Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

[vasu raya]

repeating ad nauseam, introduce the concept of community service, reward people anonymously, if needed, who can provide evidence using their cell phone cameras

[Singha]

I guess ofder to buy for rs50 is best. Get some cheap cheeni maal for rs5 a pop

[Zynda]

On SSC, it has been suggested that Tejas train vandalism could be a sabotage by some political elements, lucrative Mumbai-Goa bus mafia and/or disgruntled elements.

[sanjayc]

When Delhi metro started, passengers damaged interiors and stole stuff. As they got used to the metro over the months, this stopped and people became disciplined. Now, metro is considered a regular thing and business-as-usual. There is rarely a case of vandalism these days inside the coaches. People have become used to it. Same thing will happen with Tejas train.

[arshyam]

On SSC, it has been suggested that Tejas train vandalism could be a sabotage by some political elements, lucrative Mumbai-Goa bus mafia and/or disgruntled elements.

Entirely plausible saar. The entire west/southwest Deccan and Konkan coast is heavily dominated by the bus lobby, that's why rail services haven't improved much. Trying to travel north out of BLR will demonstrate this amply.

But it is easier to bash our own people as not deserving good things, isn't it? How quickly we pronounced judgment on this? The SC should be ashamed to take such a long time to rule on its cases .

Sometimes even BRF shows the same condescending attitude to our masses as the Lutyens types we love criticizing do.

[JohnTitor]

Sanjay, unfortunately the two are not similar.

The metro is a commuter train with little amenities. There are seats and windows and doors. Moreover the majority of those who travel on it are the same people each day. They go to work and they come home. They are not "travelling" elsewhere.

The same cannot be said of the tejas train which is long distance and people don't make that journey each day. That coupled with the fact that the train has screens, headphones along with nice seats puts it in a different category. So I don't think there will be "getting used to"

[JohnTitor]

arshyam, while there is a small chance that this was organised vandalism, I have seen enough vandalism on a daily basis by the common man to discount it. The same people engage in the burning of busses, destruction of public property etc at the drop of a hat during protests. For instance, when raj kumar died in blr there were protests and vandalism across the city. They destroyed not only public property but also private property of those who did not put up posters. When some kaveri dispute flares up there is the usual torching of busses etc across karnataka.

The fact remains that a lot of Indians don't appreciate how much resources go into public property because they haven't contributed to it. If you paid your taxes you would have more respect for such property because of the feeling of collective ownership. You can see this everyday, I see people sweep and clean their house only to dump that garbage on the road (they are careful to dump it a little further from their front gate) because it is not "their" property and it doesn't matter if it is made filthy. These same people will never do such a thing ina western country because they want to be seen fas following rules. Reform starts in ones mind and home before it can be seen elsewhere.

Put it this way. If you buy your son new sneakers and he rips it apart a few hours later and he does this each time you buy him anything nice, would you not say that he isn't deserving? Would you not start to buy cheaper stuff for him knowing he will destroy it anyway? Hence I said that indians are not deserving of nice things.

[rahulm]

Actually, Our publicl toilets and public spaces are uniformly bad. Across any city or state in India. Surely, that's not a remarkable coincidence. There is a behavioural pattern even without Bg Data type analytics.

I think it comes down to nurture. Generakky, We are never taught to clean up after ourselves because other people will use the space. We are used to having people clean up after us. This is for the muddle class and the rich.

The poor are rightfully worrying abOut their next meal and so couldn't be bothered.

On my Goa,house construction site, I have told workers ad nauseous to clean up at the end of the day. All,I get is a vigorous head nod but no change in habits.

The place is a mess with kids peeing all,over, food scraps ever here, implements tossed all around. Nothing changes. No respect for others.

You see it's not their job to clean. They mist have someone cleaning up after them. And the story goes on. Sadly.

I flew the Ai Dreamliner from Sydney to Delhi once. One look at the toilets an hour into the flight and I didn't drink any fluids and didn't have the courage to,go,the toilet until,I landed at Delhi. If you complain to the crew, they too nod their head but avoid cleaning. It's not their job either p, it's somebody,else's,job, viz the ground crew.

Doesn't happen on SQ, CX, TG, QF etc.

[JohnTitor]

^^ Yep. Exactly.

