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Showing posts with label Ratan TATA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ratan TATA. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 March 2017

20:32

TELCO’s Vintage Steam Loco installed at Salem DRM’s office

TELCO’s Vintage Steam Loco installed at Salem DRM’s office

The steam locomotive was manufactured by Telco in 1957 gives added attraction to the office of the Divisional Railway Manager, Salem Division

SALEM: The installation of a vintage steam locomotive along with a second class metre gauge second class passenger compartment has provided added attraction to the Salem Railway Divisional office in the city.

The locomotive and the passenger coach has been installed on the office premises of the Salem Railway Division.

The steam locomotive was manufactured by the TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited (Telco) in 1957.

The locomotive was used to haul the passenger and goods trains in different routes in the past.

Even though this locomotive was withdrawn from service in 2003-04, it had its last journey, when it hauled a passenger train on a heritage run on the Tiruvarur – Tiruthuraipoondi route, just before the closing of the section for undertaking broad gauge conversion works in 2010.

Both the steam locomotive and the passenger coach were fetched by the Salem Railway Division from the Golden Rock Railway Workshop (GOC), thanks to Hari Shankar Verma, Divisional Railway Manager, Salem. The division spent about Rs. six lakh for transporting them to Salem from the GOC, according to official sources of the Salem Railway Division.

The sources said that the division has planned beautification of the major railway stations such as Coimbatore, Udhagamandalam, Coonoor stations by installing vintage locomotives on their premises shortly.

It may be recalled that Salem Railway Division has already installed a vintage MG diesel locomotive in front of the now closed entrance of the old Divisional Railway Manager Office building in the city in December last year.

About TELCO (Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Ltd.)

The name of the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) is now changed to Tata Motors. TELCO is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, India, and a member of the Tata Group. Its products include passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, sports cars, construction equipment and military vehicles.

Founded in 1945 as a manufacturer of locomotives, the company manufactured its first commercial vehicle in 1954 in a collaboration with Daimler-Benz AG, which ended in 1969. Later, Tata Motors entered the passenger vehicle market in 1991 with the launch of the Tata Sierra, becoming the first Indian manufacturer to achieve the capability of developing a competitive indigenous automobile. In 1998, Tata launched the first fully indigenous Indian passenger car, the Indica, and in 2008 launched the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car. Tata Motors acquired the South Korean truck manufacturer Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company in 2004 and purchased Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in 2008.

Today Tata Motors has auto manufacturing and assembly plants in Jamshedpur, Pantnagar, Lucknow, Sanand, Dharwad, and Pune in India, as well as in Argentina, South Africa, Great Britain and Thailand. It has research and development centres in Pune, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, and Dharwad, India and in South Korea, Great Britain and Spain.

Tata Motors is listed on the (BSE) Bombay Stock Exchange, where it is a constituent of the BSE SENSEX index, the National Stock Exchange of India, and the New York Stock Exchange. The company is ranked 226th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations as of 2016.

On 17 January 2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was appointed chairman of the company.

 Source:RailNews


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Monday, 9 November 2015

08:42

kayakalp Council looked at approaches towards achieving greater hygiene and cleanliness and causes for accidents on account of manual failures.

kayakalp Council looked at approaches towards achieving greater hygiene and cleanliness and causes for accidents on account of manual failures. 

4th Meeting of “Kayakalp” (Innovation Council of Indian Railways) held 

In its 4th Meeting held in New Delhi today, the 6th November, 2015, under the Chairmanship of Shri Ratan Tata, “Kayakalp” (Innovation Council of Indian Railways) discussed safety issues and attempted to identify the causes for accidents on account of manual failures. 

The Council looked at approaches towards achieving greater hygiene and cleanliness on railway facilities such as stations. 

The Council also examined customer focus of the Indian Railways at present and ways to make the organization more customer friendly. All Members agreed on Railways’ need to address customer needs in a more visible and effective manner. 
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Monday, 26 October 2015

11:19

Kayakalp Panel proposes Action Plan to cut down Train Accidents

Kayakalp Panel proposes Action Plan to cut down Train Accidents

New Delhi: Railways Kaya Kalp committee, headed by industrialist Ratan Tata decided to develop an action plan to reduce the number of train accidents, amid concerns over increasing cases of human errors and huge backlog of safety-related posts lying vacant.

