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Chilarai
Exp derails near Guwahati; 3 dead
Guwahati, February 03, 2012: Three persons
were killed and over 50 injured when a passenger train derailed
after hitting an earth-cutting vehicle at an unmanned railway
crossing in Assam's Kamrup district on Thursday.
The driver of the earth-cutting vehicle and two other persons
were killed when their vehicle stranded at the level crossing at
Gossainghati between Azara and Mirza was hit by the
Bongaigaon-Guwahati Chilarai Passenger passenger train at 9:30 am,
railway sources said.
The collision derailed the engine and five bogies of the
passenger train leaving 50 passengers injured, the sources said. The
injured passengers were rushed by local people to the Mirza Public
Health Centre from where the critically injured were referred to the
Gauhati Medical College Hospital and MMC Civil Hospital in Guwahati,
sources said.
Railways may soon book tickets on phone
PATNA, January 30, 2012: Train passengers may not have to very soon face the travails of
standing in long queues at reservation counters to procure tickets. Railways is seriously mulling over an idea to book tickets on phone for
any destination and class at the country level. According to a Railway Board official, while online ticket booking
facilities for e-ticketing and cell phone ticket booking have evoked
impressive response from passengers across the country, the idea to book
tickets on phone calls is gaining importance among railway circles. "Efforts are going on to make this project a reality now," he said.
Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is working on
the project seriously to make it come true. There is every possibility
that a new inquiry number - 138 - would be used at the country level for
booking tickets on phone calls. Passengers booking their tickets by phone calls would have to use cash cards purchased from IRCTC counters,
an IRCTC official said, adding delivery of tickets could be from either
the PRS (passenger reservation system) or collection centres. Thus, railway tickets would be made available at the passengers'
doorsteps. Phone calls could be made from all telecom operators, sources
said.
Sam Pitroda has reportedly recommended raising passenger fares
New Delhi, January 24, 2012: Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister, has
reportedly recommended raising passenger fares and linking rail tariffs
to inflation from next year. The first part is wholly welcome, the second, not so much. Fares and freight must reflect costs and
productivity, which are affected by competition, managerial efficiency
and investment in technology and modernisation. Frequent revisions of
fare and freight are warranted, not removing pricing freedom by fixed linkage to an index like the wholesale price index.
The fuel part of the Railways' costs needs to be fully passed on, but it
is entirely possible that system-wide efficiency improvements could help
reduce other elements of cost, so that the final required change in fare/freight might be quite different from any change in the general
price index. Passenger fares are heavily subsidised and have not been
raised for eight years, forcing the Railways to draw down heavily from
reserves meant to replace aged assets. Such a compromise on safety is unacceptable. The Railways should make
large-scale investments to modernise and improve service quality. It
should spend more money on track renewals and new rolling stock, invest
in electrification and computerised signalling systems, especially for
high-speed operations. Investments can be stepped up only when finances
are robust. A crucial reform, therefore , is to end the practice of freight and upper-class passengers subsidising lower-class passengers.
The Pitroda panel has done well to suggest reforms on multiple fronts.
Indian
Railways to go on green drive
Bangalore, January 17, 2012: The Railways is adopting
an environment -friendly attitude and is now mulling over combating
energy crisis. It is planning to set up a solar energy producing
plants and self-sustaining hydro-electric plants at vacant railway
lands in the country. The plans were announced by Union Railway
Minister H Muniyappa at the Oil and Gas Conservation Fortnight organised at the Bangalore Palace Grounds. Muniyappa said:
"Conservation is only one part of the energy crisis. To combat
the crisis, we have to develop alternative energy sources that can
be used instead of fossil fuel," he said. He added that this
was important considering over 100 million tonnes of fuel are used
in India every day and this number will only grow with rapidly increasing manufacture of vehicles.
The minister said: "We can conserve energy by reducing
the use of private transport. Considering that the use of fuel by
railways is much less compared to other vehicles, by 2020, we hope
to expand our total reach to at least 2 lakh, so that more people
can use the railways instead of depending on buses, cars, and
private transport for commuting," he said. "The fact that
India imports over 83% of the totally consumed fuel is important
when we consider that although 5% of our fuel is mixed with ethanol,
petrol would only last for about 48.2 years and gas in about 58.6
years," said B Ashok, coordinator for the Indian Oil. Source: DNA
Five
killed, 9 injured in Brahmaputra Mail accident
Sahibganj/Guwahati, January 11, 2012 (PTI): Five persons were killed and nine others, including a child, injured in a
collision between the Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail and a stationary
goods train, about 25 km from Sahibganj in Jharkhand. The accident
occurred at 5.50 AM when the Brahmaputra Mail was on its way to Delhi from Dibrugarh.
The sources said that the Brahmaputra Mail was passing through Karonpuroto station under Malda Division of Eastern Railway
when a stationary goods train parked on the main line, started rolling back and hitting the mail train. However, Superintendent of
Police (Rail) Praveen Srivastav, said, "A bogie of 14055 Bramhaputra Mail derailed and dashed against a stationary goods
train". Condoling the loss of lives, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi has
announced an ex-gratia of Rs five lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured. Rs 10,000 will be paid
to passengers with minor injuries.
Fire crackers help railways deal with fog
New Delhi, January 9, 2012: In these high-tech times, Indian
Railways continues to rely on the age-old practice of bursting fire
crackers on tracks to alert train drivers during dense fog. "Fire crackers continue to help us deal with fog. New
technology supplements the decades old practice," said Y S Rajput, senior PRO, Northern Railway. According to Rajput, the Delhi
division buys around 1.5 lakh fire crackers every year for use during periods of dense fog. Railway officials said the firecrackers
are tied on the tracks before a signal and burst under the weight of
the engine. The blast alerts the driver to slow down the train and look for the signal ahead.
The crackers are usually placed around 300-500 metres before
an electric signal. Officials said though the railways now use electronic signal system for the purpose, the bursting of
firecrackers helps the drivers during dense fog when visibility
drops to less than 250 metres. The blast alerts the driver to slow down train and look for the signal
ahead.Fire crackers help railways deal with fog Fog is a major cause
of disruption of train movement in north India and leads to rescheduling and cancellation of trains, causing inconvenience to
lakhs of passengers every year. Source: ibnlive
IRCTC launches mobile ticketing website
New Delhi, January 3, 2011: Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) has come up with a new
way that lets passengers book tickets through mobile phones anywhere,
anytime. Passengers, who wish to book rail tickets, can go to the mobile website
of the Indian Railways - https://www.irctc.co.in/mobile. The IRCTC mobile website is said to be convenient and easy to use, and can be
accessed from any browser enabled mobile having basic GPRS activated on
phone. With just a few clicks, users can book tickets using their mobile phones.
The website offers various features. People can book tickets by
providing source and destination, check booking history and cancel tickets. Payment can be made using credit or debit card. Users can use
their existing IRCTC user id and password to login to the website. The IRCTC mobile website can be accessed from any browser enabled mobile
having basic GPRS activated on phone.
There are already three apps - PAYMATE, ngpay and ATOM - which allow
users to buy rail tickets using their mobile phones,
and the launch of IRCTC mobile website is an addition to the already existing mobile ticketing apps. |
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