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Showing posts with label improvement of railway stations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label improvement of railway stations. Show all posts

Monday, 10 September 2018

07:38

Initiatives to Improve Train Operations

Initiatives to Improve Train Operations

Indian Railways undertakes various IT initiatives to improve train operations and provide better passenger experience 
Indian Railways has always focussed on adoption of new technologies to improve train operations and provide better passenger experience to its customers. In this series, Indian Railways has introduced various IT initiatives. Following are the major initiatives taken by Indian Railways in this regard.
Tracking of trains using newer technologies:
Railways have experimented with tracking of trains using GPS devices with these GPS devices located in the locomotive.  For a sustainable solution, a Real Time Train Information System (RTIS) is being implemented, whereby GPS tracking devices would communicate using satellite communications.  The trials have been successful. Apart from this, data logger systems already available in track circuited stations are being used at major interchange points to capture arrival/departure information on trains.
In an effort to computerise the transactions of the station master, a Computerised Train Signal Register is going live at 650 stations and this enables arrival/departure information to be transmitted to the Control Office Application (COA) and the National train Enquiry System (NTES) directly from the station master’s desk.
Handheld Devices on trains:
Handheld Terminals (HHTs) are being provided to the Train Ticket Examiners (TTEs) to be able to check the reserved coaches, allot the vacant berths and transmit information on available berths to the subsequent stations.  The HHT can also access the ticketing application and collect excess fares as per rules. The terminal can potentially connect to a Point of Sale (POS) machine and charges can be collected digitally.
Modernisation of Ticketing Website (IRCTC):
Over the last four years, the capacity of the website has increased to 20,000 tickets per minute starting from 2000 tickets per minute in 2014, a ten-fold increase.  Apart from the capacity, the entire user experience has been improved substantially with the launch a new interface with easier navigation and standard views that enable the passengers to transact smoothly. New features have been added that enable better planning of journeys aiding the passenger to obtain confirmed tickets.
Paperless Unreserved Ticketing through Mobile Phones:
Paperless Unreserved ticketing on mobile phones was launched on 25.12.2014 at Mumbai and has since been expanded to suburban sections of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Secunderabad and New Delhi-Palwal section of Northern Railway. This has eliminated the need for passengers to stand in queue for getting tickets for journey in unreserved compartments of trains.  The ticket is delivered on the Mobile Phone and is embedded with QR Code.   This service has added to passenger convenience.  About 4 lakh passengers per day are booking tickets on Mobile phones.

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Friday, 24 March 2017

08:38

RANCHI RAILWAY STATION TO REDEVELOP AS WORLD CLASS RAILWAY STATION

RANCHI RAILWAY STATION TO REDEVELOP AS WORLD CLASS RAILWAY STATION

22-03-2017

RANCHI  RAILWAY STATION TO REDEVELOP AS  WORLD CLASS RAILWAY STATION

Kolkata, 22nd March, 2017:

A pre-proposal conference for redevelopment of Ranchi Railway Station as World Class Railway Station was held at SERailway’s Headquarters, Garden Reach, this afternoon(22.03.2017).

Sri V.K.Srivastava, Chief Planning & Design Engineer, South Eastern Railway convened the meeting and addressed to the developers to apply  their engineering excellence for making the Ranchi Railway Station as World Class Railway Station, as declared by the Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu.  Sri Srivastava in his address spoke about the elevated features & designing of world class railway station.  Chief Planning & Design Engineer also said in details of land records, legal resolutions, relocation requirements etc. The redevelopment of Ranchi Station includes well decorated waiting hall, concourse area, multi - cuisine restaurant, and other passenger amenities along with utilization of vacant space for commercial development.

 As many as 14 developers attended the meeting and exchanged their views for conceptualizing the reality of the Hon’ble Railway Minister’s plan for total well being of the large commuters of Indian Railways.

