Full Conversion of lithium-ion Battery Units to Railway Engines 

Railways is testing waters for locomotives to run on lithium-ion batteries, the most common ones used in electric vehicles. Locomotive powered by Lithium-ion batteries, has already been developed and put into operation on the Eastern Railway.

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: After a push for electrification, the Indian Railways is now testing waters for locomotives that can run on lithium-ion batteries.

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works will be making 10 such railway engines. A locomotive, powered by lithium-ion batteries, has already been developed and put into operation at the Eastern Railway.

Lithium-ion batteries are the most common ones used in electric vehicles (EVs) and has higher energy density compared to their weight.

“With plans for full-electrification of the Indian Railways gathering momentum, these battery locomotives will be used for small functions like shunting or transfer of small equipment within a station or covering small distance,” said a senior Railways official.

Presently, shunting operations are done by diesel locomotives that are not considered energy efficient.

This comes at a time when the NITI Aayog has lined up its ambitious targets like full conversion to EVs for three-wheelers by 2023, and two-wheelers by 2025.

On a pilot basis, the Eastern Railway Kanchrapara Railway Workshop has already converted one motor coach to work as battery cum 25 kV shunting engine. “This will be working on dual mode — wired (25 kv) and wireless — so that the locomotive works even without grid connected power. However, it will be able to pull freight and passenger trains at low speed when on battery mode,” the official said. In this new locomotive, the mode of operation from electric traction to battery can be changed by a simple switch operation.

The battery operated shunter is capable of moving passenger train with up to 24 coaches and freight train of 58 BOXN (a type of wagon).

The battery-operated locomotives would be produced on a large scale for shunting operations, as the national transporter wants to electrify balance broad gauge (BG) routes by 2021-22. Compared to an average 608 route kilometres (RKM) per year of electrification done in the period 2009-14, the average electrification of railway tracks had increased to 2,737 RKM per annum between 2014 and 2019.

According to the government’s roadmap, 7,000 RKM will be electrified in 2019-20, followed by 10,500 each in 2020-21 and 2021-22. During the current financial year, electrification of only around 1,000 km has so far been completed. Officials expect the pace to increase by the end of the year.

Interestingly, this is not the first time the Railways is using battery-operated locomotives. Sonarpur car shed had earlier converted an old periodic overhaul motor coach into battery operated shunter through their own technology in the early 2000s. It was developed using spare equipment from conventional EMU/MEMU and traction batteries (2V/1100Ah) from conventional air conditioned coaches. “The major difference this time is that the Railways is also joining the lithium-ion club,” the official said.

Source:RailNews

Alternative Fuel 

NITI Aayog has set up an Apex Committee and five Task Forces under it for carrying out R&D activities and developing roadmap for implementing Methanol Economy in India. Task Force on Production of Methanol using High Ash Coal is one of them.  The Government has notified G.S.R 490(E) dated 24.05.2018 regarding Mass emission standards for flex-fuel Methanol M15 or M100 and Methanol MD 95 vehicles.

India imported 212.7 Million Tons of Crude oil in 2016-2017. It is estimated that a 15% methanol blending can result in replacement of around 31.9 million tons of crude oil. With increasing crude oil prices, it can result in significant savings for India. Further the CO and HC emission reduction for M 15 as compared to neat gasoline by approximate 40 % is an added benefit. Further CO2 and evaporative emission benefits are also envisaged. With NITI Aayog’s initiatives, Department of Science & Technology has sanctioned R&D projects on demonstration of two plants (1 TPD each) for production of methanol using high ash coal one at Thermax Ltd., Pune, and another at BHEL, Hyderabad and are progressing well.

This information was given by Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Shri Mansukh L Mandaviya in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

Source:PIBNEWS 

Rework Railway Timetable for Safety Checks of Tracks: NITI Aayog

New Delhi: The Railway timetable should be reworked to ensure that workmen get enough time for daily safety checks of rail tracks, a NITI Aayog report has suggested.

The report prepared by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy and its OSD Kishore Desai said several high density network (HDN) sections in railway network have capacity utilisation of more than 120 per cent (even up to 150 per cent and beyond for some).

“It is suggested that Ministry of Railways (MoR) considers relooking/redesigning existing Railway timetable.

Timetable should be redesigned in a manner that sufficient margin is available for daily safety checks,” said the report titled Fund Deployment Framework for Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK).

Observing that majority passenger trains do not run to optimal capacities thereby choking the available network, the note said the ongoing network decongestion and expansion projects on HDN routes (doubling, tripling, quadrupling) would surely enhance safety margins.

“However, till the time these projects are commissioned, MoR may consider rationalising trains (by combining few trains; increasing coaches or wagons, rationalising stops) as an alternate approach,” the note pointed out.

Citing data, the report said over the six-year period (2012-13 to 2016-17), th country’s rail network saw a total of 586 accidents.

“These accidents led to 1,011 casualties and left 1,634 people injured,” it said.

Elaborating further, the note said: “Derailments accounted for more than 50 per cent of the total consequential accidents while Level Crossing (LC) related accidents (on both manned and unmanned) accounted for about 40 per cent”.

