Tag: Indian Railways

Railways to install plastic bottle crushing machines at 2,000 stations

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Joining the battle against plastic waste, Indian Railways is installing plastic bottle crushing machines at 2,000 stations across the country.

“At a time when plastics in general, and plastic bottles in particular, are being widely recognised as being extremely harmful to the environment, we are undertaking concrete steps to raise awareness to battle the plastic menace,” a senior Railways official involved in the cleanliness drive at stations told IANS.

There is a huge consumption of plastic bottles for cold drinks and water every day at stations across the country.

According to a report in 2009 by the Comptroller and Auditor General, approximately 6,289 tonnes of plastic waste is discarded onto India’s railway tracks.

The installation of crushers is a step is to prevent travellers from throwing used plastic bottles on the tracks or in the station premises.

The crusher machines would be installed at platforms and at exit points so that passengers who want to discard their plastic bottles can deposit them in the flaking machine. Depending on the volume of plastic bottles deposited the machine automatically starts and stops. The inserted bottles disintegrate into fine pieces of plastic which are then released from a different outlet.

The plastic pieces will be given to the plastic manufacturers, thus saving the landfills from additional plastic pollutants.

All 16 zones and 70 divisions have been instructed to install the plastic bottle crushing machines at 2,000 stations in the first phase, said the official.

Currently, empty plastic bottles are disposed off manually.

There is a need to curb garbage thrown on tracks either by rail commuters or by those staying in illegal slums along the tracks.

The railways has given RITES the responsibility of providing project management consultancy for selecting the agencies for installing and maintaining the crushers.

While smaller stations will be covered under corporate social responsibility spends, the rest of will be done through competitive bidding. Successful bidders will have an eight-year contract to ensure viability and upgrade technology from time to time

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Indian Railways to export six DMU train sets to Sri Lanka

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Indian Railways is all set to establish its footprint in Sri Lanka with the export of six DMU (diesel multiple units) train sets consisting of 78 modern coaches worth Rs 600 crore.

The first DMU train set comprising 13 coaches will be shipped out to the island nation in September while the rest will follow by year-end, as per the delivery schedule finalised by the two countries.

DMU train sets do not require separate locomotives as the engines are incorporated into one or more of its coaches.

All train sets would be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai for which the order is a big boost in its export business.

There will be three different type of coaches — AC Executive Class, Second and Third Class — and, as per the Sri Lankan requirement, they will only have seating facility.

“The design of coaches is being finalised as per the customer’s choice and ICF has fully geared up to meet the export order in time,” a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the manufacturing process told IANS.

The first rake shipment will take place in September after which it will be put on trial run on Sri Lankan rails.

“There will be oscillation trial of the first rake which will be followed by shipment of five more rakes by the year-end or early next year,” the official said.

The contract will be funded under the Indian Line of Credit to Sri Lanka announced in 2011.

In order to foster regional cooperation with these countries, the government has been extending various lines of credit for funding railway projects for export of Indian Railways-manufactured locomotives and rolling stock.

ICF manufactured 2,500 coaches last year and has a target of 3,000 in the current fiscal.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Don’t restrict coal intake during monsoon, says Coal India to power plants

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Coal India Ltd (CIL) has urged power stations “not to restrict intake of coal during monsoon period when power generation demand drops”, but to use this period as an opportunity to build stocks to cope with subsequent increase in power demand, a statement said on Wednesday.

The coal behemoth said most of the thermal power stations have been facing crisis situation since the last fiscal, as they had chosen to restrict intake of coal due to subdued power generation demand during 2016-17 and started consuming the inventory to cope with the spurt in demand for thermal power generation in 2017-18.

According to the miner, the situation could have been averted, “had they realised inherent logistics constraints for rushing coal to the power plants widely dispersed across the country at short notices and maintained safe stocks as per the norms prescribed by the CEA (Central Electricity Authority)”.

The Coal India and the Indian Railways are working in synergy to help ensure that the power plants in the country have enough of coal.

“An action plan has been drawn to prioritise coal supplies to power stations lest they turn critical due to non-availability of coal,” it said.

Outcome of the coordinated efforts of the CIL and the Railways gets reflected in a CEA report that indicates reduction in the number of critical power stations from 30 as on April 1, 2018, to 13 on July 2, 2018.

Growth in despatch of coal to power sector has helped coal-based generation achieve positive growth of 5.6% during the first quarter of 2018-19, thereby offsetting the negative growth in generation from other sources.

Also, coal-based thermal generation during April-June 2018 has achieved a materialisation of 102%, it said.

