FIRST
EVER AC DOUBLE DECKER TRAIN FLAGGED OFF
HIGH
LEVEL SAFETY REVIEW COMMITTEE SET UP
AN
EXPERT GROUP FOR MODERNIZATION OF INDIAN RAILWAYS
FRESH MEASURES TAKEN TO PREVENT
MISUSE OF ‘TATKAL’ SCHEME
REAL
TRAIN INFORMATION SYSTEM OPENED TO PUBLIC
SETTING
UP OF NATIONAL HIGH SPEED RAIL AUTHORITY
‘VIVEK EXPRESS’ - NEW TRAIN ON LONGEST EVER ROUTE FLAGGED OFF
RAILWAYS GREEN INITIATIVES
The year 2011 has been significant for the Railways in
achieving goals and targets with regard to the following:
REVENUE GENERATION
The total approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating
basis during 1st April to 20th December 2011 is Rs. 71613.12 crore registering an increase
of 10.20 per cent in comparison to Rs. 64982.35
crore achieved during the same period last year. During this period, the total goods earnings
have gone up from Rs. 43257.89 crore to Rs. 47653.34 crore, an increase of 10.16
per cent. The total passenger revenue earnings at Rs. 20249.84 crore increased by 9.45 per cent when compared to Rs. 18501.61 crore during the same period of last year.
The total approximate numbers of passengers booked during the period
1st April to 20th December
2011 were 5986.86 million compared to 5691.04 million during the same period
last year, showing an increase of 5.20 per cent.
Railways have carried 618.00 million tonnes of revenue earning
freight traffic during 1st April- to 30th November 2011.
The freight carried shows an increase of 24.56 million tonnes over the freight
traffic of 593.44 million tonnes actually carried during the corresponding
period last year, registering an increase of 4.14 per cent.
In the calendar year 2011, Indian Railways has achieved scrap sale
of Rs. 3748.68 crore till November 2011.
SAFETY PERFORMANCE
Safety in train operations is accorded the highest priority by
Indian Railways and all measures are being taken on a continual basis to
prevent accidents and enhance safety. A High Level Safety Review Committee, headed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar,
Former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission was set up. The Committee would lay
down the road map on safety related issues which need to be addressed in the
short term and the long term and would give invaluable recommendations which
would have a significant bearing on further improvement in the systems and
protocols. Indian Railways would make
all efforts to address the recommendations of the High Level Committee with a
view to achieve further improvement in the safety environment on the Indian
Railways. The Committee had already held
several meetings with senior functionaries in Railway Board, Zonal Railways, Divisional Railways level and
RDSO. Besides making an assessment of
the existing safety practices, the Committee is also soliciting feedback from
general public in Indian Railway’s official website.
The number of consequential train accidents reduced in 2010-11 in
comparison to the previous year (141 as against 165) registering a decline of
14.5%. In the current year also, a similar declining trend has been observed as
91 consequential train accidents took place during April to 15th
December, 2011 in comparison to 97 during the corresponding period of the
previous year.
Accident per Million Train
Kilometres is an important safety index used by most of the Railways in the
world. This has also come down from 0.44 Accident per Million Train
Kilometers during 2002-2003 to 0.15 in 2010-11 despite quantum increase in the volume of traffic carried
by Indian Railways over the years.
A vigorous special campaign was organised during the year to create
awareness among the road users regarding precautions to be observed at level
crossings which included newspaper advertisement, distribution of pamphlets and
posters, radio TV programmes, public announcements, counselling at schools,
interactions with village Panchayats and safety seminars.
Service Trials of Train
Protection Warning System (TPWS) project on non-suburban section are in
progress on Delhi-Agra Section (200 RKMs) of National Capital Region. Works of provision of TPWS have been sanctioned over 895 Route Kilometres of important Automatic Block Signalling
Sections of high density network spread over five Railways, viz. Eastern, North
Central, Southern, South Eastern and Western Railways in 2010-11. A pilot project of TPWS was commissioned on
suburban section (50 Route Kms) of Southern Railway.
