Tatkal Changes

Concerned over large-scale complaints in the sale of Tatkal (emergency travel) tickets, the railways Friday announced changes in the procedure and timing of their sale.
It was decided that from July 10, the booking of tickets will start at 10 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. at present.
From July 10, reservation of tatkal tickets will start from 10 am instead of 8 am and no authorised agents will be allowed to book them during the first two hours. File Pic
The railways also decided that no authorised agents, including those of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation, will be allowed to book Tatkal tickets in the first two hours — from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, said a statement from the Railway Board.
The existing restriction on agents booking general tickets on the opening day from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. will also continue, it said.
Officials said while there was a huge passenger demand on the Tatkal system during the first few minutes after the booking counters open at 8 a.m., the role of touts has been bothering the ministry despite many steps to curb the menace.

Double Track Between Bangalore And Mysore

South Western Railways to double tracks between Bangalore and Mysore by 2014
BANGALORE: The Minister of state for Railways, KH Muniyappa said that the doubling of tracks between

Bangalore and Mysore will be completed by 2014. He said in a press conference in Bangalore that the

project was facing a lot of issues pertaining to land acquisition, which is now being resolved.

This route has become busier by day; at present around 25,000 people travel between these two cities

by the railway on a daily basis. South Western Railways eyed the project of doubling the tracks work

which would ensure better connectivity and more trains between these two places in 2008. But land

acquisition was the hindrance.


A total of 138 km of tracks have to be doubled and is sanctioned in three phases-Bangalore to Kengeri

(12km), Kengeri to Ramnagaram(32km) and Ramnagaram to Mysore(94km). Although these works were

sanctioned between 2003-2008, the works never started, because of right of way issues in Mandya.

Muniyappa said that the work is going on full swing. "There is 50 acre land which is left to be

acquired in Mandya district. The work was supposed to be complete by 2011 but the delay is attributed

land related issues," he said.

He also said that shortage of funds from the ministry of railways is a second reason, why multiple

rail projects are yet not taken up in the state. He said that when the SWR requires Rs210 crores for

works related to the state, they get only Rs30 crores as funds. Last year the SWR was sanctioned Rs60

crores only.

Rail Coach Factory

RCF has already replaced conventional toilet system in coaches with green toilets in various trains including Gwalior-Indore Express and Lucknow -Mumbai CST Pushpak Express.

"Three more rakes of Indore Jammu Tawi Malwa Express, Nizammudin-Indore Intercity Express and Varanasi-Mumbai CST Mahanagari Express have been targeted for this month," he said.
Railways has been laying emphasis on replacing open discharge toilets with green toilets with an aim to dispose of human excreta in an environment-friendly way.

 
The creation of bio-toilets is based on technology provided by Gawalior-based Defence Research and Development Establishment. Under this system, anaerobic bacteria are used to convert human excreta into disinfected liquid, that is then discharged on the tracks.

BHEL

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has been in the field of manufacture and supply of railway

engines/ locomotives since mid-1980s. For this, the company has established facilities for manufacture

of a range of traction machines, diesel and electric locomotives, rolling stock for Indian Railways,

Industrial use and other Urban Transportation applications. These include, mainline electric

locomotives upto 5000 Horse Power (HP) for Railways, Diesel Electric Locomotives ranging from 350 HP

to 2600 HP for different medium and large industries, Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) coaches, and

related electrics/drives/controls.

The Jhansi Unit of BHEL has the main facilities for manufacture of railway locomotives which are

presently being enhanced. BHEL has the necessary human resources and technology for manufacture of its

present range of locomotives & railway engines/equipment.At present there is no proposal under

consideration for setting up separate plant/unit of BHEL to manufacture railway engines/locomotives.

This was stated by Shri Arun Yadav, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in

the Lok Sabha today.

Varanasi, the oldest living city in the world has an auspicious place in the global arena both as a centre of culture and technology. Where the

ringing of holy bells of the temples brings the city to life, Diesel Locomotive Works is an ISO 9002 certified manufacturer of diesel electric

locomotive and is one of the biggest industrial complexes in eastern part of the country. DLW attracts lot of foreign tourists, students to

witness on going wonderful locomotive manufacturing process and is christened as Industrial
       
Temple of Varanasi. It is situated at the North end of the city and approximately 8 Kilometers away from the Ghats of Holy river Ganges in

Varanasi.