The CIL has despatched 122.84 million tonnes of coal to the power sector during the first quarter (April-June 2018) as compared to despatch of 106.46 million tonne same period last year.

The coal requirement, as indicated by the Ministry of Power is 1.41 million tonne per day.

However, the CIL despatched 1.35 Million tonnes of coal per day during April-June 2018.

The Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Coal have taken initiatives to convince the power producers in the vicinity of the coalfields to lift more coal by road and captive modes of transportation, so that the railway rakes presently in use for these power stations can be utilised for the long-distance power stations.

There is also push for the short-distance power stations to develop their own captive transportation networks like aerial ropeways, elevated belt conveyors, Merry-Go-Round System, etc.

With the focussed efforts of the miner to sustain substantial coal supply to the power plants, it expects to meet 100% requirement of 524.6 million tonnes of coal as projected by the Ministry of Power during the current fiscal and in the coming years as well.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Public WiFi aims to add 40 million new Wi-Fi users in India by 2019

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Google’s public Wi-Fi project is aiming to capture 40 million new connected users in India by 2019, resulting into at least $20 billion being added to the country’s GDP, a top company executive here on Wednesday.

“India is a big market for the next billion users. Wi-Fi is a huge focus area and opportunity in terms of connecting these users,” K. Suri, director, partnership, India, Next Billion Users, Google India, told reporters here.

“We have found that if users have free and fast access, it could make significant change to their lives and overall economic prosperity,” Suri added while releasing a joint study by Google and global research firm Analysys Mason.

Public Wi-Fi could play a key role in driving ubiquitous connectivity and digital inclusion in India.

Google has partnered with RailTel and Indian Railways to offer public Wi-Fi in railway stations, covering 400 stations with about 7.6 million monthly active Wi-Fi users.

“Public Wi-Fi will connect 40 million new users to the Internet by 2019 and that would translate into tangible benefits to GDP, by around $20 billion between 2017-19 and at least $10 billion per annum thereafter,” the study showed.

The report, titled “Accelerating connectivity through public Wi-Fi: Early lessons from the railway Wi-Fi project,” outlined an opportunity to develop a wider connectivity ecosystem with public Wi-Fi as a key component.

“By 2019, over 100 million users will spend an extra $3 billion annually on mobile broadband and handsets because of their experience of high-speed public Wi-Fi,” noted Ashwinder Sethi, Principal Consultant, Analysys Mason.

“This has direct implications on Wi-Fi ecosystem in the country, and indirect implications on the broader connectivity ecosystem, along with government, GDP and productivity,” he added.

The high-speed Wi-Fi network with uncapped bandwidth of 1 Gbit/s per station provides path-breaking digital experience to existing and new users alike.

Offered as a free utility service under the brand name “RailWire”, users have 30 minutes of free access to the Internet, in which they can on an average consume 350 MB of data per session.

“Currently, the public Wi-Fi has close to 8 million monthly active users, two-thirds of which are in a typically young age group. While 50 per cent users access the Internet multiple times a day — 36 per cent first time Wi-Fi users on the network,” Suri said.

“The most usage is of online videos streaming content and watching IPL, social networking, finance. Even with multiple users getting connected at the same time, the experience is seamless and fast, with no buffering,” the Google executive noted.

As part of the next billion users initiative, Google is now building on the success of RailTel project to expand the public Wi-Fi outside train stations, into Indian cities and around the world like Indonesia and Mexico, among others, Suri said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Railways to focus on safety, upgrading infrastructure, says board chairman Ashwani Lohani

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The work culture at Indian Railways has changed, and the state-run transporter’s focus has shifted to safety and infrastructure enhancement, said railway board chairman Ashwani Lohani.

Lohani called the road overbridge collapse in suburban Andheri on Tuesday morning, that left five people injured and two in critical condition, unfortunate.

“It was a sudden collapse and wasn’t anticipated, said Lohani. “We have initiated enquiry against the bridge collapse. Infrastructure maintenance is being done in full swing. Lessons need to be learnt from such incidents.”

On Punctuality:

After expressing his displeasure recently at a public event over railways punctuality dropping to 60 percent in May, Lohani said he is happy with the recent figure of 71 percent.

“Punctuality has been affected due to safety works on tracks. Punctuality situation will improve in 4-5 years once safety work is completed on some sections,” explained Lohani.

However, he said that problems on Northern to Eastern stretch of railway tracks will remain till new tracks and lines are added.

On operating ratio:

In the last 17 years, 2018 is going to be railways worst year in terms of operating ratio as it is expected to be 98.4 percent. Responding to CNBC-TV18’s query on whether the mechanism to calculate the operating ratio will be changed, Lohani said no such proposal is on the anvil and the operating ratio will improve by the end of this fiscal.

