is 14 tonnes per day, biggest mechanized laundry (14,000 bed roll kits per day).

 

·        The contract period is of 10 year from the date of commissioning.

 

·        The work has been awarded at a cost of Rs 85.55 Cr.

 

·        Expected to be commissioned by Feb 2018.

 

·  With commissioning of Mechanized Laundry, the quality of linen will significantly improve leading to enhanced passenger satisfaction.

 

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             AKS/MKV/ENS

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