Diesel Locomotive Works was set up in 1961 with technical collaboration from M/s. ALCO/USA with a modest beginning of manufacturing 4 locos

1964, today DLW is the largest Diesel Locomotive manufacturer in the world, and the largest in Asia. In order to capture export market & widen

its product range. Indian railway entered in to a contract for Transfer of Technology (TOT) with M/s. General Motors, USA for manufacture of

4000 HP state of the art locos at DLW. After assimilation of this technology , DLW will become the only factory in the world capable of

producing ALCO as well as General Motors designs of locomotives.

Rail Coach Factory

Established in 1986, the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) was the second coach manufacturing unit of Indian Railways. Its foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister of India Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. It has manufactured around 16,000 passenger coaches of 51 different types including self propelled passenger vehicles.

This output constitutes over 35% of the total population of coaches on Indian Railways. RCF is at the threshold of setting an all time record by manufacturing more than 1400 coaches during the Financial Year 2005-06 including around 150 stainless steel coaches and 260 AC 3 Tier coaches in corten steel shell design.[citation needed]

RCF is equipped with CAD centre and CNC machines to undertake design and manufacture of bogies, shell (both with stainless steel and corten steel). RCF has also manufactured Alstom LHB coaches for both Rajdhani Express and Shatabdi Express.

The RCF is in the town of Kapurthala in the Indian state of Punjab. Pincode - 144602.In 2010 a new double decker coaches rushed out from the kapurthala rail coach factory which runs as a train between howrah and dhanbad known as the 'black diamond express'

INTEGRAL COACH FACTORY

Started in 1952, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is located in Chennai, India. Its primary products are rail coaches. Most of the coaches manufactured are supplied to the Indian Railways, but it has also manufactured coaches for railway companies in other countries, including Thailand, Burma, Taiwan, Zambia, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Nigeria, Mozambique and Bangladesh. Recently,[when?] ICF exported coaches to Angola. It also has got orders worth of Rs. 102 crores from Sri Lanka. However, Sri Lanka suspended imports after one DMU stopped for 20 minutes due to an electrical short circuit. The import was resumed after an investigation revealed that the fault was triggered by tinkering and adding more cars than the hauling capacity of the train. The air-conditioned train-sets manufactured by ICF for Kolkata Metro have also broken down causing disruption of services. According to newspaper reports the air-conditioned rakes have been sent to Kolkata without conducting dry runs because the Integral Coach Factory does not have third rail testing facilities. At least one failure was attributed to unacceptably high levels of seepage of water in the 27-year old tunnels of Kolkata Metro.

Shatabdi Express

Shatabdi Express trains offer fast connectivity with only a few intermediate stops. They are fully air-conditioned and of a much higher standard than most Indian trains. Shatabdi Express travelers are provided with snacks, breakfast, meals, coffee or tea, a one-litre water bottle and a glass of canned juice. Travelers are also provided newspapers.

Berths and seats in Shatabdi Express and Rajdhani Express trains have to be reserved in advance before boarding the train. There is no unreserved accommodation in these trains, unlike most of the other trains in India. A few Shatabdis have a current booking system where tickets can be booked within a couple of hours before departure.

As Shatabdi Express are day-trains and return to the station of origin the same day, most of the coaches on the train have only airconditioned seats (called AC Chair Car or CC) and not berths. All the Shatabdi Express trains have, however, one coach of first class airconditioned seating. These coaches have wider leg room and offer better food compared to the normal Air conditioned seating(CC).

New on board entertainment systems have also been installed on some of these trains where the passengers can view movies and television serials directly via satellite. One of the first services to have this system is the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Shatabdi Express.

Shatabdi Express

Shatabdi Express trains offer fast connectivity with only a few intermediate stops. They are fully air-conditioned and of a much higher standard than most Indian trains. Shatabdi Express travelers are provided with snacks, breakfast, meals, coffee or tea, a one-litre water bottle and a glass of canned juice. Travelers are also provided newspapers.

Berths and seats in Shatabdi Express and Rajdhani Express trains have to be reserved in advance before boarding the train. There is no unreserved accommodation in these trains, unlike most of the other trains in India. A few Shatabdis have a current booking system where tickets can be booked within a couple of hours before departure.

As Shatabdi Express are day-trains and return to the station of origin the same day, most of the coaches on the train have only airconditioned seats (called AC Chair Car or CC) and not berths. All the Shatabdi Express trains have, however, one coach of first class airconditioned seating. These coaches have wider leg room and offer better food compared to the normal Air conditioned seating(CC).

