Railway Board has directed all Zonal Railways to ensure that officers in Headquarters and Divisions carry out a thorough inspection and ensure the correction of deficiencies found during inspections within the drive.

New Delhi [India], October 17 (ANI): The Indian Railways on Monday said that it earned a sum of Rs 2,582 crore through the sale of scraps in the six months (April-September) of the financial year 2022-23, which shows a 28.91 per cent over the previous year's Rs 2,003 crore.

New Delhi [India], May 18 (ANI): Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture is scheduled to convene a meeting with the Railway Board Chairman and officers of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and the Ministry of Ports on the subject of 'Railway Safety and Rail Connectivity to Ports'.

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 1 (ANI): Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Railway Board, VK Tripathi on Sunday said that the demand and consumption of coal this year have increased significantly in comparison to 2021.

New Delhi Apr 26 PTI With 67 per cent of its expenditure on manpower becoming unsustainable the Railway Board has issued instructions to the zones to identify and surrender posts that have become redundant due to technologyThe employees in such posts should be redeployed where there is a need for manpower and if required some of the work can be outsourced the board has saidIn a letter written to the general managers of all the railway zones V K Tripathi CEO and Chairman Railway Board has said such posts should be identified and the redeployment of staff should be done within a monthHuman resources are very valuable to Indian Railways This is especially so during present times when 67 per cent expenditure is towards manpower and is showing an increasing trend which in the long term seems unsustainable for the organisationIt is imperative that the manpower is utilised effectively efficiently and wherever essentially required Therefore there is a need to rationalise manpower utilisation to improve organisational agility Tripathi has said in the letter to the GMsHe has also said employees working in categories where manpower is underutilised and non-essential can be redeployed to more essential categories where vacancies exist and the work may be outsourced if requiredHe has identified some of the categories -- bearer assistant cook watcher typist sanitary helper duftry carpenter painter assistant bellow boy laskar gardener assistant catering or salesman catering or kitchen assistant assistant catering vendor valveman etcTripathi has pointed out that employees are still deployed in the zonal railways in categories that have become redundant due to changes in technology process or policy like boiler shops and forging shopsEmployees in such categories may be suitably redeployed in categories where manpower is needed Manpower deployed in categories that are low skilled and have low promotion prospects like store khalasi painter carpenter etc can also be considered for redeployment to those areas where they are more needed and with better prospects he has saidThe letter also said due to computerisation introduction of IT applications and monitoring applications certain functional units like time office EDP department statistics department ticketing security face have reduced workload and they should be redeployed or gainfully utilised elsewhere utilising their skillsVacant posts beyond the presently applicable yardsticks may be surrendered immediately and details submitted to the board Redeployment of staff should be fast-tracked and it should be within one month the letter saidTripathi has also asked the zones to form a committee of three departmental members -- one each from accounts personnel and any other department -- at the division level to identify the categories for surrender of posts PTI ASG RC

New Delhi Apr 22 PTI The railways will invest in startups to get a headstart in procuring innovations directly from them with a promise of up to Rs 15 crore of seed money for innovative technological solutions for the national transporter according to a policy paperThe Indian Railway Innovation Policy will identify and enable Indian innovators to engage with the railways for developing cost-effective implementable scalable solutions and functional prototypes for the national transporter officials saidSince there is a major constraint of capital inadequacy in the startup ecosystem particularly in the seed and Proof of Concept developmental stage this policy aims at providing the necessary seed fund support of up to Rs 15 crore on matching contribution basis to the startups that show the capability intent and promise to produce functional prototypes based on new innovative concepts for potential use of the Indian Railways a senior official saidOne of the major objectives of the policy would be to leverage new innovative technologies developed by entrepreneurs and startups for improving operational efficiency and safety on the railway system the officials saidThe eligible organisations or beneficiaries of the support will include any Indian company incorporated under the Companies Act 19562013 primarily micro small and medium enterprises MSME as defined in the MSME Act 2006 and individual innovators The policy also encourages research and development institutions to apply for the grantThe innovators can apply through a dedicated portal which will be launched later this month and once chosen for the grant its disbursement shall be linked to pre-decided milestonesThe funding scheme has been fixed on a cost-sharing basis in equal proportions -- 5050 by the Indian Railways and the innovator The maximum amount of grant will be Rs 15 crore per innovator even in cases where the total project cost exceeds Rs 3 crore the officials saidUnder the policy the innovator will exclusively retain the ownership of the intellectual property rights generated under the project However it can be extended to include any associates as joint owners only after obtaining a prior approval from the Railway Board the officials saidThe railways shall retain the government purpose rights GPRs which shall be an exclusive transferable irrevocable licence to use the IP intellectual property for internal consumption or manufactureThe railways may use the GPRs to manufacture either directly or through sub-contractors for its use In this case the government shall pay a royalty fee for the use of GPRs in intellectual property or technology or productWith innovation through technology becoming more and more significant in the railways this policy would mean that we would have innovators vying to make products just for our use They will be the best and the latest It is a win-win situation for both the railways and the innovators While we get the latest technology they will get the railways as a client said an official PTI ASG RC