On a cumulative basis, the data indicates that human failures contribute to about 87 per cent of all accidents while the rest were due to failure of equipment, technology or other reasons, the report said.

Source:RailNews

Delhi Metro to bring in World’s first Transit Rating system

NEW DELHI: The world’s first transit rating system, which caters exclusively to metro networks, was unveiled at the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s head office here on Wednesday.

With this, the Metro Bhawan has also become the first building in the country to achieve a certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

The DMRC, along with the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), announced the LEED for transit rating system, designed specifically to address the needs of transit systems around the world.

“Delhi Metro Rail Corporation will be the first metro network in the world to pursue the pilot – LEED v4 O+M: Transit – for its stations in Delhi-NCR. Also, the Metro Bhawan is the first building to pursue and achieve LEED certification,” said a statement released by the DMRC.

LEED is an international certification, which provides a framework to building owners and operators for identifying and implementing practical green building solutions. It was introduced for transit purposes after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the DMRC, the USGBC and the GBCI in October 2015.

To assess the functioning of metro stations, an ‘arc performance platform’ has been released, which will track performance based on five categories — energy, water, waste, transportation, and human experience.

Developed with inputs from the DMRC, the new system will allow operational transit facilities to benchmark efficiencies and demonstrate continual improvement.

Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, said, “LEED v4 is based on actual performance parameters. The DMRC’s initiative will also motivate other metros to take environment-friendly measures and achieve this certification.”

Source:RailNews

INDIA INNOVATIVE INDEX  FOR RANKING LAUNCHED

To make India an innovation-driven economy, NITI Aayog, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) together launched a mega initiative “India Innovation Index” that will rank states on Innovations through country’s first online innovation index portal that will capture data on innovation from all Indian states on innovation and regularly update it in real time.

The India Innovation Index Framework will be structured based on the best practices followed in Global Innovation Index (GII) indicators and additionally by adding India-centric parameters those truly reflect the Indian innovation ecosystem. This initiative will be the point of reference for all international agencies to collect India’s up to date data points for global indices and analytic.

Inaugurating the portal, Mr Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog said, “This portal will be a first-of-its-kind online platform where Global Innovation Index indicators and India–centric data from various states will be coalesced and disseminated and updated periodically. This will be a one-stop data warehouse and will track progress on each indicator at the National level and the State level on real-time basis. The access to this portal will be hosted on the NITI Aayog website, and NITI Aayog will update this data periodically.”

Mr. Kant said, “I would like to congratulate Confederation of Indian Industry for creating the Global Innovation Index a decade ago and the World Intellectual Property, Cornell University for working together to further develop it and make it a global consulting document for policymakers around the world.”

Data collated on this portal will not only be used to ameliorate current data gaps w.r.t the GII, but be the prime source for the India Innovation Index, which will be jointly developed by NITI Aayog, DIPP and CII, in consultation with World Economic Forum, the World Intellectual Property Organization, Cornell University, OECD, UNIDO, ILO, UNESCO, ITU and others with the objective to rank Indian states as per their innovation prowess and provide impetus to them to build their respective innovation ecosystems and spur the innovation spirit among institutions and people.

The Global Innovation Index (GII), co-published by World-Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD with CII as a Knowledge Partner since inception, has been ranking world economies including India since 2007 according to their innovation capabilities and outcomes using 82 indicators among a host of other important parameters.  It has established itself as both a leading reference on innovation and a ‘tool for action’ for policy makers.

India currently ranks 66th out of 128 countries on the Global innovation Index (GII) 2016. To improve India’s rank in GII and other international indices, NITI Aayog jointly with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), organized the Global Innovation Index – India Roundtable on 31st January in the capital.

Mr. Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Government of India said, “GII gives us an opportunity to look at innovation and to rethink about our progress. This also gives an opportunity to compare with the best in the world, to look at best practices around and then learn from them. DIPP has formed a taskforce on innovation with representation from industry, academia and government, through this taskforce we are trying to improve our GII ranking.”

Speaking at the inaugural session, Mr. Ratan P. Watal, Principal Adviser, NITI Aayog said, “Regulation, fiscal incentives and R&D plays a major role in driving innovation. A lot of money is provided for R&D but unfortunately R&D money goes in silos within various government departments giving no result. Scientific departments, departments which deal with such budgets and CII have to come together and work towards it”.

The event was a first-of-its-kindintensiveconsultation exercise conducted by the government to solicit inputs from key stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem in India and abroad such as Ministry of Commerce, Department of Science & Technology, TRAI and top global agencies such as WIPO, Cornell University, World Economic Forum, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, International Telecommunications Union, International Labour Organisation to identify and understand issues and challenges related to it. This exercise was aimed at addressing India's data gaps by adopting international methodologies on critical innovation indicators at the input and output side.