Contrast this with the Japs. During the fifa worldcup in brazil - after the match, japanese fans were seen cleaning their area of the stadium and everyone there was shocked.

Even a cursory glance at some youtube videos will show you that people take "cleaning walks" everyday. They walk around cleaning streets and stuff. Below is one such example:



I have been there and it is quite common. They are very careful not to filthy their country or places they are in. Indians used to be like this prior to colonisation. Now no one cares, and they are happy to live in dirty surroundings.

[darshan]

Observed cleanliness (not to the level of Japanese) during my visits to china, South Korea, Singapore too. IMO, lot of it is tied to feeling proud of civilization/culture, open discussion on news outlets, etc. Schools and young population is the first place to start this. Open discussion about financial, health, and environmental losses is key to solving this problem.

[Lilo]

....Even a cursory glance at some youtube videos will show you that people take "cleaning walks" everyday.

Yes!
OT but when we used to regularly jog into the hills near kadapa city i used to take a large polythyne bag with me to pick up plastic bottles left behind along the trail and the spots besides the stream.
Apart from the exercise and fun of climbing and walking into difficult spots it was a very satisfying feeling.

edit: The fate of the Tejas coaches with their LCD/headphone bling turned out exactly as predicted here.
First the babooze conduct the first railway robbery in tendering this useless stuff and then the actual railway robbery by our adarsh citizenry who boarded these on the first day.

......This LCD for every seat and head phones is an outdated concept and a very bad idea.

Even full service air lines are moving to WiFi streaming of content on BYOD.

At the very least, no headphones, only a head phone jack and no speaker on the screen please. Can you imagine the cacophony with people playing different saas babu serials on full volume in the coach ? You want to want to listen? - Bring your own head phones.

Different plug? No,problem saar. I will steal and have my neightbourhood 'Mahalaxmi mobile phone and electronics shoppee' cut the wire and solder a new 3.5 mm plug. You don't know how,smart I am ? .....

I posted on similar lines 4 months back got promptly jumped on for it.
viewtopic.php?p=2102374#p2102374
viewtopic.php?p=2102527#p2102527

Sinking money in these flashy electronic gadgetry is utter waste of money - imagine if such investments went into mundane and non flashy things like track doubling or electrification or light weight coaches or efficient signalling systems or maintenance - all of which could have together increased the dismal average train speeds by say 5kmph from their current levels.
That much speed improvement itself will be a minor miracle of sorts for the Railways with such corrupt baboons at the helm.

[rahulm]

Saar my desi friends and relatives who have visited me in Oz have mostly been no better. For most their trip,in life seems to be to come to Oz and eat at M Donald's (Maccas)

Why would anyone come to Oz to eat at Macaas when Oz has great food options I have never understood.

Since Oz has plenty of beautiful public spaces and benches often they would get their food, spread themselves and take over the bench and leave all the food packaging litter right where they left it. They could observe others were depositing their food litter and left overs in the nearby bins ? no.

Often, I would pick up all their litter and throw it in the bin while they just looked at me (without offering to help) with some sage comment like 'idhar safai ke liye log nahi hai Kya) ?

My next prediction 'IR will remove all the LCD screens' and the vacant space created will be filled with a sticker advertising "Dr Bohra's services to treat erectile dysfunction and other bedroom disorders " These stickers will never ever be stolen by our people

[chetak]

Saar my desi friends and relatives who have visited me in Oz have mostly been no better. For most their trip,in life seems to be to come to Oz and eat at M Donald's (Maccas)

Why would anyone come to Oz to eat at Macaas when Oz has great food options I have never understood.

Since Oz has plenty of beautiful public spaces and benches often they would get their food, spread themselves and take over the bench and leave all the food packaging litter right where they left it. They could observe others were depositing their food litter and left overs in the nearby bins ? no.

Often, I would pick up all their litter and throw it in the bin while they just looked at me (without offering to help) with some sage comment like 'idhar safai ke liye log nahi hai Kya) ?

My next prediction 'IR will remove all the LCD screens' and the vacant space created will be filled with a sticker advertising "Dr Bohra's services to treat erectile dysfunction and other bedroom disorders " These stickers will never ever be stolen by our people

but many will meticulously and surreptitiously note the email, phone and web site details, no??