On criticism regarding Bullet Train Project: 

A day after metro man E Sreedharan said Bullet Train is an expensive deal and will cater only to the elite in his interview with an English daily, the chairman said railways cannot stop working on modern ideas.

“Railways needs to look at growth along with its consolidation drive. High Speed Rail marks a paradigm shift in how people will travel and it is not at the cost of existing work being done at railways,” said Lohani.

CNBC-TV18 reported about the National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd’s  (NHSRCL) new strategy to get land for the ambitious bullet train project amidst protests.

NHSRCL is looking at making compensation mechanism public to land owners for the first time. This will help in ensuring transparency and making land owners and farmers aware of the monetary break up for the land and adjoining areas they sell to the railways for this project.

On new rakes for coal supply: 

Amidst uproar by Delhi government regarding lesser rakes to meet with the national capital’s coal demand, Lohani said Indian Railways has provided 10 percent more rakes this quarter compared to first quarter of 2017. “Its an outstanding number. There is a hike in rakes for coal supply… I dont think there is a shortage,” he said.

On Dedicated Freight Corridors: 

The much-awaited dedicated freight corridors on the Eastern and Western routes now have a new deadline – March 2020. The railways was looking at making the two corridors operational by 2019 end. But administrative issues have made the transporter extend its deadline.

“We are trying to resolve all administrative issues. We aim to add about 120 million tonnes of new freight traffic in Eastern & Western DFCs. While few existing freight trains will be transferred to the new lines.. we will be creating a new market for freight to garner more revenue,” said Lohani.

On wagons:

Union railway minister Piyush Goyal recently made a statement that India requires more than a lakh wagons in next 5-6 years. He urged the industry to gear up on the production of wagons.

Chairman Lohani informed that railways has an order of 12,000 wagons from existing players at present. “We have received 700 wagons so far and expect to receive 800 wagons in July. We have recently come out with a revised policy in which we have allowed a fair rate of return on wagon procurement. The earlier rate of return was much lower,” said Lohani.

He added that railways will float tenders for its largest order of 22,000 wagons from July 16 onwards.

Indian railways is permitting private investment in general-purpose wagons as per its revised policy. Railway minister had said at a recent event that this will help customers deal with the wagon shortage situation and get them a 10% rebate on base freight for 15 years.

Apart from these issues, Lohani elaborated on how railways will be holding discussions across zones regarding ethics and integrity from June 27. These discussions will be held as classes by professors from International Centre for Governance. This will be part of the whistleblower drive initiated by Lohani to curb corrupt practices.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Under fire over flexi scheme, railways looks to reduce fares in ten Shatabdi trains

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian Railways (IR) is looking to slash fares by almost a third on certain sections of ten Shatabdi trains.

Under the flexi scheme, fares rise as seats get filled up on premium trains. But the reverse should also be true – they should fall when train occupancy declines.

The IR has now identified ten Shatabdis, whose fares for certain sections (parts of a journey — between stations) will be lowered.

This should ease off some pressure on the railways, which has been facing persistent criticism over fares under the flexi scheme.

The reduction will be done on those sections, where road transport has beaten the Shatabdi on timings and fare, luring away passengers.

A senior IR official has said this decision was taken after the same formula was implemented on particular sections of two Shatabdi trains earlier and on one, the occupancy rose dramatically.

This official, who requested anonymity, said the flexi fare scheme, which has been roundly criticised by Members of Parliament (MP) and the common man, is here to stay.

“The flexi scheme will neither be abolished nor extended and to offer some relief to passengers, the reduction in some Shatabdi fares is being done,” he said.

“Flexi fare impacts just about 0.35% of the total passengers travelling on the railways’ network on any given day and it managed to generate Rs 800 crore in additional revenue in the first full year of its implementation till August 31, 2017,” he added.

The cost of carrying passengers has been increasing each year for IR, with no increase in fares in almost eight years.

It’s also well known that freight earnings continue to subsidise passenger earnings and in the absence of political will to raise passenger fares, flexi-fares remain the only option to generate additional revenues for the IR.

But instead of getting bouquets for thinking up this scheme to boost revenues with minimum pain, one of the world’s largest transporters is struggling to please its critics with tweaks.

The IR had earlier also modified the flexi fare system, offering 10% rebate in basic fare on vacant berths or seats after preparation of first chart in these trains.

The latest tweak should ease passenger complaints on high fares.

The flexi-fare system was started in September 2016, egged on by the prospect of earning more revenue by smart pricing.