MODERNIZATION OF INDIAN RAILWAYS
In a significant move to
give further impetus to Railways’ modernization plans, an Expert Group has been constituted under
the Chairmanship of Mr. Sam Pitroda to recommend ways and means to modernize
Indian Railways to meet the challenges of economic growth, the aspirations of
the common man, the needs of changing technology and the expanding market while
at the same time ensuring adequate focus on addressing social and strategic requirements
of the country. The Committee will inter alia address issues connected with
organization, management and resource mobilization and professionalization of
manpower on Indian Railways.
STRENGTHENING OF SECURITY ON
RAILWAYS
The Railways Property (Unlawful Possession) Amendment Bill,
introduced in the Parliament in the year 2008, has been passed by the Rajya
Sabha on 22.12.2011. The above amendment
envisages widening the ambit of penal sections of the Act and to empower an Railway
Protection Force (RPF) Officer to conduct enquiry on receipt of information
about occurrence of an offence against Railway property. A proposal for further legal empowerment of
RPF, under the RPF Act, to deal with passenger related offences, has been mooted
for approval of the Cabinet. Presently
RPF is engaged in escorting of 1275 important mail/express trains,
access control at important railway stations of the country, prosecution of
offenders (under 29 sections of the Railways Act ) involved in unauthorized
activities in trains/station premises viz. alarm chain pulling, unauthorized
vending/hawking, unauthorized entry into ladies and reserved compartments etc, and prosecution of
offenders, apprehended with stolen railway property, under the Railway Property
(Unlawful Possession) Act 1966.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW TRAINS
In Railway Budget 2011-12, a total number of 131 new trains were
announced, out of which 70 new trains have been introduced and 61 new trains
are yet to be introduced. Out of
extension of 33 trains, 29 trains have been extended and 4 trains are yet to be
extended. Out of increase in frequency
of 17 trains, frequency of 15 trains has been increased and frequency of 2
trains are yet to be increased. Earnest
efforts are being made to meet all the budget targets by the end of the
financial year.
FRESH
MEASURES TAKEN TO PREVENT MISUSE OF TATKAL SCHEME
The Tatkal booking system was introduced on Indian Railways to
enable passengers needing to travel in emergency to avail reserved
accommodation at a short notice. The
scheme has been modified from 21.11.2011 to eliminate the possibility of misuse
of the facility by touts/miscreants by exploiting the vulnerability of needy
passengers, wanting to travel at a short notice by charging a high premium.
Under the modified scheme, the Advanced Reservation Period (ARP) has
been reduced from 2 days to 1 day, excluding the journey date. Rail travel
agents/rail travel service agencies (RTSAs) have been restricted from booking
tatkal tickets at the reservation counters/over the internet between 8 hours to
10 hours and booking can now be done only on presenting self-attested photocopy
of identity proof of at least one of the travelling passengers.
RESERVED TICKETING THROUGH MOBILE PHONE
To bring further convenience to the rail users, Indian Railways has
offered the service of booking E-Ticket over the mobile. The detailed procedure of booking through mobile
is available on the IRCTC website namely www.irctc.co.in. Whenever a passenger books a reserved ticket
through Mobile phone, he will receive a message through SMS with full details
of the ticket including PNR, Train No., date of journey, class, etc. This virtual message would be treated at par
with the print-out of the e-ticket which at present is taken out by the passengers
and is known as Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS). Hence, with this virtual message, passengers
would not be required to take a print-out of e-ticket to be carried with them.
