As a part of fulfilment of Budget Announcements 2016-17, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated/ launched following facilities/services from Rail Bhawan today i.e. 1^st September 2016 :-

Ø  Launch of rationalised siding policy-a major freight segment reform easing the setting up additional private terminals.

Ø  Expanded commodity basket for container traffic – 43 additional commodities in FAK

Ø  Hourly Booking of Retiring Rooms-enhancing stay capacity by use of IT for convenience of passengers.

Ø  Single person accountability for all facilities on trains-along with single nodal officer for monitoring.

Ø  Launching of travel insurance for passengers

Ø  Launch of new service providing direct connectivity from Jhansi to Indore and Jhansi to Etawah

Sushri Uma Bharti Minister, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation and Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain was especially present to grace the occasion. Member Traffic Mohd. Jamshed, other Board Members and Senior Officials were also present on the occasion.   

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that the services launched today ranging from freight to passenger services will have positive impact on all classes of society. He said that Railways is in the process of interacting/recognizing the fields where partnership can be done and additional freight can be obtained. He said that road and shipping transport are not competitors of Railways but complement one another as now there is a need to integrate all these modes in the interest of common people. He further said that the other facilities of passenger insurance, booking of retiring room, accountability of Train Superintendent will also make rail journey comfortable for all rail users.

Speaking on the occasion, Sushri Uma Bharti Minister, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation thanked the Minister of Railways for fulfilling the long-pending demand of people of Jhansi by introducing new train service between Jhansi to Indore and Etawah. She said that now Railways is keenly focussing on all neglected areas/sectors of the country and making the railway user friendly.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Rajen Gohain, Minister of State for Railways said that the way in which Railways has been progressing and fulfilling budget announcements day in and day out is becoming the most credible and reliable organization of the country.  He said that now there is no gap in the sayings and doings of the Railway Ministry and thus all industrial sectors are relying on the credibility of the Railways.  

 SALIENT FEATURES OF THE SERVICE LAUNCHED

 

NOMINATING TRAIN SUPERINTENDENT AS A SINGLE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL FACILITIES ON TRAINS

 

At present different agencies are to be approached for different types of facilities provided in the train.  To save the passengers from botheration on this account, as a pilot project, it has been decided to nominate Train Superintendent as a single person responsible for all facilities on train.  This Pilot project is being launched initially for Rajdhani Express trains originating from Delhi area as per details given below:-

               (i).          Train Superintendent (TS) will be made single person responsible for all facilities on train. All railway personnel and Supervisors of all out sourced agencies shall report to the TS for effective control and supervision to ensure improvement in onboard services offered by Railways.

 

             (ii).          The incharge from C&W and Electrical Departments would assist the TS in supervision of onboard services and redressal of complaints and shall be designated as Assistant Train Supervisor (ATS). Arrangement to display contact numbers of TS in all coaches for seeking any assistance will be provided with arrangements to input the number at the start of the journey.

 

           (iii).          Sr. DCM(Chg)/ Delhi division will act as “Product Manager” for all Rajdhani services starting from and terminating at NZM/NDLS/DLI. He will monitor the one window service being provided by Train Superintendents of respective Rajdhanis and would liaise with the concerned officers in Delhi division/NR headquarters / other Zonal Railways over which the trains run, for various deficiencies like watering, AC, mobile chargers, bedrolls and linens, catering, timely placement, pre-cooling, punctuality of train etc.

 

           (iv).          A Mobile application will be developed by CRIS which will facilitate easy transmission of information between the Product Manager, TS, ATS, Onboard staff and the control offices enroute so that the passenger as well as the concerned officer on ground and officials onboard can monitor the complaint being registered for the train while on run on real time basis. The Mobile Application will have interface with 24X7 complaint number 138 and Security Helpline 182 over which presently passenger complaints are received by the concerned Divisions. The TS will have a dash board on his tablet where he can view the complaints received for his train and allot them to the ATS/Security personnel for follow up action and redressal.