Shri Ajay Shankar Jha, Chief Commercial Manager/Passenger Services, Shri P.K.Das, FA&CAO/HQ, Shri Vishal Anand, Senior Divisional Engineer(Co-ordination) and some other senior officers  attended the meeting.

Source:SER

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Thursday, 26 May 2016

22:55

Indian Railways may soon get $500mil. World Bank loan for Stations Redevelopment project

Indian Railways may soon get $500mil. World Bank loan for Stations Redevelopment project

New Delhi: After securing a soft loan from Japan to build India’s first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, the ministry of railways will soon wrap up a similar loan from the World Bank for $500 million with a moratorium on interest payments for seven years for the purpose of re-developing existing stations to world standards.

The rail ministry will also soon seek Cabinet approval to hand over three identified stations to largest public sector construction company NBCC to make them world class. The railways has short-listed eight stations for re-developing them to world-class standards, which include Habibganj (Lucknow), Bijwasan and Anand Vihar (Delhi), Chandigarh, Surat, Gandhinagar, Mohali and Shivaji Nagar (Mumbai).

“The ministry is in a final stage to rope in World Bank for a $500-million loan with a moratorium of seven years for undertaking the redevelopment of stations. This will be in addition to Ambala and Ludhiana for which the French Rail Corporation has been given the consultancy,” a senior official of the Railway Board said.

The ministry of railways is adopting various strategies for the re-development of stations to world-class status. Accordingly, a Cabinet note has been initiated to entrust three identified stations to the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) on nomination basis, added the official.

The ministry of railways would next month come out with a modal document approved by the Railway Board, which would be the basis for the private players to become part of the exercise for redevelopment of stations to world-class standard.

The Cabinet had last year approved a plan to develop 400 A1 and A category stations to the world class standard. The Railways has held consultations with a large number of construction companies, including L&T, Reliance, Tata, Sapoorji-Pollonji, Bharti, ATS for their views on the road-map for redevelopment of stations, said the official.

“After the Modal Document is made available to public in June, the zonal railways will begin inviting proposals from the private players to take part in the redevelopment exercise,” said the official. The Habibganj station (Lucknow) will be the first to be awarded to the private player for re-development. The Railways has constituted Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC), which will be the nodal agency to execute the re-development of the station project to the world class status.

Source:RailNews
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Monday, 19 October 2015

10:45

IR needs Dynamic Fare-Fixing System and improved Management & Marketing techniques

IR needs Dynamic Fare-Fixing System and improved Management & Marketing techniques

Making Indian Railways more Competitive: Column by A K Bhattacharya

Most travellers in India know that the start of a festival season is a testing time. If you have not planned well in advance, getting train tickets for a safe and comfortable journey is almost impossible just before and during the festival season. Those with money can fly, but exercising that option could mean shelling out an exorbitantly high fare for a travel that would have cost less than half in the normal course. That scenario, however, has changed. For almost all short-distance routes (between 400 and 700 kilometres), air tickets even at higher prices are now difficult to get during the festival season, while the pleasant surprise is that train tickets are available with relative ease.

Last Friday marked the start of a week-long festival season of Dussehra. Most schools, colleges and many corporate offices are closed for many days during the week. The rush for train tickets, therefore, should have been huge. But the experience of many rail travellers during the weekend was that many coaches were travelling with many vacant seats. One entire coach with 56 seats in the executive class chair car category, for instance from Lucknow to New Delhi, had only four paying passengers. For the same weekend, an air ticket for the same sector was simply not available. An interesting point to be noted was that the easily available executive class train tickets were only a couple of hundred rupees less than the airline fares for the same distance.

What was really happening? And does this have a lesson for the Indian Railways and its traffic management team? To understand the changed scenario, it is important to remember a few recent developments affecting India’s travel industry. Thanks to falling crude oil prices, airfares have come down significantly in the last one year. Till recently, an executive or first class air-conditioned train fare would actually be costlier than an air ticket on the same route. But that situation has been reversed. Air tickets are now just a few hundred rupees more expensive than such train fares for short distances.