REAL TRAIN INFORMATION SYSTEM OPENED TO PUBLIC
In a major passenger friendly move, Indian Railways opened the first
phase of the Real Train Information System (RTIS) in October 2011 to public for
accurate train tracking thus heralding a new era of application of advanced
communication and information technologies in various Railway related
activities. This new tracking system is
based on Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation (SIMRAN) and has been developed
jointly by the Ministry of Railways’ Research arm namely Research, Design and
Standards Organization (RDSO), Lucknow and IIT, Kanpur. This facility provides accurate train running information
on a click of a button or through SMS thereby overcoming limitations of the
existing train information dissemination through telephone number 139 which is
mainly dependent on manual collection of train running information. This
information is available on website “http://www.simran.in”. To begin with, at present, this service is
available for six pairs of Rajdhani &
Shatabdi trains and would be expanded further in due course of time.
DEVELOPMENTS
ON DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR PROJECT
The progress on the two ambitious Railway projects of construction
of Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) namely Eastern Corridor from Dankuni to Ludhiana and Western Corridor from JNPT (Mumbai) to Dadri
(near Delhi)
has been good. Major portions of Western
Corridor are being funded with Japanese assistance and Eastern Corridor with
World Bank assistance. World Bank approved loan of US $ 975 million for
Khurja-Bhaupur section of Eastern Freight Corridor on 31.5.2011. Two loan agreements have already been signed
with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Western DFC which
includes loan agreement for Phase-I (Rewari-Vadodara) and Engineering Services
Loan agreement for Phase-II (Mumbai-Vadodara and Rewari-Dadri).
ADARSH STATION SCHEME
The scheme of Adarsh Station has been introduced from the year
2009. Adarsh Stations are provided with
basic facilities such as drinking water, adequate toilets, catering services,
waiting rooms and dormitories especially for lady passengers, better signage
etc.
During 2009-10, 378 stations on Indian Railways were identified to
be developed under Adarsh station scheme.
Work at 365 stations under the scheme has been completed and work at
remaining 13 stations is targeted for completion in 2011-12.
During 2010-11, 201 stations
were additionally identified as per budget to be developed under Adarsh
stations scheme. Work at 73 stations has
been completed and work at remaining 128 stations is targeted for completion in
2011-12.
During 2011-12, 266 stations were additionally identified to be
developed under Adarsh station scheme. Out
of this work at 9 stations has been completed and work at another 109 stations
is targeted for completion in 2011-12 and at 148 remaining stations in 2012-13.
DEVELOPMENT
OF MULTIFUNCTIONAL COMPLEX
A new concept of development of MFCs with Budget Hotels, was
introduced in Rail Budget 2009-10 so that important facilities may be available
to the rail users in a separate complex in the vicinity of circulating area in
station premises. So far 17 Multi
Functional Complexes (MFCs) have been completed viz. Anandpur Sahib,
Aurangabad, Baraddhaman, Digha, Durg, Ghatsila, Haldia, Kakdwip, Manmad, New
Alipore, Parasnath, Rajgir, Rampur Hat, Shirdi, Tarapith Road, Tarakeshwar and
Tiruvalla. Process of leasing/licensing of these MFCs is underway. So far, a total of 198 stations have been
identified since 2009-10 (67 in 2009-10, 93 in 2010-11 and 38 in 2011-12). Task of development of 198 MFCs has been
assigned to Zonal Railways and various executing agencies under the Ministry of
Railways.
NEW TRAIN ON LONGEST EVER ROUTE FLAGGED OFF
“Vivek Express” on longest ever route from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari
covering a distance of 4286 kilometers was flagged off on 19th November,
2011. This weekly trains leaves Dibrugarh on every Saturday and reaches
Kanyakumari on Wednesday. In return
direction, it leaves Kanyakumari on every Saturday and reaches Dibrugarh on
Wednesday. This train is having 18
coaches which include six general coaches, seven sleeper coaches, two third AC
coaches and one second AC coach and two SLR coaches. It runs via Goalpara-NewBonagigaon –
Alipurduar Jn. – Maldah town – Durgapur- Asansol – Adra – Midnapur – Vijaywada,
Jolapettai – Salem Jn. – Coimbatore Jn – Ernakulam – Trivananthapuram –
Kanyakumari.
A number of more than 130 new
trains, announced in Rail Budget, were also flagged off during this year.