While examining the data on type of accidents and causes, the panel is understood to have taken stock of the railways recruitment process, considering that over 1.5 lakh safety-related posts were vacant at present. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu has earlier emphasised the need for a ‘zero accident mission’ with a definite time frame.

The meeting was the third in the series and the next one is scheduled to be held on November 6. In the first Kaya Kalp meeting, Tata had suggested an incentive-driven mechanism for employees resolving problems faced by the public transporter through innovative ideas.

Rs 200-Crore central fund for victims of rape, acid attacks, human trafficking, cross-border firing

New Delhi: The government has introduced a Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) scheme with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore, to enable support to victims of rape, acid attacks, human trafficking and women killed or injured in cross border firing.

The victims of acid attacks and rapes will now get Rs 3 lakh as part of CVCF while the compensation will rise by 50% in case the victim is less than 14 years of age.

The government aims to support and supplement the existing victim compensation schemes notified by states/UT administrations through the new scheme. A ministry of home affairs statement said that CVCF will reduce disparity in quantum of compensation amount notified by different states/UTs for victims of similar crimes.

It will also lead to effective implementation of victim compensation scheme (VCS) notified by states under provisions of Section 357A of CrPC and continue financial support to victims of various crimes especially sexual offences including rape, acid attacks, crime against children, human trafficking, etc, MHA said.

Under the new scheme, an acid attack or rape victim will get Rs 3 lakh, a minor subjected to physical abuse will be paid Rs 2 lakh, rehabilitation of victim of human trafficking – Rs 1 lakh, sexual assault (excluding rape) – Rs 50,000, death – Rs 2 lakh, permanent disability (80% or more) – Rs 2 lakh, partial disability (40% to 80%) – Rs I lakh, burns affecting greater than 25% of the body (excluding acid attack cases) – Rs 2 lakh, loss of foetus – Rs 50,000, loss of fertility – Rs 1.5 lakh and women victims of cross-border firing – Rs 2 lakh for death or permanent disability and Rs 1 lakh in case of disability (40% to 80%).

The new scheme comes in effect from August 21 this year.

The states have been asked to suitably modify the state victim compensation schemes to reduce disparity in quantum of compensation amount notified by them and claim financial support from the Central Victim Compensation Fund Scheme.
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Tuesday, 25 August 2015

22:17

Second Meeting of the Indian Council of Indian Railways of 'Kayakalp'


Second Meeting of the Indian Council of Indian Railways of 'Kayakalp' 

The second meeting of 'Kayakalp', the Innovative Council of Indian Railways was held today i.e. on 25th August 2015 under the Chairmanship of Shri Ratan Tata, Chairman, Emeritus, Tata Sons. 

The Council viewed the comparison of performance of Indian Railways with that of other major railway systems of the world. In addition, the Council also took stock of how the Indian Railways have been addressing issues relating its social responsibility and employee benefits. It took a briefing about the way Railway finances are linked to Government of India finances. It also sought to understand subsidy element in Railway finances. 

Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu had requested the Council to also address issues pertaining to safety, increase in efficiency through re-orientation of business processes and how to involve the public in finding solutions to some major problems being faced by Indian Railways. 

The council also looked at determining its course of action for achieving effective results within a reasonable time-frame. 

Besides the Chairman, the meeting was attended by Members of the Council namely Ms. Ragini Yachuri, Executive Director (IR), Railway Board, Shri Shiv Gopal Mishra, General Secretary, All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF), Shri M. Raghaviah, General Secretary, NFIR. Secretary of the Council Dr. Madhukar Sinha, Executive Director, Innovation, Railway Board was also present in the meeting. 

Kayakalp would also be meeting more frequently in the future. 

Source :Business Standard
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Friday, 21 August 2015

19:33

Ratan Tata to hold second Kayakalp Council meeting on August 25

Ratan Tata to hold second Kayakalp Council meeting on August 25

New Delhi: Aiming at improving railway service by removing bottlenecks, noted industrialist and Tata Group’s chairman emeritus Ratan Tata will hold the second meeting ofKaya Kalp council here on August 25.

The council, headed by Tata, will take up the performance and social responsibility of public transporter in the upcoming meeting at the Rail Bhawan.