Thiruvananthapuram Apr 20 PTI At a time when the Kerala government is going ahead with its ambitious semi-high speed railway project setting aside criticisms a former Indian Railway official part of its feasibility study on Wednesday came out against the mammoth initiative claiming that the people of the state will be burdened by the project which may eventually costs Rs two lakh croreAlok Kumar Verma who had prepared the preliminary feasibility report of the Silver Line alias K-Rail project said the original proposal of the state government was for a broad gauge line and the decision for adopting a standard gauge was taken by the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd KRDCLRecalling that the proposal sent to the Railway Board in 2017 was for a broad gauge line and not a standard gauge he said the sanction given by them to prepare a detailed plan was also for the formerThere was no approval for a standard gaugethe standard gauge has been chosen by the KRDCL and this is the main reason why the Centre is not willing to bear any responsibility or any cost of this project Verma told reporters hereBoth the Railway Board and the Ministry of Railways have made it clear that most of the cost may be 100 per cent of the project cost or the liability will be on the shoulder of the Kerala government he saidThe retired officer arrived here to meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and senior government officials to flag concerns regarding the mammoth infrastructure project However he reportedly did not get audience with Vijayan Later he met the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly V D Satheesan and discussed various aspects of the projectWhile detailing the economic impact of the semi-high speed rail corridor project he said it is the responsibility of the Railway Board and the Ministry of Railways to provide rail infrastructure everywhere and hence the point is why should Kerala people have to pay for a railway lineThe cost of the railway line should be borne by the Centre So the Kerala people are going to be burdened by a project which may eventually cost Rs two lakh crore It does not make any sense Verma addedAsked about the KRDCLs argument that Verma had only a three-month-long association with the rail corridor project the retired officer charged that the agency knows nothing but to lie and they have spoiled the whole project PTI LGK ROH ROH

Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) [India], March 18 (ANI): In a first, Visakhapatnam railway station will be implementing the "One Station One Product" concept, informed the Railway Board on Friday.

New Delhi [India], March 10 (ANI): In a major relief to passengers, the Indian Railways on Thursday issued orders to resume providing linen, blankets and curtains inside trains.

New Delhi Feb 20 PTI The Railways caught more than 178 crore ticketless passengers and those with unbooked luggage in the first nine months of 2021-22 a jump of around 79 per cent from the non-Covid-hit fiscal of 2019-2020 according to an RTI responseDuring the coronavirus impacted fiscal of 2020-21 when severe restrictions on traffic movement were in place the number of such passengers stood at 27 lakh The data was made available by the Railway Board in response to the RTI query filed by Madhya Pradesh-based activist Chandra Shekhar GaurThe RTI response also revealed that during April-December 2021 more than 178 crore passengers were detected travelling without ticketwith improper ticket and unbooked luggageAn amount of Rs 101748 crore was realised from them as fine it saidSources indicated that one of the major reasons for such a surge in ticketless travel is the fact that even now when most of the Covid restrictions have been lifted many express and superfast trains have only online booking and limited servicesAs for the 2019-2020 fiscal which was not impacted by the coronavirus pandemic 110 crore people were caught travelling ticketless and a total fine of Rs 56173 crore was recovered from themBetween April 2020 and March 2021 ie 2020-21 fiscal 2757 lakh people were caught travelling ticketless and Rs 14382 crore was levied as fine on themPassengers have also complained that there was a demand-supply mismatch as far as train services are concernedIn fact according to data provided by the Railways over 52 lakh people who were on the waitlist after finalisation of seat reservation charts could not travel by trains in the first six months of the current fiscal indicating a need for more trains on busy routesTill September of the financial year 2021-2022 3250039 PNRs passenger name records against which 5296741 passengers had bookings were auto-cancelled as they were in the waitlist status after the preparation of the charts The problem is that after the severe restrictions on travel over the last two years people are now travelling more and more Some because of emergencies and many more for leisures While the number of travellers has increased the number of trains their frequencies have remained the same We have introduced clone trains and things will get better said an officialAccording to Railways data there has been a significant increase in the number of passengers availing train services from 2019-2020 to 2021-22In October 2019 when regular train services were in operation the number of passengers who travelled by trains was 440 crore In September 2021 with an improvement in the COVID-19 situation the number rose to almost seven croreThe RTI also said that during April 2021 to December 2021 the overall occupancy of reserved accommodation was 9965 per cent PTI ASG TIR TIR