NATIONAL
HIGH SPEED RAIL AUTHORITY
In the Railway Budget 2010-11, the Ministry of Railways has
announced for setting up of a National High Speed Rail Authority (NHSRA) for
planning, standard setting, implementing & monitoring of High Speed Rail
projects. A proposal in this regard has
been moved for Cabinet approval. The
Ministry of Railways has selected following six corridors for conducting
pre-feasibility studies. These are; Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar (450 km approx.),
Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad (650 km approx.), Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai
(664 km approx.), Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam (649 km approx.),
Howrah-Haldia (135 km approx.), Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna (991 km
approx.). Consultants for
pre-feasibility study of four Corridors except Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar and
Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam-Trivandrum have already been engaged.
E-PROCUREMENT
AND E-PAYMENT SYSTEM ON RAILWAY
Indian
Railways have implemented e-procurement system for All Zonal Railways and
Production Units. So for 2.5 lakh e-tenders have been uploaded on central web
site www.ireps.gov.in and more than 15,000 vendors have registered with the
site. Electronic procurement has
facilitated vendors and the participating industry to gain free access to
Railway’s procurement tenders and has improved transparency and competitiveness
in the tendering process. Indian Railways issues computerized railway
receipts for more than 99.9% of its freight loading. This has helped in collection of
approximately 69.9% of freight payment through e-payment contributing around
Rs. 4000 crore per month from the participating major customers, thus cutting
down wasteful manual processes both for Indian Railways and their principal
freight customers. Facility of enquiring
the last location of rakes on Indian Railways has been launched from 12th
October 2011 for freight customers.
COUNTRY’S
FIRST EVER AC DOUBLE DECKER TRAIN FLAGGED OFF
Country’s first air conditioned superfast Double Decker train was flagged
off from Howrah
station for Dhanbad on 1st October 2011. This train consists
of 9 coaches including 7 air-conditioned Double Decker chair
cars having 128 seats in each coach and 2 generator cars. This
train stops at Barddhaman, Durgapur,
Asansol, Barakar and Kumardhubi on both ways en-route. This
train will have maximum permissible speed of 110 kilometre per hour and will
run via Howrah-Barddhaman chord line. Introduction
of Double Decker train
was announced in Railway Budget earlier. The
successful development of AC Double Decker train is a clear illustration of
Indian Railways' capabilities in design and manufacturing.
LONGEST
TUNNEL MADE THROUGH PIR PANJAL IN JAMMU & KASHMIR
Indian Railways achieved another milestone with final breakthrough
of Pir Panjal Railway tunnel in Jammu
and Kashmir on 14th October 2011. This Tunnel with a
length of 11.176 Kilometers is not only the longest Transportation Tunnel in
the country but has also the highest point (1753 Meters above sea level) on
Broad Gauge Railway System in the country. This methodology planned in year
2003-2005, is now being adopted for many long tunnels across the Himalayan Ranges in the country. This tunnel shall
be fully lined and equipped with state of the art ventilation and its control
system, air quality monitoring system, fire detection and rescue plan, CCTV,
communication system and Tunnel Control Room at both the ends with provision
for a service road by the side of a
single line BG Railway track. After
laying of track and completion of adjacent railway works, it will be possible
to run train form Kashmir Valley to Banihal on the other side of Pir Panjal
Range. These works are
expected to be completed by December 2012.
With the operation of Railway line upto Banihal, there will be an all
weather Rail route across the Pir Panjal Mountains,
benefiting the entire Kashmir
Valley.
SETTING UP OF RAILWAY STATIONS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LTD PROPOSED
It has been decided to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) “Railway
Stations Development Corporation Ltd to meet the aspirations of rail users and
to provide better passenger amenities & facilities at railway stations. This SPV will be constituted with equity
participation of Ircon International Ltd. (IRCON), a Public Sector Undertaking
under the Ministry of Railways and Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), a
statutory authority under the Ministry of Railways.
