The Railway Budget for 2010-11, presented in the Lok Sabha on February 24, 2010, by Mamata Banerjee, Minister for Railways, has proposed no increase in passenger fares or freight rates.

This is the 7th year in succession that passenger fares have not been increased.

The tariff for transporting foodgrain, kerosene and fertilisers has been reduced by Rs 100 per wagon in order to deal with the rise in prices.

The Railway Budget also proposes to bring down the maximum limit of service charge on e-booking of ticket to Rs 10 for the sleeper-class and by Rs 20 for the AC class. Currently, the maximum service charge on e-booking of ticket is Rs 15 for the sleeper-class and Rs 40 for the AC class.

Mamata Banerjee announced in her budget an array of concessions – including free travel for children up to 18 years; free travel, in three-tier AC and sleeper class, for cancer patients travelling for treatment; as well as continuance of concessions for journalists and for students of madrassas.

As many as 101 new suburban services will be started in Mumbai as well as more train services in Chennai and Kolkata.

A special train – called the Sanskriti Express – to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore will run across India and also to Bangladesh, Mamata Banerjee said.

While the special tourist trains, the Bharat Tirth, will be launched on 16 routes, there will be 6 new long-distance, non-stop Duronto Express trains and 4 short-distance Duronto Express day trains.

The budget estimates for 2010-11 pegs the cargo-loading target at 944 million tonnes – 54 million tonnes more than the revised estimates of the current year.

Passenger traffic is expected to go up by 5.3%.

The other highlights of the Railway Budget 2010-11 include concession to the film industry; plan for electrification of 1,000 kilometres in fiscal 2011; the Janmabhoomi train (connecting areas in the western sectors); the Karmabhoomi (sleeper trains for the unorganised sector); special trains for women; the work under Mumbai suburban area under MUTP phase 1 to be completed in 2010, and under phase 2 to be completed by March 2014; Kolkata Metro to be extended inside the city; funding for metro rail projects up by 5%; starting door-to-door service for freight movement; launching of double-decker trains on a pilot basis; and premium tatkal service for transporting parcel and freight.

New trains have been proposed to be run on the following routes:  Howrah-Chennai-Puducherry-Madurai-Rameswaram-Kanyakumari-Bangalore-Mysore-Chennai-Howrah; Howrah-Gaya-Agra-Mathura-Vrindavan-New Delhi-Haridwar-Varanasi-Howrah; Howrah-Varanasi-Jammu Tawi-Amritsar-Haridwar-Mathura-Vrindavan-Allahabad-Howrah; Howrah-Vizag-Hyderabad-Araku-Howrah; Howrah-Ajmer-Udaipur-Jodhpur-Bikaner-Jaipur-Howrah; Pune-Jaipur-Nathdwara-Ranakpur-Jaipur-Mathura-Agra-Haridwar-Amritsar-Jammu Tawi-Pune; Mumbai-Pune-Tirupati-Kancheepuram-Rameswaram-Madurai-Kanyakumari-Pune-Mumbai; Pune-Ratnagiri-Goa-Bangalore-Mysore-Tirupati-Pune; Bhopal-Dwaraka-Somnath-Udaipur-Ajmer-Jodhpur-Jaipur-Mathura-Vrindavan-Amritsar-Jammu Tawi-Bhopal; and Ahmedabad-Puri-Kolkata-Gangasagar-Varanasi-Allahabad-Indore-Omkareshwar-Ujjain-Ahmedabad.

Mumbai: The trial run of Mumbai’s super-fast monorail has been successful.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who flagged off the 300-metre trial run, described the monorail as “an engineering marvel” and “the only one of its kind in the country” for the use of the common man.

About 3 lakh people are expected to use the monorail daily, Chavan said.

The monorail moves on a single elevated beam, instead of the conventional tracks.

The Mumbai monorail project – being jointly implemented by Larsen & Toubro and the Scomi Group, of Malaysia – is expected to be completed in 2010 itself, at a cost of Rs 2,460 crore.

An initiative of the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), the Mumbai monorail project involves design, construction, installation, testing and commissioning of a 19.4-kilometre route stretching between Jacob Circle and Chembur.

While the Phase I of the Mumbai monorail project will be between Wadala and Chembur via Mahul (about 9 kilometres), the Phase II will cover the distance between Gadge Maharaj Chowk and Wadala (11 kilometres).

We are trying to get hold of a few good photos of the Mumbai Monorail for you.

According to Shailendra Roy, executive vice-president and head of corporate initiatives of Larsen & Toubro, the Phase I of the monorail from Wadala to Chembur is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2010, and the Phase II by December 2011.

The monorail network is aimed at easing the traffic in Mumbai, the most populous city in India, having a population of about 14 million people. It is also expected to supplement the existing public transport system in Mumbai, along with the underground metro rail network under construction.

It has been planned to introduce, to start with, 14 monorails with 4 coaches, with a capacity of 500 passengers.

The super-fast monorail will have a frequency of 4.5 minutes, and the fare will range from Rs 8 to Rs 20.

Mumbai monorail’s first corridor will have 15 trains – with 9 of them for the Wadala-Jacob Circle stretch, and the rest for the Chembur-Wadala stretch.

Three coaches from Malaysia are likely to arrive in Mumbai by March 2010.

Suhaimi Yaacob, president of Scomi’s India Projects, said the company estimates that the Wadala-Jacob Circle stretch will have a higher passenger density than the Chembur-Wadala one. The Wadala-Jacob Circle alignment, Yaacob added, has fewer public-transport alternatives.

He said the pillars are designed in such a way that they can take the weight of 6-coach rakes. This means that, in future, if the services need be augmented, there is the scope of adding 2 more coaches without affecting the frequency of the trains at that time.