Under this system, the base fare increases by 10% with every 10% of berths sold subject to maximum ceiling limit of 1.5 times in classes second AC, sleeper, second sitting (reserved), AC chair car and 1.4 times in third AC class.

Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of the Feedback Infra Group, says fundamentally, flexi pricing is a good idea, “Flexi works both ways (raising as well as lowering fares). What is the Tatkal scheme? This is also a flexi fare scheme, where passengers pay extra for booking tickets closer to travel.”

Chatterjee says occupancy of trains depends on several factors like seasonality, festivals etc. not entirely on fare levels.

Due to the hear over flexi fares, the IR began a study a few months back to assess if it can reduce fares on some sections of popular trains.

That is how the reduction on two Shatabdis came about.

Fares were slashed by about 30% on the Mysore-Bangalore section of the Shatabdi, which goes up to Chennai after IR realised occupancy on this stretch was below par.

Fares were slashed to just below those which Volvo buses were charging for the same route and the IR official said there has been a “200% jump in occupancy” because of this.

Similarly, on the Ajmer-Jaipur leg of the Delhi-Ajmer Shatabdi, only one in three seats were being filled.

But for the remaining journey, occupancy was well above 60%.

Fares were slashed by a third here too, but this measures hasn’t been as successful as the Mysore-Bangalore section.

So now, on the Ajmer-Jaipur section, the less premium Jan Shatabdi is being run with lower fares.

The railways cross-subsidises passenger fares through freight charges, which not only hurts overall revenues but also drives away freight to the road sector.

The loss on account of passenger fares (subsidy) for 2017-18 could be as high as Rs 39,000 crore, the official quoted above said.

A transport sector expert points out that instead of using flexi fares to raise revenues, the IR should cap the passenger subsidy.

He says, if the current subsidy of about 43% is lowered to, say, 35%, there will be several crore rupees worth of earnings boost for the IR, far more than flexi earnings.

After all, if the government can seek give-it-up in other sectors like oil and cooking gas, why not the railways?

According to data from IR, earnings from passengers and other coaching declined by almost Rs 1.85 crore a day or by Rs 148 crore between April and June 20 this year.

While the earnings from these two activities were Rs 12,524.68 crore in the 80-day period in 2017-18, they fell to Rs 12,376.26 crore this fiscal.

The decline in earnings came despite an increase in the number of passengers booked.

The IR carried 1862.35 million passengers this fiscal against 1859.68 million in the same period last fiscal.

That’s an average daily increase of 33,250 passengers.

There is a popular misconception that the flexi fare scheme is similar to the surge pricing in airlines.

The railways does not increase fares based on how many people are trying to book a ticket.

Nor does it increase fares in most cases during festivals and seasonal rush — there is a ceiling up to which it will raise fares and not beyond.

Besides, the IR offers multiple fare and time options for passengers wary of flexi fares, in other trains.

These factors make the railways distinct from airlines, which have limited connectivity even today and do not offer multiple fare options on a given day.

Sindhu Bhattacharya is a journalist based in Delhi who writes on a range of topics in business and economy. 

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Railways to become ‘net zero carbon emitter’ by 2030, says Piyush Goyal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Indian Railways will become a “net zero” carbon emitter by 2030, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said today.

Speaking at an event — ‘The Rail Contact 2018’, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with the Railway Board, Goyal said that the national transporter was going green in a big way.

“With the current action plans on anvil for 100 percent electrification, coupled with renewable strategies, Indian Railways will become a net zero carbon emitter by 2030. However, it is always a team which needs to work in partnership, with a collective effort of working towards a common goal,” he said.

Quoting Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, the minister added, “Great things in business are never done by one person. Industry participation is as much important in our mission as to make Indian Railways the newest, finest and safest railways in the world.”

Sharing the scale of modernisation and transformation Indian Railways has been able to achieve, the minister said, “We have been able to ramp up track renewal to 476 km every month.”

“In the last 64 years, freight loading has increased by 1,344 per cent in Indian Railways. Passenger travel in terms of kilometres has increased 1,642 per cent. The total investments in 2013-14 in the capital infrastructure of the railways was slated for about Rs 46,000 crore, which is now made Rs 1,41,000 crore for this year,” he said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s what you should know about the new IRCTC website

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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IRCTC’s old website disappeared on Thursday as it was replaced with the new e-ticketing site, reported Financial Express. The users trying to open the old website will now be automatically directed to the newer one.

In one of the crucial features, the new website ‘irctc.co.in/nget/train-search’ will now inform you about the probability of your wait-listed ticket getting confirmed, the paper reported on Thursday.

Additionally, the new site does not require the user to login, making it easier for the users to check various matters including train fare, availability of trains and modification of travel details among others, said the report.