[darshan]

I am not sure why they decided not to go with few LCDs near ceilings where centralized information can be played back. It can become pretty useful tool for educating people. IR should also give having cameras within coaches for safety and shaming purposes. Nothing works better than having your pictures being displayed on LCD saying "wanted for stealing headphones".

[Gagan]

It is entirely possible, that some cleaning crew lateron tried to break and take the LCD screens home. But one can't discount the fact, that people will try to take souvenirs home, including the LCD, in the hope that the friendly neighbourhood TV repair guy will do some jugaad on the LCD so that they will be able to watch IPL on it somehow.

WRT Toilets, now that Modi-ji is making sure that every house has a toilet, hopefully people will be potty trained and have toilet etiquette

ALL airlines on the Gelf-India route are full of workers in the the economy section. The plane looks really bad, toilets will stop working very quickly, and people don't want to flush the toilets. Some of them think that the airhostess is the safai-lady, until she abuses in chaste ingliss accent.

There is not much to steal inside a metro coach - they have pretty much been made pilferage proof from the get go.

Travel in the Kolkata-Singapore route, and you will see "carriers" with enormous hand luggage, who are bringing in electronics, cloths, other things from Singapore.

[Singha]

gulf india flights are max 5 hours. so are flights to singa/KL/BKK. having travelled on both I have never seen the problems you claim of unclean toilets or rude behaviour. the planes look as equally good or bad as the rest.....they no doubts deploy the newest planes to serve the goras but the aeging a330/b777 are not that bad for 4 hrs.

let us not crap on our gulf "workers" - most are educated and solidly middle class. and they carry the indian passport - when the s*** hits the fan and every rifleman is needed in the trench, they will be around, than west based NRIs carrying eagle and red passports who will unload facebook and change.org petitions only and rationalize why their job is too important. I know we dont have compulsory mil service and reservists, but even if we had, would anyone drop everything and return for a few weeks like israeli reservists in west have done?

the carriers are para chele who are also trying to earn a living, they are hardly violating any great law by making some quick money fitting payback for deploying older a/c on indian legs methinks, let them burn more fuel.

[arshyam]

^^ Well said Singha saar. Reminds me of a Gurumurthy talk where he said Indians abroad loved to crap on desi ones at the first opportunity, and it reduced after Pokharan. Some of it still lives on, I guess.

India does not teach its people "flying" etiquette, most of them head to the Gulf for subsistence labour and haven't flown in their lives before - what do you expect, Delsey strollers and hand sanitizers? I too have flown in the janata class to the Gulf a few times - by janata class, I don't mean the Emirates types, but lowly Gulf air to Bahrain and Muscat. Sure, people would get up from their seats right on touchdown, and carry their clothing tied in a big towel. Looks crude and unsightly, till one realizes that the poor bloke is heading to see his family after a few years having lived in a containerised hovel in the meantime. Don't mean to sound dramatic, but that sums up the condition of our manual workers in that area.

The fact remains that a lot of Indians don't appreciate how much resources go into public property because they haven't contributed to it. If you paid your taxes you would have more respect for such property because of the feeling of collective ownership.

I actually agree with this, and maintain that all Indians must be forced to file IT returns - not to pay money, but to become familiar with the concept of taxation and what it entails. More people then will start to demand accountability.

Indians used to be like this prior to colonisation. Now no one cares, and they are happy to live in dirty surroundings.

It's because of what I call the "PWD culture". The Brits brought about this system of PWD taking care of public works and took work away from our village panchayats. So people who used to be responsible for themselves and their surroundings slowly were absolved of it and started to depend on the PWD and hence govt for everything. Net net, we have the current apathy since "the govt should do everything". No prizes for guessing what happens when the govt is not effective (note: when, not if).

Observed cleanliness (not to the level of Japanese) during my visits to china, South Korea, Singapore too. IMO, lot of it is tied to feeling proud of civilization/culture, open discussion on news outlets, etc. Schools and young population is the first place to start this. Open discussion about financial, health, and environmental losses is key to solving this problem.

Precisely. Did they become like this overnight?