New on board entertainment systems have also been installed on some of these trains where the passengers can view movies and television serials directly via satellite. One of the first services to have this system is the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Shatabdi Express.

Chittaranjan Loco Works

Inaugurated on Jan. 26, 1950, CLW produced its first locomotive by Nov. 1, 1950 (a WG loco, #8401, named 'Deshbandhu' for Deshbandhu

Chittaranjan Das, an Indian freedom-fighter; incidentally it was his widow, Basanti Devi, who inaugurated the works). CLW, originally named

just the Locomotive Manufacturing Works, was located near a village called Mihijam, which was shortly afterwards renamed Chittaranjan. It is

said that originally the locomotive works, which were under planning even in the mid-1940s, were to be set up at Kalyani near Howrah, but a

concern about losing such a strategic asset in the foreseen partition of British India resulted in the shift to Chittaranjan, on the border of

West Bengal and Bihar (Chittaranjan railway station is in Bihar).

CLW became a major producer of steam locomotives, producing a large number of BG and MG steam locomotives through 1972 (total count – 2351).

The last BG steam loco made in India, a WG (#10560, 'Antim Sitara' ('The Last Star') was delivered by CLW on June 30, 1970, and the last steam

loco made in India was the MG YG classloco (#3573), delivered on Feb. 5, 1972.

CLW started early on the manufacture of electric locos, building the WCM-5 series DC locos starting in 1961. The first one was named

'Lokamanya', and delivered on Oct. 14, 1961. A few years later it began production of AC electric locos, starting with 'Bidhan', a WAG-1 class

loco delivered on Nov. 16, 1963, which was also notable as the first fully Indian-built electric locomotive. Since then CLW has manufactured

ever more sophisticated generations of electric locomotives, most recently delivering the advanced WAP-5 and WAP-7 3-phase AC locomotives. It

has a capacity of around 200 or so electric locomotives a year.

CLW has also manufactured many diesel locos, mainly diesel-hydraulic shunters such as the WDS-4 class (begun in 1967-1968, although large

numbers were produced only in 1969). In the '70s and '80s it built some diesels in the ZDM series and some YDM-2 units (diesel-electrics).

Total diesel loco count – over 660 BG diesel shunters, over 140 NG diesels, and over 40 BG mainline diesels.

Passenger Reservation System

Booking Indian Railways Tickets Online is generally not recommended because most of the times the Indian railways website goes down and the customers lose their money because the payment gateway approves the funds and while transferring the data from their end to the railways website, the connection gets cut. This has happened to me twice while i used once my ICICI Gold Credit card and second time i used ICICI Direct Bank Payment, both the times the transactions failed because the connection could not be established and later we get a message saying we need to make the payment again. On the other hand the railway department offers a PNR inquiry toll free number which you can use in order to contact and get details about your latest transaction, and when you do the same you are told that they have not received any funds from ICICI nor Credit Card Company. When you contact the payment processing company they claim that the payment is made from their end and they you cannot do anything about this and we need to contact the railway officials. There were recent claims from the Indian railways that the online tickets booking has increased from 3% to 10% but wonder how many passengers are losing their hard earned money because of their useless back end software. Even if you check out the official railways website its full of Google ad sense ads which may be the IT department is using to fill in their pockets. Last time i checked out their website the ads turned out to be for premium publishers and this would be obvious with the huge traffic and now high income for the railways department.

Kharagpur Railway Station

The first Railway establishment at Kharagpur started with the commissioning of the rail link between Cuttack – Balasore – Kharagpur and from

Sini to Kolaghat via Kharagpur. Kharagpur as a junction station was established in Railway map in December 1898. The public mood and the

reaction of society on introduction of rail transport in this region has been nicely depicted by the famous Bengali Novelist Dr Ramapada

Choudhury who was born and brought up in Kharagpur, in his Bengali novel Prothom Prohor. It is said that the people were initially afraid to

travel by train for the fear of accident over the bridge (fear of collapsing of bridge), fear of getting outcaste status since there were no

separate seating arrangement for different castes and religions. However, things changed due to famines in the early 20th century. The Railway