RAILWAYS GREEN INITIATIVES
Indian Railways has taken several environment friendly
steps. A project based on clean development mechanism to distribute over 14
lakh CFLs free of cost to Railway employees housed in Railway colonies, in
exchange of energy intensive incandescent lamps was launched. This project is expected to reduce around
100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission annually and has been acknowledged as
one of the biggest initiatives in sensitizing people towards environment.
In a significant
move towards clean environment in platforms and railway tracks, Indian Railways
has inducted biotoilets (green toilets) in
Guwahati, Gwalior, Varanasi and Chennai express trains with
effect from 14th October 2011. This type of toilets has been
designed jointly by Indian Railways and DRDO.
With these
toilets fitted in the coaches there will be no discharge of human excreta
falling in platforms or at nay other places enroute. The bacteria inside the
toilets eat away human excreta and convert it into water and gas. The water so
generated after passing through chlorine tank discharges out and the gas
generated thereby evaporates out side the atmosphere. It also prevents damages
of tracks and rolling stock components by way of corrosion.
Several designs of biotoilets are being
tried in different passenger carrying trains.
Indian Railways proposes to achieve the milestone of 500 green toilets in
service in different trains by March 2012.
NEW RAIL AXLE MANUFACTURING FACTORY
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed
between Ministry of Railways and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), a
central Government PSU under Ministry of Steel, in January 2011 for setting up
of a new Rail Axle Manufacturing Factory at New Jalpaiguri in West
Bengal. This comes in pursuance of announcement made, in the
Railway Budget 2010-11 regarding setting up of such a factory to achieve
self-sufficiency in axle manufacturing and eliminating present dependence on
imports. The 300 crore project will manufacture and supply rail axels for BOX N
wagons and others to meet the growing requirement of Indian Railways.
NEW AC CONTAINER & BOGIE
MANUFACTURING FACTORY
The foundation stone was laid by the
Railway Minister for AC Container & Bogie Manufacturing Factory at Budge
Budge near Kolkata in West Bengal in January
2011. This came in pursuance of announcement made in the Railway Budget 2010-11
regarding setting up of such a factory
with a view to mitigate the farmers’ plight and save agricultural
produce worth crore of rupees from perishing. This new AC Container & Bogie
Manufacturing Factory will be set up at an estimated investment of Rs. 59.3
crore. This factory will manufacture air conditioned containers on a demand
driven basis and 600 bogie frames per annum on a regular basis.
MODERN LUGGAGE TROLLEY
SERVICE FOR SENIOR CITIZENS
The Indian Railways introduced modern luggage trolley service at New
Delhi Platform No. 1 and 16), Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and
Thiruvananthapuram and Howrah stations to assist senior citizens and women
passengers in boarding and alighting from coaches along with their luggage
comfortably. The service has been launched as a pilot project for a period of
one year and handled by uniformed attendants called ‘Rail Yatri Sevaks’.
The service is being run in collaboration with State Bank of India and
passengers are charged only Rs 35/- for this unique passenger friendly
facility. The trolley can be booked in advance.
MORE CONCESSION FOR SENIOR CITIZENS, THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED,
MEDIA PERSONS & GIRL STUDENTS
Ministry of Railways has decided to reduce the minimum age for availing
concession from 60 years to 58 years in case for women senior citizens. It has also been decided to increase the
element of concession in case of men senior citizens from 30 per cent to 40 per
cent with effect 1st June 2011. Concession has also been extended in
Rail fares admissible to orthopedically/paraplegic persons to Rajdhani/Shatadbi
trains also. The same concession is also admissible to one escort accompanying
the concerned handicapped person. It has been decided to extend the 50 per cent
concession to family (Spouse/.companion and dependent children up to 18 years)
of accredited correspondents twice during the financial year with effect from 1st
June 2011 instead of once in the financial year. It was also decided to extend free Monthly Season Tickets (MSTs) to
girl students who are pursuing professional/vocational courses also upto the
level of Graduation like M.B.B.S., B.E., B. Tech., B.B.A., B.C.A. etc.