[Supratik]

@arshyam,

It is not limited just to the lower classes. I have seen chips packet and pepsi cans being thrown out of high end cars in the streets of Delhi. There is a serious problem we have and that is why Modi started this campaign.

[arshyam]

Supratik-ji, I am not saying it is not serious. But contesting some of the attitudes displayed here as though we should stick to rattletrap 3-rd class trains only.

I too used to sceptical about cleanliness and order in India till I saw what Delhi's metro achieved. It told me that with the right environment, we can be as clean as anyone else. Other metro networks across the country have followed in the same footsteps.

What does the metro that we can replicate elsewhere? I think the difference is that it looks so darn different and "phoren" than the dabba buses we are used to, that the average admi wants to keep it that way. On top of that, the place is clean, and visibly kept so - there is always someone cleaning some portion of the platform. That reinforces the need to keep it clean in the sub-conscious. Lastly, the danda for littering helps a bit.

I don't know if people noticed, but trains are getting cleaner, at least in my neck of the woods. That, coupled with a sustained cleanliness campaign over a few decades will do the trick. This about dirty desis and not deserving of good infra will never help to improve cleanliness. I hope people know that Europe had a spitting problem till a few decades ago - it didn't stop them from building their infra or cleaning up their surroundings. Or the great khan's burning rivers and trash ships. So let's keep some perspective before doing rona-dhona.

[Supratik]

Yes, I don't agree with the view that we should stick to the third world becoz people deserve it. But the seriousness of the problem can be gauged from the fact that a rickshaw puller was thrashed to death by two students from DU for asking them not to pee in the open. This happened like yesterday. My observation is that may be 5-10% are like this and they spoil everything for others. They need the danda.

[SBajwa]

90% of the problems like Dengue, Zika virus, Malaria, etc can be solved just by cleaning up. Surat was a dirty city before they had a black plague look at it now. People needs to be reminded daily (like those messages on cigaratee's and alcohol bottles) to clean up otherwise somebody will die.

[manjgu]

a) there used to be common TV's( on the ceiling) in A/c chair car in Tamil Nadu express during 1970's which played during waking hours...b) are there any trains in the world with personal LCD's ( like a plane?) as in Tejas?

[chetak]

@arshyam,

It is not limited just to the lower classes. I have seen chips packet and pepsi cans being thrown out of high end cars in the streets of Delhi. There is a serious problem we have and that is why Modi started this campaign.

If you see aholes relieving themselves on bangalore's roads, there are very good chances that they have got down from a high end car to do so, hazard lights flashing, wife studiously looking away and pretending to be engrossed on her mobile phone.

[Singha]

well as long as they dont to tatti on the roads, a emergency susu is ok no? its not like we men dont try to hold it in, but not as strong as indic women.
monsoons are here and it will all get washed into bellanduru lake

[A Deshmukh]

sometimes no choice....driving for 2 hrs in city is narmal. and no public toilets to park and relieve oneself. roadside it is then.

[JohnTitor]

Wow I am just sad that people are OK with certain instances of public urination. Unless it was sarcasm or a joke.

A while back I had to drive 5 hrs by every week in UK. Of course, there were garages on the way that had toilets but I don't like using public bathrooms. I would always go before starting my journey and keep water intake to the minimum. Coffee and tea were no nos an hour before the journey.

I'm not saying it's easy but if you are disciplined enough it is possible. Of course urine like faeces is "biodegradable" but that is not the point. For a start every person who is middle class or educated needs to set an example. Secondly we need to be the change that we profess. Otherwise, it's just hypocrisy. If the educated and middle class cannot be stopped from public urination, then how can we possibly tell the poor and uneducated?

Would you go in your car? Lets say that you arrived at your house but didn't have the keys to get in, so you had to wait outside while someone with the keys came. Would you go on your own boundary wall? Chances are that most people would walk a bit and go elsewhere. Similarly if your friend were with you, would you allow him to go in your garden? Chances are... unlikely. So in essence, the attitude of 'chalega' along with 'as long as it's not dirtying my property its okay'.

Very sad indeed.