Secondly, the Indian Railways has stepped up its efforts to provide more railway connections between cities to tap the growing market for travellers. Especially for sectors whose distance is between 400 and 700 kilometres, there are now more train options than the flights available on the same sector. It is the combination of these two developments that has seen a rush for air tickets even though train fares are only marginally lower than air fares. As a result, plane tickets are not available and trains are not running at full capacity.

The lessons that the Indian Railways must learn from this are obvious. It must opt for a dynamic fare-fixing system. While offering more trains to increase capacity and options for passengers, especially on short-distance sectors, is a good idea, its traffic managers should recognise the reality of an increasingly competitive market where airlines are luring their customers with lower airfares. In the days of relatively higher crude oil prices, airlines could seek recourse to fare discounts only up to a point as they did not want to financially bleed themselves. But now they enjoy greater flexibility to offer discounted fares because of lower aviation turbine fuel prices. The Indian Railways has already promised to introduce a dynamic fare structure on certain routes, but it must expand its coverage if it wants to retain its top-end customers, who account for a huge chunk of its total passenger revenues.

Technological upgrade can certainly help to an extent. The online ticket sales platform can be upgraded to get more value per seat it is offering to passengers. But more importantly, its managerial workforce, including the network of divisional railway managers, must show greater enterprise and commitment to make the Indian Railways a more market-savvy organisation that can offer better services at competitive fares.

The running of the Indian Railways should ideally be segmented into two categories. There is a huge need for building capacity in the Indian Railways. That goal has to be achieved with the help of setting up new projects and building new capacities through necessary investments – a task that has begun in earnest, even though decision making for such projects needs to be decentralised to impart greater speed to their execution.

The second and equally important category of work pertains to the operational aspects of the Indian Railways. It is in this area that there is the need for improvements in management and marketing techniques. This would include better trains, attractive fares and modernised stations. Without them, more trains are likely to run at low capacity, even as airlines woo the railway passengers.
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Thursday, 9 July 2015

09:54

Operation Clean at Lucknow Railway Station: Even GRP man chased for peeing at Charbagh

Operation Clean at Lucknow Railway Station: Even GRP man chased for peeing at Charbagh

Lucknow (LKO): It came as a rude shock for a GRP personnel at Charbagh station when not only railway officers but hordes of press photographers started chasing him out of nowhere.

The officer, posted at the pre-paid booking booth, had no clue why they were shouting at him, telling him to “hold on”. He tried to flee but was caught and fined Rs 500. His crime: urinating behind a police booth on the station premises.

The GRP officer was not the only one to be penalised for peeing in public on Wednesday. Under a surprise drive launched by the railways, 117 people were presented before the railway magistrate and fined for the same act. Seven passengers who refused to pay the fine were sent to jail. Besides, 112 others were fined for littering the station, under Operation Clean, a part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Railways plans to launch surprise inspections and drives to get hold of passengers or visitors smoking at the station, roaming without platform tickets or littering. The maximum fine amount is Rs 500 and those refusing to pay are sent to jail.

On Wednesday, defaulters were photographed by the checking team and filmed so that they could not deny the charge in front of the railway magistrate.

“Defaulters pay fine and get off the hook. This time, they were all presented before the railway magistrate. Sitting for hours at the station might make them realise their responsibility of keeping the public premises clean,” said senior divisional commercial manager, Northern Railway, Lucknow, Ashwini Srivastava.

The drive was executed from morning till evening. “Among all defaulters, the maximum were caught for urinating on the premises,” said the official.

“The entire station was divided into five sectors for the drive and the number of people we caught today is the highest for a day so far,” said divisional commercial manager, NR, Lucknow, Amitabh Kumar.

There are checks on platforms, circulating area, subway, foot-over-bridges, waiting halls, pathways leading into the station premises, parcel office and other parts of the station.

