During the fag end of the year, she tabled a 'white paper' in Parliament on Railways financial health which dismissed her predecessor Lalu Prasad's claim of an impressive turnaround during his tenure.
The Railways ordered an inquiry, on Friday, into the train derailment near Jaipur that left six persons dead. Commissioner of Railway Safety, Western Circle, Prashant Kumar is inquiring into the mishap, railway sources said.
With the Centre issuing guidelines for their resumption under Unlock 4, the rapid transit networks started operations in a graded manner in Delhi-NCR, Lucknow, Kochi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, but were still closed in Mumbai, Nagpur, Kolkata and Jaipur.
Inviting private sector for the development of railway infrastructure, the Indian Railways on Wednesday said the ambitious target of laying 1000 km of track per year would be financed through its internal resources.
It said it will also allow reservation of reserved tickets from common service centres (CSC) and through ticketing agents with effect from Friday. The zonal railways have been instructed to decide and notify opening of reservation counters as per local needs and conditions, the order stated.
It is developing ash parks at Varanasi, Raipur, Pune and Cuttack, to make it available to ash-based product manufacturing units at these centres. It recently signed an agreement with NHAI for supply of ash for use in road construction.
The Railway Board has decided to create over 5,000 posts and impart advanced training to Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel to ensure security of passengers besides tackling terror threats.
All staff dealing with customers such as personnel involved in ticket and parcel booking and onboard staff will have new uniform now.
The state government had earlier proposed to construct a mega power plant in Singur with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, but BHEL had expressed its inability for the same. Though the Singur site was with the Tatas, its group chairman Ratan Tata had earlier said he did not want to sit on the land and could give it back if the company was compensated for the investment it had made.
A scam had come to light in two lesser-known services-- Railway Board Secretariat Service and Railway Board Secretariat Clerical Service -- where promotions were being made allegedly without following due procedures and bypassing Union Cabinet's jurisdiction.
About 10 MNS activists have been arrested from central suburban Dombivali and Kalyan so far for disrupting the exam and preventing candidates from appearing the examination, the police said.
The first AC suburban train project in the country has received a boost with a feasibility report giving a green signal for running such a service in Mumbai.
A feasibility study undertaken by an international consultant on introduction of high speed trains in the country with the speed of above 250 km per hour would be completed in six months.
The top court also directed authorities to consider withdrawing all cases against migrant workers for alleged violation of lockdown norms under the Disaster Management Act.
Talking to reporters at Tiruchirapalli on Wednesday, Raj Kamal Rao, member (mechanical) Railway Board, said the joint ventures were for passenger coach manufacturing facility at Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, a diesel locomotive manufacturing unit at Madora in Bihar and for production of electric locomotives at Modepura in Bihar. The railway was in the process of producing stainless steel goods wagons instead of the mild steel ones, he said.
As the national transporter is planning to come out with semi-high speed routes where trains can clock an average speed of 160-200 kmph, dedicated testing becomes essential.
Nitish Kumar requested Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to deal with such divisive elements with an iron fist. "I expect the Maharashtra government to act tough and protect our students," Nitish Kumar said in Patna on Monday morning.
The MoU was signed in presence of visiting French Minister of State for Transport Dominique Bussereau, Minister of State for Railways Naranbhai Rathwa, Chairman and Managing Director SNCF International (French Railways) Jean-Pierre Lubinox and Railway Board Chairman K C Jena. The agreement will be valid for a period of three years and it will enable mutually beneficial cooperation between the two railways, Jena said.
Railway Board chairman SS Khurana, in an interaction with the media after the Interim Rail Budget, said the railways would lose Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) annually following the fare cut. He also pointed out that the ministry would continue to optimise freight earning through its dynamic pricing policy.
The huge quantity of scrap generated by Railways is now making way to manufacturing units for production of wheels, thanks to the innovation brought about in this field.
Passengers struggling with heavy luggage and senior citizens trying to make their way in the maze of crowded railway stations can now breathe easy as the Railways have decided to install 100 escalators in major stations.
Looking into the flexi-fare scheme in Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains introduced in September 2016, the CAG stated that occupancy in all classes except the sleeper class in Duronto decreased.
The function to launch the project was attended by Director General of the Railway Health Services, V K Ramteke, General Manager of Northern Railways Shri Prakash, Chief Medical Director of Northern Railway R N Tripathi and members of Railway Unions.
The minister said drivers are given specific instructions on where to slow down the train.
Besides senior citizens, female passengers above 45 years of age and pregnant women are also eligible to avail the enhanced quota.
India prepares itself for world class rail stations.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray on Monday dared Maharashtra government to arrest him and warned the state will have to "regret" the consequences in the event of that.
The Shiv Sena on Monday claimed that it was their party activists beat up and drove away scores of candidates from northern region candidates who came for railway recruitment exams in Mumbai.
"The 6th Pay Commission disbursement led to an increase in our working expenses," Chairman of the Railway Board S S Khurana said. He also said the Railways had saved Rs 655 crore. "Our cash surplus before the dividend was Rs 17,399 crore and operating ratio was 90.4 per cent," he said.
"The year 2009-10 imposes greater challenges", Railway Board chairman S S Khurana said. The railways get bulk of revenue from the freight traffic, which was impacted by the slowdown in the Indian economy on global financial concerns.
The fire appears to have started from the Roof Mounted Packaged Unit (RMPU- the railway terminology for an air-conditioning unit in a coach).
'This is not just Make in India; this is much more than that. Right from design to delivery, everything was done in India.'
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Even as the gas pipeline project with Iran hangs in balance, India is likely to help the country in modernisation and expansion of its rail network.Iran, facing UN sanctions, has sought India's expertise in upgrading its train operations, signalling system and electrical work besides training its personnel as part of its plans to modernise the railway system.
The mining industry demanded a long term freight policy to make it more cost-competitive to enable miners contribute in containing inflationary trends within the economy. The mining industry body criticised the Railways for re-classifying iron ore in category-180 from 170 from Tuesday besides hiking the port congestion surcharge on exports of the mineral from 60 to 100 per cent from April 15. The iron ore industry fetches highest revenue for the Railways after coal.
A Delhi court on Monday granted bail to one of the alleged middlemen in the Rs 10-crore railway bribery case while reserving its order on the bail plea of Vijay Singla, nephew of former Railway Minister Pawan Bansal.
Railways initiate project for ad revenues of Rs 4,000 cr.
Railways is finding meaningful ways to engage ragpickers across the country. They are being pressed into service to clean the tracks at stations and become daily wagers.
The next review to raise rates rates in slated in December.
The train-tracking system is likely to be introduced by next month in Danapur division. According to railway sources, the system would be launch in other railways zones by next year.
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