H.C. Kunwar*
The total approximate earnings of Indian
Railways on originating basis during 1st April to 31st
December 2012 were Rs. 89906.46 crore compared to Rs. 75009.17 crore during the
same period last year, registering an increase of 19.86 per cent. The total
goods earnings have gone up from Rs. 49868.95 crore during 1st April
– 31st December 2011 to Rs. 62413.41 crore during 1st
April – 31st December 2012, registering an increase of 25.15 per
cent. The total passenger revenue earnings during 1st April – 31st
December 2012 were Rs. 23025.34 crore compared to Rs. 20999.01 crore during the
same period last year, registering an increase of 9.65 per cent. In the
calendar year 2012, Indian Railways has achieved scrap sale of Rs. 3903.84
crore till Nov. 2012. For the corresponding period in 2011 sale achieved by
Railway was 3748.68 crore.
The
total approximate numbers of passengers booked during 1st April – 31st
December 2012 were 6422.29 million compared to 6210.12 million during the same
period last year, showing an increase of 3.42 per cent. Indian Railways have
carried 735.10 million tonnes of revenue earning freight traffic during
April-December 2012. The freight carried shows an increase of 31.33 million
tonnes over the freight traffic of 703.77 million tonnes actually carried
during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 4.45 per
cent.
In a path
breaking initiative taken by the Ministry of Railways, a formal Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) was signed in February 2012 for setting up a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) namely “Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation
Limited” (IRSDL) to take up work of redevelopment of railway stations along with
station maintenance across India in a dedicated manner. Under new SPV, it is
proposed to provide the identified stations with well designed concourses, high
quality waiting spaces, easy access to the platforms, congestion free
platforms, modern ‘State of the art’ Catering facilities, Hotels and other
facilities. After conducting preliminary studies & holding consultations
with zonal railways, five stations, Bijwasan (Delhi) Habibganj (Bhopal), Anand
Vihar (Delhi), Chandigarh, Shivaji Nagar (Pune), have been identified for
implementation through IRSDC in the first phase.
As a major initiative to further
facilitate the travel of bonafide and legitimate passengers and to reduce the
scope for misuse of reserved ticketing system by unscrupulous elements/middlemen,
the Ministry of Railways has now made it compulsory to carry prescribed
original proof of identity cards during train travel on all reserved classes of
tickets. Those travelling without an
original identify proof shall be treated as without ticket and charged
accordingly. This new change of policy is aimed at facilitating the travel of
bonafide and genuine passengers and simultaneously checking the scope for
travel on transferred tickets. It is
also considered that this policy provision shall also be useful from the
security point of view.
The year 2012 saw a big push for the key
infrastructure projects of Railways.
After a review meeting on infrastructure held by the Prime Minister in
the last week of November 2012, deadline has been set for such important
infrastructure projects like the elevated rail corridor in Mumbai, setting up
of locomotive factories on public private partnership, rail tariff authority
and Dedicated Freight Corridors. A time bound action plan has since been
initiated by the Railway Ministry on these issues.
Mumbai has one of the most crowded and overloaded
suburban systems in the world. Concerned about the capacity constraint on the
Corridor, Ministry of Railways has
decided to augment the system capacity and has accordingly envisioned a two
track elevated corridor along Churchgate-Virra section. This new Elevated Rail Corridor (ERC) will be
between Oval Maidan and Virar of Western Railway in Mumbai area. The indicative cost of 63.27 km-long ERC
project is approximately Rs. 21,000 crore. Under this corridor, 26
stations are proposed, out of which 5 stations would be underground, 19
elevated and 2 at grade.
The Indian Railway has achieved one more milestone in
transportation sector with the completion of Banihal-Qazigund section of
ambitious and challenging Udhampur-Baramullah-Srinagar Rail link Project.
Trials by running trains have started in the section by Railways with the
arrival of first Track Tamping machine at Banihal on 24th December
2012 from Qazigund. All the major works have been completed and finishing touch
is being given. This section will be ready for opening shortly the 17.729 km
long section consists of only one tunnel of 11.215 km length
known as Pir Panjal Tunnel, which is the longest transportation tunnel in
India and second longest in Asia. Opening of Banihal-Qazigund railway section
will be a turning point not only in the history of Jammu & Kashmir State
only, but for the Indian history.