Information boards at Charbagh station warn passengers to keep the station clean or face a penalty. Officers said similar boards would now be put up outside the station in the circulating area and pathways.
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09:42

19 Railway Stations in Karnataka to Change to New Names

19 Railway Stations in Karnataka to Change to New Names

Bengaluru (SBC): The names of 19 railway stations in the state will have to be changed to their new names, as per a notification issued by the Indian Railway Conference Association, New Delhi.

The letter was issued on July 7 by the Secretary General of the Association, Sudhansu Jyoti Sinha, to the Chief Commercial Manager, South Western Railway, Hubballi.

The following will be the altered names of stations (old names in brackets):

Bengaluru Cantonment (Bangalore Cantonment); Bengaluru City Junction (Bangalore City Junction), Bengaluru East (Bangalore East), Ballari Cantonment (Bellary Cantonment), Ballari Junction (Bellary Junction), Vijayapura (Bijapur), Belagavi (Belgaum), Chikkamagaluru (Chikkamagalur), Mysuru (Mysore), Mysuru New Goods Terminal (Mysore New Goods Terminal), Hosapete D Cabin (Hospet D Cabin), Hosapete (Hospet), Shivamogga Bidare (Shimoga Bidare), Shivamogga H (Shimoga H), Shivamogga Town (Shimoga Town), Hubballi Junction (Hubli Junction), Hubballi Shops (Hubli Shops), Hubballi South (Hubli South) and Tumakuru (Tumkur).

Ghanshyam Verma, Deputy General Manager and Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railway told that the process of implementing the order has already begun. “It will take some time to change the display names on both sides of the station, on the official letterheads, on trains and on tickets. But the work has commenced,” he said.
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Thursday, 11 June 2015

22:17

India changes approach toward railways

India changes approach toward railways

Over the past year in office, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put great emphasis on improving infrastructure and connectivity in India, with a special emphasis on railways.

He has sought to link his mission of reviving Indian railways with his foreign policy, and India is exploring possible collaborations with countries and regions in both Europe and Asia in a number of areas, including advanced technologies, upgrading of railway tracks and modernization of train stations. Various countries and regions have already come forward to provide assistance in these areas, including France, Japan, South Korea and China.

Comparisons are often made between the state of Indian railways and China's massive overhaul over the past decade. China's total railway network is 110,000 kilometers in length while India's is estimated at 65,000 kilometers, less than two-thirds of that of China. What is especially admirable is the size of China's high-speed rail network, which is estimated at 15,000 kilometers.

China's success in improving its railways has been achieved largely over the decade and a half since 1999, when the country built its first high-speed rail line. To begin with, high-speed trains were either imported or built through technology transfer agreements with foreign train makers, but Chinese engineers soon picked up the know-how and made their own trains. China's railway success has not just helped it enhance connectivity domestically, but also in connecting with other parts of Asia, as well as Africa and Europe. Rail connectivity is an important component of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative and its foreign policy.

Modi is an admirer of the remarkable strides made by China in the sphere of railways, and he previously made a private visit to China during which he took a ride on a high-speed train just to learn about how it worked.

While Indian railways have had their fair share of problems, there is an increasing realization that to give support to economic growth, India needs to focus on embracing new technology, enhancing speed and improving the level of services for passengers.

One of Modi's pet projects is the bullet train from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. Currently, the journey takes eight hours, but this would be reduced to less than two hours by the bullet train. A Japanese team, which is undertaking a feasibility study, has stated that the ticket for this bullet train could be 2,800 rupees ($45), much less than for the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed train, which costs around $80.

While the bullet train is a long-term project, the government is already working on increasing the number of semi-high-speed trains that can travel at over 160 kilometers per hour. The semi-high-speed train from Delhi to Agra is likely to be inaugurated soon by Modi.

India has also realized the importance of assistance from the outside world. In August 2014, the Indian government allowed foreign direct investment into a few selected areas such as construction and maintenance of freight corridors, construction of bullet trains and reconstruction and maintenance of passenger terminals.