Company came forward and offered jobs to the local unemployed men, gave them free ride by train and even offered a blanket for traveling by

train. This promotional scheme broke the taboos and made rail transport acceptable to the society.
Midnapur, the District Headquarters was connected (up to the bank of Kosai river) in February 1900. Construction of the bridge over Kosai

completed in June 1901. The rail line from Howrah to Kolaghat up to the Eastern bank and from Kharagpur up to Western bank of Rupnarayan River

was completed in 1899. However through trains between Howrah and Kharagpur could only be possible in April 1900 after the bridge over

Rupnarayan river was completed.
Howrah – Amta light Railway (2 ft gauge - 610 mm ) line was completed in 1898 and was operated by M/s Martin & Co. of Calcutta. This link

remained operative till 1971. After closure of the light Railways, demand for a broad gauge line between Howrah and Amta gained momentum. The

project got completed in four phases. In the first phase, the line between Santragachi and Domjur was completed in 1984. In the 2nd phase under

Project Unigauge it got extended up to Bargachia in 1985. Extension up to Mushirhat (Mahendralal Nagar station) was completed in 2000 and the

final lap up to Amta got completed in December 2004

Vivek Express

The alternation travelling the longest ambit in India, the Dibrugarh-Kanyakumari Vivek Express, accustomed at its destination at 2.20 a.m. — eight hours advanced of agenda — on Wednesday. The new alternation that connects Assam with the southernmost tip of Tamil Nadu brings with it acceptable advice for the tourism industry.

The alternation was flagged off at Dibrugarh by Union Minister of Development of Arctic Eastern Region Paban Singh Ghatowar on November 19. On its way, it covered 4,286 km in 82.30 hours. It will leave Kanyakumari for Dibrugarh at 2.00 p.m. on Saturday.

Tourists apprenticed for the southern districts of Tamil Nadu were a part of the cartage on its beginning journey. The amount of cartage was, however, beneath as not abounding humans were acquainted of the service.

Following its arrival, the alternation larboard for the Nagercoil railway base for maintenance.

Vivek Express replaces Himsagar Express (Jammu Tawi to Kanyakumari) as India's longest alternation service.

“Patronage for the account to and from Kanyakumari, an all-embracing day-tripper destination, will advance gradually,” Kanyakumari Base Manager A. Chidambaram said.

The operation of Vivek Express will be benign for armed armament cadre who charge not change trains frequently to ability Assam and added places in the east and the arctic east. The agenda is acceptable for tourists and pilgrims as they can appointment assorted destinations in south Tamil Nadu in the four canicule amid accession and abandonment of the train.

Himsagar Express

Himsagar Express is the second longest (On 19th November 2011, Vivek Express took the first place) running train on the Indian Railways in terms of distance

and time. It runs from Kanyakumari in India's southernmost state, Tamil Nadu to Jammu Tawi, in Jammu & Kashmir - the northernmost state of India. In 71

hours, the train covers a distance of 3715 km at a speed of 58 km/h, and transverses nine of India's states halting at a total of 69 stations currently, to

go up to 77.
It runs weekly, starting every Friday at 14:05 hours from Kanyakumari, reaching Jammu on Mondays at 15:10 hours. It returns from Jammu on Mondays at

23:45 hours and reaches Kanyakumari on Thursdays at 22:45 hours. Because of this schedule, it needs just one rake to complete its entire run. There is a SLIP

ROUTE of this train, running from Erode Junction to Tirunelveli Junction & Chhindwara Junction to Bhopal Junction

Jammu to Kanyakumari: There are several long halts for this train like New Delhi 70 min, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhopal Junction and Erode, Nagpur, Itarsi

Junction, Jhansi, Gwalior Junction and Vijayawada 10-15 min each.

Kanyakumari to Jammu: The fastest speed is achieved near Kila Raipur (108 km/h) and the slowest speeds on the Hazrat Nizamuddin to New Delhi (24 km/h) and

Bhopal Habibganj to Bhopal Junction (19 km/h) . It takes around three hours for the train to clear the Delhi area.

Doon Train Accident

Due to derailment of train number 13009 Howrah-Dehradun Doon Express between Mihrawan-Khetasarai stations of Lucknow Division of Northern Railway, the following trains have been either been cancelled, diverted or short-terminated.