Source:PIBNEWS

Indian Railways organises Conference on Heritage Rail Tourism jointly with Asia Pacific Heritage & Rail Tourism Organisation 

Heritage Rail Tourism Conference was organized by Indian Railways at National Rail Museum, New Delhi jointly with Asia Pacific Heritage & Rail Tourism Organization (APHRTO), from 19-21 October, 2016. Participants from many countries including Japan, UK, Germany, Australia, Taiwan, senior officers of Indian Railways and other stakeholders of Heritage Rail Tourism were present in the Conference. 

Shri Tim Fischer, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia delivered a talk on ‘Heritage Rail Tourism in Australia’ in a curtain raiser held on 19th October 2016. 

Shri Tim Fischer (Australia), along with Shri Adrian Shooter (UK), Shri David Morgan (UK) and Dr. Nui (Taiwan) and accompanied by Secretary, Railway Board and Executive Director/Heritage, Railway Board met Hon’ble Union Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on 19th October 2016 to discuss ideas on developing Rail Heritage Tourism in India. The participants also visited Heritage Transport Museum, Gurgaon, being managed by Heritage Transportation Trust, New Delhi. 

Dr. Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog delivered keynote speaker in the inaugural session held on 20th October 2016. The inaugural session was graced by Shri Hemant Kumar, Member Rolling Stock, Railway Board, Shri Ashwani Lohani, CMD/Air India Ltd., Shri R.K. Verma, Secretary, Railway Board. The international conference, the first time ever organized in National Rail Museum on Heritage Rail Tourism is having three technical sessions with 14 papers being presented by national and international delegates primarily covering various aspects of Rail Heritage and promoting Heritage Rail Tourism in the world. 

The Annual General Meetings of APHTRO and WATTRAIN (World Association of Tourist Trams and Trains) had been held as a side event. It was envisaged that this APHTRO Conference will bring ideas and visions for strategizing Rail Heritage Tourism in India. 

Source:PIBNEWS 

Amid indications on scrapping Rail Budget, Suresh Prabhu releases book compiling Rail Budget speeches

30 Jun, 2016  in Railway Budget in India / Union Minister of Railways by rail

New Delhi: Railways minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday released a book compiling the rail budget speeches made in Parliament from 1924-25 to 1946-47.

The move surprised many, including railways officials, as it came amid indications that BJP government is set to scrap the British practice of presenting separate rail budget.

A note prepared by NITI Aayog Bibek Debroy has suggested integration of rail budget with general budget to pave the way for pushing major reforms in railways.

Speeches of railway members of viceroy’s council and railways minister of Indian Union presented in Parliament before Independence would help in better understanding the growth of railways and its finances, the railways said.

“These speeches being significant policy documents will help in understanding the growth of Indian Railways and its finances,” said a railway statement.

The state-run transporter also signed an agreement with National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) Vadodara for setting up of CT Venugopal Chair on strategic finance, research and policy development for Indian Railways at the academy.

The Chair is being named after Shri CT Venugopal, who was the first officer to be recruited to the Indian Railways Accounts Service.

He was also responsible for division of railway assets between India and Pakistan.

“This Chair would focus and promote research on issues of emerging financial challenges and opportunities for Railways in India in particular and transport sector in general,” said an official.

Source:RailNews

Railway Budget unlikely to be scrapped soon: Railway Board

New Delhi: The plan to scrap India’s annual railway budget and merge it with the Union budget, as recommended by the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog, or NITI Aayog, may find opposition from the finance ministry.

The change in the almost century-old tradition is unlikely to happen immediately, according to two senior railway ministry officials. They added that the resistance may come from the finance ministry due to the need for provisioning for pensioner expenses.

The Indian Railways is facing a financial crunch and is looking for external financing options to fund projects. At present, there are close to 1.4 million pensioners under the railways who draw Rs.8,000 crore per year. The railways is also staring at an increased financial burden of Rs.40,000 crore, given the 7th Pay Commission recommendations.

“The finance ministry will not agree since it will have to provide for expenses such as pension liability and I am not sure it will want to take on that responsibility,” said a railway ministry official quoted above.

The finance ministry is still to approve a Rs.1.19 trillion railway safety fund owing to financial crunch. The government has sought the railway ministry’s comments on the 20-page note titled ‘Dispensing with the Rail Budget’, jointly authored by NITI Aayog members Bibek Debroy and Kishore Desai, submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). It has been endorsed by railway minister Suresh Prabhu.

A separate railway budget neither addressed the railways’ funding requirements, nor made it accountable for delivery. It also says a separate budget has led to politicisation of railway affairs and has failed to ensure time-bound implementation of railway projects.

The first official quoted above added NITI Aayog has asked for comments from the ministry of railways but no decision has been taken till now.

“The ministry of railways has on several occasions said a separate railway budget is not required. The possibility of it being scraped is a call that the PMO or the finance ministry has to take,” said the official.

The development comes at a time when the national transporter is losing traffic, and freight and passenger revenue to roads and air routes.

Queries emailed to the spokespersons of the finance ministry, the railway ministry, the PMO and NITI Aayog on 24 June remained unanswered.

Experts though believe that consolidation will be a positive step for the railway ministry but the merger will depend on how technicalities are dealt with.