 

HOURLY BOOKING OF RETIRING ROOMS

 

I.                   Main Feature

Currently, booking of Retiring Room is being done for the fixed slots of 24 and 12 hours along with fixed tariff for the respective slot. Implementation of hourly booking of retiring rooms will enable passengers to book Retiring Room for the desired periods. The main features of the hourly booking of Retiring Rooms are given below:-

i)           Retiring Room can be booked for a minimum period of three hours upto a maximum period of 48 hours.

ii)         Hourly booking is not allowed for the principle block of
12 hours period i.e. from 2100 hours to 0900 hours.

The tariff would be charged on hourly basis.

II.                 Advantages of hourly bookings

 

Ø  Passenger can book retiring room for the desired period

Ø  Effective use of Retiring Room

Ø  Better Utilization

Ø  Increase in revenue

 

III.             Detailed procedure/Application for retiring room booking

 

(a)  Introduction

The Indian Railways provides the lodging facility through retiring room to its passengers on stations spread across the country. Initially it was started as pilot project in 2010 on few locations. The bookings of Retiring Room over internet has been enabled on 13-Jan-2014 through IRCTC interface i.e. http://www.railtourismindia.com/. Currently, 489 major retiring room locations have been computerized and available for the booking over Internet and Intranet.

(b)   Retiring Room Application over Intranet

It enables booking of retiring rooms through counter/terminal available on retiring room location/station. These terminals are manned and connected to UTN (Unified Ticketing Network).UTN is the ticketing network of Railways. Booking of rooms are available across the retiring room terminals i.e. rooms can be booked of a location from any location. To avail retiring room services over intranet, passengers have to reach manned counters on the stations. Major services like bookings, Cancellation, Upgradation and Extension are available in Retiring Room Application over Intranet.

Features:

Ø    Booking

Ø    Cancellation

Ø    Extension

Ø    Upgradation

Ø    Check – in

Ø    Check -out

Ø    Special Cancellation

Ø    Location/Room Maintenance

Ø    Room Release

(C)  Retiring Room Application over Internet

It enables booking of retiring room available on already computerized retiring room location through internet using https://www.railtourisminindia.com. This url has been hosted by the IRCTC. To enable the booking over internet, Booking, Cancellation and Check Availability web services have developed by the CRIS and shared to IRCTC. Currently only booking and cancellation services are available over internet. User Data Management and Payment gateways are being done by IRCTC.

Features:

Ø    Booking

Ø    Cancellation

 

(d) Hourly Booking of Retiring Rooms (Newly introduced feature)

 

Currently, booking of Retiring Room is being done for the fixed slots of 24 and 12 hrs along with fixed tariff for the respective slot. Implementation of hourly enables passengers to book Retiring Room for the desired periods. The main features of the hourly booking of Retiring Rooms are given below:-

 

·         Retiring Room can be booked for the minimum three hours and maximum up to 48 hrs.

 

·         Hourly booking is not allowed for the principle block of 12 hrs period i.e. 21 hrs to 09 hrs.

 

·         The tariff would be charge on hourly basis i.e. tariff would be   calculated as per table given below

 

Tariff Tables
S.No.	No. of Hours	Proposed Charges (base 100 for 24 hrs)
1	Upto 3	25
2	04-06	40
3	07-09	50
4	10-12	60
5	13-15	70
6	16-18	80
7	19-21	90
8	22-24	100
9	Beyond 24 hrs	As per above
10	48	200

 

EXPANDED COMMODITY BASKET FOR CONTAINER TRAFFIC – 43 ADDITIONAL COMMODITIES IN FAK

Container traffic was started on Indian Railways in the early eighties to garner piecemeal domestic traffic, which had been lost with the shift in IR’s policy to move from piecemeal mixed train operations to end to end block train operations.  All container traffic is charged at Freight Any Kind (FAK) tariff except for a few notified commodities under the group of cement, iron and steel, POL, alumina and stones, which are charged at an intermediate tariff known as container class rate (CCR).  This has been done to ensure that these notified commodities, which are moved in Indian Railways general wagons in significant volumes, is not diverted for transportation in containers at the concessional FAK rates.  From time to time, based on detailed ABC analysis of the volumes moved by rail, commodities in the notified list are opened up for transportation at FAK rates so that there is an overall incremental rail share and earnings.  Following a detailed analysis undertaken recently, and in keeping in view the budget announcement for opening up the commodity basket, it has been decided to now open up 43 commodities which are listed under the notified group of commodities.  It is expected that in case of some of the commodities like iron and steel scrap and asbestos which are presently not moving by rail, good volumes can be attracted to containers.