Railways are also an area in which India and China are likely to cooperate. During Modi's recent visit to China, this issue was given priority and a memorandum of understanding for cooperation on railways was signed. It is likely that China will assist India not just in infrastructure, but also in setting up railway universities. Apart from China, India is also likely to work closely with Japan.

There are certain key issues to bear in mind. First, a middle path needs to be found for the upgrading of Indian railways. There have been debates about privatization, and India is working at exploring synergies between the private and public sectors. Second, there is plenty of scope for progress in railways; after all, India has considerably improved its aviation infrastructure over the past decade. As well as the swanky airports in big cities, India has also been able to build impressive airports in second-tier cities and there is no reason why the success cannot be replicated in the rail sector, though of course it is likely to be a greater challenge.

It would be fair to say that cooperation in railways will help India not just domestically, but also in improving ties with other countries. By setting ambitious but attainable goals and clear timelines, and being open to assistance from a number of countries, the current Indian leadership is adopting the right approach.

Source :GlobalTimes.
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09:40

Initiatives and Action plan of Civil Engineering Directorate of Ministry of Railways

Initiatives and Action plan of Civil Engineering Directorate of Ministry of Railways
Following are the  initiatives and action plan of Civil Engineering Directorate of Ministry of Railways :
Network Growth Since Independence:
It is often said that Indian Railways has added only about 12000 Km since independence. independence i.e. from 53596 Km at the time of independence to 65808 Km in 2014. While it is true that Route Kilometers have not increased significantly since independence,  but Railways have carried out a large number of capacity enhancement projects like Gauge Conversion and Doubling. As a result, the total track Kilometer, including Double/multiple lines & yards, has increased as indicated below:
TOTAL TRACK  KILOMETRE

1951
1991
2014
BROAD GAUGE
42,013
72,174
1,07,513*
METRE GAUGE
29,536
32,122
6,688
NARROW GAUGE
6,075
4,562
2,564
TOTAL
77,624
1,08,858
1,16,765
 The above table shows that Indian Railways have increased its Broad Gauge network effectively to more than 2.5 times since independence.
Presently, India has Rail Network Density of 2 Km per 100 Sq. Km of area as compared to China’s 1 Km per 100 Sq.Km. In population terms, India’s Rail Network Density is 5.44 Km per lakh population as compared to China’s 6.89 Km per lakh population.
Achievements in Railways in 2014-15
o       Railways focus is on completion and commissioning of those projects where substantial progress has been achieved and which have been held up for want of some clearances or small inputs to reap the fruits of investment.
o       In 2014-15, Railways commissioned 1983 Km of Broad Gauge network expansion projects including 380 Km New Lines, 880 Km Gauge Conversion and 723 Km Doubling.
Major Sections commissioned in 2014-15 include:

o        Udhampur-Katra completed – Mata Vaishno Devi Shine on Railway map.
o       Meghalaya on Railway Network – Commissioning of Dudhnoi-Mendipathar new line.
o       Commissioning of Lumding – Silchar section, bringing Barak Valley on Broad Gauge Network : Very important for supply of foodgrains,     POL, Fertilizers etc, to Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram.
o       Entire North Bank of Brahmaputra on Broad Gauge – Rangia-Murkongselek project commissioned.
o       Koderma – Hazaribagh New Line completed bringing Naxal affected Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand on Railway map.
o       Gorakhpur-Gonda loop gauge conversion completed.
o       Guna-Gwalior-Etawah Project completed, with the commissioning of Bhind – Etawah section for goods traffic.
o       Kanpur-Kasganj-Mathura & Kasganj-Bareilly gauge conversion completed.
o       Both Ganga Bridges viz Patna & Munger completed – Expected to be commissioned in next 3 months for Rail traffic.
o       Fatehabad- Indore Gauge Conversion: completing Ratlam – Fatehabad – Indore Broad Gauge Link.
o       Doubling of Ganga Bridge at Garh Mukteshwar (Length – 3 Km) – Span of Bridge – 11x200 feet.
Targets for 2015-16:
o       IR have kept a target of commissioning 2500 Km BG track for 2015-16, including 500 Km New Lines, 800 Km Gauge Conversion and 1200 Km Doubling.
o       Agartala, the Capital of Tripura will come on Broad Gauge, with commissioning of Badarpur-Kumarghat-Agartala Gauge Conversion.
o       The States of  Manipur and Mizoram will also be on BG network by March, 2016 with the commissioning of Silchar-Jiribam and Kathakal-Bhairabi Gauge Conversion.
o       Agra – Etawah and Etawah – Mainpuri new lines are planned to be commissioned in this year.
o       Commissioning of Tikamgarh – Khajuraho new line section will usher the Bundelkhand region into a new era of prosperity and economic development.
o       Capacity enhancement on many important/congested routes has been planned by commissioning Doubling/ 3rd Line substantially on the following routes:
§         Udhna-Jalgaon
§         Viramgam – Surendranagar
§         Viramgam – Samakhyali
§         Jakhal-Mansa-Bathinda
§         Bhopal – Bina 3rd Line
§         Utretia – Jafrabad
§         Lohta – Bhadohi – Janghai
§         Raipur – Titlagarh
§         Villupuram – Dindigul
o       In the first two months of current financial year, about 175 Km network expansion has been done by commissioning of New Lines, Gauge Conversion and Doublings.
Project Scenario and Outlay:
o       Presently, there are 429 ongoing projects of network expansion needing about Rs 3.45 lakh crore to complete them. Out of these, 82 have been included in the Budget 2015-16 for capacity enhancement of Indian Railways.
o       An outlay of Rs 36000 crore has been provided for these projects in the current financial year.
o       For funding of the projects, an MoU has already been signed with LIC to raise a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
o       Indian Railways focus is on capacity enhancement works like doubling and it is planned to complete about 11000 Km of Doubling/ 3rd line/ 4th line works over next 5 years. In addition, about 2100 Km New Lines and 4000 Km Gauge Conversion is also planned to be completed in next 5 years.
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Saturday, 30 May 2015

08:06

Railways to sign MOU with select PSUs on utilising CSR funds to spruce up stations

Railways to sign MOU with select PSUs on utilising CSR funds to spruce up stations

New Delhi: Indian Railways is eying the huge corporate social responsibility funds available with the government’s public sector units (PSUs) to upgrade and modernize passenger amenities at platforms.

To begin with, the state-run transporter will sign MoUs with railway PSUs for taking up works to ensure better facilities for travellers using their CSR funds at 10 stations during the ongoing 15-days customer facilitation drive that started on May 26.

The railways’ mega plan aims to cover more stations by involving other government PSUs such as NTPC.

Five railway PSUs – CONCOR, IRCTC, IRCON, RITES and RVNL – will be assigned two stations each from among Mumbai CST, Howrah, New Delhi, Guwahati, Patna, Varanasi, Vadodara, Chennai, Agra and Bengaluru to bring about visible improvement in passenger amenities using funds available under their CSR schemes.

Additional member, railway board, Mohd Jamshed said, “The five PSUs will be pitched against each other as to who has provided better passenger amenities at stations. The work would be visible to all. This will promote healthy competition among them. At a later stage, we plan to engage other government PSUs such as NTPC to improve passenger facilities at stations.”

While the MoUs will clearly spell out the kind of amenities each PSU can provide, the long list of passenger facilities to be provided at stations includes installing reverse osmosis (RO) plants for safe drinking water, putting up water coolers, installing lifts and escalators and making available carts for old and differently-abled passengers.

“The PSUs can take up works for renovation of toilets in waiting halls, retiring rooms and dormitory or building new ones. They can provide electronic boards and reflective signages at platforms as also steel dustbins. They can also work for improving circulating area at stations,” an official said.

The MoUs will have one-year, two-year and five-year targets.

Faced with the funds crunch, railways has also been urging private companies to pitch in with money from their CSR schemes for improvement of railway stations.
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