Today's Cancelled Trains
New Delhi: Minister of State for Railways (MOSR) Manoj Sinha on Monday made written replies to a number of questions in Lok Sabha posed by various Member of Parliaments yesterday as under:
Use of Non-Conventional Energy Sources in Railways
It is proposed to blend 5 per cent Bio-diesel to diesel to be used on diesel locomotives only on Indian Railways. 2 MW of Solar Power plant at a cost of Rs. 15.7 crore has been installed at Rail Coach Factory, Rae Bareli. The sanctioned work for non-conventional energy on Indian Railways includes 10.5 Mega Watt (MW) with Railway funding & 157.5 MW in Joint Venture (JV) for wind power and 7.8 MWp solar plants under Railway funding. No special fund allotment for Bio-diesel is contemplated since it is part of fuel cost for which provision is already available in the budget. Likely fund provision for wind power and solar plant works is about Rs. 40 crore in the year 2015-16.
New Line Projects on Indian Railways
With the objective of extending Railway line connectivity across the country, Railways have taken up 154 new line projects for construction of 17129 Km of New Lines at a total cost of Rs.163448 crore for laying additional New line/extend the length of railway line connectivity in various States. As on 1st April 2014, 3229 Km new lines have been constructed and total expenditure against these 154 projects is Rs. 42330 crore. For the current financial year 2014-15, a budgetary outlay of Rs.7624 Crore has been provided for New Line projects & for 2015-16, an outlay of Rs. 8850 Crore has been proposed in the Railway Budget.
Allocation of funds to New Line Projects is made on year to year basis, depending upon overall availability of funds, relative priority, status of land acquisition & other clearances, stages of projects etc. Because of large shelf of ongoing projects, limited availability of funds for New Line projects & factors such as land acquisition/forest clearances/law & order beyond the control of Railways no time lines can be fixed for completion of these projects.
Redevelopment of Railway Stations to International Standards
It has been decided to redevelop identified railway stations of metro cities and important junctions to international standards with modern facilities and passenger amenities by leveraging commercial development of land and airspace in and around the station.
Assessment of passenger traffic and categorization of stations on Indian Railways is being done in terms of earnings from sale of tickets which is undertaken every five years. Stations on Indian Railways have been accordingly categorised into ‘A-I’, ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, ‘E’ and ‘F’ categories based on which norms for provision of passenger amenities to be provided at stations have been stipulated.
Development of Multi Functional Complexes on Railways
A total number of 197 stations are identified for development of Multi Functional Complexes (MFCs). Out of these, 74 MFCs have been assigned to IRCON International Limited, Rail India Technical & Economic Services Limited, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited & Zonal Railways, who develop MFCs with their funds. For remaining 123 MFCs assigned to Rail Land Development Authority, the developers are appointed through competitive bidding process, for developing MFCs with their own funds.
Provision of Safe Drinking Water at Stations
It is Railway’s endeavour to provide potable drinking water at all stations including in rural areas. Instructions exist for periodical check on quality of water and corrective action to be taken, if any deficiency is found. Reverse Osmosis (RO) process involves substantial rejection of water depending upon its quality and will require uninterrupted power supply. In view of above, provision of RO drinking water units has been planned at identified major stations on experimental basis based on passenger volume and techno-economic viability. There is no proposal, at present, to use solar power for RO plants.
‘Go India’ Smart Card for Train Tickets
Initially, the card can be get issued by paying minimum Rs.70/- where passenger will get Rs.20/- balance. After that, card can be recharged for Rs.20/- or in multiple of Rs.50/- upto Rs. 5000/-.
Maximum limit on Go-India smart card is Rs.10,000/-.
Go-India smart card has life time validity. In case of no usage in six months from the date of last transaction, smart card will be temporarily deactivated which can be activated again by paying Rs.50/- as activation fee.
The scheme is intended to reduce the transaction time at the booking counters for the convenience of passengers as it facilitates cashless transaction.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
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