Railway officials also indicated that possible 'sabotage' and tampering with the electronic interlocking system, which detects the presence of trains, led to the Friday accident.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday started its investigation into alleged criminal negligence leading to the Balasore train accident which claimed 278 lives after registering a first information report (FIR), officials said.
In his letter to Modi, Kharge hit out at the railway minister for seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, saying the law enforcement agency is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents.
'To avoid accountability and cover the mismanagement of the head of the department, they create this kind of sabotage theory.' 'If it's a sabotage theory, then the higher-level officials can go scot-free.'
'I think my first obsessive, possessive and only half-requited -- as we would joke -- 'love' was Ivan. I saw him first slouching down the corridor of St Stephen's College nearly 50 years ago and was instantly smitten (as was everyone else around him).'
'Imagine what will happen when a train running at 128 kmph moves onto a track that is meant to have only a speed less than 30 kmph!' 'Naturally, it will derail, and the coaches will go for a tailspin.'
They had been told that this was part of their training for positions of travel ticket examiner (TTE), traffic assistants and clerks, and each of them paid amounts ranging between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 24 lakh to get the jobs in the Railways, according to a complaint filed with the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
'Kavach', which literally means armour, is being promoted by the railways as the world's cheapest automatic train collision protection system.
The Centre received 5.59 lakh public grievances against various government departments in the first half of this year, with the Department of Financial Services (DFS) getting most of such complaints, according to an official report.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday travelled by a local train between Thane and Diva stations on the Mumbai suburban rail network for inspection of two additional railway lines, and ate 'vada pav', a popular local snack, at a roadside eatery during his visit, officials said.
Also on the cards is tweaking the age criteria by extending the concessional fare to those above 70 years, as against the earlier 58 for women and 60 for men, they said.
At present only certain categories of persons including essential services staff can travel by local trains, Mumbai's lifeline, due to the coronavirus threat.
The railways has, however, capped the waiting list on these trains -- up to 100 for AC 3 tier, 50 for AC 2 tier, 200 for Sleeper Class, 100 for chair cars, and 20 each for First AC and Executive Class.
The abbreviation of the exams which is the same as the one used for the power producer has been widely used to refer to the controversial test during the reportage on the issue.
The decision that came soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party's poll victory in four of the five states was taken after a high-level committee submitted its report to the Railway Board.
In view of the high demand for oxygen in the country following a record spike in coronavirus cases, the Railways has decided to run Oxygen Express trains to transport liquid medical oxygen and oxygen cylinders across the country.
Railways to hive off all production units and workshops into new govt-owned company; may invite bids from private players to run passenger trains in next 15 days, with ownership vesting with the government.
This alternative is being planned as the existing projects continue to be delayed due to land acquisition troubles. The ministry is thinking of adding new track lines to its existing eastern and western DFCs passing major areas in the proposed stretches, senior officials said.
Experts suggest that a revamp in the surrounding infrastructure should take care of the issues plaguing the VB-2, stressing that the lightweight nature of the trains is what allows for higher speeds, and that needless design additions may hamper the train's efficiency.
In a first of its kind move, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the ticket booking arm of the Indian Railways, is looking to monetise its bank of passenger data while conducting business with private and government companies. IRCTC has a large bank of data related to every online railway ticket ever generated as it is the country's only railway ticketing platform, an IRCTC official told Business Standard. The public sector undertaking, which has sought the services of a consultant to assist with the monetisation process, plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore through this exercise.
Indian Railways last month issued an order to end the British-era practice of using Dak Messengers, or personal messengers, for official communications and move towards video conferencing in a bid to save costs.
The Railway Board and employees at Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, makers of the train, are at loggerheads over the proposed transfer of design and reassigning the manufacturing of Train 18 to Modern Coach Factory in Raebareli.
'All Shatabdis and Rajdhanis should be converted to this type of high-speed train.' 'There should be a sleeper version of the train.' 'Right now, there is only a day version of the train.' 'Unless you develop a sleeper version, it will not be possible to replace the Rajdhani.' 'Work on the sleeper version was stopped for some reason. It should be revived now.'
The Railways has drawn up a schedule to operate 2,600 Shramik Special trains over the next 10 days across the country to ferry around 36 lakh migrant workers, stranded due to the COVID-19 lockdown, to their home states, Chairman of the Railway Board V K Yadav said on Saturday.
Amid rising demand for coal freight and an aggressive push towards diversifying its freight basket, Indian Railways is planning to buy 100,000 more wagons over the next three fiscal years. The procurement plan will majorly comprise BOXN wagons, which are used to transport coal, said a senior Ministry of Railways official. Notably, the railways recently floated a sizeable tender worth Rs 35,000 crore of wagons, which had been in the pipeline since 2018. "Our Budget Estimates for freight increase were conservative.
Normal life in Bihar was on Friday affected by a dawn to dusk `bandh' called by students' bodies in protest against anomalies in the format of exams conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board and police high handedness against protesting students.
The key factor in deciding the 80 new trains was the fact that there were many stations from where the migrant workers are going back to their workplace.
Way before the rains arrived at Talwandi Sabo Power plant in Punjab, the one check the coal ministry was carrying out was the availability of coal stock with the generator. Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL), the 1,980-Mw thermal power plant of Sterlite Energy, part of the Vedanta Group, which supplies about 15 per cent of Punjab's power, is one of the most difficult locations to manage coal supplies. It is nearly 1,700 km from the mines of Mahanadi Coalfields in Odisha, the longest coal route in India and possibly the trickiest as it cuts through the traffic heavy rail lines between Delhi and eastern India.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday pitched for front loading of capital expenditure, saying it is critical for revitalisting the economy post the coronavirus pandemic. During a virtual meeting with senior government officials to discuss the infrastructure roadmap ahead, she also asked ministries to aim to achieve more than their capital expenditure (capex) targets. The Union Budget 2021-22 provided a capital outlay of Rs.5.54 lakh crore, a sharp increase of 34.5 per cent over the Budget Estimate of 2020-21.
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Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the Indian Railways' wholly-owned listed subsidiary, is eyeing partnerships to offset recurring costs incurred in train operations, which is part of its two-year-old diversification from core catering and ticketing businesses. To this end, it is courting public sector undertakings such as Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and others to create a special purpose vehicle for the routes for which IRCTC has bid. The Railway ministry opened bids for public private partnerships in passenger train operations in July 2021 and received bids to operate 29 pairs of trains with around 40 modern rakes that would entail an investment of Rs 7,200 crore.
All special trains -- 15 pairs running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs of mail/express trains operating since June 1 -- will continue.
It was during his tenure that Air India made its first operating profit of Rs 105 crore in FY17 since the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India in 2007.
Banerjee said on Thursday that her government made arrangements for 105 more trains to bring back people stuck in different parts of the country amid claims by opposition parties that the state was not eager to ferry home stranded labourers and pilgrims.
The Indian Railway Station Development Corporation is now looking to modernise 90 stations across the country.
The Railway Board has decided to wind up the ambitious Rs 5,000-crore One ICT plan and the transformation cell
The letter from West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha to Chairman of Railway board V K Yadav dated May 22, stated that the state has been severely impacted by Super Cyclone Amphan on May 20-21 which caused extensive damage to the infrastructure.
The clarifications came amid criticism over delays that the migrant trains were getting 'lost' before reaching their destinations. Till May 28, Yadav said, 3,840 Shramik Specials operated ferrying a total of 52 lakh passengers.
Revenue from freight operations also increased by 14 per cent to Rs 9,903 crore in September.
The Northern Railway is set to suspend wrestler Sushil Kumar after he was arrested by the Delhi Police in a murder case
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