Sudheendhra Kulkarni, former political aide to senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, has joined a key committee of the Railway Ministry. Kulkarni, who dissociated himself from the BJP on Saturday citing ideological differences, on Wednesday, said that he had joined a committee appointed by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.
North East Frontier Railway officials said two unidentified male bodies were found from the coaches while six persons were injured in the derailment that occurred at around 9pm near Shamuktala Road station, about 32 km from Alipurduar Railway Division headquarters.
China evinces interest in the 1,754-km long high-speed rail project.
Preliminary probe into Monday's train mishap has indicated that Uttarbanga Express was moving at a speed of over 60 km per hour, nearly 40 km per hour more than the limit, and overshot the signal resulting in the fatal incident.
Various facets of Mahatma Gandhi's life journey were displayed by the 22 tableaux that rolled down the Rajpath during the 70th Republic Day Parade.
Rs 25 per bedroll kit will be collected as part of the fare at the time of issuance of ticket from the passengers, if they opt for bedroll.
Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee presented the Railway Budget for 2009-10 in Parliament on Friday.
Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Wednesday said the railway budget will make it clear if the performance of the PSU during his tenure was better than what it is at present.
This is expected to cut last-minute rush for reservations.
Going strong on its green run, the railways have decided to replace the electrical multiple units (EMUs) it uses to operate 2,415 trains in Central Railway and Western Railway zones with those running on three-phase Insulated Gate Bi-polar Transistor (IGBT) technology.
Officials say funds and land likely to be tied up by the end of this year.
In the Railways, people in various categories including senior citizens, patients, eminent artists and sportspersons are eligible for availing concessional fare facilities
Goyal lashed out at zonal general managers and said that they cannot hide behind the pretext of maintenance work to explain delays in train services, a senior railway ministry source said.
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.
The Railways have developed new freight wagons which can transport cars efficiently and is planning to run them in routes with a good business potential.
The trains will be launched soon between Delhi-Kolkata and Mumbai-Delhi as a pilot project.
A state-of-art computerised system is being deployed by Railways across all crew booking lobbies of both drivers and guards for efficient train operations and safer journey.
According to railway ministry sources, Banerjee is in a hurry to start the train services she had announced in her Budget in July last year.
The service would enable one to know the passenger name record status, current train running positions, accommodation and availability and fare enquiry. The SMS service would come at a premium and would be charged at Rs 3 per message.
In an effort to run air-conditioned suburban train services in Mumbai, the Railways have awarded the contract to a French company Systra and RITES for conducting the feasibility study of the project.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affiars had approved the Rs 1,293 crore (Rs 12.93 billion) greenfield project spread across 450 hectares. British consultancy firm Mott Macdonald has been engaged to prepare bid documents for the procurement. As a special railway joint venture project, it envisages manufacturing locos with 12,000 HP to carry 5,000 tonnes of freight at 100 km per hour on all terrains.
Although the CPI-M has emphasised that the railway panel's post is its top choice, Congress floor managers have already conveyed to the comrades that 'it will be difficult' to fulfil their dreams. The CPI-M is likely to get the chairman's seat in the Standing Committee on coal and steel or energy.
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.
The Northern Railway is planning to set up laundries in Delhi and Lucknow regions and house them in railway land. Currently, the cleaning exercise is being outsourced to private contractors.
France will extend its expertise to modernise Ambala and Ludhiana stations.
Rewards started pouring in for Sushil Kumar who won bronze medal in Beijing Olympics on Wednesday with the Railway Ministry and Delhi Government announcing cash awards to a total of Rs 1.05 crore for the wrestler.
The train is expected to take 28 hours to complete its journey, about 20 minutes less than the time taken by Chennai Rajdhani.
Zhang Shuguang, head of the Ministry's Transport Bureau, said that the new Chinese trains could ferry passengers at the speeds reaching 350 kilometres per hour. Media persons had a sneak preview of the trains on a government-organized trip on Tuesday.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is targeting the commissioning of the project by 2023-24
The National Rail Museum houses seven of the original nine 'Palace on Wheels' coaches.
It suffered losses mainly due to passenger ticket refunds and disruptions in freight services besides damage to railway tracks, a senior railways ministry official said. While Delhi-Mumbai trunk route was the worst affected, Northern Railway and Western Railway suffered maximum losses due to the Gujjar agitation on Scheduled Tribe status, Railway statistics over the past 20 days indicate.
It was only a fortnight earlier that the Cabinet, in a press release, named five short-listed bidders for two projects to be implemented in Bihar. The railway ministry had proposed to set up joint venture companies to develop the factories, with an equity stake of 26 per cent in these.
Major players from several countries, including the US, UK, Germany and Korea, have shown keen interest in carrying out the technical feasibility study for the proposed elevated suburban rail project in Mumbai.
The rising steel prices have adversely affected many ongoing railway projects across the country. "We have revised the price variation clause for all our future projects so that work does not suffer due to abrupt market fluctuation," said a senior railway ministry official.
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.
There has been a growing demand for high axle load wagon trolley and the proposed factory is expected to cater to the demand.
A trial run is already underway in Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express and our aim is to provide the Internet facility in certain premium trains including Rajdhani and Shatabdi, said a senior Railways ministry official. Besides Internet, a plan is also afoot to introduce onboard audio and video entertainment system for passengers during the train journey.
RailWire - the retail Broadband distribution model of RailTel Corporation of India Ltd, a PSU of Railway Ministry, is involved in distribution of Internet bandwidth through WiFi.
The total revenue earnings from May 1 and 10 stood at Rs 2,207 crore (Rs 22.07 billion) as compared to Rs 2,156 crore (Rs 21.56 billion) during the corresponding period last year, said a senior railway ministry official. Of this, it earned Rs 1,474 crore (Rs 14.74 billion) from goods traffic, which was an increase of 1.70 per cent as compared the corresponding period last year and Rs 629.44 crore (Rs 6.29 billion) from the passenger revenue earnings.
Last year, ICICI Lombard had bagged the offer, battling five other private players. This year's tenders will be opened on September 1, sources in the Railway Ministry said, adding that invitations have been sent to about 20 companies this time.
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