Indian Railways’ ambitious project of ‘Dedicated Freight Corridor’ (DFC)
continued its implementation momentum during this year. There has been progress on both the corridors
namely 1499 km long Western DFC from Jawahar Lal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai to
Dadri/Tughlakabad (Near Delhi) and 1839 km long Eastern DFC from Ludhiana
(Punjab) to Dankuni (Near Kolkata). Land
acquisition is progressing well and as on November 2012, out of total land of
10703 hectares to be acquired for both corridors, 7768 hectares i.e. 73% has
been acquired. Initial funding
agreements for Western DFC through JICA and part of Eastern DFC
(Ludhiana-Khurja-Kanpur-Mughalsarai) through World Bank have already been
formalized while remaining Dankuni-Sonnagar section of Eastern DFC is proposed
to be implemented through PPP and Mughalsarai-Sonnagar section of Eastern DFC is
being implemented through the resources of the Ministry of Railways.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
on ‘Campaign Clean India’ was signed between the Ministry of Tourism and the
Ministry of Railways. Under the MOU, the two Ministries will work together
towards a sustained sensitization campaign to train travelers and service
providers under the Capacity Building for Service Providers scheme of Ministry
of Tourism and for consultations and discussions with the stake holders including
the travel trade to evolve strategies for the up-keep and cleanliness of the
stations and coaches. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Railways has issued a notification
containing rules on prohibition of activities affecting cleanliness and hygiene
in the Railway premises alongwith penalties for contravention of these rules. Whosoever
contravenes any of the provisions of these rules or fails to comply with such
provisions shall be punished with a fine which shall not exceed five hundred
rupees.
Indigenously designed, developed and manufactured Air conditioned double
decker train was introduced for the first time between Howrah and Dhanbad. This
year, an improved design of the train has been developed and its services
between Jaipur and Delhi and Ahemdabad and Mumbai have been introduced. Such
services are also planned between Habibganj-Indore and Chennai-Bangalore in
near future. AC double decker train with improved passenger friendly design is
having capacity of 120 passengers per coach and are becoming popular among
passengers.
Continued efforts and constant persuasion by Railway Board and energy
conservation initiatives by Zonal Railways have resulted into bagging highest
ever 11 National Energy Conservation Awards by the Indian Railways out of total
awards of 87 from 773 applications during 2012, which were awarded by the
President of India during National Energy Conservation Day on 14th
December 2012.
Indian Railways continued its
thrust on enhancing safety. Train
Protection & Warning System (TPWS) was extended on pilot basis on main line
operations on Hazrat Nizamuddin – Agra Section of Northern/North Central
Railway (200 Route Kilometres) where work is under progress. Based upon experience gained from ACD &
TPWS systems, Indian Railways has now taken up development of Train Collision
Avoidance System (TCAS). TCAS shall be a fusion of functionalities of TPWS
& ACD and shall prevent Signal Passing at Danger as well as Collisions.
After invitation of Expression of Interest, six Indian firms have been
shortlisted. One of the firm has developed the Prototype which underwent field
trials in Oct’2012 over South Central Railway.
To bring further convenience to
the rail users, Indian Railways through Indian Railway Catering &
Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of
Railway, is offering the service of
booking e-ticket over the mobile phone. After initial registration and
downloading of suitable software on the mobile handset with internet facility,
it is quite easy for the mobile users to book a reserve ticket through their
own mobile. After booking, the passenger l receives a reservation message with
full details of the ticket including PNR, Train No, date of journey, class etc.
This virtual message is treated at par with the print-out of the e-ticket.
With a commitment to provide hygienic environment to its passengers and
staff, Indian Railways, along with Defence Research & Development
Organization (DRDO) have developed Environment Friendly Bio-toilets for its
passenger coaches. In these bio-toilets, the human waste is treated by
bacteria, which is benign to the humans.
This bacteria converts human waste into water and gases (methane and
CO2). The gases escape to atmosphere and treated waste water is discharged
after chlorination. Human waste thus does not fall on the tracks. Eight trains
are running with 436 bio-toilets and in the year 2012-13, 2500 more bio-toilets
are planned to be introduced. A complete switch-over to bio-toilets in new
coaches has been planned by 2016-17 and the Indian Railway has targeted
elimination of direct discharge passenger coach toilet systems by the end of
the Thirteenth Five Year Plan i.e., 2021-22.
The travel distance from l00 kilometres has been extended to 150
kilometres under IZZAT scheme. There is no change in other terms and
conditions. This extension of travel distance from 100 kms to 150 kms is
admissible on IZZAT Monthly Season Tickets (MST) purchased on and after June 1,
2012. IZZAT is a scheme of uniformly
priced MST of Rs. 25/- inclusive of all surcharges issued up to distance of 100
Kms to persons working in unorganised sector with monthly income not exceeding
Rs. 1500/-. This distance has now been
increased from 100 km to 150 km.