PS - I am told there are apps that available thay show you all the public toilets near your location. I will find it and check it out. If the lack of toilets is an issue, we need to raise it with NMs government

Edit: This is the app I was talking about - Susuvidha

[Sicanta]

Lack of public washrooms is definitely not an issue in Delhi. Still we had DU students beat a rickshaw driver to death when he objected against them urinating in public place

[vsunder]

Here is something you may not find in any SSC forum, video, newspaper nothing. So it is a first. Actually it is really easy to pick this stuff out, if you know where in India to look for it, no big deal. There are no videos because no railway track runs next to it for the most part. It is the DFC. It has come to life around Delhi. That is the loop line connecting the eastern arm beginning at Dadri at Ghaziabad, looping around, going over the Yamuna,( the National Green Tribunal had taken DFC to court, DFC won and it seems the bridge over the Yamuna is at a good stage) dog leg near Faridabad. Then the line crosses the IR tracks Delhi-Mathura south of Asaoti station by means of a rail flyover. A spur of the Delhi-Mathura tracks connects to DFC here and then DFC goes through the Aravali hill, (tunnel) which will be interesting with double stacked containers and joins Western DFC near Rewari.

On the Delhi-Punjab line( a single line due to LA issues) earthworks can be seen between Meerut and Deoband, yes same Deoband madarsa place.

1. Bridge being constructed over Yamuna, 125km loop line between Eastern DFC and western DFC, L&T and Sojitz corp(Japani kampani)

28.311579, 77.465642

2. Earthworks started for connector with IR,south of Asaoti station, Delhi-Mathura DFC will pass over IR tracks by means of a rail flyover. This connector will join DFC closeby near Pirthala, Haryana village.

28.200383, 77.331571

3. Mewat, where the tunnel will come up. Double stacked containers will be able to move through this tunnel. Plus the panto for the electrics. Interesting

28.200383, 77.331571


Some historical remarks--> Kashi.

1. The Eastern DFC earthworks can be seen beyond Mirzapur. Mirzapur is an interesting place. The prime meridian for India 82 degrees 30mins runs through Mirzapur railway station. This is the meridian that sets IST to be 5hr 30mins ahead of GMT.

2. Next to Mirzapur is the town of Vindhyachal. On a hill there is the temple of Goddess Bhavani who is mentioned in the Kathasarita sagara a treasury of really entertaining stories. I have the two volume set
by C. H. Tawney of Somadeva's original compilation. This Bhavani of Vindhyachal was worshipped by the thugs. One William Sleeman is reputed to have hunted them down. Sleeman himself has a railway station on IR: Sleemanabad next to Jabalpur named after him. This station is on the Howrah-Jabalpur-Mumbai line.

[Karthik S]

I was assuming NM will have talks on HSR with Germany. Love their ICE 3 Siemens Velaro trains. Seems to me we are either going to standardize with Japanese tech, or we don't have any other plans apart from Mumbai Ah'bad line at the moment.

[Kashi]

Some historical remarks--> Kashi.

1. The Eastern DFC earthworks can be seen beyond Mirzapur. Mirzapur is an interesting place. The prime meridian for India 82 degrees 30mins runs through Mirzapur railway station. This is the meridian that sets IST to be 5hr 30mins ahead of GMT.

Like I said, I could only follow the DFC earthwork upto this point. The seems to be an abrupt end at this point and the following area appears as if two maps were spliced together- one older, one new.

25.095837, 82.612644

Next to Mirzapur is the town of Vindhyachal. On a hill there is the temple of Goddess Bhavani who is mentioned in the Kathasarita sagara a treasury of really entertaining stories.

Oh yes, the Vindhyavasini temple is famous and draws shraddhaalu all year around, but the rush during Navraatri is to be seen to be believed.

In the past, this region was covered with lush abundant forests, it was not unusual to spot a Tiger in those parts. Sambhar were common as recently as 50-60 years ago.

[saip]

sometimes no choice....driving for 2 hrs in city is narmal. and no public toilets to park and relieve oneself. roadside it is then.

In the USA I have seen it on, of all the places, Verizzano Narrows Bridge. The police were around but they looked the other way. When you have to go you have to go I guess.





