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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,
police 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
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. |
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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.
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.
IRCTC launches mobile ticketing website. 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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