27-Dec-2022: Amrit Bharat Station Scheme for Indian Railways

Ministry of Railways has formulated a new policy for modernization of stations named “Amrit Bharat Station” scheme. Amrit Bharat Station scheme envisages development of stations on a continuous basis with a long term vision. It is based on Master Planning for long term and implementation of the elements of Master Plan as per the needs and patronage of the station.

Broad objectives:

• The scheme aims at preparation of Master Plans of the Railway stations and implementation of the Master Plan in phases to enhance the facilities including and beyond the Minimum Essential Amenities (MEA) and aiming for creation of Roof Plazas and city centres at the station in long run.
• The scheme shall aim to meet the needs of the stakeholders, station usage studies as far as possible based on availability of funds and inter-se priority.
• The scheme shall cater for introduction of new amenities as well as upgradation and replacement of existing amenities.
• This scheme will also cover the stations where detailed techno-economic feasibility studies have been conducted or are being conducted but the work for construction of Roof Plazas has not been taken up yet, ensuring the phasing of Master Plan being suitably implemented and relocation of structures and utilities being given more emphasis in the phasing plans.

To meet the above objectives, following broad scope of work is envisaged for stations selected under the Amrit Bharat Station scheme:

• The Master Plans to have elementary details of the most appropriate location of Roof Plaza to be created in future.
• The scheme envisages cost efficient improvement to facades, provision of wide, well-lit aesthetically pleasing entrance porches.
• Existing building usage shall be reviewed and space should be released in favour of passengers near the station entrances and the Railway offices should be suitably relocated.
• The scheme aims to relocate redundant/old buildings in a cost efficient manner so that space is released for higher priority passenger related activities and future development may be carried out smoothly. Creation of new buildings should generally be avoided other than those required for relocation of old structures or relocation of structures to improve circulation or provision of structures to improve the size of waiting halls.
• Attempts shall be made to club different grades/types of waiting halls and provide good cafeteria/retail facilities as far as possible. Suitable low level partitions may be done in waiting halls.
• Provision for minimum two stalls for One Station One Product shall be made.
• Space shall also be created for Executive Lounges and places for small business meetings.
• At least one aesthetically designed hoarding(signage) on each side of the circulating area at a prominent location shall be erected for display of important information etc. The size of such hoarding shall not be less than 10mx20m.
• Station approaches would be improved to ensure smooth access by widening of roads, removal of unwanted structures, properly designed signages, dedicated pedestrian pathways, well planned parking areas, improved lighting etc. Necessary liaison should be established with local authorities for necessary improvements to be carried out by local authorities in their areas.
• Elements of landscaping, green patches and local art and culture should be used to create a pleasant experience for the station users. This should be done with the help of suitable professionals.
• Second Entry Station Building and circulating area shall be improved as per the needs of the station. Wherever second entry building is not being provided presently, space for circulating area will be well planned and a liaison shall be established with the local bodies so that approach roads for second entry are kept in the city’s Master Plan and development around the station is suitably controlled.
• High level platforms(760-840 mm) shall be provided at all categories of stations. Length of the platforms shall generally be 600m.
• Length, location and phasing of Platform shelters shall be decided based on usage of the station.
• Ballast less tracks would be provided on platform lines and lines with train maintenance facilities.
• Drainage of platform areas is of utmost importance. Special emphasis shall be given to achieve self-cleansing of drains as far as possible. Suitable cross drains, sump and pump arrangement may be provided where natural slopes are not adequate. Drains may be covered with aesthetically designed theft resistant covers.
• Cables should be covered in aesthetically designed duct and should have provision for future cables as well.
• The Master Plan shall mark the space for Parcel handling spurs, storage and handling facilities etc. Works should also be proposed and executed in suitable phases.
• Provisions may be made such that as far as possible the station provides free WiFi access to its users. The Master Plan should have suitable spaces earmarked for 5G towers.
• Material finishes of elements, such as flooring, walls, structures, furniture, sanitary fittings, etc. within the public areas of the station where surfaces either come in direct physical contact of passengers or are visible to them should be highly durable (preferably washable), generally dustproof and need low maintenance.
• The furniture available on Waiting halls, Platforms, Retiring Rooms, Offices shall be reviewed and intervention planned for more comfortable and durable furniture  suitable to the Railway Stations of that area. In a phased manner, it shall be planned to eliminate multi-design furniture.
• Signages should be well designed for intuitive way finding, should have good visibility and be aesthetically pleasing. Quality of public announcement systems should be improved.
• Escalators may be provided at NSG/1-4 and SG/1-2 category stations irrespective of footfall.
• Amenities for Divyangjan at stations shall be as per guidelines issued by Railway Board from time to time.
• Ceremonial flags may be provided at appropriate space in the station.
• At least two station name boards should be LED based with good visibility for the passengers of trains passing through the station.
• Circulating area boundary wall normally should not block the view of the station from outside. Access may be controlled by iron/steel grill fencing.
• Sufficient number of toilets shall be provided at all categories of stations with separate provisions for women and Divyangjan. Location of toilets should be appropriate to station usage, easily visible and accessible.
• Gradual shift to sustainable and environmental friendly solutions as per availability of funds and condition of existing assets.

Scale of amenities and facilities to be provided shall be finalized based on the broad guiding principles given above, footfall at the station, stakeholder consultations including users, different departments and local authorities and with approval of DRM.

21-Dec-2022: About 80% of reserved Railway tickets are being booked online

The digitalisation of railway services and database is an ongoing process.  The Information Technology applications of Indian Railways caters to transportation services (passenger and freight), fixed infrastructure (project, operations and maintenance), Rolling stock (manufacture, operations and maintenance) & resource management (finance, materials and human resources).

The digital initiatives and on-ground services are seamlessly integrated through well documented instructions and manuals.  Training of staff is also organised on need basis.

To create awareness for digital initiatives, regular campaigns are organised for rural and urban population through various media.  Online ticketing through mobile and website is available globally.  About 80% of reserved tickets are being booked online. Mobile Application on various platforms is also available for booking reserved and unreserved tickets as well as provision of other railway services.

7-Dec-2022: Indian Railways crosses 1000 MT in freight loading during Financial Year 2022-23

Indian Railways (IR) has achieved a major milestone in freight transportation by crossing 1000 Million Tons (MT) mark in current Financial Year (FY). Till date, IR has loaded 1002 Million Tons of freight in the current year. This is stellar performance by Indian Railways as similar milestone during last FY was achieved on 24th Dec 2021 and as on 06th December 2021, Railways had achieved a freight loading of 926.4 Million Tons. During this financial year, IR has registered an incremental loading of 76.3 MT with growth rate of 8.25% .

In revenue terms, the Railways freight revenues stood close to Rs. 1,08,593 Cr. in the current year vis-a-vis Rs. 93,532 Cr during last year till 06th December, thus showing an improvement of  16.10% .

Coal, the biggest commodity (48%) railway transports, contributed 485 Million Tons in this 1000 MT mark as against 425 Million Tons during last FY, thus showing 14.25% improvement. Coal is also the biggest contributor to incremental volumes with 60 MT of incremental traffic in the period.

The second biggest contributor to incremental volumes this year has been, Balance other goods segment (a basket of commodities like  stone, ash, bauxite, metals, automobiles, Gypsum salt, salt etc.) which has shown 10% improvement (83 MT in current FY as vis-à-vis 75 MT in last FY) in loading resulting in 19% increase in revenue.

Third biggest contributor to this growth has been Cement and clinker group, showing 8% improvement in volume (94.7 MT  in current FY vis-a-vis 87.7 MT in last FY) followed by Fertilizers which registered a growth of 13.9% with incremental volumes of 4.7 MT.

Following the Mantra, “Hungry For Cargo”, IR has made sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business as well as improve the service delivery at competitive prices which has resulted in new traffic coming to railways from both conventional and non-conventional commodity streams.

7-Dec-2022: Various steps being taken by Indian Railways for effective and speedy implementation of rail projects

Railway projects are sanctioned and taken up Zonal Railway- wise and not State-wise/ District-wise/ Union Territory-wise, as Indian Railways’ projects may span across State/ Union Territory boundaries. Further, State Capitals of Assam (Guwahati), Tripura (Agartala) and Arunachal Pradesh (Itanagar) have been connected with Broad Gauge (BG) Rail network of Indian Railways. In Arunachal Pradesh, a BG railway line has been commissioned upto Naharlagun, which is a suburban city of Itanagar (distance between Itanagar-Naharlagun is 10 km).

For capital connectivity of remaining 5 States of North Eastern Region - Meghalaya (Shillong), Manipur (Imphal), Nagaland (Kohima), Mizoram (Aizawl) and Sikkim (Gangtok), Railway has taken up New Line projects as detailed below:

1. Jiribam - Imphal (111 km) new line project.
2. Bhairabi - Sairang (51 km) new line project.
3. Dimapur (Dhansiri) - Zubza (Kohima) (82 km) new line project.
4. Sivok - Rangpo (44 km) new line project.
5. Tetelia - Byrnihat (22 km) new line project and Byrnihat - Shillong (108 km) new line project.

New Line and Doubling projects falling fully/ partly in North Eastern Region are covered in Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Zone of Indian Railways. Zone-wise details of Railway projects including cost, expenditure and outlay are made available in public domain on Indian Railways website i.e. www.indianrailways.gov.in >Ministry of Railways >Railway Board >About Indian Railways >Railway Board Directorates >Finance (Budget) >Rail Budget/Pink Book (Year)> Railway wise Works Machinery and Rolling Stock Programme.

During 2014-22, 1544 km (377 km New line, 972 km Gauge conversion and 195 km Doubling) sections, falling fully/partly in North Eastern Region, have been commissioned at an average rate of 193 km per year, which is 190% more than average annual commissioning achieved during 2009-14 (66.6 km per year).

SN	State	Route Kilometre Broad Gauge Electrified	Total Broad Gauge Route Kilometre
1.	Arunachal Pradesh	0	12
2.	Assam	516	2518
3.	Manipur	0	13
4.	Meghalaya	0	9
5.	Mizoram	0	2
6.	Nagaland	0	11
7.	Sikkim	0	0
8.	Tripura	0	265
Total		516	2830

Various steps being taken by the Railways for effective and speedy implementation of rail projects include (i) setting up of Gati Shakti Directorate in Ministry of Railways and Gati Shakti Units in Divisions (ii) prioritization of projects (iii) substantial increase in allocation of funds on priority projects (iv) delegation of powers at field level (v) close monitoring of progress of projects at various levels, and (vi) regular follow up with State Governments and concerned authorities for expeditious land acquisition, forestry and Wildlife clearances and for resolving other issues pertaining to projects.

Since 2014, there has been substantial increase in budget allotment for infrastructure projects. Average annual Budget allocation for infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/ partly in the North Eastern Region, during 2014-19 has been enhanced to ₹ 5,531 crore per year from ₹ 2,122 crore per year during 2009-14, which is 161% more than average   annual   Budget    allocation    during    2009-14.    These allocations have been increased to ₹ 4,909 crore in Financial Year 2019-20 (131% more than the average annual Budget allocation of 2009-14), ₹ 4,669 crore in Financial Year 2020-21 (120% more than the average annual Budget allocation of 2009-14) and ₹ 7,542 crore in Financial Year 2021-22 (255% more than the average annual Budget allocation of 2009-14). For Financial Year 2022-23, highest ever budget allocation of ₹ 9,970 crore has been provided for these projects, which is 370% more than the average annual Budget allocation of 2009-14 (₹ 2,122 crore per year).

Completion of Railway project/s depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project/s site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc. and all these factors affect the completion time of the project/s. With above constraints, every effort is being made to execute the project/s expeditiously.

7-Dec-2022: Indian Railways (IR) has envisioned to achieve net zero carbon emission by 2030

Indian Railways (IR) has envisioned to achieve net zero carbon emission by 2030. Following measures have, inter-alia, been undertaken in this regard:

1. 100% Electrification of Broad Gauge (BG) Railway network.
2. About 142 Mega Watt (MW) of solar plants (both on Rooftops and on its vacant land) and about 103 MW of Wind power plants have been commissioned (till 31.10.2022).
3. Use of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) based 3-phase propulsion system with regenerative braking in locomotives, Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) trains, Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) trains, Kolkata Metro rakes and Electric train sets.
4. Conversion of End on Generation (EOG) trains into Head on Generation (HOG) trains to reduce noise, air pollution and diesel consumption.
5. Provision of Light emitting diode (LED) lighting in all Railway installations including Railway stations, service buildings, Residential quarters and coaches for reduction in electricity consumption.
6. Afforestation of railway land to increase carbon sink.
7. Green Certifications- Green Certifications of various industrial units, railway stations and other railway establishments have been done. Further, Environment Management System (EMS): ISO 14001 certification of various railway stations has also been done.
8. Construction of Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs).
9. Installation of waste to energy plants.

Further, IR has decided to progressively procure renewable energy to reduce energy consumption through conventional sources.

At present, there is no proposal to induct solar train in the Railway fleet. The solar system works during the day time and generate battery backup of approximately 4 to 5 hours. System does not work properly during fog/rain and winter season and battery backup goes down to 2 to 3 hours depending upon weather conditions. Therefore, the system has not been pursued further.

16-Nov-2022: Indian Railways to allot only LHB Coaches under the Bharat Gaurav Trains Scheme

To give concerted thrust to efforts for promotion of rail based tourism through provision of better quality coaches and viable tour packages, the Bharat Gaurav Trains Scheme has been reviewed.

Salient Features of Revised Policy:

• Henceforth, only Linke Hofmann Busch ( LHB) coaches will be allotted under the Bharat Gaurav Trains scheme.
• In the interest of promotion of rail tourism and viability of the product, Ministry of Railways has decided not to levy the overhead components in the Fixed and Variable Haulage Charges for operation of Bharat Gaurav Trains under the scheme. This would entail approximately 33% concession by IR for promotion of rail tourism under Bharat Gaurav Trains Scheme.
• The existing service providers, who have already been allotted ICF rakes under the framework of Bharat Gaurav Trains Policy would be given option to switch over to LHB  rakes for the remaining period of agreement on the revised charges. However, if they opt to continue with already allotted rakes, benefit of revised charges would be available with prospective effect.
• The applicable revised charges have been notified.

10-Nov-2022: Railways marching towards Mission 100% Electrification

Indian Railways has embarked upon an ambitious plan of electrification of its complete Broad Gauge network which would not only result in a better fuel energy usage resulting in increased throughput, reduced fuel expenditure but also savings in precious foreign exchange.

During the FY 2022-23, till October 2022, Indian Railways has achieved 1223 Route Kilometers (RKMs) of electrification as compared to 895 RKMs during the corresponding period of FY 2021-22. It is 36.64% more than the previous year figures of the corresponding period.

It is worth mentioning that record electrification of 6,366 RKMs was achieved in Indian Railways’ history during 2021-22. Earlier, highest electrification was 6,015 RKM during 2020-21.

As on 31.10.2022, out of 65,141 RKM of BG network of IR (including KRCL), 53,470 BG RKM have been electrified, which is 82.08% of the total BG network.

17-Oct-2022: Indian Railways earned over Rs 2500 Crore through scrap sale till September

Indian Railways has registered remarkable scrap sale in first six months of this Financial Year 2022-22. Through this sale, Indian Railways has earned total Rs 2582 Crore till September 2022 compared to Rs 2003 Cr. during the same period of last FY 2021-22 which is 28.91% higher. The target for earnings through sale of scraps for the financial year 2022-23 has been fixed at Rs. 4400 crores.

Ferrous scrap of 3,93,421 MT was disposed in 2022-23 as compared to  3,60,732 MT in 2021-22. Also 1751 Nos. of wagons, 1421 Nos. of coaches and 97 Nos. of locos were disposed in 2022-23 as compared to 1835 Nos. of wagons, 954 Nos. of coaches and 77 Nos. of locos in 2021-22 upto Sept.2022.

Indian Railways makes all out efforts to optimally utilise resources by mobilising scrap materials and sale through e-auction.

Generation and sales of unserviceable/scrap railway material is an ongoing process and is monitored at highest level in Zonal Railways and in Railway Board. In construction projects, scrap is normally generated in Gauge Conversion projects. Released Permanent Way items being offered for scrap are not reusable on track. These are disposed off in accordance with the Codal provisions of Railways.

16-Oct-2022: Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurates India’s First Aluminum Freight Rake - 61 BOBRNALHSM1 at Bhubaneswar Railway Station

Union Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated India’s First Aluminum Freight Rake - 61 BOBRNALHSM1 at Bhubaneswar Railway Station today. The rake’s destination is Bilaspur.

This is a dedicated effort for Make in India program as it has been fully designed and developed indigenously in collaboration with RDSO, HINDALCO and Besco Wagon.

Features of Aluminium Rake:

• Fully Lockbolted construction with no welding on superstructure.
• The tare is 3.25 tons lower than normal steel rakes, 180 ton extra carrying capacity resulting in higher throughput per wagon.
• Higher payload to tare ratio 2.85.
• The reduced tare will reduce carbon footprint as lower consumption of fuel in empty direction and more transport of freight in loaded condition. A single rake can save over 14,500 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime.
• 80% is resale value of the rakes.
• Cost is 35% higher as the superstructure is all aluminium.
• Lower maintenance cost due to higher corrosion and abrasion resistance.