The occasion: NY Marathon. They tell you to hydrate and you hydrate and there is no way you can hold

[Singha]

I have done susu along wall of cubbon park insidd the gate two years back to back in blr hm nd fm

[vsunder]

There you go EDFC earthworks beyond Chunar Jn

25.127816, 82.918156

Slightly east of Ganj Khawaja( you can see the massive Mughalsarai marshalling yard west of here) about here

25.269962, 83.205594


EDFC will hop over IR tracks by a rail flyover and start running on the North side of the Howrah tracks all the way to Son Nagar. Parts of this are already commissioned. I cannot see any signs of the flyover piers yet. EDFC seems to enter Mughalsarai.

Talking of Chunar, there is an old fort there. Aeons ago they had skeletons in the dungeon. Taikhana
******

Most places have changed massively in India in 60 odd years. The amount of deforestation is simply amazing. I went down the Vindhyachal line for the first time in 1960 and yes it was green and luscious but so was large parts of central India, and South India. I can remember the immense and dense forest areas in 1959 in the Palghat gap, Walayar, Kerala. All these are memories now. But even now "the phantom" roams India like an ordinary man, you would not know, where I am going this August, people on this forum would give an arm and a leg. Let us see if I get to use IR, and get to ride in the cab of a WAP7.

The company dad worked for some time built the tunnels between Dharakoh-Maramjhiri in the Satpuras for the Chennai-Delhi doubling in 1966. His slide rule bought in 1950, with the day he bought it inscribed in the flap of the leather case it sits in, lies on my desk. I look at it whenever I am ready to start a hard calculation and I get some courage. They also went on to build the Giri hydel project in Himachal Pradesh. Those cowboys did not know any thing about Himalayan geology, but finished the project in 1977. Damn thing works fine, they had some issues. The power station intake tunnels aha I saw the calculations being done.

[Dumal]

Would you go in your car?

Very sad indeed.

No, I agree with your logic.

And in a different sense, yes, I did once! 15 years or so back, on a solo road trip from Toronto to Montreal, my first time in Canada and on this route, I found myself needing to go and to my horror there were no public rest areas as in the US and even the gas station/convenience stores didn't seem to have accessible restrooms (or maybe I was worried about the language gap in talking to Quebec folks). When I could hold no longer, I just decided to use an empty Tropicana apple juice bottle to go. For some reason I did all of that while driving. I was completely successful but it was touch and go as the bottle filled almost to the brim. Later I disposed the bottle off at a dumpster in the first rest area just inside Montreal.

[Austin]

http://www.makeinindia.com/article/-/v/ ... ways[quote]

7O YEARS OF INDIA-RUSSIA: PARTNERSHIP IN THE RAILWAYS

This year, as India and Russia mark 70 years of diplomatic ties, India is Guest Country at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) from June 1-3, 2017. In the run- up to SPIEF, we take a closer look at collaborations in the railways sector.


INDO-RUSSIAN TRAIN GAIN

Indian Railways commands attention as the world’s 3rd largest rail network spanning over 66,030 root km. As the 4th largest rail freight carrier, the network transports 90% of the total coal moved in the country, supplying 50% of India’s power. Building upon and upgrading India’s rail infrastructure is a key duty objective of the Make in India initiative. The results of efforts undertaken are immediately visible- 953 km of new lines were laid in 2016-17, as against the original target of 400 km. Furthermore, track electrification of over 2,000 km and gauge conversion of over 1,000 km was also achieved in 2016-17.1

One of the key areas of focus for the Indian Government has been the development of high-speed rail projects in India. Under the ambit of “Vision 2020”, various high-speed rail projects are underway. Through these, the India intends to:

Raise the speed of segregated passenger corridors on trunk routes using conventional technology Identify a number of inter-city routes and build state-of- the-art high-speed corridors As India continues to explore more and more possibilities of high-speed rail networks, global participation in railway projects are set to become a new area of cooperation with India, under the Make in India banner.2


RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION ON FAST-TRACK

Indo-Russian partnership in the railways sector is a recent collaboration. In 2015, Russian Railways began exploring a potential partnership with its Indian counterpart. President of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, expressed interest in collaborating with Indian Railways for planned high-speed rail links given Russia’s expertise in the area. Top-level discussions were held with Indian politicians and officials on improving signaling and India’s safety structure, so as to avoid further accidents on the Indian rail network.3 Russian Railways showed notable interest in collaborating with Indian Railways to offer state-of- the-art technologies in automation, safety system, collision repair and monitoring rail network via GPS.4

In December 2015, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia, the Indian Railway Ministry and Russian Railways signed an MoU for technical cooperation in the rail sector. The MoU identifies various key areas of cooperation such as modernisation of existing Indian Railways lines in order to raise train speeds to 160-200 kmph, modern control and safety-related systems based on satellite navigation and digital communication means and satellite and geo-information technologies.