COMMODITY GROUP		COMMODITY	COMMODITY GROUP		COMMODITY
BRICKS & STONES	1	Bricks Broken	IRON & STEEL	25	Alloy constructional steels
	2	Chakki		26	Bands
	3	Fire Bricks		27	Cable wires
	4	Flooring stone		28	Casting NOC
	5	Glass Stone		29	Chains iron NOC
	6	Polished Granite Slab		30	Iron and steel sheets cuttings
	7	Rollers Stone		31	Mill scale iron and steel
	8	Sanitary ware		32	Lattice transmission tower parts
	9	Slate		33	Iron wire
	10	Slate Stone		34	All types of metal and steel scrap
	11	Slates in tiles		35	Stainless steel ware
	12	Stone Dust		36	Elastic rail clips
	13	Stone pillars		37	Fish Plates
	14	Stone ware		38	Iron and Steel pipe cuttings
	15	Gravel		39	Springs
CEMENT	16	Asbestos		40	Ingots
	17	Asbestos jointing and packing sheets		41	Wheels
	18	Beams		42	Poles
	19	Cement Blocks		43	Pipes all types
	20	Cement Plaster
	21	Cement tiles
	22	Coloured Cement
	23	Columns (prestressed cement concrete)
	24	Fly Ash

 

 

 

LIBERALIZED SIDING POLICY

 

Sidings , an overview

•      Sidings are the mainstay of Indian Railways freight traffic. It is the earliest models of private – public partnership in India. The biggest advantage of siding is that it enables Door to Door service.

•      Eighty five percent of originating freight traffic of IR from private sidings and freight terminals. 

•      Presently there are  more than 1600  sidings on Indian Railways

Objective of the new policy

The main object of the siding policy is as under –

 

•      Make the process industry friendly.

•      Minimizing  delays,  fixing timelines

•      Ensuring transparency and objectivity.

•      Sharing costs and burdens

•      The changes will benefit both Railways  and  the  industry.

Main policy changes

The following changes have been made in the siding policy –

1.      Standardization of the process of construction:

Various steps / activities involved in setting up of a siding have been  identified and listed as detailed guidelines along with time-frame.

 

2.      The coordinating officer for each activity has been nominated.

 

3.      Rationalization of the charges to be levied by railways.

 

(i)        The cost of work charged staff to be levied only when the siding commissioning work is done by IR as deposit work.  The work-charged staff cost will not be levied when work executed by railway approved authorized contractor of the party.

(ii)      The cost of land shall not be included in the project cost while calculating Departmental charges.

4.      DRM has been entrusted with the task of a realistic assessment of land required for connectivity purpose.

5.      Siding is for end-user and only one co-user can be permitted by zonal railway.

6.      Single Window Clearance to customers at zonal level. CTPM   in the zonal railway nominated as NODAL officer.

LAUNCH OF NEW TRAIN SERVICES PROVIDING DIRECT CONNECTIVITY FROM JHANSI TO INDORE AND JHANSI TO ETAWAH

Indian Railways, today, fulfils the twin aspirations of the passengers of Jhansi who were desirous of going to (i) Indore via Gwalior-Guna and (ii)Etawah (via Bhind) by starting a link service 21801/21802 Jhansi-Gwalior-Indore (4 days a week) and dovetailing it in a new train 11801/11802 Jhansi-Etawah Link Express (6 days a week) [via Bhind]. The train services would be inaugurated today (i.e. on 01.09.2016) by Hon’ble MR in presence of Hon’ble Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Sushri Uma Bharti and Hon’ble Minister of State for Railways, Shri Rajen Gohain by video conferencing from Rail Bhavan, New Delhi (at about 14.30 Hrs.).

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

Introduction:

1.      21801/21802 Jhansi-Gwalior-Indore Link Express

 

 

Ø   Days of run:  Ex-JHS – 4 days a week (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri)

                    Ex-GWL – 4 days a week (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri)

 

Ø   One way distance: 97 Kms.

 

Ø   Journey time:

From Jhansi to Gwalior: 01 hrs. 35 mins

From Gwalior to Jhansi: 01 hrs. 45 mins

 

Ø    Stoppages: Datia, Dabra.