According to the agenda of the meeting, Tata will also examine customer satisfaction, employee benefit and adoption of modern technology in the Railways.

The first Kaya Kalp meeting was held in May where Tata had suggested an incentive-driven mechanism for employees resolving through innovative ideas problems faced by the public transporter.

Kaya Kalp, the new innovative council of Railways, has been set up by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to recommend innovative methods and processes for the improvement, betterment and transformation of the state-run rail network.

“In the last meeting it was decided to collect various data concerning railways of other countries like China, France, Germany and UK to fix a target for Indian Railways and accordingly this has been done,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Sons group who had made it clear in the last meeting that all the stakeholders should be on the “same page” for the betterment of Railways, is expected to set a benchmark for the public transporter.

The council will examine the vision on traction in its second meeting.

Besides two senior railway officials, General Secretary of National Federation of Indian Railwaymen M Raghavaiah and General Secretary of All-India Railwaymen’s Federation Shiv Gopal Mishra are also the memebers of the Kaya Kalp council.
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Monday, 22 June 2015

09:46

Modernisation Vs. Investment: How Centre plans to steer Railways back on track

Modernisation Vs. Investment: How Centre plans to steer Railways back on track

The present government has been just over a year in power. It came in with grand plans of revolution. Its problem was that a decade had passed since the BJP was in power and virtually no one who had served in the last BJP government was fit to do so again. The Cabinet was full of novices, and looked in every direction for ideas. The prime minister chose Sadananda Gowda as minister of railways. He was asked to work out a plan for reforming the railways. He looked around, saw Bibek Debroy with little work in NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog, and appointed a committee with him as Chairman. But soon, the PM felt he needed someone more energetic for a ministry that called for action, sent Gowda to law ministry, and brought in Suresh Prabhu in November.

A New Platform

Prabhu met his railwaymen and found they were none too happy with the Debroy committee. It looked like a parking lot for retired elders. Only one member had any experience of the railways. He heard that the Debroy committee was contemptuous of the railways’ antiquated accounts.

So he roped in Vinod Rai, once comptroller and auditor general, as adviser. He shared the railwaymen’s contempt for economists, and shared their view that the railways would have been the world’s envy if the coin counters in North Block had given them money to invest and innovate. So he called up Ratan Tata and made him head of a new innovation council, calling it Kaya Kalp, a name he may have got out of a novel of Marathi writer Shubhada Gogate. He collected ideas from his railwaymen about what needed to be done, put them in a white paper, and released it when he presented the Budget. He recognised that the railways needed investment, which required time to make and to yield fruit. So he promised that by the end of this year, he would come up with a vision document. Debroy may have been disappointed by the sullen faces in the Railway Board, but he did not let himself be discouraged. He submitted a copious interim report in March with a strong message, and a final report with few changes in June. Mystified by the railways’ antiquated system of accounting, the report asked that they should change over to modern, double-entry book-keeping.

Economists think instinctively of competition and privatisation as incentives to efficiency. The Debroy committee recommended divestment of non-core services, such as catering and hospitals run by the railways, to private providers. The Indian Railways (IR) itself is a natural monopoly, and it is impossible to introduce competition (save in the form of road transport). So, the committee recommended a strong, independent regulator of price and service quality, and separation of track and trains so that private competition can be introduced in the latter. As that separation implies, the committee recommended the running of railways to be separated from investment and manufacturing. The railways have created ever more zones and divisions over time to increase the number of senior jobs available on promotion. The committee recommended a decrease in the number. But it wanted decentralisation of powers from New Delhi to the zones. The railwaymen were dismayed by these blithe plans for their dismemberment. The All India Railwaymen’s Federation has decided to observe a Black Day on June 30 in protest against the Debroy report.