The 2016 BRICS Summit in Goa spelled a new era of Indo-Russian cooperation in railways, with the signing of the protocol for preparation of a feasibility study for modernisation of the Nagpur-Secunderabad railway line.5 The 575-km long railway line will serve as the potential testing ground for the pilot project, which entails a complete overhaul of existing infrastructure and technology, including re-alignment of tracks, treating the earth bed prone to loose soil and implementing digital technological communication network for the entire section, instead of the existing radio communication.6 This project marks Russia’s first entry into India’s rail sector.7

Indo-Russian cooperation in the Nagpur-Secunderabad route is on fast-track. A joint preliminary report by teams from both countries was submitted to the Indian Government in January 2017 and a working group for project-implementation was created.8 Feasibility studies began in March, with costs to be shared by both countries. The project is a reckoning force in the Indian railway sector because it sets out to beat the 160 kmph speed of the Gatimaan Express, currently India’s fastest train.9 “RZD International, a special purpose engineering company established within the Russian Railways, will lead the carry out the study which aims to increase the top train speed on the route from 120 kmph to 200 kmph.”10

To know more about Indo-Russian collaboration in railways and beyond, follow the action on social media using #SPIEFIndia.

Source:
1 http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease. ... lid=161300
2 http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwa ... IAMENT.pdf
3 http://www.firstpost.com/world/russia-t ... 01564.html
4 http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/rus ... LaWvL.html
5 http://mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.h ... er_15_2016
6 https://sputniknews.com/asia/2017012310 ... ssia-help/
7 https://in.rbth.com/economics/2017/04/0 ... act_733611
8 http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/W ... 077775.ece
9 http://www.indianluxurytrains.com/journ ... n-express/
10 http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-new ... Jbc1M.html[/quote]

[Zynda]

Here is she, the first GE loco for IR, in her full glory & metal.



GE Transportation unveils Indian Railways Evolution locomotive

NDIA: The first of 1 000 Evolution Series diesel locomotives which GE Transportation is to supply to Indian Railways over 10 years was unveiled at the manufacturer’s plant at Erie in the USA on June 1.

GE Transportation is to supply 700 locos of 4 500 hp and 300 of 6 000 hp under a US$2·6bn joint venture agreement signed with the Ministry of Railways in November 2015, the largest contract ever won by GE in India. They will have Tier 1 GEVO engines.

The first 100 of the twin-cab 1 676 mm gauge locos locomotives are to be exported from the USA complete or in kit form. To meet the requirement for local production under the government’s Make in India programme, the other 900 are to produced with mainly Indian components at a factory which GE is building at Marhowra in Bihar. This is expected to be completed later this year, and will produce two locomotives per week for the current contract.

GE will also develop facilities at Roza in Uttar Pradesh and Gandhidham in Gujarat to support long-term maintenance of the fleet.

Two locomotives per week means around 100 locos per year. So it would take around 9 years to manf current contracted lot of locos. Hopefully, RDSO along with GE Rail India will start improving the locos and next gen of locos will involve mainly Indian manpower from Design to fab and testing.

Perhaps IR suggested that it take the existing shell of failed WDG-5 and incorporate GE chassis along with bogies, traction motors, engines & other components. 'Cause that looks a hell lot like WDG-5.

[Singha]

so why did it fail, could it not be fixed?

the initial press report was glowing
http://www.progressrail.com/en/about-us ... byind.html

[vsunder]

Here are the locations of the Intermodal terminals that will come up on NW-1, National waterways 1, Haldia-Varanasi.
Intermodal terminals are essentially a junction of road/ railways/ water transport.

