Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday asserted that Indian Railways will never be privatised but said private investment should be encouraged for more efficient functioning. Replying to a discussion on Demands for Grants for Railways, Goyal said there has been no death of any passenger due to a rail accident in two years and the railways has been putting enormous focus on passenger safety. He said the country can progress towards high growth and create more employment opportunities only when the public and private sectors work together.
Under pressure from passengers over hike in fares, the Railways on Friday issued an order to discontinue the 'special' tag for mail and express trains and revert to pre-pandemic ticket prices with immediate effect.
The mega block, which started at Thursday midnight, has affected the suburban services on CR's main corridor, causing inconvenience to lakhs of office-goers.
'The vast majority of BJP supporters in Tamil Nadu can't speak any language other than Tamil.' 'When rural Tamil Nadu can't speak any other language than Tamil, how are they going to convince them that they have to learn Hindi?'
The cyclonic storm is likely to make landfall between Bhitarkanika National Park and Dhamra Port in Odisha early Friday with wind speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (kmph), it said.
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.
Four southern districts in Tamil Nadu are experiencing severe flooding after record-breaking rainfall, prompting Chief Minister MK Stalin to schedule a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi for immediate relief measures.
In 2019-20, the capital expenditure of Indian Railways (IR) increased 60 per cent over 2016-17. The draft National Railways plan envisages a further increase in IR's capital expenditure, but an analysis by Business Standard shows that IR has come to depend more on borrowings and budgetary support. In 2016-17, while 11 per cent of its capital expenditure (capex) was funded by internal sources, in 2019-20 the ratio dropped to less than 1 per cent. A 2015 Committee on Restructuring Railways had flagged that over-reliance on borrowings could exacerbate the financial situation of Railways.
This is the third reported incident in the past two months in the Agra Division in which the crew of an express train violated the speed restriction.
Timely intervention by a loco pilot and locals saved the lives of 40 students after the school bus they were travelling on got stuck on railway tracks at a level crossing in Nagpur, an official said on Friday.
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.
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.
Passengers rushed to board the Tapti Ganga Express train from Surat railway station in the morning, causing chaos in which some people fainted, Superintendent of Police (Western Railway) Sarjo Kumari said.
The dead were identified as belonging to Punjab province. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
Residents of North India battle freezing conditions.
The FOB where the incident took place is connected to platform number 1 and 2 of the station under Nagpur division of the Central Railway.
Passengers and the general public can stay at the pod rooms by paying Rs 999 for 12 hours and Rs 1,999 for 24 hours.
Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is India's most tourist friendly railway station. It has an executive lounge, gaming zone, shower facilities, frequently cleaned platforms and effective solid waste management techniques.
The Railway ministry has been allocated budgetary support of Rs 140367.13 crore in the Union Budget on Tuesday - Rs 20,311 crore more than the revised figures of the previous fiscal. Overall, the national transporter is set to get a capital expenditure (CapEx) push of Rs 2.45 lakh crore in the financial year 2022-23, 14 per cent higher than the budgeted capital expenditure of Rs 2.15 lakh crore for the current financial year. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech for 2022-23 said that India will manufacture 400 new, energy-efficient Vande Bharat trains in the next three years.
Railway passengers can book their tickets and do shopping using RuPay pre-paid debit cards.
Bihar has accepted the most workers back with 100 trains, West Bengal has given nod to two, while eight more trains are in the pipeline.
Devotees attending the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj are facing transportation challenges, with many forced to walk long distances in search of transport. Thousands of pilgrims returning from the event are stranded at Varanasi Cantt and Banaras railway stations, with some missing their trains due to the rush and others stuck because of cancellations. Officials say the traffic situation in the district has returned to normal, but some pilgrims report difficulties in finding transport and reaching their destinations.
'The new trains should be fast, but the roll-out of the privatisation plan should be slow and well-considered,' recommends T N Ninan.
These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
The introduction of private players would mean that trains will be available on demand and that passenger waitlist will decrease.
Railway traffic has dropped 32 per cent to 99.86 mt between April 1 and May 14, compared to the same time last year, while its revenue, too, dipped 41 per cent to Rs 9,094.38 crore.
State-of-the-art passenger amenities are being provided to make journey a pleasant experience.
More than 150 express/passenger trains running through South Eastern Railway jurisdiction have been cancelled in view of the severe cyclonic storm, an SER official said.
It is suspected that some deaths have occurred in the accident as well, an official said but could not immediately confirm the information.
The cause of the fire, which broke out around 5:30 pm, was not known immediately. Plumes of black smoke were seen billowing out from the coaches.
Passengers, who do not have the app installed on their mobile phones, might be asked to do so after their arrival at the station.
All these trains began from Delhi between March 13 and March 19 - the Duronto Express to Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, the Grand Trunk Express to Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Express to Chennai, New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express and the AP Sampark Kranti Express.
From offering free food to passengers to re-arranging train timings Railways Minister Piyush Goyal announced a slew of measures to make the Railways more efficient
Passengers who are disallowed from travelling on trains because of symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus will also receive full refund for their tickets, the railways has said.
10 largecaps stocks which stand to gain from the Budget.
The incident occurred on the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train in which two months ago a man had set fire to his co-passengers, which resulted in three deaths including a toddler, leading to speculation that it might be a case of sabotage and connected to the earlier one.
Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Thursday, causing waterlogging on roads in some areas that led to traffic snarls and also delayed local train operations.
The Ratlam division of the national transporter is planning to provide head and foot massages to passengers in 39 trains originating from Indore railway
Gandhi alleged the increase in railway accidents in the last 10 years is a "direct result of the mismanagement and negligence of the Modi government, which has resulted in loss of lives and property of passengers on a daily basis".
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