“The railways, unlike other ministries, ends up earning as much as it spends. It functions differently from other ministries and as a result, all expenditure will have to be dealt by the finance ministry. The amalgamation of the budget will have to be done very carefully. There are a lot of overseas investments and loans that the railways has to take care of. It will have to be looked into as to who will be responsible for the payment of loans,” said former Railway Board chairman Vivek Sahai.

The railways capital outlay for the financial year 2016-17 is Rs1.21 trillion compared with around Rs1 trillion in the last budget.

The second railway official said that unlike other ministries the railways generates its own earnings and caters to expenditure, the onus of which will fall on the finance ministry if the railway budget is consolidated with the Union budget.

“Railways is a very peculiar kind of ministry. We earn and we spend. The only burden on the finance ministry is the budgetary support. Once the finance ministry takes over the budget, they will have to do the accounting and they will have to take all our books into their account,” added the official.

Source:RailNews

Indian Railways looks to Revamp R&D wing, induct new tech

New Delhi: Railways has constituted a committee to review and streamline induction of new technologies and redefine the role of its R&D wing – Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO).

Apart from suggesting ways to upgrade the technical capability of railway workshops and production units, the panel will recommend creating a mechanism for incubation of innovative ideas and product development and also address issues related to intellectual property rights.

The committee, comprising railways officers, will also have Niti Aayog member V K Saraswat as a special invitee.

RDSO, IIT-K to work together for Indian Railways

Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with premier institute IIT, Kanpur last fortnight to carry out collaborative research work of the interest of the Railways. For doing the collaborative research, a Centre For Railway Research (CRR) will be set up by Ministry of Railways on the campus of IIT-Kanpur. The centre is expected to start working before the closure of the ongoing financial year.

Panel under NITI Aayog takes over appraisal process of High-speed Railway network

The PMO-appointed Empowered Committee on Innovative Collaborations under NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya has taken over the appraisal of the ambitious High-speed Railway network to ascertain its way forward and how to go about implementing the first section between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, signifying the NDA government’s seriousness regarding the cost-intensive project.

The high-power committee also has secretaries of Department of Economic Affairs and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. Former Central Vigilance Commissioner P Shankar and former Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrashekhar are also part of the committee.

In its first meeting held last week, the committee reviewed a presentation from Railway Board on the latest Japan International Cooperation Agency report on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor and an overview of the other lines dovetailing to the government’s grand Diamond Quadrilateral of high-speed links.

Sources said the committee stepping in to appraise and prescribe a way forward for the project also relieves the Railway Board of the tough task of having to take a decision of this magnitude—the first corridor will cost around Rs 98,000 crore—and places the project in a higher league.

As per the mandate of the committee, its recommendations cannot be overruled by the ministry. In case a ministry does not agree with the recommendations, the matter will go to the Cabinet. “The pace of technological change and of innovations is such that time-honoured government practices and procedures may sometimes not be capable of expeditiously converting ideas into action,” the committee’s mandate says.

Government sources said what is lacking in the current way the high-speed railway dream is being pursued is a broad, cohesive vision. Corridors have been sanctioned in piecemeal and studies have been commissioned in the past. A proper vision document for India’s proposed 10,000-km of high-speed railway aspirations, therefore, is to be prepared in consonance with the government’s overall policy of development and transport evolution.

The first high-speed link, whose final report by Japan was submitted in July, has been lying in Railway Board’s perusal process. Although JICA has proposed to lend money at very cheap rates to fund the project, a bulk of the funding will have to come from the government. This is not a decision that could have been taken by railway ministry alone.

The first project, whose economic rate of return is pegged at upwards of 12 per cent even though the financial rate of return in below 4 per cent (Railways considers a project financially viable only if has a rate of return of 14 and above), would have anyway required some heavy handholding by top offices. The newly formed Empowered Committee on Innovative Collaborations, vested with the appropriate powers, is expected to do exactly that, sources said.

PMO zeroes in on Railways to implement PM’s Economic Agenda

Railways to be pushed back on track:  PMO nudges Railways to push Implementation of Projects. Prime Minister also zeroes in on Railways to implement his Economic Agenda

PMO review of Rail sector

New Delhi: With the railways lagging behind in its plan capital expenditure in the first six months of the current fiscal, the Prime Minister’s Office has asked the national transporter to accelerate project implementation, which could be key to economic growth revival in the country.

To take stock of the performance of the railways, Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to the PM, on Monday held a review meeting with Railway Board chairman A K Mittal, Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal and NITI Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar. Sources said the PMO pushed for speeding up of projects including a high-speed rail corridor, dedicated freight corridor, priority projects, electrification, doubling of tracks, gauge conversion and station redevelopment programme. Special emphasis was given to increase in project implementation under the public-private-partnership, built-operate-transfer and and annuity routes.

On many occasions, finance minister Arun Jaitley had emphasised on public capital expenditure, especially by the railways, to boost economic activity. If the railways spends R1 lakh crore in FY16 (52% more than last year) on creation of assets, it would have a multiplier effect on the economy as various other sectors such as steel, cement, employment and so on, would get a boost.