The trains cancelled include train number 14213 Varanasi-Gonda Intercity Express leaving Varanasi at 2.15 pm on Thursday. Consequently, 14214 will remain cancelled on Friday between Gonda and Varanasi. Train 54109 Mughalsarai-Faizabad Passenger has been cancelled between Mughalsarai and Faizabad. As a result, 54110 will remain cancelled on Friday between Faizabad-Mughalsarai. The 54372 Faizabad-Prayag Passenger has also been cancelled.

The trains passing through Lucknow, which were diverted on Thursday were train numbers 13010 Dehradun-Howrah Doon Express, which was diverted to run via Shahganj, Mau, Varanasi and Mughalsarai, 13308 Ferozepur-Dhanbad Ganga Sutlej Express, 14236 Bareilly-Varanasi Express, 14854 Jodhpur-Varanasi Marudhar Express and 13152 Jammu Tawi-Kolkata Sealdah Express has been diverted to run via Sultanpur, Zafrabad and Varanasi.

The 13238 Mathura-Patna Express and 13484 Delhi-Malda Town Farakka Express passing through Lucknow on Friday will be diverted to run via Sultanpur, Zafrabad, Varanasi and Mughalsarai. The 13010 Dehradun-Howrah Doon Express passing through Lucknow on Friday will be diverted to run via Faizabad, Sultanpur, Zafrabad, Varanasi and Mughalsarai. The 11055 Lokmanya Tilak Terminal-Gorakhpur Godan Express passing through Sahaganj on Thursday has been diverted to run via Zafrabad and Varanasi.

The trains passing through Varanasi are also affected. The 19168 Varanasi-Ahmedabad Sabarmati Express and 14235 Varanasi-Bareilly Express have been diverted to run via Zafrabad, Sultanpur, and Lucknow. The 13483 Malda Town-Delhi Jn. Farakka Express is diverted to run via Varanasi, Pratapgarh and Lucknow.

The 13151 Kolkatta-Jammu Tawi Sealdah Express to pass through Varanasi on Friday will be diverted to run via Varanasi, Sultanpur and Lucknow. Similarly, the 13307 Dhanbad-Ferozepur Ganga Sutlej Express passing through Varanasi on Friday will be diverted to run via Sultanpur, Faizabad and Lucknow. The 15668 Kamakhya-Gandhidham Express passing through Varanasi on Friday will be diverted to run via Varanasi, Pratapgarh and Lucknow.

The 54334 Faizabad-Varanasi Passenger was short terminated at Faizabad and remained cancelled between Faizabad and Varanasi.

Steps taken by IRCTC to prevent overcharging

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has taken some measures to ensure that passengers like us are not overcharged, and if so, then complaining about such incidents is as easy as possible:

    They try to serve standard food products and proprietary articles such as packaged drinking water, biscuits and cold drinks etc., which have a printed MRP on them. Remember, retailers may sell below the MRP but it is an offence to charge a price above the MRP (MRP is the maximum retail price of a product, inclusive of the taxes).
    As a result of continuous checking, the IRCTC Corporate Office has taken a policy decision to impose a fine of Rs.20000 on persons found overcharging the passengers (this applies to the caterers/sellers licenced by the IRCTC on trains)
    Routine checks are conducted to ensure that the firms shortlisted by the Railway authorities make their products available at the same quantity and MRP as the local market rate.
    Surprise visits by officials from the Vigilance Commission of IRCTC to check any compromise in quantity and quality, violation of rules and regulations, etc.
    Many coaches now have menu cards and important numbers pasted on their walls so that passengers are aware of the exact quantity and price of a particular item to avoid being overcharged.
    One may also check the a-la-carte menu, menu for Rajdhani/Shatabdi and standard menu for mobile units on the IRCTC website http://www.irctc.com/menu.html to find out actual prices.
    Complaint Management System (CMS): Passengers may lodge their complaints online on the website www.irctc.com of Indian Railways. When you register a complaint, you will be allotted a unique complaint id number through which you can keep checking the status of your complaint.
    Quick filing of complaints: Through the National Toll Free Number, 1800111139, the passengers can register their complaints on the phone at any time. You can also lodge your complaint through SMS on 9711111139.

ITDC

The Indian Railways and the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) joined hands Thursday to improve tourism services offered by the two entities, drawing maximum advantage from each other's large customer base, expertise and network of facilities.A memorandum of understanding (MOU) to this effect has been signed between the ITDC and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, according to a statement.Among the popular services offered by the IRCTC are the Bharat Darshan tourist trains, Mahaparinirvan Express (Buddhist circuit special train) and educational tours for school children.