Right Signal for Employees

It is Prabhu who lords over the railways, and not Debroy. He will read the Debroy committee’s report carefully, but will follow the inclinations of his railwaymen, which are reflected in the February white paper, “Due to underinvestment, there has been severe congestion on the network and has resulted in the inability of the system to accommodate more trains and increase the speed of trains. “Therefore, the need of the hour is to undertake a massive infrastructure expansion and decongestion programme coupled with upgradation of technology and judicious electrification of tracks along with enhancement of terminal capacity. It is evident that the real issue today is the lack of physical capacity over IR on key routes due to severe congestion and the incremental traffic is being offered on the saturated routes only.”In other words, IR rejects the Debroy committee’s proposals for reorganisation. It thinks it has as good managers as any. Their shortcomings are entirely due to the fact that they were never given enough money to invest and to improve the system. Just give them the money and they’ll deliver. We, spectators, can take any view we like on the two approaches. It is irrelevant. The railways cannot stop. And they can be kept running only by the existing workforce, whatever we think of them. The government will never have the courage to dismantle the railway management, as the Debroy committee wants. It’ll have to make do with the current management, and make only those improvements that it agrees to — and the government gives it money for. Modernisation of railway accounts is a good idea. But for the rest, let us wait for the Ratan Tata committee’s views — and for the money Arun Jaitley may cough up for the railways. (Courtesy: By Ashok V Desai)
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Sunday, 21 June 2015

10:13

Indian Railways need $ 500 billion to modernise the Rail system: Suresh Prabhu

Bangalore: Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu on Saturday said India would need to invest 450 to 500 billion dollars over the next 15 years for the railways to perform more efficiently and be the leading transport sector in India.

Delivering the inaugural lecture at the Foundation Day of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) here, Prabhu said the Indian railways has a massive history of not getting any investment at all for decades. “Unlike China, India has just not made any investment in the railways. Investment is urgently required as railways would be environment-friendly and cost-effective. I have been here for six months and have begun positively by initiating and unlocking a lot of measures that will in three or four years’ time make the railways healthy and hopefully initiate the culture of investing in the railways,” Prabhu said.

The railways, he said, would be borrowing money to the tune of Rs 1,50,000 crore from LIC as the railways had no internal source of income other than freight and passenger fares and government budget. “Technology infusement and modernisation of the railways would be our focus now.

“Nearly 39 budget announcements have already been implemented. Customer preference policies are being introduced and a massive information technology dose would be administered to the railways,” he said.

E-catering has been announced and customers can get the food they want by booking on e-catering which enables one to order for private food. Also, base kitchens are being developed to serve quality and healthy food. The railways would be able to provide quality food in its normal kitchens provided people pay the actual price of the product.

Other measures to modernise railways are: mechanised laundries to maintain fresh linen, redesign of coaches, unlocking the land value of railways in partnership with private sector (PPP mode), implementation of recommendations of the Ratan Tata-led committee on railway modernisation, implementation of e-tendering process, an IT vision for railways, audit of energy, water, implementation of solar energy for railways and achieving carbon footprint.

The minister said if the idea of India as a unified country must succeed, its population needs to be integrated. “We will have to manage a population of 1.6 to 1.8 billion up from the current 1.25 billion.”

“To carry this load is not possible without logistics, particularly transportation. And railways is one of the answers, which now carries annually three million people. So the potential exists and there’s a huge market, Prabhu pointed out.

New station building

The minister inaugurated a new station building at the Bengaluru City station that would serve as the second entry from its Okalipuram entrance.

Built at a cost of Rs. 5.5 crore, it will house nine ticket counters, parking space in the basement and toilets, a cloak room, an AC lounge.

The building will also have a food court and fast food counters very soon. Suresh Prabhu also inaugurated new station building at KR Puram along with and foot-over bridges at Koppal, Almatti, and Alnavar and staff quarters at Hubballi by remote.

Prabhu pointed out the need for an alternative satellite terminal for the purpose of decongestant of the City.
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Tuesday, 16 June 2015

15:20

Tata Projects makes progressive march in Railway Infrastructure Services and Projects

Tata Projects makes progressive march in Railway Infrastructure Services and Projects

Secunderabad: Tata Projects (TPL) is one of the fastest growing infrastructure companies in India. The company has expertise in executing large and complex industrial infrastructure projects. Tata Projects has structured its business into nine business verticals – Railways, Power, Transmission, Construction Services, Metals, Oil & Gas, Urban Infrastructure, Water and Quality Services. It has more than 2,700 employees, including 1,400 engineers, and a presence across 32 countries.