The railways alone accounts for 30% of the Centre’s Budget capital spending of Rs 1.35 lakh crore in FY16. Including Rs 40,000-crore budgetary assistance, the railways’ ambitious plan spending will be used to de-congest existing super saturated corridors, doubling works, laying of new lines and electrification projects. While the Centre’s plan capital expenditure was scaled up to Rs 82,818 crore or 61.2% of the full year target, railways has come up as a laggard spending only Rs 15,552 crore or 39% of the transporter’s capital spending from budgetary sources. It was even lower than Rs 17,359 crore spent from budgetary source in the year ago period.

The railways’ spending through various investment funds — which are basically of the asset replenishment kind — was significantly lower in H1FY16 than a year ago. Plan spending from extra-Budget resources (EBR) — tapping the market, LIC, multilateral agencies and global pension funds — showed a modest improvement from last year, but was far from what the annual targets would have demanded. EBR Plan spending was just Rs 6,586 crore, or 16% of the full-year estimate of Rs 40,572 crore, in April-September. This compared with Rs 5,483 crore in H1FY15. In all, the railways, targeting an operating ratio of 88.5% this year against last year’s 91.8%, reported Plan spending of Rs 32,851 crore in the first half of this year, marginally lower than a year ago Rs 32,952 crore. In addition to this is the PPP segment  read private investment) and the railways claims that works are being expedited on PPP projects and investments to the tune of Rs 19,000 crore are expected in the next three years. (Outside the Plan Budget are Rs 17,000-crore worth of projects awarded for the Dedicated Freight Corridor, or DFC, recently; DFC projects of an equal size are set to be awarded in the second half of the year.)

Even though analysts are skeptical about the railways meeting the Plan spending target this year, sources in the rail ministry said a jump in award of new projects in recent months would get reflected in capital spending in the coming months.

Fast-tracking

Kerala to frame New Policy to acquire Land for Railway projects

Thiruvananthapuram: In a bid to revive the railway-related projects that continue to be plagued by delays caused by the alleged neglect of the Union Ministry of Railways towards Kerala, the state government would formulate a new land acquisition policy to provide land to the Railways for implementing the proposals.

The draft, which would also propose to bear 50 per cent of the cost of the proposed track doubling works, will be placed before the Cabinet for approval in its next meeting. After getting the approval, detailed project estimates will be prepared, according to official sources.

The move came in the wake of the Railway Board’s to decision to exclude the proposals submitted by the state from the list of projects sent to the NITI Aayog for approval.

Inordinate delay in doubling tracks is said to be one of the major issues hampering the State’s railway development. The government needs to make required land available to the Railways for taking up track doubling works in the 30-kilometre stretch between Kayamkulam-Alappuzha-Ernakalum and in the Kottayam section. Citing fund crunch, the Railways has been demanding the State to provide land free of cost apart from bearing half of the total cost of the projects.

The central authorities have warned the State that its railway development would be in for a major setback if the government failed to complete the land acquisition process in a time-bound manner. The state would be able to put pressure on the Centre to allot new trains only after the completion of the pending track doubling works.

The Railway Board will hold a meeting of Members of Parliament to discuss development issues and problems relating to the sector by mid-November. The MPs would chalk out the future course of action seeking an end to the biased selection criterion allegedly followed by the Railway Board. Not a single proposal from the Southern Railways had figured in the list submitted by the Railway Board to the NITI Aayog for approval recently.

The state would also submit its recommendations and demands to be included in the next Rail Budget, the officials said.

Ministry of Railways included 77 doubling, 4 new line and 1 gauge conversion project in Railway Budget 2015-16.  

Railways Fast Tracks Implementation of Projects

The projects were included primarily with a viewpoint to create additional carrying capacity.  Fast tracking of these projects was need of the hour so as to reap benefits of the projects as soon as possible. Under direction of Minister of Railways Shri. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, a number of measures have been under taken for expeditious execution of these projects:

(i) So far the practice was to include a project in railway budget and send for ‘In Principle Approval’ (IPA) of NITI Aayog, hold meetings of Extended Board of Railways and finally seek approval of Cabinet (CCEA).  Once Cabinet approval is available, Railways used to go for Final Location Survey and subsequent preparation of Detailed Estimate.  An expenditure can be incurred only after Detailed Estimate or part thereof has been sanctioned.  This process used to take 2-3 years, which means tenders can be called roughly after 2 years of inclusion in Railway Budget. 

(ii)To reduce this time gap of two years, Ministry Railways asked zonal railways to carry out Final Location Survey immediately after inclusion of the work in Railway Budget. After Final Location Survey, the zonal railways were asked to send Detailed Project Report (DPR) to Railway Board with a reasonably firm cost.  Out of 77 doubling projects sanctioned in this year, detailed project reports of 73 doubling projects has been prepared and received in Railway Board.

(iii)Examination and scrutiny of DPR in Railway Ministry has been fast tracked by forming committee of concerned officers for this purpose instead of examination from table to table by individual officer.   