Iron industry consumes a lot of Nickel and Cadmium which comes from import. So, proliferation of Aluminum wagons will result in less import. At the same time, this is good for local aluminum industry.

14-Oct-2022: Rail Electrification gets a super boost

Indian Railways has embarked upon an ambition plan of electrification of its complete Broad Gauge network which would not only result in a better fuel energy usage resulting in increased throughput, reduced fuel expenditure but also savings in precious foreign exchange.

During the FY 2022-23, till September 2022, Indian Railways has achieved 851 Route Kilometers (RKMs) as compared to 562 RKMs during the corresponding period of FY 2021-22. It is 51.4% more than the previous year figures of the corresponding period. The target set for electrification during this Financial Year is 6500 RKMs.

It is worth mentioning that record electrification of 6,366 RKMs was achieved in Indian Railways’ history during 2021-22. Earlier, highest electrification was 6,015 RKM during 2020-21.

As on 30.09.2022, out of 65,141 RKM of BG network of IR (including KRCL), 53,098 BG RKM have been electrified, which is 81.51% of the total BG network.

11-Oct-2022: Railways Revenue Earnings up by 92% in Passenger Segment

The total approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis during 1st April to 08th October 2022 is Rs. 33476 Crore, registering an increase of 92 per cent in comparison to Rs. 17394 Crore achieved during the same period last year.

In reserved passenger segment, the total approximate numbers of passengers booked during the period 1st April to 08th October 2022 is 42.89 Crore as compared to 34.56 Crore during the same period last year, showing an increase of 24%. The revenue generated from reserved passenger segment during the period 1st April to 08th October 2022 is Rs 26961 Crores as compared to Rs 16307 Crores during the same period last year, showing an increase of 65%.

In Unreserved passenger segment, the total approximate numbers of passengers booked during the period 1st April to 08th October 2022 is 268.56 Crore as compared to 90.57 Crore during the same period last year, showing an increase of 197%. The revenue generated from Unreserved passenger segment during the period 1st April to 08th October 2022 is Rs 6515 Crores as compared to Rs1086 Crores during the same period last year, showing an increase of 500 %.

7-Oct-2022: Indian Railways has adopted an integrated approach for a Green Environment

The Government of India, as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), has set a target of 33% emissions intensity reduction, with the transport sector being one of the key sectors with substantial mitigation potential.

One of the most vital transportation emissions mitigation strategies agreed to by the Government of India was increasing the share of Indian Railways in the movement of freight from the current ~35-36% to 45% by 2030.

Indian Railways has a major role in contributing India’s NDC towards combating Climate Change through several means:

• To enhance the share of the Railways in the overall land based freight transport from present 36% to 45% by the year 2030.
• Indian Railways is setting up Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) across the country. The first phase of the project alone is estimated to reduce emissions by about 457 million ton CO2 over a 30 year period.
• Increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix.
• Railways to further improve its energy efficiency for both diesel and electric traction thereby facilitating the reduction of GHG emissions for the country.
• PAT Scheme to be implemented in railway sector.
• Use of 5% blending of biofuels in traction diesel fuel.
• Improve water use efficiency by 20% upto 2030.
• Tree plantation to increase Carbon sink.
• Waste Management and Pollution control.
• Adopting the good practices on Green Buildings, Industrial Units and other establishments for the management of resources and infrastructure to achieve Environmental Sustainability in growth of IR.
• Contribution in “Swachh Bharat Mission”.
• IR has set a target of becoming a “Net Zero” entity by 2030 by completing electrification of all railway tracks.

Indian Railways has taken steps to streamline its initiatives with regards to environmental management, with some notable initiatives including Energy Efficiency Management, Renewable and Alternate sources of Energy, Water conservation, Afforestation, Water Management and Green Certifications.

The reforms undertaken by Indian Railways since 2014 can be broadly categorized in following areas:

Net-Zero Carbon Emission:-

• IR has planned to gradually reduce its carbon footprint and become Net Zero Carbon Emitter by 2030.  IR will attempt to reduce its carbon footprint primarily through sourcing of its energy requirements from renewable energy sources. By 2029-30, expected requirement of installation of renewable capacity would be about 30 GW. IR has installed 142 MW solar rooftop capacity and 103.4 MW of Wind energy till August, 2022.
• Other strategies towards Net Zero emitter includes taking a multi-pronged approach of Electrification of its routes, shifting from diesel to electric traction, promotion of energy efficiency, construction of Dedicated Freight Corridors, Green certification of Railway Establishments etc.
• IR has electrified 52,508 RKM out of total BG network of 65,141 RKM (80.61%).
• With 100% electrification, the demand for electricity will go up to about 72 BUs by 2029-30 from 21 BUs in 2019-20. Carbon emission by 2029-30 as per Business As Usual mode is estimated to be 60 million tons which would be offset by various measures planned by IR.         

Issuance of Water Policy 2017 for effective water management:-

• Water Policy 2017 has been issued to all Zonal Railways and Production Units for implementation in Railway Stations, Trains, Railway Colonies etc. This is a part of overall efforts to achieve 20% reduction in water consumption by 2020 by the Government of India as part of Nationally Determined Contribution.  Main objective of this policy are to improve water use efficiency by effective demand and supply management, installing water efficient systems and setting up Water Recycling Plants on railway land.

Creation of Additional Carbon sink by Afforestation

• Afforestation on vacant railway land and in between sections is carried out by Railway departmentally. In pursuance of Railways’ commitment towards environmental improvement and sustainable development, Forest Departments of States are being involved in plantation as well as maintenance and disposal of trees.
• IR has been planting around 1 crore trees annually since 2017 onwards. 72 lakh saplings have been planted during the year 2021-22.

Waste Management:-

• Waste to energy/compost/biogas plants/Material recovery facility have been set at more than 250 stations to manage waste. Separate bins have been provided for dry and wet waste for waste segregation at source.

Green certification/Consent to operate from State Pollution Control Board since 2015

• Around 700 Railway Stations have been certified for implementation of Environment Management System to ISO:14001
• More than 545 stations have achieved Consent to operate (CTO) from respective State Pollution Control Board.
• 31 railway buildings (including offices, training institutes, hospitals and schools), 32 stations and 55 workshops/PUs have achieved green certification.

Policy for allocating 1% cost in all sanctioned Works for executing environment related works:-

• To contain the impact of activities on environment and for protection of the environment, policy issued in May 2016 making provision for allocating 1% cost in all sanctioned Works for executing environment related work.

Cleanliness of Trains & Railway Stations:-

• Cleanliness of Trains & Railway stations have gained increased thrust in last 08 years with the increasing numbers of mechanized cleaning contracts at stations & Coaches in trains, rag picking & garbage disposal contracts at stations and On Board Housekeeping Service (OBHS) increased in number of trains.

Environment friendly Bio–Toilets for Passenger Coaches:-

• Environment-friendly Bio-toilets for passenger coaches have been developed by Indian Railways (IR) jointly with Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO).
• 9,587 bio-toilets were fitted in 3,647 coaches up to March 2014.  With the installation of 2,58,990 bio-toilets in nearly 73,110 coaches up to March 2021, the work of fitment of bio-toilets in all the passenger carrying coaches, running on Indian Railways has been successfully completed. 
• The direct discharge of human waste from trains has thus been eliminated in line with ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’.

Third party Audit/Survey including Passenger feedback on Cleanliness:-

• Third Party audit cum survey on cleanliness of major stations started in 2016 and carried out again in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
• First ever Third Party audit cum survey on cleanliness of important trains was carried out in 2018.
• Such surveys provide independent assessment and also instill a sense of healthy competition in improving cleanliness in passenger interface areas.

Standard Bid Document for Housekeeping of Stations and Trains & General Conditions of Contract for Services:-

• Standard Bid Document (SBD) (Aug 2017) and General Conditions of Contract for Services (GCCS) (Feb 2018) have been issued to improve effectiveness of housekeeping / cleaning contracts with special focus on passenger interface areas.

23-Sep-2022: Indian Railways using newer technologies for tracking of trains

Real Time Train Information System (RTIS), developed in collaboration with ISRO, is being installed on the locomotives for automatic acquisition of train movement timing at the stations, including that of arrival & departure or run-through. They get automatically plotted on the control chart of those trains in the Control Office Application (COA) system.

RTIS gives mid-section updates with a periodicity of 30 seconds. The Train Control can now track the location and speed of RTIS enabled locomotives /train more closely, without any manual intervention.

RTIS devices have been installed for 2700 locomotives in 21 electric loco sheds. As part of Phase-II roll out, 6000 more locomotives across 50 loco sheds shall be covered by utilizing ISRO’s Satcom hub. Currently, GPS feed from around 6500 Locomotives (RTIS and REMMLOT) is being directly fed into the Control Office Application (COA). This has enabled automatic charting of trains and real time information flow to passengers through COA and NTES integration.

6-Sep-2022: Production Units of Indian Railways on fast track to achieve record production in 2022-23

Indian Railways Production Units i.e. Integral Coach Factory (ICF),  Chennai, Rail Coach Factory (RCF) at Kapurthala, Modern Coach Factory (MCF) at Rae Bareli, Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) at Chittaranjan, Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) at Varanasi, Patiala Locomotive Works (PLW) at Patiala, Rail Wheel Factory (RWF) at Bengaluru and Rail Wheel Plant at Bela are on fast track to achieve record production in 2022-23.         

All Production Units of Railways are performing excellently. They are supplying the ever increasing requirement of Rolling Stock for Indian Railways. All the Production Units continue to get modernization inputs in the form of latest M&P, Sheds & facilities. Even during the period of COVID time, the Railway Production Units continued to support railway sector by producing coaches by following the prescribed COVID norms.

ICF, RCF & MCF are coach Manufacturing units which are making Vande Bharat, LHB, EMUs, MEMUs, Vistadome and other coaches. It is to the credit of ICF that the first indigenous Trainset was designed and manufactured in just 18 months and called T18. Two such trains are already running between Delhi-Varanasi and Delhi-Katra. Now trials of the newer version of Vande Bharat are going on. IR is planning to induct another 75 Vande Bharat trains by August’23 as per the vision of the Prime Minister. CLW, BLW and PLW are locomotives manufacturing units. Today they are manufacturing advanced Electric locos i.e. WAG9 and WAP7. Modern energy efficient 12000hp and 9000hp Locomotives will also be made soon at these Production Units. Further RWF and RWP are the wheels and wheelsets producing units, supplying all types of Rolling Stocks. Rail Wheel Plant Belapur & Rail Wheel Factory Yelahanka have collectively produced 92118 wheels in this FY(till August), which  is 6.5 times the wheels produced last year during the same period. Similarly, production of rail axle have also increased by 7% during the same period.

Last year in 2021-22, all the production Units have achieved record production. Last year, LHB Coach Production increased by 45% and Loco production increased by 34% . This year in 22-23 still higher Production targets have been given to Production Units. Despite some supply chain constraints, all are poised to achieve the same.

The Government has ambitious plans to recapture the freight market share by Railways from 28% at present to 40% in next 10 years. For this, funds have been made available for capacity augmentation, modernization of Rolling stocks, world class stations & tracks etc. Accordingly large no. of Rolling Stocks of Modern type like Vande Bharat and 3-phase EMUs & MEMUs will be produced by the Production Units.

3-Aug-2022: LHB Coaches for Divyangjan

Indian Railways have taken various measures to ensure welfare of Persons with Disability (Divyangjans) like grant of concessional fare facility to four categories of Persons with Disabilities (PwD), online reserved concessional ticket booking facility, earmarking of reservation quota in Sleeper and 3AC classes, earmarking of separate reservation counters at important PRS locations, 25% quota in allotment of STD/ISD PCO booths at stations, provision of wheelchair, and Battery Operated Vehicles, introduction of Yatri Mitra Sewa, attachment of specially designed coaches known as SLRD(Second Class cum Luggage and Brake Van with Compartment for Divyangjan) & LSLRD coaches, provision of escalators, lifts, ramps, drinking water taps and toilets suitable for Divyangjans, Braille sign indicators, standard ramp for barrier free entry, earmarking of parking lots, non-slippery walk-way from parking lot to building, signages of appropriate visibility, ‘May I help you’ Booth, etc.

Indian Railways has already been facilitating a separate compartment earmarked for Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) in last vehicle (SLRD) marshalled in almost all Mail/Express trains operating with Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coaches. These coaches have wider entrance doors, wider berths, wider compartments, larger lavatory and lavatory doors, wheel chair parking area, etc.   Inside the toilets, additional grab rails on the side walls for support and wash basin and mirror at a suitable height are also available inside the toilets. In new design Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches, last vehicle LSLRD coaches have been designed and are being manufactured with the above features. These coaches are being proliferated gradually. Around 994 disabled friendly coaches (LSLRD/LDSLR/LDSLRA) have been manufactured till 30.06.22. Subject to operational feasibility and availability of such coaches, trains operating with ICF rakes have at least one PwD (Divyangjan) friendly coach. Further, subject to operational feasibility, Indian Railways, have also inducted PwD(Divyangjan) friendly LHB coaches, which are being attached in most of the trains operating with LHB rakes, except premium services like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, AC Express services including Tejas Express. Moreover, new design coaches such as LHB Air Conditioned Economy Coach (LWACCNE) are also being manufactured with at least one wider door out of two doors of the coach. Around 348 LWACCNE coaches have been manufactured till 30.06.22. Induction of PwD(Divyangjan) friendly coaches in trains is an ongoing process over Indian Railways subject to operational feasibility, availability of rolling stock etc.

As regards, feedback, Indian Railways gets the suggestions/feedback from all categories of passengers including PwDs(Divyangjans) through various foras like portal of Department of Personnel and Public Grievances commonly known as PG Portal, Rail Madad, enquiry/complaint No.139. Based on the feedback received, remedial actions wherever found necessary and feasible, are taken.

In the year 2015, a target was set to make A1, A & B category railway stations fully accessible to Persons with Disability (Divyangjans). Consequently, all 709 A-1, A&B category railway stations (erstwhile) have been provided with all facilities to make railway stations accessible for PwD (Divyangjan) such as ramps, reserved parking near entrance, accessible toilets, accessible drinking water facilities, accessible lifts, "May I help You" booths, signages etc.

Improvement/augmentation of amenities including those for differently- abled passengers (Divyangjan) at railway stations is a continuous process.

6-Jun-2022: Indian Railways increases the limit of online booking of tickets through IRCTC website/app

To facilitate passengers, Indian Railways has decided to increase the limit of booking maximum 6 tickets in a month to 12 tickets by a user ID which is not Aadhaar linked and the limit of booking maximum 12 tickets in a month to 24 tickets by a user ID which is Aadhaar linked and that one of the passengers in the ticket to be booked is verifiable through Aadhaar.

At present, maximum 6 tickets in a month can be booked online on IRCTC website/app by a user ID which is not Aadhaar linked and maximum 12 tickets in a month can be booked online on IRCTC website/app by a user ID which is Aadhaar linked and that one of the passengers in the ticket to be booked is verifiable through Aadhaar.

11-May-2022: Indian Railways is fully committed to lift all domestic Coal

The coal loading for power houses is constantly being ramped up by Indian Railways as per the demand and Indian Railways is fully committed to lift all the domestic coal that is brought to Sidings/ good sheds by the coal companies and Imported coal brought to port by the Power generating companies.

In May-22, the availability of rakes for Power sector had an upsurge with an average of 472 rakes per day. Both Coal Companies & railways have envisaged to jointly ensure per day coal loading of 415 rakes of domestic coal and 30 rakes of imported coal to power sector. In the current month, loading of domestic coal for power house has been average of 409 rakes per day.

There has been an issue of frequent strike in coal bearing areas of Odisha which has impacted coal evacuation especially in Talcher area. However, railways have kept 60 surplus empty rakes at pan-India level to maximise coal loading for power sector.

Various operational efficiency measures have been taken to expedite evacuation of coal rakes.

Coaching trains have been cancelled across India to allow faster movement of coal rakes  & easing out congested sections.

Importance of seamless & timely movement of coal rakes to various power plants has been emphasized.  Detention of coal rakes for each activity at loading/Unloading points and en-route movement are being monitored by divisional team at field level.

Running of Long hauls and convoy rakes in congested routes have been augmented. Additional 100 rakes will be mobilized for coal loading in current financial year which would further improve the rake availability for power sector. Further, to cater to future demand for coal IR has already started the procurement of more than 1, 00,000 wagons which will further improve wagon availability.

30-Mar-2022: Konkan Railway accomplishes ‘Mission 100% Electrification’

On a mission mode to electrify its entire Broad Gauge network to provide environment friendly, green & clean mode of transport to its people under the ‘Mission 100% Electrification - Moving towards net Zero Carbon Emission’ plan, Konkan Railway has accomplished 100% Rail electrification of its entire stretch.

The foundation stone for the Electrification of the entire 741 kms route work was laid in November 2015. The total cost of the project is Rs. 1287 crore. The CRS inspection of the entire Konkan Railway route has been successfully conducted in six phases starting from March 2020. CRS inspection of the last section between Ratnagiri & Thivim was carried out on 24/03/2022 and authorization was obtained on 28/03/2022.

The electrification project has been challenging due to the difficult terrain of Konkan Railway & non conducive atmosphere due to Covid - 19 Pandemic. Moreover due to the extreme monsoon in the Konkan region, special arrangements had to be made at many locations to keep the electrification mission going non-stop.

It is worthwhile to note the numerous inherent benefits of electric traction i.e. Significant savings in fuel expenditure i.e. more than ₹150 Cr., Seamless operation on Electric Traction on the West Coast, pollution free mode of transportation and Reduced dependence on HSD oil.

Konkan Railway being one of the biggest railway routes on the Indian Railway network, the train operations with electric traction will be implemented on the newly electrified KR route in a phased manner.

Konkan Railway always practices Safety First and will continue to work towards the progress of the nation.

17-Dec-2021: Earmarking of Accommodation for Women Passengers in Long Distance Trains & Safety & Security Measures for Women Passengers in Indian Railways

Indian Railways have earmarked following accommodation for female passengers:

1. A reservation quota of six berths in sleeper class in long distance Mail/Express trains and a reservation quota of six berths in 3AC class of Garib Rath/Rajdhani/Duronto/fully air-conditioned Express trains have been earmarked for female passengers irrespective of their age travelling alone or in a group of female passengers.
2. A combined reservation quota of six to seven lower berths per coach in Sleeper class, four to five lower berths per coach each in Air Conditioned 3 tier (3AC) and three to four lower berths per coach in Air Conditioned 2 tier (2AC) classes (depending on the number of coaches of that class in the train) has been earmarked for senior citizens, female passengers 45 years of age and above and pregnant women.

‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and, as such, State Governments are responsible for prevention, detection, registration and investigation of crime and maintaining law and order etc. on Railways through their law enforcement agencies viz. Government Railway Police (GRP)/District Police. However, Railway Protection Force (RPF) supplements the efforts of GRP/District Police to provide better protection and security of passenger area and passengers and for matters connected therewith.

Further, the following steps are also being taken by the Railways in coordination with GRP for safety and security of passengers including women passengers in trains and at stations: -

1. A Pan-India initiative “Meri Saheli” was launched by RPF on 17.10.2020 with the objective to provide enhanced safety and security to lady passengers travelling by trains for their entire journey i.e. from the originating station to destination station. The focus is to provide the security to lady passengers especially those travelling alone and to instill a sense of security in them. Teams of lady officers and staff have been formed who are well trained and briefed about the objective.
2. On vulnerable and identified routes/sections, trains are escorted by Railway Protection Force in addition to trains escorted by Government Railway Police of different States, daily.
3. Railway Help Line number 139 is operational (24x7) over Indian Railways for security related assistance to passengers in distress.
4. Through various social media platforms viz. twitter, Facebook etc., Railways are in regular touch with passengers including women to enhance security of passengers and to address their security concern.
5. Frequent announcements are made through Public Address System to educate passengers to take precautions against theft, snatching, drugging etc.
6. Ladies Special trains running in Metropolitan cities are being escorted by lady RPF personnel. In other trains, where escorts are provided, the train escorting parties have been briefed to keep extra vigil on the lady passengers travelling alone, ladies coaches en-route and at halting stations.
7. Drives are conducted against entry of male passengers into the compartments reserved for ladies.
8. CCTV cameras have been provided in 4934 coaches and 838 Railway stations for enhancing security of passengers.
9. State Level Security Committee of Railways(SLSCR) have been constituted for all States/Union Territories under the Chairmanship of respective Director General of Police/Commissioner of States/Union Territories for regular monitoring and review of security arrangements of the Railways.
10. Emergency Talk Back System and Closed-Circuit Television Surveillance Cameras have been provided in ladies compartments/coaches of all newly manufactured Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) and Air-conditioned rakes of Kolkata Metro. Flasher lights have also been provided in ladies coaches in EMU rakes in some zonal Railways.

1-Dec-2021: Indian Railways plans for installation of solar energy projects on unused vacant Railway land

Indian Railways (IR) has planned for installation of solar energy projects on unused vacant Railway land. State-wise details where action has been taken for installation of Solar electricity projects on unused vacant Railway land are as follows:

1. Chhattisgarh- 50 Mega Watt (MW) at Bhilai.
2. Uttar Pradesh – 3 MW at Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli.
3. Haryana- 2 MW at Diwana (near Panipat).
4. Madhya Pradesh- 1.7 MW at Bina.
5. Maharashtra- 15 MW Buttibori (Nagpur).

Further, IR is planning to install solar energy projects on its unused land in various States including Gujarat based on techno-economic feasibility.

3-Sep-2021: Indian Railways rolls out Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) over 156 Health facilities across Indian Railways

In the current IT age, digitized healthcare is the need of the hour to provide seamless service. Keeping this in sight, RailTel- a Miniratna PSU of Ministry of Railways and C-DAC- A unit (e shushrut) under Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, have been entrusted with the task of implementing Pan India Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) at 129 Railway hospitals and 586 health units to bring the entire Railway Health System on a single architecture to provide faster, seamless and hassle free healthcare.

Out of total 11,76,300 employees of Railways, registered employee beneficiaries are 11,24,058. Total HMIS employee cards generated are 10,33,143. Card generated is persons who have got their UMID card made. Out of total 16,52,082 pensioners of Railways, registered pensioners beneficiaries are 4,83,592. Total HMIS pensioners beneficiaries cards generated are 3,75,440. Employees have average 3-4 dependent and pensioners have 2-3 dependents.

HMIS has already been deployed over 156 Health facilities across Indian Railways. Further accelerated deployment over balance Health facilities will be done in 2021.

HMIS solution is going to cover the entire gamut of clinical care as well as Hospital Administration with around 20 modules that are relevant to Railway Hospitals. The modules cover both core as well as ancillary requirements of Hospital management like areas of OPD, IPD, Labs, OT, Blood Bank, Pharmacy, Referrals, Medical Examinations and Reimbursement of Medical Claims etc.

To empower the medical beneficiaries a mobile App has also been developed, which enables the patients to access their Electronic Medical Record (EMR) from anywhere. Features like tele-consultation, lab report access, Medicines disbursed to patient etc. have also been provided through this app. Feature of self-registration is also available on this App.

This system is fully integrable with National Digital health Mission program of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The HMIS has been synchronized with various other digital initiatives of Indian Railway like Unique Medical ID (UMID), IPASS and ARPAN etc. and is capable of further such integrations as per need.

Digitization of health data which is accessible through unique medical ID (UMID) of Railway healthcare beneficiaries is going to make the healthcare services hassle free and transparent. Patient can take OPD appointment by scanning the QR code through HMIS app This will bring improvement in patient care and patient services to approximately 10 million Railway health beneficiaries.

6-Aug-2021: Speeding up of trains on Indian Railways

Speeding up of trains, on Indian Railways (IR), is an on-going exercise. The trains are charted keeping in view the speed potential of the rolling stock used and also the Maximum Permissible Speed of the concerned section. It is also dependent on factors like availability/up-gradation of track, doubling of section, up-gradation of rolling stock etc. In its endeavour to speed up trains, IR during 2018-19 & 2019-20 have speeded up 140 & 70 train services respectively.

To contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, IR have discontinued all regular passenger carrying trains w.e.f. 23rd March, 2020. At present, only special trains keeping in view the concerns and suggestions of State Governments and health advisories, are being operated. However, during 2020-21, it has been decided to speed up 488 train services.

Up-gradation of track infrastructure is done through regular track renewal works, as and when the track becomes due for renewal based on criteria stipulated in Indian Railway Permanent Way Manual (IRPWM). This up-gradation of track caters for raising of sectional speed of sections upto 130 kmph. Following steps are taken/being taken to improve the railway tracks-

• During 2020-21, 4363 km (in Complete Track Renewal units) track renewal had been carried out. For the current year i.e. 2021-22, 751 km (in Complete Track Renewal units) track renewal has been carried out upto June, 2021.
• Modern track structure consisting of Prestressed Concrete Sleeper (PSC) Normal/Wide base sleepers with elastic fastening, 60kg, 90 or higher Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) rails, fan shaped layout turnout on PSC sleepers, Steel Channel Sleepers on girder bridges is used while carrying out primary track renewals.
• Long rail panels of 260 M/130M length are being manufactured at the steel plant to minimize number of Alumino Thermit joints in the track.
• Provision of Thick Web Switches (TWS) is planned for all important routes of IR. To expedite provision of TWS, procurement of Thick Web Switches has been decentralized to zonal railways.

30-Jul-2021: Production of Vande Bharat, Tejas, LHB, Vistadome type of coaches by Railways

About 5 crore dropped waiting list passengers were observed in 2019-20 due to lack of capacity. To meet this gap, Indian Railways is already increasing production of Vande Bharat, Tejas, LHB, Vistadome etc. types of coaches in trains. In addition, Indian Railways has invited bids for private participation to induct 151 trains (rakes) over 12 clusters through Public Private Partnership (PPP). The existing passenger train services shall not be affected by the operation of train services through PPP mode and these will be in addition to the existing train services. The list containing details of these train services spread across the entire Indian Railway network had been uploaded on http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/IndicativeRoutesfor12clusters.pdf. The financial bids for all the 12 clusters for the PPP project have been opened on 23.07.2020. The Bids are under financial evaluation.

There is no proposal for privatization of Indian Railways.

30-Jul-2021: Fast Track Electrification Projects in Indian Railways

Indian Railways (IR) has embarked upon a major electrification program to electrify its Broad Gauge (BG) network on Mission mode.

Indian Railways has total Broad Gauge (BG) network of 64,689 Route kilometer (RKM) including 740 RKM of Konkan Railway. Out of these 45,881 RKM i.e. about 71% has already been electrified till 31.03.2021. Electrification work is in progress under different stages of planning/execution on balance BG routes of IR, which are being electrified expeditiously.

During 2020-21, 6,015 RKMs have been electrified against the target of 6,000 RKM.

Funds to the Railway Electrification projects are allocated project wise, not Zone wise. However, Budget allocation and expenditure for the Railway Electrification projects for the Indian Railways during the last five years and current year is as under:-

To complete the projects in time, various steps have been taken which include among others award of large size Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts, better project monitoring mechanism, assured/committed funds through ‘Extra Budgetary Resource’ (Institutional Finance), decentralization of powers to field units etc.

28-Jul-2021: Wi-Fi at Stations by RailTel

RailTel, a Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Railways is providing Wi-Fi services at Railway Stations. So far, Wi- Fi facility has been provided at 6045 stations. Zone-wise details are appended.

Indian Railways have decided to provide Wi-Fi facility at all stations except halt stations.

Provision of Wi-Fi at balance stations is in progress and is dependent upon the availability of Infrastructure like Optical Fibre Cable at these stations. Out of these, 55 stations are targeted for completion in this financial year.

28-Jul-2021: Electrification of Railway Tracks

Indian Railways (IR) has decided to undertake electrification of Broad Gauge (BG) Railway lines on mission mode. Significant progress has already been made in this regard and IR is electrifying all BG rail lines expeditiously.

As on 01.04.2020, total length of entire Indian Railways’ network (all Gauges) is 67,956 Route kilometer.

As on 01.04.2021, 484 Railway projects of 51,165 km length, costing approx. Rs.7.54 lakh crore are in different stages of planning/sanction/execution, out of which 10,638 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs.2,13,815 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021. These include:-

1. 187 New line projects of 21,037 km length, costing Rs. 4,04,986 crore, out of which commissioning of 2,621 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs.1,05,591 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.
2. 46 Gauge Conversion projects of 6,213 km length, costing Rs. 53,171 crore, out of which commissioning of 3,587 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs.22,184 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.
3. 251 Doubling projects of 23,915 km length, costing Rs. 2,96,186 crore, out of which commissioning of 4,430 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs.86,041 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.

Completion of a Railway project(s) depends on various factors like expeditious land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc. and all these factors affect the completion time.

About Rs. 21,000 crores are estimated to be incurred on electrification of balance Broad Gauge routes of Indian Railways.

23-Jul-2021: Public-Private partnership mode to facilitate faster development of Indian Railways network, manufacturing of rolling stocks and delivery of passenger and freight services

There is no proposal to privatise the Indian Railways. It is estimated that Railway Infrastructure would need an investment of Rs. 50 lakh crores between 2018-2030. To bridge the gap in the Capital funding, Public-Private partnership mode is envisaged to facilitate faster development of network, manufacturing of rolling stocks and delivery of passenger and freight services.

There are also a proposal to use Public Private Partnership mode for inducting modern rakes to run passenger trains on select routes with an objective to provide improved service delivery to passengers. However, the responsibility of train operations and safety certification rests with Indian Railways in all such cases.

Towards this objective, Ministry of Railways (MoR) has invited bids for induction of approximately 150 pairs of passenger train services to be operated over select routes through Public Private Partnership (PPP).  These train services to be operated in PPP mode shall be additional trains, aimed at increasing the availability of train services to the public. In view of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bid opening due date for RFP (Requests for Proposal) stage has been rescheduled to 23.07.2021.  

All the existing employees are to be retained in the above proposal.

23-Jul-2021: Indian Railways on a mission to electrify all BG rail lines by 2023-24

Indian Railways (IR) has decided to undertake electrification of Broad Gauge (BG) Railway lines in mission mode. Significant progress has already been made in this regard and IR is likely to electrify all BG rail lines by 2023-24.

As on 01.04.2020, Total length of entire Indian railways network (all Gauges) is 67,956 Route kilometre.

As on 01.04.2021, 484 Railway projects of 51,165 km length, costing approx. Rs. 7.54 lakh crore are in different stages of planning/sanction/execution, out of which 10,638 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 2,13,815 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021. These include:-

1. 187 New line projects of 21,037 km length, costing Rs. 4,04,986 crore, out of which commissioning of 2,621 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs. 1,05,591 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.
2. 46 Gauge Conversion projects of 6,213 km length, costing Rs. 53,171 crore, out of which commissioning of 3,587 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs. 22,184 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.
3. 251 Doubling projects of 23,915 km length, costing Rs. 2,96,186 crore, out of which commissioning of 4,430 km length has been achieved and expenditure of Rs. 86,041 crore has been incurred upto March, 2021.

Completion of a Railway project(s) depends on various factors like expeditious land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc. and all these factors affect the completion time.

About Rs. 21,000 crores are estimated to be incurred on electrification of balance Broad Gauge routes of Indian Railways.

Indian Railways annual consumption of Electricity for traction purpose is about 18.41Billion Units during 2019-20 and 14.1 Billion Units during 2020-21. The estimated electricity consumption after complete electrification of Railway tracks shall be 30.13 Billion Units.

29-Jun-2021: On a Mission Mode to become "Future Ready", Railways on way to deliver 58 super critical and 68 critical projects worth more than Rs 115000 crore

On a mission mode to become "Future Ready", Railways is on its way to deliver 58 super critical and 68 critical projects worth more than Rs 115000 crore in next few years.

Inspite of Covid challenges, Indian Railways is going on rapidly to complete the projects which are vital for increasing the capacity of tracks.

29 Super Critical Projects of total length 1,044 Km costing Rs 11,588 Cr got commissioned in last 1 year.

Indian Railways identified total 58 Super Critical Projects of a total length of 3750 km costing Rs 39663 Crore. Out of these total 58 Super Critical Projects, 27 projects will be completed by December 2021 while remaining 02 projects will be handed over by March 2022.

It may be noted that most of the traffic of Indian Railways moves on Indian Railway network on Golden Quadrilateral, High Density Network routes & Highly Utilized Network routes. The high density & highly utilized network routes constitute 51% route length of the Indian Railways network but carries 96% of traffic.

Based on traffic density, type of commodity moved, importance of route from strategic considerations etc. the projects requiring urgent expansion including those which are already progressing well (expenditure already more than 60%) have been categorized as Super Critical projects (58 no's) and the projects requiring completion in next stage have been defined as Critical projects (68 nos). All are civil projects (Includes all related electrification and signalling works also).

By focussed funding and continuous monitoring these projects are targeted for early completion to reap the benefits of investment. On completion these projects will improve mobility, safety and create additional capacity for running more passenger and freight trains on these saturated and busy routes. Higher priority has been given in allocation of budget for these identified projects for early completion.

Super Critical Projects: 58 super critical projects of a total length of 3750 km costing Rs 39663 Cr have been identified. These supercritical projects are projects of multi-tracking i.e. doubling/3rd line/4th line on busy routes. With completion of these projects, Railways will be able to move more traffic at faster speed with safety on these dense/saturated/busy traffic routes. Till now, 29 projects of total length 1,044 Km costing Rs 11,588 Cr have been commissioned. 27 projects will be completed by December 2021 and balance 02 projects by March 2022.

Critical Projects:

68 critical projects of total length 6913 km costing Rs 75736 Cr have been identified and out of these 04 projects of 108 Km length costing Rs 1408 Cr have been completed till date and balance projects are targeted to be completed by March 2024.

68 critical projects - anticipated cost Rs 75736 Cr (around 76,000 Cr) out of which 37734 (around Rs 38000 Cr) has been spent till March 21. Outlay for this year is Rs 14466 Cr (around 15000 Cr). 4 projects have been completed till now.

Indian Railways has commissioned 1614 Km Doubling/ 3rd/ 4th line during FY 2020-21 despite Pandemic COVID-19. Despite the Pandemic situation again Indian Railways has commissioned 133 km doubling/ 3rd line till now, during FY 2021-22.

Indian Railways delivered some key capacity building projects in States like Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. A few of them are as follows:-

1. Assam - Commissioning of second line track on Naranarayan Setu on Brahmaputra river of New Bongaigaon-Guwahati section, which will provide great relief on this section.
2. West Bengal -
   1.  In May’2021, Indian Railways has commissioned part of two doubling projects i.e. Katwa- Bazar Sau and Azimganj-Bazar Sau in West Bengal despite Pandemic COVID-19 and State Election.
   2. Katwa- Bazar Sau and Azimganj-Bazar Sau: Both the doubling of this line is very important in view of traffic moving from Barddhaman to/ from Sahibganj for movement of coal for NTPCs TPS i.e. Farakka Super Thermal Power Station and Katwa Super Thermal Power Station (Under construction).
3. Maharashtra - In June’21, Indian Railways has  commissioned a Super Critical project  Bhusaval-Jalgaon 3rd line in Maharashtra, which will remove bottleneck of this section and provided much relief for operation of train service in Manmad-Khandwa and Bhusaval-Udhna section.
4. Uttarakhand - Haridwar-Laksar Doubling:  After commissioning (in Jan’21) of this section entire route from National Capital New Delhi to Haridwar via Meerut, Muzaffarnagar & Roorkee has become double line. It will improve punctuality on this busy route.

After completion of the above Supercritical & Critical projects, more line capacity will be available for smooth movement of passenger and freight traffic on congested routes, increase speed of trains, introduction of new train service, increased safety as maintenance margins on these busy routes will become available.

15-Jun-2021: Spectrum allocation to Indian Railways and provision of more modern signalling solutions to boost all round safety in Railway operations

Signalling System enhances safety in train operations. Upgradation and replacement of equipments in use over Indian Railways is a continuous process and is undertaken based on its condition, operational needs and availability of resources.

In order to further improve safety in train operation and generate additional line capacity, modernisation of Signalling System has been taken in hand which includes -

1. Provision of Electronic Interlocking (EI) to increase Safety and Flexibility - Electronic Interlocking are being adopted on a large scale to derive benefits of digital technologies in train operation and to enhance safety. So far 2221 stations have been provided with Electronic Interlocking upto 30.04.2021 covering 34% of Indian Railways. A policy decision has also been taken to provide Electronic Interlocking (EI) in future. Further, 1550 EIs are planned to be provided in next 3 years. This will enhance safety and efficiency of train operations.
2. Automatic Block Signalling (ABS) to increase Line Capacity - In order to increase line capacity to run more trains on existing High Density Routes of Indian Railways, Automatic Block Signaling is a cost effective solution. As on 30.04.2021, Automatic Block Signaling has been provided on 3447 Route km. Indian Railways has planned roll out of automatic signalling on around 15000 Rkm of high density and freight intensive routes. The roll out is planned to be undertaken in Mission Mode. With implementation of automatic signalling, increase in capacity will accrue resulting in more train services becoming possible.
3. Safety at Level Crossing gates - Enhancing Safety at Level Crossing Gates has been a major area of concern. Safety gets enhanced by interlocking level crossings with Signals. As on 30.04.2021 Indian Railways have provided interlocking with Signals at 11705 Level Crossing Gates to enhance the safety at Level Crossings.
4. Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System as an aid to Loco Pilot to prevent human error - ATP systems are being used by advanced Railway systems in the world as an aid to the Loco Pilots. These systems prevent collisions due to any human error by Loco Pilot. In order to improve safety, a decision has now been taken to provide ATP systems on Indian Railways (IR) in a Mission Mode. So far IR was dependent on foreign technology for ATP systems. IR with Indian firms has now successfully developed indigenous cost effective technology for ATP – called Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). It has been decided to adopt TCAS as the National ATP of India under the ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’ Mission of Hon’ble PM. TCAS has been approved for 37300 RKm covering important routes in 1st phase. The roll out of TCAS will eliminate train collision due to human error and enhance speed potential of IR thereby reducing travel time.

It may be noted that giving a boost to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ Mission, Government has approved allotment of 5 MHz Spectrum in 700 MHz frequency band to Indian Railways for public safety and security services at stations and in trains.

With this spectrum, Indian Railways has envisaged to provide Long Term Evolution (LTE) based Mobile Train Radio Communication on its route.

The estimated investment in the project is more than Rs. 25,000 Crore. The project will be completed in the next 5 years.

It brings a strategic shift in Railways’ operations and maintenance regime. It will help in improving the safety and increasing the line capacity to accommodate more trains using the existing infrastructure. The modern rail network will result in reduced transportation cost and higher efficiency. Also, it will attract multinational industries to set up manufacturing units to fulfill the ‘Make in India’ Mission and generate employment.

The purpose of the LTE for Indian Railways is to provide secure and reliable voice, video and data communication services for operational, safety and security applications of Railways. It will be used for:

• Deployment of Modern Cab based Signalling System with Automatic Train Protection which will increased safety & throughput in train operation. Also, help during fog.
• Mission Critical Voice Communication with seamless connectivity in train operations between Driver, Guard, Station Master, Train Traffic Controller & Maintenance staff.
• Monitoring Limited Video Surveillance (Live Feed) through CCTV cameras in Trains to enhance passenger security.
• For IoT based Asset monitoring specially the rolling stock.
• Passenger Information Systems (PIS) in trains & at stations.

In addition to LTE initiative, Other major initiatives in Railway Telecom are:

• Wi-Fi facility has been extended at 6002 stations and 101 balance feasible stations will be covered soon. Out of which 70% stations are of rural area. This facility is being used by passengers, local vendors, coolies, etc.
• To improve security CCTV System has been provided at 801 stations and balance are also planned.
• 92% Route of the Railway has been covered with OFC based system (62,205 RKms). This is being used for Railway’s internal communication and spare capacity is being commercially utilized by RCIL.
• Indian Railway is deploying e-filing system on a big way. To improve administrative works, e-office has been provided at 185 Units including all Divisions, Zones, CTIs & PUs. More than 1.35 Lakh users are using this and over 15.0 Lakh e-file are created till now. Existing physical files are being converted into digital files.

For above modernization of Signalling and Telecommunication, Indian Railways has envisaged investment of nearly Rs 55,000 Crore.

9-Jun-2021: Cabinet approves Allotment of 5 MHz spectrum in 700 MHz band to Indian Railways

Giving a boost to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ mission, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the proposal for allotment of 5 MHz Spectrum in 700 MHz frequency band to Indian Railways for public safety and security services at stations and in trains.         

With this spectrum, Indian Railways has envisaged to provide LTE (Long Term Evolution) based Mobile Train Radio Communication on its route. The estimated investment in the project is more than Rs. 25,000 Crore. The project will be completed in the next 5 years.

In addition to this, Indian Railways has approved TCAS (Train Collision Avoidance System), an indigenously developed ATP (Automatic Train Protection) System, which will help in avoiding train collisions thereby reducing accidents and ensuring passenger safety.

It brings a strategic shift in Railways’ operations and maintenance regime.  It will help in improving the safety and increasing the line capacity to accommodate more trains using the existing infrastructure. The modern rail network will result in reduced transportation cost and higher efficiency. Also, it will attract multinational industries to set up manufacturing units to fulfill the ‘Make in India’ mission and generate employment.

The purpose of the LTE for Indian Railways is to provide secure and reliable voice, video and data communication services for operational, safety and security applications. It will be used for modern signalling and train protection systems and ensure seamless communication between loco pilots and guards. It will also enable Internet of Things (IoT) based remote asset monitoring especially of coaches, wagons & locos, and live video feed of CCTV cameras in the train coaches to ensure efficient, safer and faster train operations.

The Spectrum charges may be levied based on formula basis as prescribed by Department of Telecommunications for Royalty Charges and License Fee for Captive use as recommended by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

4-Jun-2021: Indian Railways on way to become "Largest Green Railways" in the world with Zero Carbon Emission

Indian Railways (IR) is working in mission mode to become the largest Green Railways in the world and is moving towards becoming a “net zero carbon emitter” before 2030. Railways is guided by a holistic vision of being an environment friendly, efficient, cost effective, punctual and a modern carrier of passengers as well as freight in order to serve the growing needs of New India. IR is looking at helping the environment with steps ranging from massive electrification, water & paper conservation, to saving animals from being injured on Railway tracks.

Railway Electrification which is environment friendly and reduces pollution, has increased nearly ten times since 2014. Capturing the economic benefits of electric traction in an accelerated manner, Railways has planned to electrify balance Broad Gauge (BG) routes by December, 2023 to achieve 100% electrification of BG routes. Head-On-Generation systems, Bio-Toilets and LED lights recreate the train itself into a travel mode that’s kinder to the environment while maintaining comparable passenger comfort.

IR’s Dedicated Freight Corridors are being developed as a low carbon green transportation network with a long-term low carbon roadmap, which will enable it to adopt more energy efficient and carbon-friendly technologies, processes and practices. IR is implementing two Dedicated Freight Corridor projects viz. Eastern Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1,875 km) and Western Corridor (WDFC) from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (1,506 km). Son Nagar-Dankuni (538 km) portion of EDFC has been planned for execution on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

IR’s network and reach enabled movement of Freight, like Food Grains & Oxygen in pandemic, even while being more environment friendly as compared to Road transport. During the period April 2021 to May 2021, the Indian Railways moved 73 Lakh tonnes of food grains and has run 241 loaded Oxygen express trains, moving 922 loaded tankers, thereby transporting 15,046 tonnes of oxygen to various part of the country.

Green Certifications and implementation of Environment Management System:

MoU signed between IR and Confederation of Indian Industry in July 2016 for facilitation of Green initiatives on IR. 39 Workshops, 7 Production Units, 8 Loco Sheds and one Stores depot have been ‘GreenCo’ certified. These include 2 Platinum, 15 Gold and 18 Silver ratings.

Green certification mainly covers assessment of parameters having direct bearing on the environment, such as, energy conservation measures, use of renewable energy, Green House Gas emission reduction, water conservation, waste management, material conservation, recycling etc. 19 Railway Stations have also achieved Green Certification including 3 Platinum, 6 Gold and 6 Silver ratings. 27 more Railway Buildings, Offices, Campuses and other establishments are also Green certified including 15 Platinum, 9 Gold and 2 Silver ratings. In addition, over 600 Railway Stations have been certified for implementation of the Environment Management System to ISO: 14001 in the last two years. A total of 718 stations have been identified for ISO : 14001 certification.

Indian Railways has incorporated Climate Change features in its own risk assessments and disaster management protocols. As an organisation ready to manage the risks, and ask the right questions about its assets, routes & investments. Top management in IR’s many public sectors have been communicating with stakeholders for a shared understanding, needed for long-term health and sustainability of the organisations they lead.

The Environment Sustainability Report published by IR and subsidiary units each year sets up a framework document defining strategies and focus points in the context of climate change, the issues at stake, and steps for dealing with them. It helps railways to support government commitments such as the Paris agreement on climate change, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and National Disaster Management Plans.

Wide ranging experiences of engineers, operators and planners in different zones & construction units of the Indian Railways constantly face different challenges. Some sophisticated approaches by international asset managers, railway operators, rolling stock engineers, scenario planners and others are studied through consultancy reports. Appropriate interpretation matching the IR’s own realities and ground situation  suitably adapts the efforts of departmental managers in anticipating and facing up to those challenges.

16-May-2021: Indian Railway commissions Wi-Fi at 6,000th Railway station

Indian Railways has commissioned Wi-Fi at 6,000th Railway station.

Indian Railway is continuing to extend the Wi-Fi facility at far flanged stations to connect the passengers and the general public with digital systems.

With the commissioning of Wi-Fi at Hazaribagh Town falling under Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand state in Dhanbad Division of East Central Railway as on 15.05.2021, Indian Railways commissioned Wi-Fi at 6,000 Railway stations.

Indian Railways have started its Journey by providing Wi-Fi facility at 1st Railway station Mumbai in January 2016. Thereafter, provided 5000th Railway station, at Midnapore in West Bengal and reached 6000th Railway station i.e. Hazaribagh on 15.05.2021. Also, on the same day Jarapada station in Angul District of state of Odisha was also provided with Wi-Fi.

The Wi-Fi facility at Railway Stations meets the objectives of the aspiring Digital India Program of Government of India. This will bridge the digital divide between the rural and urban citizens thereby increasing the digital footprint in the rural villages and also enhance the user experience. Wi-Fi facility is being provided by Indian railways at 6000 stations now.

Provision of Wi-Fi facilities at Railway stations on self-sustainable basis with no cost to the Railways. This facility was provided with the help of RailTel, a PSU under Ministry of Railways. This task was carried out in partnership with Google, DOT (under USOF), PGCIL and Tata Trust.

20-Mar-2021: Indian Railways rolls out first AC Three Tier Economy Class Coach

Indian Railways Production Unit, Railway Coach Factory, Kapurthala has recently rolled out the first prototype Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) AC three-tier economy class coach of Indian Railways (IR). Trial has been successfully completed.

This is a new variant of LHB AC three-tier coach with features enumerated as below:-

1. Electrical panels with reduced footprint on the passenger deck, releasing additional floor space for passenger use.
2. Increased Passenger capacity of 83 Berths.
3. Provision of an enabling entrance and compartment for Divyangjan with wheelchair access and Provision of Divyangjan friendly toilet with wheelchair access complying to Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan norms.
4. AC ducting by providing individual vents for all berths.
5. Modular design of seats and berths to improve comfort, reduced weight and higher maintainability.
6. Improved passenger conveniences in form of foldable snack tables in both longitudinal and transverse bays, injury free spaces and holders for water bottles, mobile phone and magazines.
7. Individual reading lights and mobile charging points for each berth.
8. Ergonomically improved design of ladder for accessing the middle and upper berths.
9. Increased headroom in the middle and upper berths.
10. Improved design of the Indian and the Western style lavatories.
11. Aesthetically pleasing and ergonomic entrance.
12. Luminescent aisle markers.
13. Illuminated berth indicators integral with night lights with luminescent berth numbers.
14. Improved fire safety standards by ensuring compliance to world benchmark of EN45545-2 HL3 for materials.

These LHB Economy class coaches, after necessary sanctions, shall be inducted in all Mail / Express trains running with LHB coaches (except Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and Jan Shatabdi etc. special type trains).

10-Mar-2021: Wi-Fi at Railway Stations

Wi-Fi based Internet Facility has been provided at 5957 railway stations in the country till now.

RailTel has submitted a proposal to DoT for leveraging its network in rural India and its collaborative broadband services model to provide PM Wani enabled community Wi-Fi services.

RailTel has high capacity backbone like 10 Giga bits per second at Railway stations where OFC has been commissioned.

Implementation time will be based on acceptance of proposal & its terms & conditions by DOT.

10-Mar-2021: Dedicated Freight Corridor of Indian Railways

Presently, Ministry of Railways has approved for preparing Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) on following routes:-

1. East Coast Corridor – Kharagpur - Vijayawada- Length 1115 Kms.
2. East-West sub Corridor
   1. Bhusawal-Wardha-Nagpur-Rajkharswan-Kharagpur-Uluberia- Dankuni – Length -1673 Kms.
   2. Rajkharswan-Kalipahari-Andal - 195 Kms.
3. North South Sub Corridor – Vijayawada – Nagpur – Itarsi - Length - 975 Kms.

The DPR will include the alignment of corridor, traffic catchment area, techno-economic studies, projected traffic, financial and economic rate of return etc.

The work of preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPR) has been entrusted to Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) and the same is in progress. A decision with regard to taking up the new DFCs and mode of implementation, if any, may be taken on the basis of the final outcome of DPR.

10-Mar-2021: High Speed Rail Corridors in Indian Railways

Railways has assigned the work for the preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the following seven new High Speed Rail (HSR) corridors to National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) :

1. Delhi-Noida-Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow-Varanasi
2. Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Ahmedabad
3. Mumbai-Nasik-Nagpur
4. Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad
5. Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore
6. Delhi-Chandigarh-Ludhiana-Jalandhar-Amritsar
7. Varanasi-Patna-Howrah

None of the above seven High Speed corridor is sanctioned as yet. The decision on sanctioning any HSR project depends on the outcome of Detailed Project Report, techno-economic feasibility, availability of resources and financing options. The preparation of DPRs is still in progress and alignment/route for the corridors has yet not been finalised.

10-Mar-2021: Measures taken by Indian Railways for Energy Conservation

Indian Railways (IR) is committed to take new steps for energy conservation and to increase energy efficiency. Some of the measures taken are as follows:

1. Railways has introduced Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) based 3-phase propulsion system with regenerative braking in Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) trains, Mainline Electrical Multiple Unit (MEMU), Kolkata Metro rakes and Electric Train Sets to conserve energy during the operations.
2. Production Units have completely switched over to production of energy efficient three-phase electric locos with regenerative features.
3. Provision of energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting in Railway installations including Railway stations, service buildings, Residential quarters, coaches, EMUs/MEMUs for reduction in electricity consumption.
4. Use of energy efficient Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motor fans in coaches.
5. Introduction of Head On Generation (HOG) system in trains to reduce diesel fuel consumption in power cars. 1012 electric locomotives are equipped with hotel load converters.
6. Regular energy audits at consumption points.
7. Emphasis on use of 5 Star rated electrical equipments.
8. Regular training of Loco pilots for use of coasting, regenerative braking features and switching off blowers of electric locos in case yard detention is more than 15 minutes.
9. Trailing locomotives of multi units (MU) hauling light loads are switched off to save energy.
10. Energy consumption on electric locomotives is regularly monitored through microprocessor based energy meters provided in all the electric locomotives and benchmarking is done based on average energy consumption.
11. Monitoring the fuel consumption with respect to trip ration of diesel locomotive drivers.
12. Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) has been provided in 1167 diesel locomotives to reduce fuel consumption when locomotive is idle.
13. Monitoring of idling of diesel locomotives is being done through remote monitoring and management of Locomotives and trains (called as REMMLOT). 3760 locomotives at present are equipped with REMMLOT.
14. Use of 5% bio-diesel in traction fuel-Blending of bio-diesel with High Speed Diesel (HSD) to the extent of 5 % to save HSD.
15. 20% Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) substitution in DEMUs-CNG usage emits less Greenhouse Gases (GHG) than liquid fuels. Indian Railways have the distinction of being the only railway in the world to be using CNG run power cars for passenger transportation. IR has also started conversion of DEMU Driving Power Car (DPC) into dual fuel mode DEMU/DPC with CNG. 25 numbers of DPCs have been converted and are under operation.

Ministry of Railways has entered into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Department for International Development (Government of United Kingdom) now Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) for collaboration on energy and sustainability. Further, an MoU has also been signed with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for energy efficiency improvement and conservation of energy.

8-Mar-2021: Indian Railway announces integrated Rail Madad Helpline number “139” for all type of queries/complaints/assistance during travel

To overcome the inconvenience over multiple helpline numbers for grievances and enquiry during railway travel, Indian Railway has integrated all railway helplines into single number  139 (Rail Madad Helpline) for quick grievance redressal and enquiry during the journey. As the new helpline number 139 will take over all the existing helpline numbers, it will be easy for the passengers to remember this number and connect with Railways for all their needs during the travel.

Various Railway grievances helplines were discontinued last year. Now, Helpline no. 182 would also be discontinued from 1.4.21, and merged into 139.

The Helpline 139 will be available in twelve languages. Passengers can opt for IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System), or directly connect to call-centre executive by pressing * (asterisk). There is no need of a smart phone to call on 139, thus, providing easy access to all mobile users.

It may be noted that on an average basis 139 helpline receives enquiry 3,44,513 calls/SMS per day. 

Menu of 139 Helpline (IVRS) is as under:

• For security & medical assistance, passenger has to press 1, which connects immediately to a call center executive.

• For enquiry, passenger has to press 2 and in the sub menu, information regarding PNR status, arrival/departure of the train, accommodation, fare enquiry, ticket booking, system ticket cancellation, wake up alarm facility/destination alert, wheel chair booking, meal booking can be obtained.

• For general complaints, passenger has to press 4

• For vigilance related complaints, passenger has to press 5

• For Parcel & goods related queries, passenger has to press 6

• For IRCTC operated trains queries, passenger has to press 7

• For status of complaints, passenger has to press 9

• For talking to call center executive, passenger has to press *( asterisk)

5-Feb-2021: Introduction of New Trains

To facilitate passengers, Indian Railways, during the period 2018-19 & 2019-20, has introduced new services, as detailed below:-

It is a continual endeavour of Indian Railways (IR) to upgrade train services and to provide improved facilities to the passengers. To this end, Indian Railways have introduced premium services like Vande Bharat Express, Humsafar, Tejas, Antyodaya, Utkrisht Double Decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY), to provide better travelling experience to the passengers as detailed below:

1. Vande Bharat Express: These State-of-the-art Train-set Vande Bharat services have been introduced on New Delhi – Varanasi and New Delhi- Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra sectors. These trains have ultra-modern features like quick acceleration, on board infotainment and Global Positioning System (GPS) based passenger information system, automatic sliding doors, retractable footsteps and Zero discharge vacuum bio toilets etc.
2. Tejas Express services: In all 04 pairs of Tejas Express services have been introduced over Indian   Railways system. Two of these namely 22119/22120 Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus –Karmali Tejas Express and 22671/22672 Chennai Egmore – Madurai Jn Tejas Express are being run by Indian Railways, while the other two Tejas trains namely, 82501/82502 Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express & 82901/82902 Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Tejas Express  are operated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
3. UDAY Services:  Utkrisht Double-Decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY) Express have been operationalized. In all, 02 pairs of UDAY services namely 22665/22666 Bangalore City - Coimbatore UDAY Express & 22701/22702 Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada jn. UDAY Express have been introduced over Indian Railways.
4. Other premium services like Humsafar, Tejas, Antyodaya, Utkrisht Double Decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY), Mahamana and coaches like Deen Dayalu and Anubhuti, which have upgraded interiors / exteriors and improved passenger amenities, have been introduced in service in various train services over Indian Railways.
5. IR is manufacturing only Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches, which are technologically superior and have better riding, aesthetics and safety features than conventional Integral Coach Factory (ICF) type coaches. Production Units of IR have stopped the manufacturing of ICF type coaches and are manufacturing only LHB coaches from the year 2018-19 onwards.
6. Vistadome coaches provide panoramic view, through wider body side windows as well as through transparent sections in the roof, thus enabling the passengers to enjoy the scenic beauty of the places through which they travel. Recently, Vistadome coaches on LHB platform have been manufactured with several modern features / amenities.
7. IR had also launched Project Utkrisht in April 2018 in order to improve the condition of ICF type coaches running in Mail / Express trains. Upgradation of 447 rakes of Mail / Express trains has been completed, till December 2020, under Project Utkrisht.
8. Under Project Swarn, 65 rakes of Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains have been upgraded across multiple dimensions, which include coach interiors, toilets, onboard cleanliness, staff behaviour, linen, etc.
9. 63 smart coaches with ultra-modern features like Smart Public address and passenger information system, Smart HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning system), Smart security and surveillance system etc. have been manufactured and introduced in service.
10. Conversion of End-On-Generation (EOG) trains into Head-On-Generation (HOG) trains to reduce noise and air pollution at stations and in trains. It is expected to significantly reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
11. Conventional lighting in coaches has been replaced with modern and energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights.
12. IR has also been providing increased number of mobile charging points in coaches.

9-Jan-2021: Indian Railway enhances Speed to 130 Kmph Along the Golden Quadrilateral & Golden Diagonal sections

Indian Railway has started the New Year by achieving a landmark achievement by drastically enhancing the maximum speed to 130 kmph for 1,280 km length out of 1,612 Km in Golden Quadrilateral - Golden Diagonal (GQ-GD) route. This covers the entire GQ-GD route over South Central Railway, except Vijayawada - Duvvada section, where signaling up-gradation work is in progress.

The enhanced speed limits could be achieved due to the systematic and planned strengthening of track & its infrastructure by removing bottlenecks in these sections on a fast pace. This included heavier rails, laying of 260 meters Long welded rail panels, improvement of curves and gradients among others.

Railways has utilized the opportunity of the Lockdown period and low train movement last year (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) to complete all necessary infrastructure up-gradation works. Based on these improvements done by the Zone, the RDSO/Lucknow conducted oscillation trials through Confirmatory Oscillograph Car Run (COCR) consisting of instrumented coaches of all classes at 130 Kmph speed during July and October last year. During this check, in addition to track parameters, other areas like Signaling aspect, Traction distribution equipment, Locomotive& coach fitness were also checked and recorded.

Accordingly, the South Central Railway zone has received sanction to enhance the maximum speed limits to 130 kmph along the following routes:

1. Golden Diagonal (Grand Trunk) Route: 744 Route Km
   1. Ballarshah to Kazipet – 234 Rkm
   2. Kazipet-Vijayawada-Gudur   – 510 Rkm
2. Golden Quadrilateral Route (Chennai -Mumbai section): 536 Route Km
   1. Renigunta to Gooty    - 281 Rkm
   2. Gooty to Wadi            -  255Rkm

Already, the maximum speed limits in the High-Density Network (HDN) between Secunderabad – Kazipet (132 Kms distance) had been enhanced to 130 kmph.

As such, including both the Up and Down lines in these sections, a total of 2,824 kms (1412Rkms)has now been made fit to run at a speed of 130 kmph. This covers the entire GQ-GD route over SCR, except Vijayawada - Duvvada section, where signaling up-gradation work is in progress.

It is noteworthy that despite COVID pandemic, Indian Railways has witnessed an unprecedented growth in development of infrastructure, innovation, capacity expansion of network, freight diversification. Railways has used covid challenge as an opportunity to lay the foundation for future development and next level of traveling experience for passengers.

18-Aug-2020: Indian Railways introduces Drone based surveillance system for Railway Security

Drone surveillance technology has emerged as an important and cost effective tool for security surveillance over large areas with limited manpower. Mumbai Division of Central Railway in Indian Railways has recently procured two Ninja UAVs for better security and surveillance in Railway areas like station premises, Railway track sections, yards, workshops, etc.

A team of four staff of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Mumbai has been trained for drone flying, surveillance and maintenance. These drones are capable of Real Time Tracking, Video Streaming and may be operated on Automatic Fail Safe Mode.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) has planned extensive use of drones for the purpose of Railway security. Nine (09) drones have been procured by RPF so far at a cost of Rs. 31.87 Lakhs at South Eastern Railway, Central Railway, Modern Coaching Factory, Raebareli  and South Western Railway.

It is further proposed to procure seventeen (17) more drones in future at a cost of Rs. 97.52 Lakhs. Nineteen (19) RPF personnel have so far been trained in operation and maintenance of drones out of which 4 have received licenses for flying drones. Six (06) more RPF personnel are being trained.

The purpose of the drone deployment is to provide a force multiplier and aid to the effectiveness of the security personnel deployed. It can help in inspection of Railway assets and safety of Yards, Workshops, car sheds etc. it can be used to launch surveillance on criminal and anti-social activities like gambling, throwing of garbage, hawking etc. in Railway premises. It may be deployed for data collection Analysis of such data collected may prove to be extremely useful in vulnerable sections for safe operations of trains.

The drone may be pressed in service at disaster sites for helping in rescue, recovery and restoration and coordinating of efforts of various agencies. It is very useful while undertaking mapping of railway asset to assess the encroachments on railway property. During large scale crowd management efforts, it may give vital inputs like crowd magnitude, probable time of arrival and dispersal based on which crowd regulation efforts may be planned and executed. Drones were used to enforce lockdown and monitor the movement of migrants during the COVID-19 lockdown.

A drone camera can cover large area which requires 8-10 RPF personnel. Thus, it may lead to substantial improvement in utilization of scarce manpower. Drone beats have been designed based on railway asset, sensitivity of area, activity of criminals etc. Drone acts as an “EYE IN THE SKY” and monitors the whole area. Any suspicious activity if noticed is intimated to the nearest RPF post of division to apprehend the criminal LIVE. One such criminal was apprehended on a real time basis in Wadibunder Yard area while he was trying to commit theft inside railway coach stationed in the yard.

13-Jul-2020: Indian Railways on MISSION MODE of becoming a "Green Railway" by 2030( Net Zero Carbon Emission)

Ministry of Railways, with a goal of transforming Indian Railways into Green Railways by 2030 has taken a number of major initiatives towards mitigation of global warming and combating climate change. Railway Electrification, improving energy efficiency of locomotives & trains and fixed installations, green certification for installations/stations, fitting bio toilets in coaches and switching to renewable sources of energy are parts of its strategy of achieving net zero carbon emission.

Indian Railways has completed electrification of more than 40,000 Route km (RKM) (63% of BG routes) in which 18,605 km electrification work has been done during 2014-20. Previously, only 3,835 km electrification work was completed during the period 2009-14. Indian Railways has fixed a target of electrification of 7000 RKM for the year 2020-21. All routes on BG network have been planned to be electrified by December 2023. Indian Railways is focusing on electrification of last mile connectivity & missing links. With this in mind 365 km major connectivity work has been commissioned during COVID period.

Major connectivity commissioned during COVID  period like Katni-Satna section (99 RKM) of Mumbai-Howrah via Allahabad route has been commissioned providing an alternate route to Howrah. Likewise, Pachore-Maksi (88 RKM) section on Indore - Guna-Bina route has also been commissioned providing an alternate route to Maksi-Bhopal-Bina. On Howrah/Sealdah-SVD Katra via Patna route, Bhagalpur-Shivnarayanpur (45 RKM) section has been commissioned.  On the route connecting Karaikal port to coal, fertilizer & steel plants of Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh, Thiruvarur - Karaikal port (46 RKM) section has been commissioned providing port connectivity to Erode, Coimbatore & Palghat.

Indian Railways has also taken a number of initiatives to promote solar energy. Indian Railways is working to harness the potential of 500 Mega Watt (MW) energy through roof top Solar panels (Developer model). Till date, 100 Mega Watt (MW) of solar plants have been commissioned on roof-tops of various buildings including 900 stations. Solar plants with a combined capacity of 400 MW are under different stages of execution. Tenders are already awarded for 245 MW and target for completion of these plants is December 2022.

Besides this, Indian Railways is trying to produce power from land Based Solar installations for running trains. Indian Railway has 51,000 hectare of land potential of installing 20 GW land based solar plants. The Solar power so generated will be fed to Central / State Grid or directly to 25 kV AC traction system.  Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL), a Joint Venture Company of Indian Railways (49 % Equity) and RITES Limited (51 % Equity), has been mandated for proliferation of taking up land based project.

One project of 1.7 MW at Bina (Madhya Pradesh) in collaboration with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has already been installed and is presently under extensive testing. This is First of its kind of solar project in the world.

Initially for the Land Based Solar Projects, Indian Railways has taken up 3 GW Solar Project in three phases. In phase I tender has been floated under developer model on 29th April 2020 for 1.6 GW capacities in railway plots for open access states. In Phase II, 400 MW capacities in railway plots will be developed for non-open access States under ownership model of REMCL (captive use). For this tender has floated on 16th June 2020. In Phase III 1 GW capacity in railway plots along the tracks under developer model will be installed for open access States for which tender has been floated on 1st July2020.

In the wind energy sector, 103 MW wind-based power plants have already been commissioned. Among them, 26 MW is in Rajasthan (Jaisalmer), 21 MW is in Tamil Nadu and 56.4 MW is in  Maharashtra (Sangli). Indian Railways has also planned to set up 200 MW wind energy plants in next 2 years in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka.

Realizing its role in climate change Indian Railways has started other Green Initiatives like 100 per cent LED illumination of buildings and stations. Indian Railways has also acquired Green Certification from CIII to 7 Production Units (PUs), 39 Workshops, 6 Diesel sheds and 1 Stores depot. 14 Railway Stations and 21 other buildings/ campuses have also been Green certified. Other than this 215 Stations have been certified with Environment Management System (EMS)/ISO 14001.

Total 505 pairs of trains have been converted to Head on Generation(HOG), unleashing approx. 70 million liter diesel/ Rs 450 crore per annum potential of saving.  Energy Efficiency Studies of all 8 Production Units & 12 workshops have been completed under MOU with CII resulting in 15% improvement in energy efficiency.

In the field of Green Initiatives a total of 69,000 coaches have been fitted with more than 2,44,000 bio-toilets in Indian Railways.

12-Jul-2020: For the first time Indian Railways loads Special Parcel Train to Bangladesh

For the first time the Indian Railways, loaded special Parcel train beyond the country borders to Benapole in Bangladesh with Dry Chillies from Reddipalem in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh state.

Guntur and its surrounding areas in the state of Andhra Pradesh are well known for Chillies cultivation. The quality of this farm produce is internationally renewed for its uniqueness in taste and brand. Earlier, the farmers and merchants in and around Guntur area have been transporting Dry Chillies by road to Bangladesh in small quantities and that was costing around Rs 7000 per tonne. During the lockdown period, they could not move this essential commodity by Road. Then Railway staff and Officials approached the consignors and explained the facilities to transport by Rail. Accordingly, they have moved the Dry Chillies by Rail in bulk through goods trains. But for moving the consignment by Goods trains, it is mandatory for the farmers and merchants to mobilise the quantity in bulk i.e. at least more than 1500 tonnes in each trip.

To mitigate this problem and to facilitate the Rail users to move their quantities in smalls i.e., up to a maximum of 500 tonnes in each trip,  Guntur Division of South Central Railway  took the initiative and moved the Special Parcel Express to Bangladesh. This has helped the farmers and merchants of Guntur to market their farm produce beyond the country border by transporting the Dry Chillies in small quantities through Special Parcel Express.

Accordingly, one Special Parcel Express train consisting of 16 Parcel Van moved to Benapole in Bangladesh. Each Parcel Van was loaded with 466 Dry Chillies bags, weighing around 19.9 Tonnes and the total weight carried by the Special Parcel Express is around 384 Tonnes. The cost per tonne for carrying by Special Parcel Express is Rs. 4,608 and which is very cheap and economical as compared to Road transport which is amounting to Rs. 7,000 per tonne.

It may be noted that Indian Railways has taken a series of steps to boost parcel train traffic during the Covid period.

Transportation of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment, food, etc. in small parcel sizes are a very important items that needed for business as well as consumption purposes. In order to fill in this vital need, Indian Railways has made railway parcel vans available for quick mass transportation by E-Commerce entities and other customers including State governments. Railways has been running time-tabled Parcel Special trains on select routes, to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential items.

The total of 4434 parcel trains have run 22.03.2020 till 11.07.2020,out of which 4,304 have been time-tabled trains.

6-Jul-2020: On a mission mode, Indian Railways takes decisive steps to transform itself as ‘Net Zero’ Carbon Emission Mass Transportation Network by 2030.

A new dawn ushers on Indian Railways as it endeavors to be self-reliant for its energy needs as directed by the Prime Minister and solarise railway stations by utilizing its vacant lands for Renewable Energy (RE) projects. Railway is committed to utilize solar energy for meeting its traction power requirements and become a complete ‘Green mode of transportation’.

The Ministry of Railways has decided to install solar power plants on its vacant unused lands on mega scale.

The use of solar power will accelerate the Minister of Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal’s mission to achieve conversion of Indian Railways to ‘Net Zero’ Carbon Emission Railway.

Indian Railways present demand would be fulfilled by the solar projects being deployed, making it the first transport organisation to be energy self-sufficient. This would help in making Indian Railways green as well as ‘Aatma Nirbhar’.

Indian Railways has acted as a pioneer in green energy procurement. It has started energy procurement from various solar projects like 3 MWp solar plant set up at MCF Raebareli (UP). About 100 MWp rooftop solar systems have already been commissioned on various stations and buildings of Indian Railways.

Besides, one project of 1.7 MWp at Bina (Madhya Pradesh) which shall be connected directly to Overhead Traction System has already been installed and is presently under extensive testing. It is likely to be commissioned within 15 days. This is the first of its kind project in the world commissioned by Indian Railways in collaboration with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). It involves adoption of innovative technology for converting Direct Current (DC) to single phase Alternating Current (AC) for feeding directly to Railway’s overhead traction system. The solar power plant has been established near the Bina Traction Sub Station (TSS). It can produce approximately 25 lakh units of energy annually and will save around INR 1.37 Crore for Railway every year.

Indian Railways (IR) and BHEL officials have worked tirelessly to successfully implement this innovative project. The project was undertaken by BHEL under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme. Despite the COVID-19 lockdown and consequent difficulties faced in the availability of material and manpower, IR and BHEL worked together as a team to accomplish this mission in just 8 months from the date of signing of the agreement on 9th October, 2019. The key challenge in this project was the conversion of DC power generated from solar panels to the single phase 25 KV AC power which is used by the Railways traction system. This required the development of high capacity inverters with single phase output which were not readily available in the market. The solar panels generate DC energy which will be converted into AC energy through these unique inverters and stepped up to 25 kV AC -1 ϕ through the transformer to directly feed power to the BINA TSS which will be used for running of electric trains.

In addition to this, two pilot projects for the scheme of land based solar plants for meeting electric traction energy requirements of Indian Railways are under implementation. One of them is a 50 MWp solar power plant on vacant unused land at Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) which shall be connected with Central Transmission Utility (CTU) and is targeted to be commissioned before 31st March, 2021. The 2 MWp solar plant at Diwana (Haryana) which shall be connected to State Transmission utility (STU) is expected to be commissioned before 31st August, 2020.

Railway Energy Management Company Ltd. (REMCL) is working relentlessly to further proliferate the use of solar energy on mega scale. It has already floated tenders for 2 GW of solar projects for Indian Railways to be installed on unutilised railway lands. Indian Railways is also adopting an innovative concept of installation of solar projects along operational railway lines. This will help in preventing encroachment, enhancing the speed and safety of trains and reduction of infrastructure costs due to direct injection of solar power into the traction network. Another tender for installation of 1 GW solar plants along Railway tracks is also planned to be released soon by REMCL.

With these mega initiatives, Indian Railways is leading India’s fight against climate challenge and is taking significant steps towards meeting its ambitious goal of being a net zero carbon emissions organisation and meeting India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) targets.

19-May-2020: Indian Railways operationalises its most powerful 12000 HP made in India locomotive

First 12000 HP made in India Locomotive, manufactured by Madhepura Electric Loco Factory situated in Bihar, was put into operation by Indian Railways from Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Jn Station yesterday.

New Design Locomotive at Madhepura Factory: The loco is named WAG12 with Number 60027. The train departed from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Station at 14:08 hrs. in long haul formation for Dhanbad Division of East Central Railway, consisting of 118 wagons which travelled from Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Jn to Barwadih via Dehri-on-Sone, Garhwa Road.

It was a proud moment for Indian Railways, as it became 6th country in the world to join the elite club of producing high horse power locomotive indigenously. It is the first time, high horse power locomotive has been operationalised on broad gauge track in the world. The locomotive has been produced under Make in India programme. The Madhepura factory is the largest integrated Green Field facility built to the highest standards of quality and safety with production capacity of 120 locomotives and spread across a massive 250 acres.

Main Factory Building

These locomotives are state of art IGBT based, 3 phase drive, 9000 KW (12000 horse power) electric locomotive. The locomotive is capable of maximum tractive effort of 706 kN, which is capable of starting and running a 6000 T train in the gradient of 1 in 150. The locomotive with twin Bo-Bo design having 22.5 T (Tonnes) axle load is upgradable to 25 Tonnes with design speed of 120 kmph. This locomotive will be a game changer for further movement of coal trains for Dedicated Freight Corridor. The locomotives can be tracked through GPS for its strategic use through embedded software and Antennae being lifted through the servers on ground through microwave link.

The locomotive is capable of working on railway tracks with conventional OHE lines as well as on Dedicated Freight corridors with high rise OHE lines. The locomotive has air-conditioned driver cabs on either side. The locomotive is equipped with regenerative braking system which provides substantial energy savings during operations. These high horse power locomotives will help to decongest the saturated tracks by improving average speed of freight trains.

Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL) will manufacture 800 State of the Art 12000 HP Electric Freight Locomotives in 11 years and being one of the most power full electric locomotive in the world will increase the speed of freight trains and will allow faster, safer and heavier freight trains to move across the country, thus reducing congestion in traffic. It will also lead to considerable savings in energy consumption through re-generative braking. As part of the project, factory along with township has been set up in Madhepura, Bihar with capacity to manufacture 120 locomotives per year. The project will create more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country. More than Rs 2000 Crores has already been invested in the project by the company.

Along with the factory, socio-economic development in Madhepura is being driven by this project. As part of CSR initiative skill centres are being set up in Madhepura to impart training to local people.

It may be noted that Indian Railways entered into Procurement cum Maintenance Agreement with Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL), as part of the largest Foreign Direct Investment project of Indian Railways to transform the heavy freight transportation landscape of the country. This is ‘Make in India’ Initiative by India Railways (IR).

The project started in 2018 and the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the project on 10th April’ 2018. The prototype locomotive was delivered in March 2018. Based on the test results having design issues, the complete locomotive including bogies has been redesigned. The new design of locomotive has been inspected by RDSO at Madhepura factory and cleared for dispatch from factory on 16th Nov’ 2019. Further RDSO has conducted oscillation trials at various speeds upto 132 kmph and the locomotive has passed oscillation trials successfully. The locomotive has made its maiden commercial run between Deen Dayal Upadhaya Station to  Shivpur on 18.05.2020. The design was completed for the whole locomotive in a record time of four to six months and despite the initial hiccups and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it could not dampen the spirit of August initiative of IR, surpassing all odds we could secure the permission of the Bihar Govt. to resume operations at the Madhepura Factory putting the project back on track.

13-Mar-2020: Setting up of Railway Development Authority

Government has approved the constitution of Rail Development Authority (RDA) in April, 2017. The role/mandate of RDA inter-alia includes providing expert advice to Government to make informed decision on:-

1. Pricing of services commensurate with costs;
2. Measures for enhancement of non-fare Revenue;
3. Protection of consumer interests, by ensuring quality of service and cost optimization;
4. Promoting competition, efficiency and economy;
5. Encouraging market development and participation of  stakeholders in the rail sector and for ensuring a fair deal to the stakeholders and customers;
6. Creating positive environment for investment;
7. Promoting efficient allocation of resources in the Sector;
8. Benchmarking of service standards against international norms and specify and enforce standards with respect to the quality, continuity and reliability of services provided them;
9. Providing framework for non-discriminatory open access to the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) infrastructure and others in future;
10. Suggesting measures to absorb new technologies for achieving desired  efficiency and performance standards; and
11. Suggesting measures for human resource development to achieve any of its stated objectives.

To enhance Non-Fare Revenue (NFR), Indian Railways have issued policies on Commercial Publicity for Mobile Assets, Out of Home Advertising, Rail Display Network, Unsolicited proposals and Content on Demand.  Further, to enhance NFR earnings full powers have been delegated to General Managers of Zonal Railways who may further sub-delegate the powers to Divisional Railway Managers/Additional Railway Managers, if required.  To mobilise Non Fare revenue from land resources of Railways, commercial development of vacant railway land not required for immediate operational needs, is being done through Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA). Performance on NFR is reviewed on periodical basis.

In order to enhance efficiency and performance standards of Indian Railways and also to assign greater accountability, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is being signed between Railway Board and each Zonal Railway/Production Units (PUs) in the beginning of the Financial Year. Under these MOUs, all the Zonal Railways/PUs, undertake to achieve the targets for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) given in the MOU. These KPIs inter-alia cover operational and financial performance, infrastructure creation works, capacity utilization, asset maintenance and reliability. Similarly, KPIs relating with efficiency and performance standards are also given to Divisions by Zonal Railways.

The performance is evaluated and monitored regularly through monthly review meetings. Issues and constraints faced by Zones/ Production Units regarding performance are also addressed regularly.

13-Mar-2020: Amenities under Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan in Railways

Indian Railways is committed to make its railways stations and trains accessible for Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) as part of “Sugamya Bharat Mission” or Accessible India Campaign of Government of India.  Improvement/ augmentation of amenities including those for differently abled passengers Divyangjan is a continuous process at Railway stations. Recently in February, 2020 the guidelines for accessibility of Railways have been circulated for implementation over Indian railways. As per these guidelines, Indian Railways endeavor to provide comprehensive facilities and services to Divyangjan which inter-alia include an easy use of information system, accessible infrastructure, various concession to passengers travelling on Divyangjan concession Tickets, Human Assistance, Wheel Chairs, Signages, etc. Railways also aim to make the railway coaches and stations accessible by retrofitting the existing infrastructure as well as integration of accessibility in new infrastructure for planning at design stage itself.

The following facilities have been provided at railway stations for Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan):-

In order to facilitate easy movement of elderly, sick and differently abled passengers (Divyangjan) and for smooth access to platforms of major railway stations and for ease of movement, lifts are being provided as part of ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan’. So far, 567 lifts at 243 stations have been provided over Indian Railways.

 All commercial frontline staff are given special training on passenger amenities wherein training on special facilities provided for Physically Challenged persons and provision of wheel chair are given. Zonal Railways have been instructed to provide one wheelchair per platform and in case of island platforms, one wheel chair per two platforms at all erstwhile A-1 and A category stations.

Yatri Mitra Sewa has also been introduced at major railway stations for enabling passengers to book wheel chairs services cum porter services free of cost through NGOs, Charitable Trust, PSUs etc. under CSR and responsibility of providing this facility has been entrusted with IRCTC. In case of lack of response from NGOs, Charitable Trust, PSUs etc., this service may be arranged on payment basis through a service provider or on it own. Passengers can book cab/coach & porter service online through IRCTC portal www.irctc.co.in. The facility is available at Chandigarh, Gaya, Guntur, Howrah, Jaipur, Lucknow, Lucknow Jn., Madurai, New Delhi, Delhi Jn., Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi Safdarjung, Anand Vihar, Delhi Cantt., Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Tirupati and Vijayawada.

Powers have been delegated to DRMs to decide the provision of Battery Operated Vehicles (BOVs) at station on merit – whether free of cost through commercial publicity route or through ‘user pays’ route. At the Divisional level, Chief Travelling Ticket Inspectors/In-charges (CTTI/ICs), Station Managers (SMRs) and concerned Commercial Inspectors are directed to perform duty as a disability Inspector for providing assistance to Persons with Disabilities.

21-Feb-2020: Online Chatbot ‘ASKDISHA’ upgraded to converse with Railway customers in Hindi language

In order to resolve queries of railway passengers over the internet pertaining to various services offered, Indian Railways had introduced the services of Artificial Intelligence based ASKDISHA chatbot in October 2018 for the benefit of the users of the ticketing website www.irctc.co.in and tourism website www.irctctourism.com of its PSU, Indian Railways Catering & Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC).

The ASKDISHA Chatbot was initially launched in English language but in order to further enhance the customer services rendered and to further strengthen the services of the chatbot, IRCTC has now powered voice enabled ASKDISHA to converse with customers in Hindi language also in the e-ticketing site www.irctc.co.in. The customers can now ask queries to ASKDISHA in Hindi language by voice as well as text.

On an average, around three thousand enquiries are being handled by ASKDISHA in Hindi language on daily basis and the figure is increasing day by day which also shows the acceptability of the new feature by the customer. IRCTC plans to launch ASKDISHA in more languages along with many other additional features in the near future.

The chatbot is a special computer programme designed to simulate conversation with users, especially over the internet. The first-of-its-kind initiative by IRCTC is aimed at facilitating accessibility by answering users’ queries pertaining to various services offered to railway passengers. Since its initial launch, more than 150 million passengers have been benefited by ASKDISHA with 10 billion interactions for seeking help on reservation of tickets, cancellation, enquiry of refund status, fare, PNR search, train running status, enquiry about retiring rooms and tourism products.

20-Feb-2020: Indian Railways announces the launch of joint research initiatives and teaching programmes with University of Birmingham at National Rail Transportation Institute

Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Vinod Kumar Yadav and Lord Karan Billimoria, Chancellor, University of Birmingham announced the launch of a Joint Masters programme in Railway Systems Engineering and Integration in academic year 2020-2021 by the National Rail Transportation Institute (NRTI). Shri Rajesh Tiwari, Member Traction and other senior officials of Railway Board along with Professor Sir David Eastwood, Vice-chancellor and faculty members of University of Birmingham were present on the occasion.

Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Vinod Kumar Yadav said it was the dream of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to develop a Railway University which can look into all aspects of transportation. Over the last few years, a lot of transformational work has been done by Railways; focus has been on capacity enhancement and modernisation of Railways. Indian Railways looks forward for a long term association with University of Birmingham.

Sir David Eastwood, Vice-chancellor said that University of Birmingham is delighted to work with Indian Railways. University of Birmingham has a proven track record in delivering high quality programmes. He expressed his gratitude for getting the opportunity to work with Indian Railways.

The programme that has been launched leads to dual M.Sc. that would see NRTI students obtaining two post graduate degrees from both institutions, after spending a year studying at each institution. It will also provide flexibility for some modules of the programme to be delivered online in the form of a Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert) and support for undergraduate teaching by University of Birmingham faculty at NRTI. This initiative will benefit NRTI students by providing them access to world class expertise and facilities in railway systems at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE). BCRRE is also expected to gain valuable insights into India’s transport sector and get involved in related research and development issues in the country.

The initiative has been taken under the Centre of Excellence for Next Generation Transportation Systems that had been set up by an MoU between the National Rail Transport Institute with the University of Birmingham on December 18th, 2019.

Earlier, during the day, faculty from University of Birmingham conducted a workshop on ETCS level 2 signalling which was attended by officials from Railway Board, Northern Railway, RailTel and other Zonal Railways by video link. A significant progress has been made in the research project on the analysis of line capacity improvement with ETCS level 2 on the Jhansi Bina Section of the North Central Railway. This would be first formal project under the MoU which will develop a combined signalling and operations-based simulation of the Jhansi Bina section of NCR using the Birmingham Railway Simulation Suite.

About the National Rail Transport Institute: The National Rail Transport Institute has been set up as a deemed to be university and has been operational since 2018. In addition to Schools and Departments in various disciplines, NRTI aims to develop interdisciplinary Centres of Excellence which would be collaborative constructs to promote research and education to the transportation sector. NRTI’s strategy is focussed upon sourcing the best expertise from around the world from leading global institutions through institutional partnerships for collaborating on developing curriculum, research projects and executive education programs. Further details about the institution are available at www.nrti.edu.in

About University of Birmingham: The University of Birmingham is home to the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) with over 150 academics, researchers and professional services staff, delivering world-class research, education and leadership to the global rail industry. The BCRRE is the largest university-based centre for railway research and education in Europe, involved in developing world-leading new technologies alongside higher education programmes, research and innovations in Climate Change, Aerodynamics and International Benchmarking, Power Systems and Energy Use, Railway Control and Operations Simulation.

20-Feb-2020: RailMadad gets Silver award under Category II of National e-Governance Awards

RailMadad, the grievance redressal portal of Indian Railways, has been awarded Silver under Category II of National e-Governance Awards – “Excellence in providing Citizen-centric Delivery”. This award was conferred during the 23rd National Conference on e-Governance which was held in Mumbai on 7-8th Feb, 2020. To recognize and promote excellence in implementation of e-Governance initiatives, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) presents National e-Governance Awards every year. DARPG received more than 500 nominations, out which 20 projects were selected for e-Governance Awards in six categories.

RailMadad portal can be accessed by Railways customers using RailMadad Helpline 139 (with IVRS, voice and SMS facility), RailMadad website: railmadad.indianrailways.gov.in & RailMadad App (on android & iOS).

RailMadad adds to ‘ease of living’ of Railway customers in the following ways:

1. Convergence & Integration: RailMadad is now the single portal for grievance, inquiry and assistance, for all railway customers – passenger, freight & parcel. Customers can also give their suggestions on RailMadad.
2. Ease of Access: Customers can access RailMadad through RailMadad no. 139, Web, App, SMS, Social media & Manual Dak. RailMadad no. 139 itself subsumes over 15 Helplines, thereby giving the customers the comfort of a single Helplines for all needs. Non-smart phone users can call 139 * to talk to call centre executives directly, who guides him/her in lodging grievance. It is also possible to lodge a complaint through IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System). This facility is available in 12 languages.
3. Ease of Registering complaints: RailMadad is linked with Railways’ existing ticketing systems like PRS & NTES. Hence journey details of passengers are automatically fetched when passenger enters PNR details, making complaint registration process simpler and easy.
4. Delayering - Redressal on fast forward: RailMadad is linked with NTES. So, complaint goes automatically to the concerned field unit, which accelerates grievance redressal.
5. Accountability: For every registered grievance, the complainant gets a unique CRN (complaint reference number), using which one can check the status of one’s grievance. After closure of complaint, customer gets an SMS with a link to give his feedback on the quality of redressal.
6. Citizen empowerment: RailMadad incorporates citizen charter commitment of Indian Railways.

7-Feb-2020: Accessible India Campaign in Railways

Indian Railways is committed to make its Railway Stations and trains accessible for Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) as part of “Sugamya Bharat Mission” or Accessible India Campaign of Government of India.  Improvement/ augmentation of amenities at Railway stations, including those for differently abled passengers is a continuous process.

The existing provisions in this regard are as follows:-

1. Instructions already exist for provision of Wheel Chair at stations. The Wheelchairs are provided by Railways on its own cost and are given to attendants of the Divyangjan, Senior Citizens absolutely ‘free of cost’ to escort them from and to the trains. However, whenever attendants are not willing or available, porters (Sahayaks) can be hired on pre-fixed nominal rate to escort the Divyangjan etc. Information in this regard are displayed at prominent places in railway station premises.
2. Provision of one wheelchair per platform and in case of island platforms, one wheel chair per two platforms at all major stations.
3. Yatri Mitra Sewa has been introduced at major railway stations for enabling passengers to book wheel chairs services cum porter services free of cost through NGOs, Charitable trust, PSUs etc. under CSR.
4. Zonal Railways have been advised to sensitize the Station Superintendent/Station Master/Dy. SS (Commercial) to be empathetic towards the needs and concerns of Divyangjan so that any Divyangjan passenger requiring assistance may approach them.
5. Disabled friendly toilets, ticket counters and earmarked parking facility are being provided at all major stations.
6. Provision of Battery Operated Vehicles (BOVs) at some important stations for Divyangjans, Senior Citizens, Sick passengers and Pregnant women is being made ‘free of cost’ through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and commercial publicity route as well as on chargeable basis.
7. Further, lifts are being provided at major Railway Stations as part of ‘Sugamya Bharat Mission’.  So far, 559 lifts at 239 stations (upto 31.01.2020) have been provided.
8. Besides the above, IR has designed and incorporated SLRD (Second Class cum Luggage cum Guard Van & Disabled Friendly Compartment) ICF and LHB coaches with facilities like Wider entrance doors for entry of wheel chair, Wider aisles area, wider berths, wider compartments and Divyangjan friendly toilet with larger lavatory and lavatory doors, additional grab rails on the side walls, wash basin and mirror at a lower height. At present 3460 ICF type and 18 LHB SLRD coaches (as on 31.03.2019) are in operation over Indian railway.

3-Feb-2020: Kisan Rail for seamless National Cold Supply Chain for perishables

In keeping with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s commitment towards “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas”, the Union budget 2020-2021 has reiterated that the government is committed to the goal of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022. Prosperity to farmers can be ensured by making farming competitive. For this, purchase of farm produce, logistics and Agri‐services need copious  investments. Farmers desire integrated solutions covering storage, financing, processing and         marketing.

The budget proposes that “To build a  seamless  national  cold  supply  chain  for  perishables, inclusive of milk, meat and fish, the Indian Railways will set up a “Kisan Rail”- through PPP  arrangements. There shall be refrigerated coaches in Express and Freight trains as well.”

Towards fulfillment of the budget proposals, following are the major initiatives which have already been taken by Indian Railways regarding Development of Cold Chain for Transportation of Perishable Traffic

Refrigerated Parcel Vans:    New design of Refrigerated Parcel Vans (VPR, carrying capacity of 17 tonnes) for transportation of highly perishable parcel traffic was developed, and procured through Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala. At present, Indian Railway has a fleet of nine (09) Refrigerated    Parcel Vans available.

These Refrigerated Parcel Vans are booked on round-trip basis, and are charged at 1.5 times the freight of normal VP as per category of train.

Reefer (Ventilated Insulated) Rail Containers:      98 Ventilated Insulated Containers (Carrying capacity 12 Tonnes per container, rake composition 80 containers)  have been procured, through CONCOR, for movement of fruits and vegetables to different parts of the country.

Cold Storage Facilities for Perishables:      ‘Temperature controlled perishable cargo centres’ have been commissioned at Ghazipur Ghat (U.P), New Azadpur (Adarsh Nagar, Delhi) and Raja ka Talab (U.P) as a pilot project under Kisan Vision Project by CONCOR under CSR initiative. Another    project is under construction at Lasalgaon, Nasik (Maharashtra).

Approval has been granted to Central Railside Warehousing Corporation (CRWC) to develop temperature controlled storages at Fatuha and Mancheswar.

Cold storage facility has also been developed at Dadri. Fresh & Healthy Enterprise Ltd. (FHEL) has been redeveloped as Agriculture Logistic Center at Rai, Sonepat. This facility is CONCOR’s 100% own subsidiary developed in an area of 16.40 acres of land.

In  his  Independence  Day  speech  2019,  Hon’ble Prime Minister  had  highlighted  that   Rs. 100  lakh  crore would  be  invested  on  infrastructure over the next 5 years. As a follow up measure, the National Infrastructure Pipeline was launched on 31st December 2019.  It  consists  of  more  than  6500  projects  across  sectors  and  are  classified as per their size and stage of development. These new projects will also include  modern  railway  stations,  metro  and  railway  transportation,  logistics  and  warehousing etc.

27-Dec-2019: Indian Railway Management Service: Some Factual Information

Unification of eight existing services of Indian Railways for Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) will be done at all levels i.e. from Junior Scale to HAG+. However, modalities for unification and assignment of inter se seniority will be decided by Alternative Mechanism. For this, Ministry of Railways and DOPT will together to work out the necessary formula before it is taken up by Alternative Mechanism. It will be ensured that no one will be at a disadvantage.

27 posts of GMs have been upgraded to apex grade. It will be ensured that eligible officers of all the erstwhile services get apex grade post of GM. In the cabinet note approved, it has been mentioned that officers of IRMS (constituted by 8 services) only will be eligible to become the Functional Members and Chairman/CEO of Railway Board. The number of Independent members will be decided by the Government. They will be non- Executive Members and will attend the Board meetings. They will not be involved in day-to-day functioning of Railways. Their experience of market and field will help in strategic planning of Indian Railways.

Efforts will be made to complete the unification at the earliest. Officers will continue doing the work which they were doing at present. Domain knowledge will be taken into consideration while deciding a posting. Future recruits to IRMS will be made through UPSC(Civil Services) in consultation with UPSC and DOPT.

The reforms as suggested by various committees from time to time including Prakash Tandon Committee (1994) have been largely adopted. The decision for unification was taken based on the sentiments and suggestions of all levels of officers during “Parivartan Sangosthi” held on 07th & 08th December, 2019 at New Delhi. These were also suggested by all groups constituted under GMs during Parivartan Sangosthi. The suggestions were unanimously agreed to by the Railway Board.

24-Dec-2019: Unification of the existing eight Group A services of the Railways into a Central Service called Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS)

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved a transformational organisational restructuring of the Indian Railways. This historic reform will go a long way in achieving Government’s vision of making Indian Railways the growth engine of India's Vikas yatra.

The reforms include:

1. Unification of the existing eight Group A services of the Railways into a Central Service called Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS)
2. Re-organisation of Railway Board on functional lines headed by CRB with four Members and some Independent Members.
3. The existing service of Indian Railway Medical Service (IRMS) to be consequently renamed as Indian Railway Health Service (IRHS).

Railways has an ambitious programme to modernise and provide the highest standards of safety, speed and services to the passengers with a proposed investment of Rs. 50 lakh crore over the next 12 years. This requires speed and scale, and a unified, agile organisation to work single-mindedly on this task and capable of responding to challenges. Today's reforms are in a series of reforms that have been undertaken under the present Government including merger of Rail Budget with Union Budget, delegation of powers to empower GMs and field officers, allowing competitive operators to run trains etc.

To meet next level challenges and deal with various existing difficulties there was a need to take this step. Unlike Railway systems the world over, which have been corporatized, Indian Railways is managed by the Government directly. It is organised into various departments such as Traffic, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Signal & Telecom, Stores, Personnel, and Accounts etc. These departments are vertically separated from top to bottom and are headed by a Secretary level officer (Member] in the Railway Board. This organization of the department runs deep down to the grassroot level of the Railways. Unification of services will end this 'departmentalism', promote smooth working of Railways, expedite decision making, create a coherent vision for organisation and promote rational decision making.

Unification of services has been recommended by various committees for reforming Railways including - the Prakash Tandon Committee (1994), Rakesh Mohan Committee (2001), Sam Pitroda Committee (2012) and Bibek Debroy Committee (2015).

This reform has been undertaken with the overwhelming support and consensus of Railway officers, at a two-day conference "Parivartan Sangoshthi" held in Delhi on 7th and 8th December, 2019. To act on this sentiment, and create confidence in Railway officers that their suggestions are valued, Railway Board held an Extraordinary meeting of the Board during the conference on 8th December, 2019 itself, and recommended a number of reforms including the ones mentioned.

It is now proposed to create a unified Group A' service called "Indian Railways Management Service" (IRMS) from the next recruitment cycle. Creation of the new service will be done in consultation with DoPT and UPSC to facilitate recruitment in the next recruitment year. It will enable Railways to recruit engineers/non-engineers as per need, and offer equality of opportunity to both categories in career progression. The modalities and unification of the services will be worked out by the Ministry of Railways in consultation with DoPT with the approval of Alternate Mechanism to be appointed by Cabinet in order to ensure fairness and transparency. The process shall be completed within a year.

The newly recruited officers will come from Engineering and non-Engineering disciplines as per need and posted as per their aptitude and specialisation to allow them to specialise in one field, develop an overall perspective, and prepare them to take up general management responsibilities at senior levels. Selection for the general management positions shall be through a merit-based system.

Railway board will no longer be organised on departmental lines, and replaced with a leaner structure organised on functional lines. It will have a Chairman, who will act as 'Chief Executive Officer (CEO)' along with 4 Members responsible for Infrastructure, Operations & Business Development, Rolling Stock and Finance respectively. The Chairman shall be the cadre controlling officer responsible for Human resources (HR) with assistance from a DG (HR). 3 Apex level posts shall be surrendered from Railway Board and all the remaining posts of the Railway Board shall be open to all officers regardless of the service to which they belonged. The Board will also have some independent Members (the number to be decided by competent authority from time to time), who will be highly distinguished professionals with deep knowledge and 30 years of experience including at the top levels in industry, finance, economics and management fields. The Independent Members will help Railway Board in setting a strategic direction. The restructured Board will start functioning after approval of the Board taking due care to ensure that officers are posted in the restructured Board or adjusted in the same pay and rank till their retirement.

7-Dec-2019: Railways 'RailWire' Wi-Fi goes Live in 5500 Railway Stations

Railways has successfully completed the work of providing free public Wi-Fi at 5500 stations across the country. Mahua Milan Railway Station of East Central Railway zone, became the 5500th station in the country to have free public Wi-Fi. This is a unique initiative as this Wi-Fi network is one of the largest Wi-Fi networks of the world.

To transform the Railway stations into the hub of Digital inclusion, Indian Railways mandated RailTel, a Miniratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, to provide free high-speed Wi-Fi at the Railway stations. The journey started in January 2016 from the financial capital of India - Mumbai Central station and in a span of 46 months Railways has successfully provided Wi-Fi at 5500 stations across the country. The mission is to provide Wi-Fi at all Railway stations (except the halt ones). Along the journey, RailTel has roped in partners like Google, Tata Trust, PGCIL for some parts of the project and also got funding from Department of Telecom USOF for 200 stations. The Wi-Fi is being provided under the brand name of RailWire.

The month of October 2019 saw total 1.5 crores of user logins in ‘RailWire’ Wi-Fi services across all stations consuming 10242 TB of data. Free access to high speed Wi-Fi will help in bridging the digital divide between rural and urban India. Students using their waiting time to download study materials, vendors using the service for digital payment transactions, daily passengers using their time at stations learning new skill or surfing net- the free Wi-Fi has been a boon to these people who otherwise suffer from poor connectivity issues.

Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, RailWire Wi-Fi at Railway stations will be available to any user who has a smartphone with working mobile connection for KYC considerations. To use the Wi-Fi the user has to switch on the Wi-Fi mode on the smartphone and select the RailWire Wi-Fi network. The RailWire homepage automatically appears on the smartphone. The user has to enter his or her mobile number on this homepage. The user will get one-time password (OTP) in form of SMS in the message box which has to be entered in the home page of RailWire. After entering OTP Users will be able to access high speed internet & can start internet browsing.

28-Sep-2019: Pilot Project for ushering in 'Industry 4.0' in the country, is launched for implementation at the Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Raebareli

A Pilot Project for ushering in 'Industry 4.0' in the country, is launched for implementation at the Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Raebareli. The Ministry of Railways and Department of Science & Technology have joined hands in partnership with IIT Kanpur for taking up a unique project on ‘Industry 4.0’ by launching a Pilot Project for implementation at Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli.

Department of Science & Technology has recently launched a new programme “Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (ICPS)” to foster and promote R&D in this emerging field of research. He said about 4000 crore rupees are expected to be spent in years to come in this area. The new initiative is expected to make India an advanced Industrial economy with exponential growth in jobs.

‘Industry 4.0’ commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, is a name given to the current trend of automation, interconnectivity and data exchange in manufacturing technologies to increase productivity. Industry 4.0 is a complex Cyber-Physical Systems which synergizes production with digital technologies, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data & Analytics, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing.

The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in his address in Houston, USA on 22nd Sept’ 2019 had highlighted the importance of ‘Industry 4.0’ in global economy and India's advantage.

The project launched today would be undertaken under the aegis of “Technology Mission for Indian Railways” (TMIR). It would be implemented by a consortium of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Science & Technology on an investment sharing model for taking up identified railway projects for applied research and use on Indian Railways for advancement and modernization.

Industry 4.0 is a complex cyber/physical digital system. Therefore, the architecture to be conceptualized and formulated in MCF initially would be gradually expanded in a phased manner to encompass all complexities that constitute Industry 4.0 in all manufacturing spheres in the country.

Full transition to the digital factory using ‘Industry 4.0’ across entire value chain from design to production will help enhance productivity hugely by providing insight into production process to take the decisions in real time basis, minimizing human errors by effective monitoring to ensure that resources are put to the best utilization measured by, what is called the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).

Such a National Policy for Advanced Manufacturing envisages that manufacturing sector should contribute at least 25% to GDP. All over the world, countries who have been able to achieve phenomenal growth, could do that with the advent of rapid strides in manufacturing sector. This initiative in Railways may have wider ramifications to spur growth in defence production as well as in private manufacturing sector also.

Modern Coach Factory (MCF), Raebareli was established as a State of the Art coach manufacturing unit with the capacity to manufacture 1000 passenger coaches annually and has modern automated machines and robotic fabrication lines. During last one year, MCF has increased its production phenomenally to 1425 LHB coaches in 2018-19 vis-à-vis 710 LHB coaches in 2017-18. This was enabled significantly by the adoption of elements of Industry 4.0. on sophisticated machines. Inspection of MCF by the Prime Minister in December 2018 has been an inspiration to proliferate this initiative.

In view of the continuous demand for higher speed coaches with comfort of international level and to meet the demand of a continuously growing economy, there is a need to employ the tools which will improve the productivity to next higher level with greater product flexibility.

Industry 4.0 would be based cyber/physical digital system and would involve various packages, systems, applications and Hardware within Design/Planning, Networking and Production to be added in a modular and incremental manner in MCF

Various shops under the ambit of Industry 4.0, areas such as Inspection, Machining, Welding, Measurement etc., will also be provided with the initial & Bigdata Analytics, Artificial-Intelligence etc.

17-Sep-2019: Ministry of Railways decides to adopt HOG system (Head on Generation technology) in all  LHB Coaches trains

The way ACs run and power supply is done in railway coaches is to transform. Such new technological transformation is also to bring in foreign exchange saving of about 1400 Crore Rupees per year.

In the new technology called - Head on Generation technology, the power will be drawn from the Overhead Electric supply. The power generator cars which used to make huge noise and emit fumes will no more be there. In place of two such generator cars there will be one standby silent generator car to be used for emergency. In place of the other car, there will be LSLRD (LHB Second Luggage, Guard & Divyaang Compartment). This LSLRD will also have capability to convert power from the overhead supply to be utilised in the entire train while providing space for luggage guard room and additional passengers. Currently, the cost of power is over Rs. 36 per unit and with HOG it will available at Rs. 6 Per unit.

Giving these details, Member, Rolling Stock, Shri Rajesh Agarwal said that it is planned to convert all LHB trains to HOG system within this year. Till date 342 trains have already been converted into HOG. This is resulting in saving of approximate Rs 800 crore per year now. 284 more trains are to be converted into HOG by the year end to be resulting in more savings.

In the year 2017, decision has been taken for complete switch over to LHB technology. After this decision, adoption of HOG conversion has been taken in mission mode to complete this work in time bound manner. The work involved modification in electrical system of power cars and coaches: All new coaches from Production Units are to be HOG compliant. The conversion work has been allotted to Zonal Railways and with the dedicated efforts of field officers; This will provide noise free and pollution environment for passenger at station.

Brief about Head on Generation system: Head on Generation system is electrical power supply system where electrical power for catering hotel load of train, which includes Train Lighting, Air conditioning, Lighting, fans and other passenger interface requirement working on electrical power supply. This scheme is widely used power supply system by Railways world over. The power in this system is received from locomotive. With introduction of this scheme heavy underslung power generating equipment gets eliminated. Further it also reduces use of Diesel sets employed in power cars in End on Generation system.

In the year 1996, Indian railways entered into ToT agreement with Linke Hofmann Busch Germany. The LHB coaches have been designed to run on End on Generation system with two power cars employing two DG sets on either end.

During the period from 2000 to 2017, both LHB and ICF coaches used to be manufactured in Railway Production Units. LHB coaches continued to be manufactured with EOG power supply system employing two power cars at either end. Whereas ICF coaches with self-generating technology employing belt driven alternators in bogies continued to be manufactured.

Cost of electricity generation from DG set and in self generating coaches is very high resulting into increase in diesel consumption and substantial operating expenditure

Advantages of HOG system

	In Rs (Crore)
Annual savings on account of ongoing conversion work	759
Total Savings after completion of HOG conversion  work	1390

Energy cost per unit in different power supply system of coaches

Type of coaches	Cost of Electricity (Rs per unit)
Self-Generating (Diesel Traction)	36.14
Self-Generating (Electric Traction)	12.37
End on Generation (EOG)	22
Head on Generation	6

Reduction in air and noise pollution from EOG to HOG

	EOG	HOG
CO2	1724.6 Tons per annum	Nil
NOX	7.48 Tons per annum	Nil

10-Apr-2019: RailTel turns 1,600 railway stations into RailWire Wi-Fi zones

RailWire Wi-Fi by RailTel is now live at 1,600 railway stations across the country, with Santa Cruz railway station in Mumbai becoming the 1,600th station to become a RailWire Wi-Fi zone.

RailTel Corporation, a ‘Mini Ratna (category-I)’ PSU, is one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in the country, owning a pan-India optic fibre network on exclusive Right of Way (ROW) along Railway tracks. RailWire is a retail broadband initiative of RailTel, which envisages extending broadband and application services to the public.

In order to fulfil the promise of bringing fast and free Wi-Fi at all stations (except the halt stations) within a year, team RailTel is tirelessly working to achieve the target and in this process, Western Railway’s Santa Cruz station became the 1600th railway station of the Indian Railways to be equipped with RailWire Wi-Fi connectivity.

RailTel has provided high speed Wi-Fi at 985 stations with own/other funding and at 415 A, A1 and C category stations, associating Google as the technology partner for radio access, while using the RailTel backbone for broadband connectivity. RailTel has also completed the work of providing Wi-Fi to 200 stations with the support of the Universal Service Obligatory Fund of GoI.

RailTel started providing the free public Wi-Fi service at Indian railway stations with a vision of turning Railway stations into a platform for digital inclusion. The idea behind providing free Wi-Fi to these very small stations catering to mainly rural/low population density areas, is to provide the people a modern Wi-Fi facility.

For using the Wi-Fi network, the user has to switch on the Wi-Fi mode in the smartphone and select the RailWire Wi-Fi network. After the RailWire homepage network automatically appears on the smartphone, the user has to enter his or her mobile number on this homepage. The user will get a one-time password (OTP) in form of an SMS in the message box, which has to be entered in the home page of RailWire. After entering the OTP, users will be able to access high-speed Internet and can start browsing.

28-Feb-2019: IRCTC launches payment aggregator iPay

In a bid to promote digital transactions, the Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) launched its much awaited payment aggregator system 'IRCTC iPay'.

The exclusive digital payment gateway will provide better digital experience and improved online digital payment convenience to rail passengers availing online travel-related services through the website. With the launch of IRCTC iPay, the passengers will not need any third-party platforms. IRCTC iPay provides payment options like credit card, debit card, unified payment interface, international card.

The option of IRCTC prepaid card-cum-wallet and auto debit shall also be available soon.

The IRCTC, which handles catering, tourism, and online ticketing operations of the Indian national transporter said, under this new arrangement, "IRCTC will have full control of the payment system because of its direct relationship with acquiring banks, card networks and other partners". This will help reduce the gap between IRCTC and banks which will eventually lead to substantial reduction in payment failures.

Moreover, in case an online transaction is unsuccessful or some other error occurs, IRCTC can directly get in touch with the bank instead of relying on an intermediate source which usually delays the process.

27-Feb-2019: “South Coast Railway (SCoR)” a new Zone of Indian Railways

As per item 8 of Schedule 13 (Infrastructure) of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, Indian Railways was required to examine establishing a new railway zone in the successor State of Andhra Pradesh. The matter has been examined in detail in consultation with stake holders and it has been decided to go ahead with creation of a new zone with headquarters at Visakhapatnam.

The new zone named “South Coast Railway (SCoR)”, will comprise of existing Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions. Waltair division shall be split into two parts. One part of Waltair division will be incorporated in the new zone i.e. in South Coast Railway and will be merged with the neighbouring Vijayawada division. Remaining portion of Waltair division shall be converted into a new division with headquarter at Rayagada under East Coast Railway (ECoR). South Central Railway will comprise of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Nanded divisions.

27-Feb-2019: “South Coast Railway (SCoR)” a new Zone of Indian Railways

As per item 8 of Schedule 13 (Infrastructure) of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, Indian Railways was required to examine establishing a new railway zone in the successor State of Andhra Pradesh. The matter has been examined in detail in consultation with stake holders and it has been decided to go ahead with creation of a new zone with headquarters at Visakhapatnam.

The new zone named “South Coast Railway (SCoR)”, will comprise of existing Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions. Waltair division shall be split into two parts. One part of Waltair division will be incorporated in the new zone i.e. in South Coast Railway and will be merged with the neighbouring Vijayawada division. Remaining portion of Waltair division shall be converted into a new division with headquarter at Rayagada under East Coast Railway (ECoR). South Central Railway will comprise of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Nanded divisions.

14-Feb-2019: Vande Bharat Express

The ‘Make in India’ effort of Indian Railways has culminated into India's first Semi High Speed Train, "Vande Bharat Express".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the maiden run of the train on New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route train tomorrow morning from the New Delhi Railway Station. He will inspect the facilities in the train and address a gathering on this occasion. It will stop at Kanpur and Allahabad where it will be received by dignitaries and the people.

Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph and has travel classes like Shatabdi Train but with better facilities. It aims to provide a totally new travel experience to passengers.

The Train will cover the distance between New Delhi and Varanasi in 8 hours and will run on all days except Mondays and Thursdays.

All coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating. All toilets are bio-vacuum type. The lighting is dual mode, viz. diffused for general illumination and personal for every seat. Every coach has a pantry with facility to serve hot meals, hot and cold beverages. The insulation is meant to keep heat and noise to very low levels for additional passenger comfort.

Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which 2 are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers. It is much more than the conventional Shatabdi rake of equal number of coaches, thanks to shifting of all electric equipment below the coaches and seats in the driving coach also.

Adding up the green footprints, the train has regenerative braking system in the Vande Bharat Express coaches which can save up to 30% of electrical energy.

Speed, Safety and Service are the hallmarks of this train. Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, a Railways Production unit, has been the force behind a completely in-house design and manufacture, computer modelling and working with a large number of suppliers for system integration in just 18 months.

In keeping with the vision of Prime Minister’s vision of "Make in India", the major systems of the train have been designed and built in India.  Impact of this train, matching global standards of performance, safety and passenger comfort and yet costing less than half of global prices, has the potential to be a game changer in the global rail business.

27-Jul-2018: Indian Railways Launches “Mission Satyanishtha” a Program on Ethics in Public Governance

In first of its kind event held by any government organization, the Indian Railways organized a programme on Ethics in Public Governance and Launched “Mission Satyanishtha” at a daylong event held at National Rail Museum, New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal said “People define an organization and an organization defines its people, hence, work culture has to be improved and transparency brought about, data should be displayed on public domains so as to get constructive feedbacks from the users”. He further added “Lack of interest towards work in any system, may be termed as unethical amounting to corruption”.

The issue of Ethics, Integrity and probity in public life have been a matter of concern all over the government sector. In this context it is also extremely important that all railway servants adhere to impeccable conduct and integrity at all times. “Mission Satyanishtha” launched on 27th July 2018 aims at sensitizing all railway employees about the need to adhere to good ethics and to maintain high standards of integrity at work. Talks and Lectures on the subject are being organised all over the Indian Railways today for this purpose.

The objectives of the Mission are:

• To train every employee to understand the need and value of ethics in Personal and Public life.
• To deal with ethical dilemmas in life and Public Governance.
• To help understand the policies of Indian Railways on ethics and integrity and the employee’s role in upholding the same.
• To develop inner governance through tapping inner resources.

31-Jan-2018: Railways to Set up a Coach Factory in Marathwada, Maharashtra

A high level meeting was held today between Union Minister for Railways and Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal and Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai, to discuss the setting up of a massive rail coach factory in Latur, Maharashtra by Indian Railways. This plant would manufacture Electric Multiple Units for suburban trains and coaches for metros.

Work on this project will be done on high priority with fast track processing of all approvals. Maharashtra Government has offered several concessions including in land, taxes and etc.

Marathwada, the region where Latur lies, is amongst the most backward areas of Maharashtra. There have been few central government projects in this region. This will massively benefit 'Make in India', and bring employment to a large number of people. In addition, it will create an industrial ecosystem in the drought prone region boosting shift from agriculture to industry. It may be noted that the region suffers from heavy migration to other parts of the country.

8-Jan-2018: Indian Railways conceives to deploy “Drone” cameras

Indian Railways has decided to deploy “Drone” cameras (UAV/NETRA) for various railway activities especially project monitoring and maintenance of tracks and other railway infrastructure. It has been given directions to Zonal Railways to procure such cameras. This is in-line with Railways’ desire to use technology to enhance safety and efficiency in train operations.

“Drone” cameras shall be deployed to undertake monitoring activities of relief and rescue operation, project monitoring, progress of important works, conditions of track and inspection related activities. It shall also be used to assess preparedness of Non-Interlocking (NI) works, crowd management during fairs and melas, to identify scrap and also for aerial survey of station yards. It is going to be instrumental in providing real time inputs related to safety and maintenance of tracks and other railway infrastructure.

Under this initiative, West Central Railways with headquarter at Jabalpur (M.P) has become the first Zonal Railway to procure “Drone” cameras in Indian Railways. West Central Railways has already done a trial-run of those cameras last week on its all the three divisions in the following locations.

Jabalpur Division – Narmada Bridge near Bhitoni

Bhopal Division – (i) Nishatpura Yard; (ii) Third Line work between HBJ – Misrod.

Kota Division – (i) Chambal Bridge near Kota; (ii) Dakania Talav Yard near Kota.

WCR further plans to use Drone for project monitoring in 3rd line work of Bina-Katni, Doubling work in Katni-Singrouli, Important Bridge inspections and Mansoon preparedness in deep cutting portions of Ghat Sections of Bhopal and Jabalpur Divisions. Earlier, demonstration of “Drone” camera was done for project monitoring of Railway Electrification work of Jabalpur Yard.

8-Dec-2017: Kacheguda becomes India’s first energy-efficient railway station

Kacheguda Railway Station under the South Central Railway (SCR) has earned the unique distinction of being the first Energy Efficient ‘A1 Category’ Railway Station on Indian Railways.

The station has achieved 100% energy efficiency by replacing 1,312 conventional lights with light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, among other steps. About 370 ceiling fans, too, were replaced with energy efficient Brushless DC Electrical (BLDC) motors fans, and 12 air conditioners with energy efficient inverter-type air conditioners. All these measures would save about 1.76 lakh units and ₹14.08 lakh per annum with reduction of the connected load by 46.18 kW for Railways.

Kacheguda Railway station is a historic building and had completed 100 years. Situated in the heart of Hyderabad, it was built in 1916 by the Nizam’s Guaranteed State Railway during the reign of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam.

12-Jul-2017: Various Railway initiatives launched

Ministry of Railways has launched the RailCloud project in association with its PSU, RailTel Corporation of India Limited. Efforts are being made to bring entire Railway system on Integrated digital platform. RailCloud is another step towards Digitization of Railways. Rail Cloud works on popular Cloud Computing system. Most Important works are done through Cloud Computing. Also, this is going to reduce the cost & data may be safely ensured on the servers.

Another important step is Cashless Treatment Scheme in Emergency. Life Expectancy has increased, so many health problems have evolved. This scheme would improve health care facilities of Railway employees.

Salient Features of the Initiatives Launched:

RailCloud

Indian Railway has started a strategic IT initiative, christened IR-OneICT, for enterprise wide digital single platform with an aim to improve customer satisfaction, improve revenue and effective, efficient and safe operations. To achieve the goal of single digital platform for IR a few foundational projects need to be implemented first, establishment of RailCloud is one such project.  Cloud Computing is the emerging technology for faster and on demand commensurate deployment of Server resources which result in reduced cost. Accordingly, RailCloud Phase-I has been sanctioned at the cost of Rs. 53.55 Cr under PH-17, DF(3) in FY 17-18.

Potential benefits to Railways after implementation of RailCloud are:

1. Faster and on-demand deployment of application- RailCloud will pave the way for swifter deployment of application (within 24 hrs. as compared to conventional time running into weeks and months). At the same time the cloud hardware and environment will be available for rigorous testing of the new applications.
2. Optimum use of Servers and storage- The technology enables maximising the usage of the available server and storage resulting in accommodation of bigger data and more applications within same server space.
3. Utilization of existing infrastructure as part of Cloud- The existing resources available with railway will be subsumed in RailCloud thereby ensuring that expenditure is minimized in acquiring new resources.
4.  Rapid scalability and elasticity- Server and storage space will scale up and down as per the demand. This makes the system suitable to meet the higher demand at peak hours with less expenditure.
5.  IT Security enhancement and Standardization: The cloud shall be equipped with security features as per the latest GOI guidelines, the security features can be updated in one go for all the applications hosted on the cloud, resulting in enhanced security and stability with less expenditure and effort.
6.  Cost reduction: The server and storage infrastructure will be deployed as per the requirement, resulting in substantial savings to railway as expenditure will be incurred as and when required instead of upfront shelling out money on procurement of expensive servers.
7.  Better User Experience: In Cloud, the server resources are constantly scaled up or down as per the no. of users logged on to the system. This ensures a better user experience to the customer.

The Managed Network and Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) services are also being planned, in near future, for providing faster and more efficient work environment to each rail worker.

NIVARAN-Grievance Portal:

‘NIVARAN-Grievance Portal’ is the first IT application to be launched on the RailCloud. It is the platform for resolution of service related grievances of serving and former railway employees. The existing application was hosted on a conventional server; it has been made cloud-ready and being migrated as the first cloud application of Indian Railways. It will save significant revenue and at the same time user experience will also improve.

Cashless treatment Scheme in Emergency (CTSE)

Railway provides Comprehensive Health Care Facilities to its beneficiaries through in-house health Institutions, supplementing with referrals to recognized hospitals whenever necessary.  The beneficiaries include retired employees and their dependent family members.  Large no. of retired beneficiaries lives in the newly developed suburbs of various cities. These parts of the city are often far away from the established Railway Health Institutions. In this scenario the RELHS beneficiaries coming to Railway Health Institutions in routine is acceptable, however in emergency situations, precious time (Golden Hour) is lost in travel.

To provide immediate care to its retired employees in ‘Golden Hour’ Railway Board has decided to roll out a “Cashless treatment Scheme in Emergency’ (CTSE), in empanelled hospitals, for retired employees and their dependent family members. A web based system of communication between private hospitals and railway authorities has been developed wherein identity of the beneficiary shall be established using biometrics stored in Aadhar (UIDAI) server, eligibility shall be determined using Railway Data Base and emergency shall be verified by Railway Medical Officer based on private hospital’s clinical report. The whole system is online and even the bill processing shall be online. This scheme shall provide help and succor to the retired railway employees at the time of need and at the same time will have a morale boosting effect on the serving employees.

The Scheme fulfils both the avowed objectives of the GOI; utilizing IT tools to cut the red-tape and promoting cashless transactions.

Rather than creating a separate time and resource consuming vertical the scheme has used the existing resources by bringing on board the UIDAI and ARPAN database. Railway has not incurred any capital expenditure on the scheme, M/s UTIITSL has developed the software in consultation with Railway and shall be paid on per bill processed basis. The online processing will ensure swifter disposal of bills in a transparent manner.

At present the scheme has been rolled out in four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, based on the experience of this pilot the scheme may be extended to the whole of country.