Supervision and monitoring of catering services both in trains and at
stations has been strengthened, as a result of this the number of complaint
cases has reduced by 4.82 % (approx.) during the calendar year (up to October,
2012) as compared to the corresponding period of last year. About 26860
inspections have been carried out during January, 2012 to October, 20 12 by
Zonal Railways for ensuring quality in catering. In order to make catering
services effective, a Standard Bid Documents (SBDs) have been prepared for
award of tenders for various catering services over Indian Railways.
To provide accurate train
running information to the public, the Indian Railways has expanded the train
running information facility. Now the information on the running of all trains
is available at www.trainenquiry.com. Similarly this facility is available through
SMS on 139. Earlier, train running information of only selected 36 important
trains (Shatabdi, Rajdhani & Duronto) were available at website www.simran.in and
through SMS on 9415139139.
Indian Railways is adopting a multi pronged strategy to provide a safer,
faster, cleaner, and comfortable passenger trains. Firstly, seven corridors have been
identified for conducting pre-feasibility studies for running high speed trains
(popularly referred as) at speeds above 350 kmph. These corridors will be set
up through PPP route. Initially, Mumbai- Ahemdabad corridor has been taken up
for which pre-feasibility has been completed. Secondly, a study is also being
done on Delhi-Mumbai route with Japanese help to raise the speed of passenger
trains from 160 kmph to 200 kmph being referred to as Semi-High Speed. Thirdly,
Indian Railways is working on the concept of acquiring Electrical Multiple
Units (EMU) Train sets for intercity journeys for operating speed ranging from
130-160 km/hour. With high pick-up and
increased acceleration & deceleration characteristic, these proposed modern
distributed powered EMU train sets will provide faster and safer movement and
will substantially reduce run time.
Continuing with the Indian Railways and State Government partnership
model, a MOU for the development of rail corridors in Chhatisgarh state was
signed. The three rail corridors meant
for both passengers and freight would be developed in northern region of
Chhatisgarh state, approximately 452 kilometres in total length.. These are:-
1) East Corridor: Bhupdevpur-Gharghoda-Dharamjaygarh up to Korba with spur from
Gharghoda to Donga Mauha to connect mines of Gare-Pelma block, approximately
180 kilometres in length, 2) North Corridor: Surajpur-Parsa-Katghora-Korba,
approximately 150 kilometres in length and 3) East-West Corridor: Gevra Raod to
Pendra Road via Dipka, Katghora, Sindurgarh, approximately 122 kilometres in
length. These corridors will be implemented through specific Special Purpose
Vehicles (SPVs).
Filling up of
vacancies is a matter of priority and is being actively pursued by Railways
Recruitment Boards. In 2012, fourteen written examinations have been held for
271 categories, covering 50515
vacancies. Panels of about 15,838 candidates mainly for safety category posts
have been supplied to Zonal Railways/Production Units during the last 11 months
period i.e. 1st January 2012 to 30th November 2012. Five centralized notifications have been
issued in 2012 covering 27,038 vacancies in 138 categories. Examinations against 4 notifications, out of
five issued in 2012, have already been held in this year itself for 26,213
vacancies.
Railway sportspersons were felicitated by the Railway Ministry for their
remarkable performance in the London Olympics – 2012. They were presented with a shawl, a memento
and the cheque of the award amount. Sushil Kumar, who won silver medal in
wrestling (66 kg. Free Style) event in London Olympics was given a cash award
of Rs. 75 lakh. Joydeep Karmakar who got
4th position in the final in Shooting (50m Prone) and Ms. Krishna Punia who got 7th
position in the final in Discuss Throw were given Rs. 25 lakh cash award each. In
a momentous recognition of the role and contribution of the Indian Railways in
promoting sports in the country, Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) of
Ministry of Railways has bagged “Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar”, for the
year 2012 which is a part of National Sports Awards, announced by the Ministry
of Youth Affairs and Sports.
Bilateral cooperation
in Railway sector with foreign countries is an ongoing process. India and China, among others, signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU)
on Technical Cooperation in Railway Sector. Under this MoU, both the countries will
enhance mutual cooperation across various areas of rail technology including
High Speed Rail, Heavy Haulage and Station Development. A MoU was also
signed between Indian Railways and Belgium on bilateral co-operation for the
effective development and modernization of railway sector of both the
countries. Another Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Government of
India and Government of Spain on technical cooperation in the field of Railway
sector. Delegation level talks were held separately with Switzerland
and Germany on bilateral cooperation in the railway sector.
(PIB Feature).
*******
*Deputy Director (Media
& Communication), Ministry of Railways.
SS-16/SF-16/22-01-2013
RTS/HSN