1. Jeonathpur outside Mughalsarai. This station will be a junction of Eastern Dedicated Freight corridor with Indian Railways. 5km away from the station located on 70 acres will be a road logistics hub and railway siding at the junction of NH2 and NH7 Varanasi-Kanyakumari( this is 4 laned from Saugor onwards towards Nagpur-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Salem-Madurai etc.). This hub will be 1/2 km from the junction of the two roads. Nearby at Ramnagar will be the berth for barges on the Ganga being constructed by AFCONS. Sanction has been given by Allahabad High court as they had prevented all construction along the Ganga and also UP forest and wildlife board has okayed the project after yogi came to office. This is because of carnivorous turtle sanctuary that eats up the half burnt dead bodies that people push into the river. This was going on in the 1950's and I am surprised it goes on today. Anyhow now with yogi the project is back on and land has also been sanctioned by UP govt. Yadav had gone slow on this. Project to be completed by late 2018. EDFC will take longer.
Berths will handle two barges and are to be built 1.1 m above highest recorded flood stage of Ganga. I am marking Google coordinates. Google has not updated anything, but next time it does you will see construction.

25.232051, 83.062360

Road logistics hub near Jeonathpur

25.254982, 83.035977

Place where berths will come up

25.263512, 83.027241


2. This will be the second intermodal terminal at Sahibganj in Jharkhand. Modi has laid the foundation stone in April and construction has started. Now there is Haldia, Varanasi and Sahibganj. More will come up at Ghazipur and other places. The first railway line between Kolkata and Delhi actually went via Sahibganj, the so-called Sahibganj loop following the Ganga with its plentiful water supply for locos.
Later came the Patna mainline and later still the Grand Chord. At Ghazipur UP is the Govt. opium and Alkaloid factory the only one in India to make opium extracts for pharmaceuticals. It is also the place where Lord Cornwallis is buried, same guy who lost to Washington at Yorktown in 1783. It is also the place of Pavhari baba who met Vivekananda in his travels soon after the Paramhansa died and who is mentioned in Vivekanananda's memoirs so to say. Pavhari baba was called the air eating baba.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavhari_Baba

Samda Nala intermodal terminal/Sahibganj location. Sakri galli is the railroad station that can be seen
and will connect to the floating jetty/harbour by a siding.

25.248686, 87.698187

The intermodal hubs will provide employment to many people in this hinterland where nothing ever happens. Barges will take crushed stone(jalli or jelli), minerals from Jharkand and bring in fertilizer and other products. The intermodal terminals will also have facilities for Ro-Ro operations wherein trucks will be loaded onto the barges and moved to either Haldia, Sahibganj or Varanasi and later to Allahabad freeing highways from some vehicular traffic.

Cruise services have started between Varanasi and Patna though this is old news.

https://www.choomti.com/patna-to-varanasi-cruises/

Place in Ghazipur where the intermodal terminal will come up: Navapura, Ghazipur. (You can see the buildings of the Govt. opium factory in the coordinates I gave you on the right)

25.571792, 83.572515

[vsunder]

What was obvious to me aeons ago is now being discovered. The DFC is in trouble and the current Sharma has been replaced with another Sharma. Dates have been pushed back to 2021. I am sorry but what I see between Vadodara and JNPT/Mumbai and between Iqbalgadh and Vadodara, this will not be enough, also between Kanpur and Mughalsarai, the project is limping. What is remarkable is when people shoot videos from moving trains, you hardly see activity, people, earthmovers, trucks whatever. I have linked these videos, have other people seen activity that gives hope of a 2019 completion? I am not sure what these Japani companies are doing, supposedly they brought in expertise of project management and so on, but it does not show on the ground level, same levels of ineptitude. I think the previous Sharma should have been given both ends of the stick a long time ago and removed ages ago.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/ ... t-4692304/

What is amusing is that the article mentions three stretches where work will be completed by the time of the General elections of 2019, but 3 stretches does not the DFC make. More worrying is Sahnewal-Khurja(Panjab), Mughalsarai-Kanpur and Iqbalgadh-JNPT in some there is hardly any work done, like bridges across the Narmada, Tapi and Damanganga nothing not even a pier cast. Even then these shameless people are conning with a 2019 completion date.

[jayasimha]

http://pibphoto.nic.in/documents/rlink/ ... 752901.PDF

INDIAN RAILWAYS
THREE YEAR PERFORMANCE REPORT