 

Ø    Composition of service:

Jhansi-Gwalior-Indore Link Express- Guard Coach-01, Sleeper-02, Third AC-01 = 04 coaches (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri)

 

Ø   Primary Maintenance: Jhansi (NCR)

 

Ø   Nature of Service: Link Express

 

2.      11801/11802 Jhansi-Etawah Link Express (6 days a week)

 

 

Ø   Days of run:  Ex-JHS – 6 days a week (Except Saturday)

                    Ex-ETW – 6 days a week (Except Sunday)

 

Ø   One way distance: 216 Kms.

 

Ø   Journey time:

From Jhansi to Etawah: 05 hrs. 20 mins

From Etawah to Jhansi: 05 hrs. 35 mins

 

Ø   Average Speed:

From Jhansi to Etawah: 40.50 KMPH

From Etawah to Jhansi: 38.70 KMPH

 

Ø    Stoppages: Datia, Dabra, Gwalior, Bhind.

 

Ø    Composition of service:

Jhansi-Gwalior-Etawah Express- Guard Coach-02, General Coach-06 = 08 coaches (Except Sat)

 

Ø   Primary Maintenance: Jhansi (NCR)

 

Ø   Nature of Service: Link Express

 

Ø   Existing train service:

 

Between Jhansi and Etawah: 1 pair of Express train.

  OPTIONAL TRAVEL INSURANCE FOR TRAIN PASSENGERS

            Main Features of the Scheme

Ø  The facility is reserved for passengers of Indian Railways who book e-ticket, excluding suburban trains, through its official website, irrespective of the class of the ticket.

Ø  The facility is available only for confirmed and RAC tickets.

Ø  Coverage for all passengers excluding children below 5 years of age and foreign citizens.

Ø  The scheme is also applicable for Vikalp trains, short termination and diverted route. In case of short termination, if the passenger opts for alternate mode of transportation arranged by Railway upto the destination station, then this part of the journey of the passenger shall also be covered under the policy taken.

Ø  Coverage for train accident and untoward incident cases will be as per definition under Sections 123 read with Sections 124 and 124A of The Railways Act, 1989 subject to the qualification that the coverage will be valid from the actual departure of train from the originating station to actual arrival of train at the destination station including process of entraining and detraining the train.

Ø  Premium of less than Rs.1/i.e. 92 paisa.

Ø  Coverage :

Death or permanent total disability       -           Rs.10 Lakh

Permanent Partial Disability                  -           Rs.07.5Lakh (upto)

Hospitalization Expenses                                  -           Rs.02 Lakh(upto)

Transportation of mortal remain                        -           Rs.10,000/-

 

Ø  Scheme implemented in partnership with Shriram General Insurance Company Limited, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. And Royal Sundaram General Insurance company Limited selected through transparent bidding process.

Ø  The three selected insurance companies will get the insurance policy on a rotation basis through an automated system.

Ø  Necessarily covers all passengers booked under a particular PNR number and the premium charged accordingly when insurance option is exercised.

Ø  No refund of the premium shall be given to the insured in case of the cancellation of ticket, for the time being.

Ø  In case of passenger opting for insurance, the claim/liability shall be between passenger and the insurance company.

Ø  The claims of compensation should be lodged within four months of the event.

Ø  The insurance company is required to process the claim and send the cheque to the insured/nominee/legal heir within 15 days of the receipt of document.

 

Process/Flow : -

Ø  Passenger will login at www.irctc.co.in

Ø  After filling the travel details, there will be an option for Travel Insurance available through a checkbox with Yes/No option at the time of e-ticket booking

Ø  If the passenger does not want to take insurance cover then he will have to select No. If passenger selects YES and accepts the Terms & Conditions, the premium amount will be automatically added to the ticket amount. Payment for Railway Fare, and premium will be shown separately and payment will be made by the passenger.

Ø  SMS/E-mail will be sent by the insurance companies to the passenger confirming the policy number along with the link to update nomination details.

Ø  Nomination details to be filled by the passenger at the link provided. If passenger fails to update nominee details then the claim will be settled in favour of legal heirs.

Ø  Policy number and Name of the Insurance Company can also be viewed from Ticket Booked History page at www.irctc.co.in.

 

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AKS/DK