Multi-disciplinary services for railway projects

Tata Projects offers a range of multi-disciplinary services for integrated / composite railway projects, railway track-laying bridges (steel and concrete), rail-based urban transit systems (metro systems), railway electrification, signal and telecommunication systems, including construction of industrial railway sidings and yards and closed-loop rail transportation systems (merry-go-round systems) for comprehensive and cost-effective bulk material movement.

Tata Projects has recently carried out major work in India on the gauge conversion of the entire section from Villupuram – Maylaiditurai (122km), which involved civil, bridge, permanent way, connected electrical, and signalling and telecommunications works.

The company is also involved in major ongoing works for the design and construction of civil, structures and track work for 347km of double line railway for the Bhaupur – Khurja section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor funded by the World Bank.

Rail design and engineering

TPL provides design and engineering services in all fields (civil, bridges, ballast and ballastless track, electrical, S&T, etc.) of railway infrastructure.

Rail bridge construction

Our experience on Indian rail bridges includes casting and launching of 3,335 linear metrics of PSC girder between Villupuram – Malayiditurai, with 35,635 running metres and piling diameter of 1/1.2m.

Electrification and signalling and telecommunication systems

TPL’s track record encompasses more than 2,500km of electrification, and it has competence in design, engineering, installation, testing and commissioning of DC and AC traction systems.

Key sections electrified include the Tirupati-Katpadi of South Central Railway, Talcher-Angul of East Coast Railway, Nandalur-Pullampet of South Central Railway, Karjat-Lonaval of Central Railway, Khurja-Meerut-Saharanpur of Northern Railway and Kondapuram-Guntakal of South Central Railway.

Ongoing electrification projects are Madurai-Nagercoil in Southern Railway, Chengalpattu-Villupuram in Southern Railway, Unchahar-Varanasi in Northern Railway, Chhapra-Kachehari in North Eastern Railway and Alwar-Rewari in North Western Railway. An ongoing electrification, signalling and telecommunication system project is for Gooty-Yelahanka in South Central and South Western Railway.

TPL has the experience and expertise to handle major turnkey projects for signalling and telecommunication, including design, installation, testing and commissioning of relay interlocking and electronic interlocking of stations, train detection systems, interlocking of level crossings, OFC-based telecom systems, etc.

Development of railway sidings

TPL has carried out numerous rail siding projects, including the development of an 11km railway siding for GMR Kamalanga Energy’s 1,050MW power plant; a 10km siding for EMCO Energy’s 600MW power plant; and 10km of ballast-less track for the Ministry of Defence.

These projects are EPC jobs for dedicated railway lines involving complete design engineering (both layouts and structures), project execution, quality assurance, project management, integration, and commissioning including civil, track work, bridges and railway electrification works.

About Tata Projects

Tata Projects is part of the Tata Group, one of India’s largest business conglomerates. Tata Group has revenues of over $100bn, more than 100 operating companies and a presence across seven business sectors, and a global footprint with operations in more than 85 countries and 450,000 employees worldwide.
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Tuesday, 2 June 2015

13:10

Ratan Tata headed Kayakalp Council to Benchmark Indian Railways against 4 Global Giants

Ratan Tata headed Kayakalp Council to Benchmark Indian Railways against 4 Global Giants

New Delhi: The Ratan Tata-headed innovation council formed by rail minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has decided to benchmark Indian Railways against the train networks of four global giants – US, China, Russia and Germany.

The idea is to compare financial and operational performance indicators and work out a strategy for turning around Railways by using the best-suited model of innovation and development.

The council has asked the railway board for inputs on the railway systems operating in the four countries. The council held its first meeting on May 13 with Prabhu, Minister of State (MoS) Railways Manoj Sinha, Railway Board Chairman A K Mital, other board members and trade union representatives.

“It was decided in the meeting that the performance position of a few foreign railways including the US, Germany, Russia and China will be collected for the purpose of comparison and carrying out further analysis by the innovation council. The second meeting would be held then,” said an official privy to the developments.

India is similar to the nations on the list — except for Germany — in being a member of the 1-billion tonne freight club. India, the US, Russia and China are the only four countries in the world which carry more than a billion tonnes of freight on their railway networks annually.