(iv)Request for ‘In Principle Approval’ (IPA) of NITI Aayog is being sent after DPR is examined in Railway Board.  As many as 15 IPA have been received from NITI Aayog.  Out of these 15 IPAs, 4 projects which cost more than Rs.1000 cr. are being sent to CCEA for approval. 

(v)Zonal Railways have been advised to call tenders immediately after IPA is received.  However, a financial commitment can be made only after all requisite approvals are in place. 

(vi)To obviate delays further, Railways are now being advised to invite tenders immediately after a DPR is sent to NITI Aayog for IPA without waiting for approval.

(vii) This has effectively reduced tender calling period from 2 years after inclusion of a project in Pink Book to 6-9 months. 

(viii) In addition to this, zonal railways have been given more powers to sanction detailed estimates so as to reduce delays in such sanctions.

(ix)Power for accepting all tenders have now been delegated to zonal railways which results into overcoming delays on this account.

Source:PIBNEWS.

Changing Processes to speed up Project Execution becomes Imminent for Railways

New Delhi: Facing flak for the lack of capital expenditure and delays in implementation of major projects, the rail ministry has swung into action. It is tweaking the established process for project approvals to cut down delays. It is also drawing up mega spending plans to free up over-burdened lines.

The earlier time-consuming model involved inclusion of projects in the rail budget, seeking in-principle approval of NITI Aayog, clearance from the extended railway board, approval of the Union Cabinet, preparation followed by sanction of final location surveys and detailed estimates by the zonal railways and finally invitation of tenders.

“The entire process from conceiving a project to floating tenders used to take two-and-a-half years. But now, a Committee of Executive Directors is selecting projects that are sent to the NITI Aayog for in-principle approval,” said a senior rail ministry official.

Another official explained the new approach has not dropped any stage of clearance, but has merely changed the traditional sequential process of seeking approvals, under which project files used to move from one table to another, into a parallel one. “Zonal railways are being asked to carry out final location survey immediately after inclusion of the work in the budget. After that, zonal railways will send the detailed project report (DPR) to the railway board with a reasonably firm cost.”

After examination of the DPRs in the railway board, the ministry sends request to NITI Aayog for in-principle approval. The ministry has advised zonal railways to call tenders immediately after the Aayog’s approval. “This has effectively reduced tender calling period from two years after inclusion of a project in the Pink Book to six to nine months,” the second official said.

Rail minister Suresh Prabhu had included 77 doubling projects, four new lines and one gauge conversion project in this year’s budget to create additional carrying capacity and de-congest existing lines. The 77 doubling projects would require Rs 90,000 crore of investments and provide relief of 9,000 km. Of these 77 projects, DPRs of 69 have been prepared and received in the Railway Board.

Officials said the in-principle approval for 15 of these projects have been received from NITI Aayog. Of these, four projects costing around Rs 1,000 crore each are currently being sent to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for approval. In addition, through a notification issued last month, the ministry has given zonal railways more powers to sanction detailed estimates in order to reduce delays. Also, the zonal arms of railways have been granted the power for accepting all tenders.

“In many of the 28 projects on saturated corridors, we have given the directive to the zonal railways to invite tenders as a special case in anticipation of sanction. This is a departure from the normal process because business-as-usual approach would not have worked. We hope that in another months’ time, we will be able to break the ground at the project sites,” the first official quoted above said.

The railways ministry has a target for capital expenditure of Rs 1 lakh crore for the current financial year. Civil works (doubling, gauge conversion and new lines) alone would account for 43 per cent of this investment. Officials said the ministry had already spent around Rs 35,000 crore in the first half of FY16, a marginal growth over the capex undertaken in the corresponding period in FY15.

Riding on the back of the reformed project execution process, the rail ministry is targeting to commission projects at an average rate of 6.85 km a day in the current financial year, a 26 per cent jump over the last year’s rate of 5.4 km a day.

Between April and September this year, railways commissioned projects of 673 km against 600 km in the same period last year.

One Rank One Pension, Pay Commission will not impact fiscal deficit: Jayant Sinha 

NEW DELHI: Implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) and increase in salary bill due to 7th Pay Commission will not strain government's fiscal position, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha today said. 

"I think we are in a very good shape as far as fiscal management is concerned. That was appreciated by all economists," he said while interacting with reporters after a meeting of economists which was chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at NITI Aayog. 

He made it clear that the government's fiscal position is strong enough to bear the impact of OROP and implementation of 7th Pay Commission. 

OROP is likely to result in an outgo of Rs 8,000-10,000 crore this fiscal. The 7th Pay Commission report in December is expected to recommend a hike in salary of central government employees. 

The pre-Budget meeting discussed various issues, including agriculture productivity, job creation and fiscal expenditure. 

"We had some of India's most eminent economists and commentators there. Obviously, it is very early in the cycle to start the consultation. But we felt that if there were good ideas, we could incorporate them even in this fiscal year. Obviously, for the preparation of the current budget, we could begin the work on that right now," he said.

