Avishek G Dastidar

Railways has hired management consultancy firm McKinsey to work out the modalities of the merger of eight railway cadres into one Indian Railway Management Service, sources said.

Officials in the Lucknow Division of Railways said the footfall in Ayodhya station is estimated to jump at least 12 times from the present 5,000 per day after the Ram temple is opened to the public, bringing it on a par with Varanasi and Prayagraj.

Several prospective bidders for the project had raised a set of queries on various aspects of the move to give out 109 routes to run 151 trains to private players for 35 years at a recent pre-application meeting.

The government has identified 109 busy routes across India to run 151 private trains for 35 years. The 151 trains represent only around 5 per cent of total trains run in India.

However, after the completion of the contract period, the facilities will belong to Indian Railways, officials said, adding that the contract will be drawn like that. The discussions to this effect are on, sources have confirmed.

To make good this loss, the railways is aiming to increase its freight-loading target this financial year by around 50 per cent from last year

During lockdown, the Railways completed the work of making the timetable with help from IIT-Mumbai. As per the timetable, introduction of every train and every stoppage into the system is justified by operational need on a clean slate—hence zero-based. Moves like this one are on hold due to the pandemic.

The UIC is the global platform for railway systems working on inter-operability, developing common technical standards for railways across the world and strengthening what is called “rail diplomacy”.

GMR, Sterlite, Bombardier, Janson, global investment firm I-Squared Capital are some of the companies that evinced interest in the new sector of running passenger trains.

This was a fall from 68 just last Friday, and down to one-fourth from earlier in the month when more than 80 trains were running full.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a top company executive said that the offer to step in was “in national interest” but the financials of the balance work would depend on how much of the Chinese signalling system already installed is compatible with other systems, like that of the Japanese

Considering the routes put up for private operations and the value proposition envisaged, it has been estimated that the private trains will enjoy an average occupancy of 50-70 per cent.

The World Bank, which is funding the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, has not given a no-objection certificate for the termination yet. Railways has decided to not wait for the World Bank and fund this portion of the project on its own.

While Indian Railways may own the station, it does not get involved in the business of naming it. This, it leaves to the discretion of the state governments concerned because, obviously, a station is identified by the place it is in and not the other way around.

Sources said the signboard in picture was part of this exercise last year when Urdu was replaced by Sanskrit, but after some local organisations objected the plan did not go ahead.

Data from the states where nearly 63.07 lakh stranded migrants reached on 4,611 Shramik Specials indicate that the 110-odd deaths were caused by a variety of reasons, including pre-existing illness and Covid-19.

Bihar government on Wednesday made the request to the Indian Railways for 500 isolation beds or berths to be placed at Patna junction, sources said.

The 100 per cent punctuality on July 1 has been achieved when the network is running just 230 passenger trains – along with about 3,000 loaded freight trains and 2,200 empty ones.

India is in discussions with Japan to explore if the highly technical work of laying the track of the bullet train can be done by an indigenous engineering firm.

Facing criticism on social media over the casualties, Railways had attributed many of the deaths to pre-existing health conditions.

Based on this trend, more trains are going to be introduced on certain routes, but full-fledged resumption of services may not be possible in the near future, Chairman, Railway Board, V K Yadav told reporters on Friday.

While the cameras with black body sensing capability cost upwards of Rs 4 lakh a piece, industry sources said the ones without this feature would be cheaper by around half of that per camera.

Railways has announced that the contract would be terminated for non-performance.

A Chinese engineering major is set to lose a significant contract with the Indian Railways, and the Department of Telecommunications has conveyed to state-owned BSNL not to use Chinese-made equipment in its upgradation, top sources in both sectors said on Thursday.