However, India lags far behind the other nations in terms of structural and operational reforms, particularly in the freight segment. The US, China, Germany and Russia have already adopted significant degrees of privatisation and corporatisation of their railways over the past decades.

Of the two countries with railway systems most comparable to India, the US and China, the US has traditionally had a privately owned rail freight operations system. China has had a departmental system historically but has now progressively reorganised its structure to the point where there is now no Ministry of Rail. It has a national rail corporation and a number of regional operators and specialised private railway operators especially in dedicated freight haulage.

While Indian Railways’ efficiency indicators have improved over time, they are still low when compared to global benchmarks. For example, traffic unit (addition of net tonne km or NTKM and passenger km or PKM) per employee is 0.84 for India compared to 1.4 for China, 2.0 for Russia and 15.1 for the US .

According to Indian Railways’ recently released white paper, NTKM per employee is 1.81 million in Russia, 1.23 million in China and 0.44 million in India. Similarly, PKM per employee is 0.15 million in Russia, 0.38 million in China and 0.66 million in India. This indicates how India fares better on the passenger indicator and worse on freight performance.

“There is a rich experience from other countries in creating competition and India has a great deal to learn from it, particularly as it is one of the last countries to restructure,” the Bibek Debroy committee on restructuring of the railway board and mobilisation of funds for Indian Railways said in its draft report submitted recently.

In the US, 28 per cent of the railways’ revenue goes into labour costs and 20 per cent is channelised to source fuel. For comparison, in India, 32 per cent of operating revenue goes into staff wages while fuel costs eat up 18 per cent of earnings. The two nations are also similar in earning 40-45 per cent of freight earnings from coal transport alone.

Also, in the US the private companies fund a great majority of their own infrastructure capital investment projects from customers on a commercial basis. While the Federal Railroad Administration makes capital grants, the total amounts are minor compared to commercial funding raised by the private freight railroads themselves. For comparison, Indian Railways continues to source over 40 per cent of its Plan Budget of ~1 lakh crore as support from the Centre.
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Wednesday, 13 May 2015

22:11

The First Meeting of ‘Kayakalp’, the Innovative Council of Indian Railways held

The First Meeting of ‘Kayakalp’, the Innovative Council of Indian Railways held 

The first meeting of ‘Kayakalp’. The innovative council of Indian Railways was held today. This Council is headed by noted Industrialist Shri Ratan Tata. The other members of ‘Kayakalp’ Council include Shri S.G.Mishra, General Secretary, All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF), Shri M.Raghaviah, General Secretary, National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR). Ms. Ragini Yechury, Executive Director (Industrial Relations), Railway Board and Dr. Madhukar Sinha, Executive Director (Innovation), Railway Board. Dr. Sinha will work as Secretary for the council. The Railway Board Members were also present on this occasion. 

This Council has been setup by the Railway Minister in accordance with the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister for Innovation, Technology Development and Manufacturing. The Railway Budget 2015-16 speech has mentioned that every dynamic and thriving organization needs to innovate and re-invent its practices and hence the council has been setup for the purpose of business re-engineering and introducing a spirit of innovation in Railways. 

Speaking on the occasion, the Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu said that Indian Railways, on one hand, has to fulfill its social obligation of providing affordable travel facilities to the public in different parts of the country while on the other hand, has to work as a commercial organisation earning profit. There is a need to balance these two requirements and function in a manner so that best services could be provided to the people at affordable prices and the Railways emerge as an effective engine of growth for the country’s economy. He said that while it is necessary to formulate a future roadmap for expansion and growth of Indian Railways, but at the same time it is necessary to understand and address present challenges which could not be overlooked. The Railway Minister pointed out that Indian Railways has a huge dedicated manpower which is its inherent strength. We all have to work collectively to make Indian Railways as No. 1 Railway in the world, so that it can serve people and nation in the best possible manner. 

The Minister of State Shri Manoj Kumar Sinha hoped that the Council would give useful suggestions for improvement and innovation. 

In his address, Chairman, Railway Board Shri A.K.Mital said that the Railway Board will work in close cooperation with the Council. He said that Indian Railways in its 160 years of existence has grown substantially in all aspects but it further needs to undertake more technological upgradation to improve services. 