"It was very good interaction and we look forward to incorporating much of this for this fiscal year as well as coming fiscal." 

There were several topics that came up, Sinha said, adding that "one very important topic that we spent time on is agriculture and what we could do to increase productivity in agriculture". 

The meeting also dwelt at length on fiscal expenditure and how to ensure fiscal expenditure, particularly public investment, could be as productive as possible. 

"Third major area that we spoke about is obviously the financial sector... more credit for agriculture, MSMEs and what could we do further to strengthen our banks. The final area that we also spent time on is how to ensure we are able to create more jobs for young people, whether it is in the manufacturing sector or the service sector," he said. 

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Urjit Patel were present. 

Besides, the meeting was attended by Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal. 

Economists such as Subir Gokarn, Director of Research at the Brookings Institution India, Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group, and Rajiv Lall, Vice-Chairman IDFC Ltd, also participated. 

Source :The Economic Times

Ahead of NITI Aayog Nod, IR mulls Tenders for 77 Rail Projects

New Delhi: Struggling to meet deadlines for the execution of 77 rail projects announced in the Budget, the Railway board is now considering a proposal to permit the Railways to invite tenders even for projects awaiting in-principle approval from NITI Aayog.

The Railway Board announced this in an order to all 17 zonal railways last week, stating that the proposal was under consideration so as to further accelerate execution of 77 doubling projects.

“The proposal is at a very advanced stage and is likely to be approved within a couple of working days. Zonal railways will be informed as and when the same is approved,” said the order issued on October 9.

Providing a list of 13 projects sent to NITI Aayog, the board asked zonal railways to be ready to float tenders for such projects. The projects include one each in on the east coast, east central, south western, two in south-eastern, three in south central and five in south-east central.

The Prime Minister’s Office had expressed concern over the slow pace of work in the Railways. In a letter to the ministry last week, the Prime Minister’s Office questioned its low budgetary spending in the April-June quarter while ministries such as road transport were doing good work. The Railway Board in August allowed zonal railways to float tenders immediately after ‘in-principle’ approval was received from NITI Aayog with sanction from the competent authority to be sought later. The idea was that these projects were to be completed with funds from extra budgetary resources and needed to be commenced at the earliest to make significant progress in the current financial year.

“Therefore in order to facilitate taking up of these projects in right earnest, it has been decided that since DPR (detailed project report) contains detailed estimate of a project duly approved by the General Manager of the Railway, the same stand sanctioned as and when the project is sanctioned by the competent authority,” said the order.

The board has also warned officials to take utmost care while preparing estimates for the projects to ensure that infructuous items are not loaded on the project.

Uncertainty persists over India-Bangla Rail project as DoNER Ministry yet to allocate Funds

Agartala: Five years after the plan for an India-Bangladesh railway network was approved, uncertainty persists over the project as no funds have been allocated yet, authorities said.

“It is not certain when the work for the project would start. No funds have been allocated so far for the Agartala (India)-Akhaura (Bangladesh) railway project,” Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) general manager R.K. Gupta told reporters here on Sunday evening.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said: “No funds were also allocated for land acquisition for the railway project. We would start work immediately after the sanction of funds.”

The Rs.575-crore project was finalised in January 2010 when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh during her visit to New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina discussed the project again during Modi’s visit to Dhaka on June 6-7 this year.

India announced it would bear the entire cost of the 15-km long railway project. Of the 15 km, five km fall in the Indian territory and the rest 10 km in Bangladesh.

“NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog had decided in a meeting in Delhi on June 18 to put in place the vital railway project between India and Bangladesh by December 2017,” Tripura transport secretary Samarjit Bhowmik told.

Bhowmik, who attended the NITI Aayog meeting, said: “The alignment and other technicalities of laying the track to link Agartala railway station with Bangladesh’s Akhaura railway station have been changed recently. A final report on the new alignment was also submitted for sanction of funds.”

NITI Aayog’s advisor Animesh Singh presided over the meeting in New Delhi, where officials of ministries of railways, development of north-eastern region (DoNER), external affairs and the Tripura government participated.

Bhowmik said that India’s external affairs ministry earlier announced it would provide funds to lay the tracks in the Bangladesh territory.

Tripura Transport Minister Manik Dey also held a meeting with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in New Delhi on September 23 and urged him to expedite the issues related to the project.

“The railway minister told me that he would personally talk to the Railway Board and external affairs ministry about the funding of the project,” Dey told IANS on Monday.

The project cost was earlier estimated at Rs.271 crore. In addition, Rs.302 crore was needed to acquire around 97.60 acres of land in India’s Tripura for laying the tracks.

“After the latest alignment of the project, now 72 acres of land would be required. Hence, the funds required would be reduced to Rs.98 crore from Rs.302 crore,” Dey added.

“Earlier, the DoNER ministry committed to provide funds to lay tracks on the Indian side. But recently the DoNER ministry categorically expressed its inability to give funds. Railway ministry was considering providing funds for the Tripura part of the project, but has not yet taken a final decision,” an NFR official said.

State-owned Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) is expected to lay the tracks on both sides of the border. The NFR is the nodal agency for the project.

“The railway connectivity between the north-eastern state and Bangladesh would boost socio-economic, trade and business ties between the two countries. After the commissioning of the railway project, Tripura would act as a corridor to the South-East Asian countries,” Dey said.

Dey told IANS: “It would become cost-effective to ferry men and materials between the two countries, and between the mountainous north-east region and other parts of India via Bangladesh once the railway project is completed.”

The 1,650-km distance between Agartala and Kolkata would be reduced to only 515 km once the rail track is constructed through Bangladesh, he added.

NITI Aayog to launch India Energy Security Scenario- An Interactive Energy Platform on August 27,2015 

NITI Aayog has developed an energy scenario building tool-India Energy Security Scenarios (IESS) 2047. The tool aims to explore a range of potential future energy scenarios for India, for diverse energy demand and supply sectors leading up to 2047. It explores India’s possible energy scenarios across energy supply sectors such as solar, wind, bio fuels, oil, gas, coal and nuclear and energy demand sectors such as transport, industry, agriculture, cooking and lighting appliances. 

The model allows users to interactively make energy choices, and explore a range of outcomes for the country-from carbon dioxide emissions and imp[ort dependence to land use. The tool will be launched by the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya and the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests, Shri Prakash Javadekar at a function at the Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi ,3.30pm onwards on August 27,2015. 

Source :PIBNEWS.

NITI Aayog will pay up to 36% more to woo young talent, cap age limit at 32 years 

NEW DELHI: NITI Aayog has decided to pay up to 36% higher salaries to young professionals to draw the best talent, along with capping the age limit at 32 years in line with the government's efforts to bring in younger people to contribute to policy making at the think tank that replaced the erst while Planning Commission as per the revised guidelines issued recently, the Aayog has fixed the salary of young professionals, or YPs as they are commonly called at the institution, at Rs 40,000-70,000 per month including the transport allowance, with an annual increase of Rs 5,000. 

This is 27-36% more than Rs 31,500-51,500 that the YPs were entitled to under the erstwhile commission. Besides, the revised guidelines have reduced the upper age limit by eight years from the earlier cap of 40 years. "NITI Aayog seeks to engage 20 YPs with an aptitude for public policy and development under the Young Professionals Programme," the Aayog has said in an advertisement inviting applications for the programme. 

The revision comes over a year after the commission had revised the guidelines for YPs in May 2014, resulting in a 20% increase in salaries over 2009, when the concept was first introduced by the commission's then deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The YPs under the commission were also entitled to a reimbursement of second AC train fare as transport allowance and a daily allowance of Rs 750 if they travelled out of the city for project related work. 

A senior official at the Aayog said that the number of YPs is likely to go up eventually once the entire work allocation gets clearer. "Though the current advertisement is for hiring 20 YPs only we may see the number go up as the work flows in," he said.

ET had reported last month that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government was planning to increase the salaries and overall headcount of YPs at the Aayog as part of its restructuring exercise. 

The earlier guidelines had pegged the maximum number of YPs at the Aayog at 60 at anygiven time in a year while the entire hiring process was centralised and recruitment restricted to twice a year, depending on the requirement of various divisions.

Since the Modi government took charge within a week of the revised guidelines being issued and replaced the commission with the Aayog only on January 1 this year, the institution is about to hire the first batch of YPs under the current government.

Source : Economic Times

JICA presents draft report on high-speed train to Indian Railways jt committee

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which has undertaken the feasibility study for a high-speed railway system on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, today presented the draft report to the Indian Railways joint monitoring committee here.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which has undertaken the feasibility study for a high-speed railway system on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, today presented the draft report to the Indian Railways joint monitoring committee here.

A joint monitoring committee has been set up comprising the Railways Ministry, Finance Ministry and External Affairs Ministry and Planning Commission now NITI Ayog from India with their Japanese counterparts.

The JICA team presented the draft report to the joint monitoring team here where a detailed presentation on traffic forecasting, alignment surveys and comparative study of high- speed railway technology was made to the members, sources in railways said.

JICA has completed its feasibility study for the much-awaited Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project and submitted its preliminary report to the Railway Ministry earlier.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between India and Japan, the study is being jointly funded by both countries. Earlier, a pre-feasibility study was also done by RITES, an arm of railways.

The bullet train is expected to run at speeds of around 300-350 km/hour.

According to sources, the cost of the ambitious project has now been estimated at Rs 90,000 crores from Rs 63,000 crores.

After the study of the financial feasibility of the line, JICA feels that the fare of the bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad may be somewhere around one and half times more than the fare of the first AC of Rajdhani Express and it would be around Rs 2800.

It is estimated that by 2023 around 40,000 passengers are expected to avail this service everyday and accordingly it would be a financially viable service.

JICA is likely to submit the final report next month.

Besides JICA, SNFC of France has already carried out a feasibility study of the route and has submitted the business model to the ministry.

Source : The Financial Express.