Presenting his fourth Railway Budget in succession, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Monday said that the Indian Railways had registered a profit of Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) for the fiscal year 2006-07.
IRG will provide four CFL bulbs to each house in railway residential colonies free of cost and earn carbon credits by registering itself with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change under Clean Development Mechanism project.
With 1.36 million employees, the railways are one of the country's biggest employers, constituting 28 per cent of the total central government employees.
"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.
Malaysia awarded IRCON International Ltd to design, construct, commission and maintain the proposed electrified double-track rail at the country's Seremban-Gemas sector. IRCON's latest project comes after an earlier Ipoh-Padang Besar project in 2001-2003, for which the Malaysian government had considered the Indian company but later shelved the plan.
Cricketer Harmanpreet Kaur, who hit a stunning 171 not out in the recent women's cricket World Cup propelling India into the finals, has been promoted as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Western Railway.
Lalu Prasad said factors like size, workload, traffic other operative requirements, and not regional considerations, determine the creation of new railway zones.
As per convention, Railways releases the new time table -- Trains at a glance -- every year on July one across the country. Sources said this year the Railway Time Table Committee, comprising senior officials from various zones, will sit after the Railway Budget is tabled in Parliament.
Recent derailments had brought the vulnerability of the national carrier into the limelight. For the railways, the fund allotment of Rs 1 lakh crore towards safety, is a welcome move, says Subrat Nath.
Women are taking up responsible jobs in Indian Railways.
After making landfall near Puducherry on November 30, Cyclone Fengal weakened on Sunday, but torrential downpour under its influence paralysed the union territory, with the Army stepping in to evacuate stranded persons in inundated streets.
This is the highest-ever bonus being paid to the employees for the good work done by them to take the Indian Railways to a new high, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday.
International para-athlete turned social worker Suvarna Raj on Sunday alleged that she was allotted an upper berth on a Nagpur-Delhi train even though she is physically handicapped.
Bombardier Transportation India Ltd is considering an association with the Indian railways
The volume of freight traffic in April-January shows an increase of 25.01 MT over the freight traffic of 730.96 MT carried during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 3.42 per cent.
With the country poised to import 142 million tonnes in 2011-12, the development holds significance as a tie-up with railways will help CIL in transporting the imported coal to its destinations.
The railways are planning to invest Rs 250,000 crore over the next five years to expand its network, modernise and upgrade the technology, all in a bid to provide world-class facilities to passengers. Consequently, investment in IT projects will be increased to several thousand crore rupees over the next five years, according to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad. A major part of this investment will be in the nature of public-private partnerships and domestic IT firms benefit.
The reassessed Plan size for the railways in 2012-13 has already shrunk to Rs 56,950 crore (Rs 569.5 billion) from Rs 60,100 crore (Rs 601 billion) after the first quarter.
RLDA is a statutory authority established by the ministry of railways for generating non-fare revenue from railway land.
'There are enough funds to solve this problem.'
Western Railway stated that local train services were running normally on Monday morning, however, commuters claimed trains were running late by 5 to 10 minutes.
Inaccuracies in furnishing arrival and departure timings at the national train inquiry system will soon be a thing of the past as the Indian Railways is all set to go high-tech with the launching of an IT-enabled control charting system. Currently a trial run of the new system is being carried out in Madurai and Trichy divisions as a pilot project.
What kind of facilities would you like to have at the stations?
The Indian Railways is set to record a marginal surplus in the current financial year -- much lower than the Rs 5,258 crore (Rs 52.58 billion) budgeted in February 2011. But, the fall is only a trailer, considering the country's largest passenger and goods transport network is likely to go into deficit next year.
The change in leadership at the railway ministry comes at a time when the national transporter is grappling with low passenger earnings even as it is trying to increase freight loading and open up its doors to private investment. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took charge from Piyush Goyal who got the railway portfolio in 2017 after Prime Minister Narendra Modii dropped Suresh Prabhu from the Union Cabinet. Completing freight corridors, negotiating land for the bullet train, and speeding up monetisation plans would be some of the major focus areas for Vaishnaw.
While Uttar Pradesh has allowed 837 trains, Bihar has permitted 428 and Madhya Pradesh more than 100.
A surcharge of Re 1 would be imposed on a second-class card ticket and Rs 2 on a first class card ticket.
There is no hacking nor any leakage of IRCTC ticketing website and everything is safe, railway board member (Traffic) Mohd Jamshed told PTI.
'The Railways must provide a rail system that they can be proud of.'
Railway employees across the country will donate a day's salary, totalling Rs 15 crore, towards Prime Minister's Relief Fund, Lalu Prasad Yadav said.
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Saturday.
The net revenue of the Indian Railways is likely to grow by 32.93 per cent to Rs 11,993.13 crore (Rs 119.93 billion) in 2011-12 compared to revised estimated income for this fiscal, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday.
Despite the hope that lessons will be learnt, the next accident invariably shows that nothing has been learnt -- or if learnt, they have been ignored, observes Prosenjit Datta.
The former beat Karnataka, while the IHF juniors got past Air India in the semi-finals of the Murugappa Cup hockey tournament.
A passenger should not have to wait for more than five minutes to buy a ticket from stations.
The Commerce and Industry Ministry has circulated a draft Cabinet note for inter-ministerial consultations.
In order to reduce government litigations, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the GST Council has fixed a monetary limit for filing appeals by the tax department before the various appellate authorities. It has recommended a monetary limit of Rs 20 lakh for GST Appellate Tribunal, Rs 1 crore for the High Court and Rs 2 crore for the Supreme Court for filing of appeals by the department before these legal forums, she said after the 53rd GST Council meeting held in New Delhi.
Six nationalised banks, including Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda, on Wednesday signed an agreement with Indian Railways for setting up more than 700 ATMs at railway stations across the country.
The Indian Railways registered over eight per cent increase in earnings during the first ten months of the ongoing financial year, with its revenue swelling to Rs 77,890 crore (Rs 778.90 billion).