CAG LAUDS RAILWAYS
EFFORTS DURING CWG 2010
Appreciating the significant work
of Indian Railways during Commonwealth Games 2010 (CWG 2010), Computer Auditor
General of India (CAG), in its audit report tabled in August 2011 on
Commonwealth Games 2010, said that
status of the Railway projects in April 2010 reveals satisfactory progress both
in construction of Rail Over/Under Bridges and development of the facilities at
the Railway stations. CAG also
appreciated the progress in infrastructure work and provision of passenger
amenities at New Delhi Railway Station considering that about 290 trains pass
through this station every day with approximately five lakh passengers
commuting on a daily basis. CAG also
highlighted the Railways achievements regarding all the major activities
relating to makeover of New Delhi Railway Station which were completed before
the Games. These achievements were possible due to guidance of Ministry of
Railways and tight monitoring and execution of the developmental plans of
Northern Railway and its Delhi Division.
RAILWAY ELECTRIFICATION PROJECTS
A total of 897 Route Kilometers have been
energized between January 2011 to November 2011. Electric traction on the newly electrified
sections introduced after obtaining Commissioner of Railway Safety’s sanction
are (i) Vikarabad-Tandur, South Central Railway (45 RKm), (ii)
Tiruchchirappalli-Dindigul, Southern Railway (92 RKm) and (iii)
Keonjhar-Jaroli, East Coast Railway (40 RKm),
New Railway Electrification projects sanctioned are (a) Laksar-Dehradun
section of Northern Railway (79 RKm), (b) Vizianagram-Raipur of East Coast
Railway (465 RKm), 9c0 Rosaa-Sitapur-Burhwal of Northern and North Eastern
Railway (181 RKm) and (d) Alwar-Rewari of North Western Railway (982 RKm).
RAILWAYS’ TRIBUTE TO KAVIGURU
TAGORE & VIVEKANAND
For this year’s Republic Day Parade on 26th January 2011,
Indian Railways presented a special tableau which was a replica of the railway
coach used by the Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore for his travels between Bolpur
and Kolkata in West Bengal during his life
time. This tableau came as a tribute of
Ministry of Railways to Kaviguru, the doyen of art, music and literature on 150th
year of his Birth Centenary. A special exhibition train “Vivekananda Express” showcasing the life and
philosophy of the great spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda was flagged off from
Howrah station
in January 2011. This train was also a tribute from Railways on the occasion of
150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekanand.
BCCI
AWARD FOR RAILWAY SPORTS PROMOTION BOARD
Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) of the Ministry of Railways
has been selected for award in the category of Best Overall Performance by the
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the year 2010-11. RSPB shares
this award with Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA). The awards ceremony
was held in Chennai on 10th December 2011 where the trophy was
presented. Railways has sixteen Padamshree, three Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, five
Dronacharya Sammaan, Six Dhyanchand Sammaan and 134 Arjun Puraskar to its
credit which have been awarded to its sports persons. Indian Railways is proud to have 140 Arjuna
Awardees and 7 Dhyyanchand Awardees in its family.
RWWCO ORGANIZES SPORTS
MEET FOR CHILDREN OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES
Working under the guidelines of
the apex body of Railway Women’s Welfare Central Organization (RWWCO), the
women organisations across Zonal and Divisional Railways have been voluntarily
rendering yeoman service in welfare related activities for railway-men and
their families and the society at large. RWWCO has organized various welfare
functions during this year. These
include organizing sports meet for the children of railways officers and staff
in the month of December 2011, Balmela in November 2011 and organized Painting
and Essay Writing competition for children of railway employees in September
2011. In addition, RWWCO also released
an in-house magazine in May 2011. The
contribution of RWWCO in the sphere of providing constructive employment to
destitute women towards elementary education to the under privileged and in the
sphere of health-care has been exemplary. Their activities also help in
enhancing the sense of belonging of the railway-men towards their organization
by providing the much needed healing touch.
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AKS/HK/LK/TR