According to the report, the beta version was launched last month and the officials were satisfied with its performance.

“We have been working on the IRCTC website for the last couple of months taking it through rigorous checks … the aim was to make the website smooth and user-friendly and give users as many options and conveniences as possible … we want that users should be able to glide through the exercise of checking train availability and ticket booking … the last I checked as many as 70% of the users on the new IRCTC e-ticketing website have given it a thumbs up, which is a very good number,”  Mohd. Jamshed, member traffic, railway board was quoted as saying in the report.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Northern Railways to monitor cleanliness of trains using WhatsApp groups

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Northern Railways will now monitor cleanliness of its trains using WhatsApp groups supervised by senior officials.

Every department, be it pantry, bed rolls etc., will have separate WhatsApp groups, in which status report of cleanliness will be uploaded on a daily basis.

“WhatsApp groups have been created for train and pantry cleanliness, bed rolls and functionality of air conditioners in trains. Photographs are being uploaded in these groups for monitoring by senior officials,” Northern Railway General Manager Vishwesh Chaube said.

The zone will also soon commission an automatic coach washing plant at the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station which can wash a 24-coach train thoroughly in under eight minutes.

The plant, which is currently undergoing trials at the station, is being set up by the Northern Railways at a cost of Rs 1.6 crore, he said.

The automatic plant will consume around 240 litres of water to wash a coach as against 1,500 litres required in manual washing, Chaube said, adding that the unit will use 20 per cent fresh water and 80 per cent recycled water.

The plant can wash 250 coaches per day, he said.

The coaches will be cleaned using vacuum cleaners, scrubbers and jet cleaning machines. Branded chemicals will be used instead of phenyl, and perfume and mosquito repellents will also be used, Chaube said.

“OBHS (on board housekeeping staff) is uploading time-stamped pictures on WhatsApp groups for monitoring,” he added.

Chaube said under Project Utkrisht, eight trains having 16 rakes would be upgraded by the end of 2018-2019. These coaches would have anti-graffiti exterior paints, state-of-the-art toilet fittings and odour control system, among others.

To keep the station area and tracks clean, 4,415 bio-toilets have been fitted in coaches in 2017-2018 against a target of 4,000 and 6,000 more will be fitted in 2018-2019 to cover all NR coaches, he added.

There is a target of installing CCTVs in 340 coaches – 265 in Delhi and 75 in Ferozpur divisions – for online monitoring of cleanliness and safety, the GM said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Passengers to pay six-time penalty for carrying excess luggage in train

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Just like air travel, now beware of carrying excess luggage while travelling in trains as well. As a result of numerous complaints regarding excess baggage being towed into train compartments, the Indian Railways has decided to strictly enforce its over-three-decades-old baggage allowance rules, which will see passengers paying up to six times the stipulated amount as penalty, if caught travelling with overweight luggage, an official said today.

According to the prescribed norms, a sleeper class and a second class passenger can carry luggage weighing 40 kg and 35 kg respectively without paying any extra money and a maximum of 80 kg and 70 kg respectively by paying for the excess luggage at the parcel office. The excess luggage would have to be put in the luggage van.

“The rules were already in place, we are just enforcing them strictly now. Passengers are allowed to book and carry excess luggage in the luggage van, up to the maximum limit, on the payment of a fee equivalent to one-and-a-half times the luggage rate.

“If a passenger is found travelling with un-booked luggage weighing more than the free allowance, the excess weight will be charged six times the luggage rate. The move is to ensure passenger convenience and address the issue of cramped compartments,” Ved Prakash, Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said.

Officials said unlike at the airports, where the luggage of each passenger is weighed, the railways will carry out random checks among the passengers.

For example, if a passenger is travelling 500 km with luggage weighing 80 kg in the sleeper class, he can book his excess baggage of 40 kg for Rs 109 in the luggage van.

However, if he fails to do so and is caught with the excess luggage, he will end up paying a penalty of Rs 654.

Similarly, an AC first class passenger can carry 70 kg of luggage for free and a maximum of 150 kg, after paying a fee for the excess 80 kg.

An AC two-tier passenger can carry 50 kg of luggage for free and a maximum of 100 kg by paying a fee for the excess 50 kg.

The railways will also ensure that trunks, suitcases and boxes adhere to the prescribed measurements of 100cm x 60cm x 25cm (length, breadth, height) for personal luggage to be carried in the compartments.

If the trunks, suitcases and boxes exceed any one of the dimensions, those would have to be booked and carried in the luggage van, Prakash said.

The national transporter has launched a special drive (June 1-6) across all its zones to enforce the rules.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow