All railway contracts will be tendered online, says Prabhu

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that all Indian Railway contracts will be tendered online from early next year on an e-tendering platform. He was speaking after flagging off the first of the bi-weekly trains from Goa's Margao railway station to New Delhi in south Goa on Sunday.

The idea was to bring in transparency in the processes and to cut-down the time lag. He said that the first few modern railway coaches designed by the National Institute of Design have already been rolled out by Railways. The Ministry was also pushing for a rollout of new, modern coaches which, Mr. Prabhu said, would change the way a typical journey by Indian Railways is often perceived.

To overcome complaints of wrongdoing in railway exams, the railways had started online examinations. The plan was to hold all examinations online. Mr. Prabhu also spoke about considerable reduction in time gap between announcement of projects and their actual implementation, which has been reduced to six months.

“My target is to reduce it even further and make it completely transparent,” Mr. Prabhu said.

The bi-weekly Rajdhani Express (Train No. 22413), which was flagged off by Mr. Prabhu in the presence of Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar will depart Margao Railway station at 10.05 a.m. on Sundays and Mondays and reach Hazrat Nizamuddin at 12.40 p.m. on the subsequent day.

From Hazrat Nizamuddin station the Rajdhani (Train No. 22414) will leave at 10.55 am on Fridays and Saturdays and reach Margao the next day at 12.55 p.m. The 16-coach train will also halt at Thivim, Kudal,Ratnagiri, Panvel, Surat, Vadodara and Kota railway stations.

Northern Railway on a sunny trip

To keep its train operations environment-friendly and also cost-effective, Northern Railway is tapping into solar energy in a big way.

As part of this ‘green drive’, the Delhi Division of Northern Railway is also trying to meet as much of its energy needs through solar power as possible. The division is tapping solar energy not only at its major buildings and structures but also on moving trains, as part of a pilot project.

“We already have rooftop solar panels at railway stations such as New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment, among others, but also atop a large number of platform shelters at these stations. These measures have helped us bring down our electricity consumption bills in a significant way,” said Arun Arora, Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi Division.

“The Delhi Division is tapping solar power, whether at platform shelters, railway stations or service buildings. One of our pilot projects is to convert an entire express train – Shaan-e-Punjab – with solar panels on top,” said Mr. Arora.

“Already one coach of the rake has rooftop solar panels and it has been running satisfactorily for the last one year. We are planning to have these panels on each coach of the train,” he said.

“Solar energy is our focus area with three primary objectives – energy conservation, reduction in energy expenditure and keeping the environment pollution free. We are not leaving any stone unturned to fulfil these three objectives,” he said.

“This is apart from our other initiatives such as the waste water recycling plant at Kishanganj in Delhi,” he said.

The Delhi Division has also installed a 25 kb power Solar Energy Panel at Gurgaon station in collaboration with RITES. Also, solar geysers have been installed at the Northern Railway Central Hospital in Delhi. Other establishments where solar energy is being tapped in a major way include the Delhi Divisional Railway Manager’s office, Sahibabad station and other stations and offices. While the Delhi Division is trying to cut down on its energy consumption at major railway stations in Delhi NCR, there are many stations in the Division that face regular power cuts and do not even have reliable power supply. At many such small stations in the NCR, the authorities have to depend on gensets for carrying out important operations. The Division is now planning to install solar power plants at most of these stations to tide over the power shortage problem.

The biggest achievement of the Northern Railway in harnessing solar energy has been at the solar power plant at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Railway Station, which is meeting energy needs of 5,000 kilo watts daily through solar power. The one Megawatt Peak (MWP) rooftop grid at the station is the largest rooftop solar power plant on the Indian Railways network and the largest in Jammu and Kashmir.

The plant not only takes care of the energy needs of the station but Northern Railway has also made an arrangement for import/export of excess energy production with Power Development Department of J&K government.

Bhojpuri videos, cheap food at railway stations for Chhath puja rush

Sprawled on a thick green carpet, 40-year-old Anil Kumar is transfixed on the giant screen showing a Bhojpuri music video as the shamiana above covers him from the afternoon sun.

A couple of years ago, Mr. Kumar could have been jostling with thousands of other people for breathing space around this time.

Mr. Kumar is one of the estimated five lakh additional passengers who would be taking a train out of Delhi for east India to be at home just in time for Chhath Puja celebrations.

The train that would take him to Darbhanga in Bihar was scheduled to leave at 7 pm, but fearing he might not get space in an unreserved compartment, Mr. Kumar reached the New Delhi Railway station before 2 pm.

To ensure that thousands of passengers travelling during the festival season don't overcrowd the platforms by arriving hours before their trains depart, 'containment areas' in the shape of theseshamianas have been erected at New Delhi and Anand Vihar railway stations with special ticket counters, affordable food, drinking water, toilets and LED screens for information and entertainment.

While special trains have been added to cater to this festival rush, the almost 50,000 passengers descending at Delhi's major stations every day creates a huge challenge for the Delhi Division of Northern Railway. Railway officials, however, have been put in many special measures to ensure that the immense crowd doesn't lead to a chaos at the stations.

“The number of passengers we transport during the Diwali-Chhath week, is equal to the one third of Australia's population,” said Arun Arora, Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi Division.

“The division transports almost one million passengers every day but during Diwali and Chhath festivals it has to execute the challenging and unparalleled task of transporting almost 75 lakh passengers during one week which includes an additional 5 lakh Chhath travelers.” he said.

“This requires extensive coordination, deployment of additional resources and close monitoring of the dynamic situation on a day to day basis,” he said.

This Mr. Arora said that the crowd management at Delhi's station during festival season is being reviewed and monitored by Railway Minister Mr. Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Railways Mr. Manoj Sinha.

“The commissioning of extended waiting areas outside New Delhi and Anand Vihar railway stations with arrangements of Bhojpuri video programmes have been adopted as a new concept under the direction and initiative of the Minister of State for Railways,” Mr. Arora said.