Shri Ratan Tata in his address said that the Council would work in close cooperation with everybody concerned and be on the same page for the betterment of Indian Railway and it would not be in conflict with anybody as there is shared objective of making Railway better. He said it will be useful to showcase improvements even in small increments in various aspects like equipments, processes, procedures, consumer acceptance etc. 

In their addresses, Railway Employees’ Union Representatives Shri S.G. Mishra and Shri M. Raghaviah thanked the Railway Minister for reposing faith in the employees’ federations in undertaking the important job of the Council. They affirmed that the entire workforce of the Indian Railways would extend its cooperation in this endeavour. 

Thereafter, the Kayakalp discussed the approach towards its future work. 
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Monday, 11 May 2015

07:03

NCPEDP HAS URGED THE KAYA KALP COUNCIL TO MAKE IR DISABLED-FRIENDLY

RAILWAYS URGED TO MAKE SERVICES DISABLED-FRIENDLY

New Delhi: The National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People (NCPEDP) has urged the Kaya Kalp council to make the Indian Railways disabled-friendly, a press statement of the centre said on Saturday.

In a letter written to Ratan Tata, who will chair the first meeting of the 'Kaya Kalp' council at Rail Bhavan in Delhi on May 12, NCPEDP requested him to work for making Indian Railways disabled-friendly.

NCPEDP director, also the chairperson of Disabled People's International, Javed Abidi said the Indian Railways is one of the largest railway networks in the world carrying over 23 million passengers a day.

"Yet despite its best intentions, the infrastructure and facilities of the Indian Railways remain completely inaccessible to people with disabilities -- conservative estimates putting this number between 70-100 million.

"On behalf of my organisation and all disabled people in India we request you to kindly include recommendations to make the Indian Railways disabled-friendly," Abidi wrote in the letter.

He said in response to the letter, Tata replied that he has perused through the request to make the Indian Railways disabled friendly and also to ensure comfort of travel for the elderly, sick and incapacitated.

He said Tata has assured him that he will certainly draw the attention of the Kaya Kalp council to their needs. Kaya Kalp, the new innovative council of railways, has been set up to recommend innovative methods and processes for the improvement, betterment and transformation of the state-run rail network.

Source :Sakshipost
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Wednesday, 6 May 2015

07:28

Ratan Tata will chair the first 'Kaya Kalp' council meeting at Rail Bhawan here on May 12.

NEW DELHI: Noted industrialist and Tata Group's chairman emeritus Ratan Tata will chair the first 'Kaya Kalp' council meeting at Rail Bhawan here on May 12.

Kaya Kalp, the new innovative council of Railways, has been set up by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to recommend innovative methods and processes for the improvement, betterment and transformation of the state-run rail network.


Tata was appointed as the council's head on March 19. The meeting will be attended by Prabhu and all Railway Board Members, a senior Railway Ministry official said.


Railway union leaders Shiv Gopal Mishra and M Raghuvaiah, who are also part of the council, will also be participating in the meeting. 

"Since it is the first meeting, an overview of railways will be presented," the official said.

The council is likely to find ways to attract private investment for capacity augmentation, expand rail network and improve passenger amenities through innovative means, he said. 

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Thursday, 19 March 2015

06:34

Ratan Tata to head a new innovation council “Kaya Kalp” he proposes to set up to turn around the ailing state-run rail network.

Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu has roped in noted industrialist Ratan Tata to head a new innovation council called “Kaya Kalp” he proposes to set up to turn around the ailing state-run rail network.

Sources said Tata had agreed to head the council announced in the rail budget, which will recommend ways to reform the creaking public service transporter that ferries some 23 million passengers a day.

“The committee’s terms of reference are being finalised and will be notified within the next few days,” sources said.

Former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai is likely to be a member of the innovation council, which will also include the general secretaries of the two major railway unions.

The general secretary of the All India Railway Men Federation, Shiva Gopal Mishra, confirmed he had received an offer letter and sources said an offer has also been sent to National Federation of Indian Railway Men general secretary M Raghuviah. But Rai told HT “he had not been approached so far”.

In 2009, then Aviation Minister Praful Patel had reportedly approached Tata to head an international advisory board to suggest ways to turn around Air India. Tata, who was chairman of the Tata Group from 1991 to 2012, had not accepted the offer.

 Source : Hindustan Times.

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