Countries such as Brazil have planned 8-coach monorail trains, according to Suhaimi Yaacob.

Two other Duronto trains – between Sealdah in Kolkata and New Delhi, and between Chennai Central station and Hazrat Nizamuddin were flagged off recently.

The Railway decided to launch the 2 Duronto Express trains from Maharashtra after it obtained clearance from the Election Commission of India.

Since the Model Code of Conduct for Elections is in place for the Maharashtra Assembly elections to be held on October 13, 2009, the Election Commission had directed that no minister should be involved in the flagging-off of the 2 trains.

The 2263 Pune-Hazrat Nizamuddin Duronto Express leaves Pune at 11.10 a.m. every Tuesday and Friday and arrives at Hazrat Nizamuddin at 7.10 a.m. the next day. On the return leg, the 2264 Hazrat Nizamuddin-Pune Duronto train starts from Hazrat Nizamuddin every Monday and Thursday at 11.00 a.m. and arrives at Pune at 7.20 a.m. the following day.

The 2262 Howrah-Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Duronto Express will depart from Howrah at 8.20 am on every Monday and Friday and will reach Mumbai at 10.30 a.m. the next day. In the return direction, the 2261 Duronto Express leaves Mumbai at 5.15 p.m. every Tuesday and Saturday and reaches Howrah at 7.40 p.m. the next day.

The Howrah-Mumbai train will pass through Nagpur, but it will not have a commercial stoppage there.

The Railway has announced that there will not be any Tatkal quota in the Duronto Express trains as also many other concessions. There will be no discounts on tickets – under any scheme – for students, patients, the physically challenged, artistes and others in Duronto trains. However, senior citizens will get concessions.

According to reports, the non-availability of the Tatkal scheme on Duronto Express trains has displeased the business community, for whom the Tatkal scheme was of much help.

An official of the Railway said that since the non-stop, air-conditioned Duronto Express trains have facilities such as food and bedrolls like in the Rajdhani trains and since the fares in the Duronto trains are rather low, concessions cannot be given to the passengers.

In the Railway Budget for 2009-10, Minister for Railways Mamata Banerjee had announced that a total of 12 Duronto trains would be introduced.

Out of the promised 12 Duronto Express trains, 4 have been launched – for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune and Chennai.

Mamata Banerjee also announced that all the Duronto trains will run within the next 2 months.

The bi-weekly Duronto (‘Duronto’ more or less means ‘unbridled’) express will depart from Sealdah every Thursday and Sunday and will leave New Delhi every Friday and Monday.

The Duronto train, flagged off by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, will take one and a half hours less that what the Sealdah-Delhi Rajdhani Express train takes to run the distance.

According to Mamata Banerjee, the Sealdah-New Delhi Duronto will run at 130 kms/hour and the journey will take 16 hours and 30 minutes, as against the 18 hours that the Rajdhani express takes.

The next Duronto train, the Howrah- Mumbai Yuba Express, is “almost ready and we will soon have its inaugural run,” she said.

According to a railway official, the speed of Duronto trains will not be more than that of the Rajdhani trains, but Duronto takes less time since it has no commercial stoppages.
The Sealdah-Delhi Duronto has 3 operational stoppages – at Dhanbad, Kanpur and Mughalsarai, for technical reasons – compared to 6 operational plus commercial stoppages for the Sealdah-Delhi Rajdhani Express.

The Sealdah-New Delhi Duronto has a new air-conditioned, economy sleeper coach with 3-tiered side berth, compared to 2-tiered side berths in Rajdhani trains. The Duronto’s AC economy coach can accommodate 81 passengers, as against 72 passengers in the conventional AC 3-tiered side coaches.

The new AC economy class in the Duronto trains, the railway official added, is meant to provide more people with faster, AC-comfort travel at economic rates.

The ticket for Duronto’s air-conditioned economy sleeper coach costs Rs 1,335 – which is Rs 200 less than the Rajdhani train’s AC-coach fare of Rs 1,535. What is more, Duronto’s fare includes meals.

Passengers of Duronto will be served soup – instead of tea and light snacks – soon after the train leaves the Sealdah station at 6.40 p.m. Dinner starts from 7.30 pm.

The dinner menu for the passengers of AC-II, AC-III and AC-III Economic class comprises rice/paratha, dal, chicken/fish, vegetables as well as salad – and ice cream for dessert.
Like on the Rajdhani trains, AC-I passengers will have a variety of items to choose from.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that 13 more Duronto trains would be on the tracks soon.

While the Sealdah-New Delhi Duronto train has regular coaches with shells made of corten steel, the Chennai-Nizamuddin Duronto will have coaches made of stainless steel. The special stainless-steel bogies have air suspension systems that provide better passenger comfort. Besides, the light-weight stainless-steel shells helps the train run faster.

The inaugural journey of the Sealdah-New Delhi Duronto train, however, has had an unscheduled, unexpected stoppage – and for nearly 30 minutes at that – at Dankuni, about 20 kilometres from Kolkata. The reason: the train’s pantograph got entangled with a kite’s thread hanging from the overhead electric wires at Dankuni. (The pantograph is the gadget that receives electricity from the overhead lines for electric locomotive engines.)

Bombardier, which recently expanded its presence in India through its transportation business dedicated to railway equipment, has set its major railway vehicle manufacturing site on stream.

The new production site, representing an investment of 33 million euros, will directly generate 750 new jobs dedicated to railway vehicle production. In addition, a further 2000 indirect jobs will be created based on increased activity in Bombardier’s local supplier base. The company said that the new investment underlines Bombardier Transportation’s long-term commitment to India, a market where the company has been active for almost 35 years This will also make Vadodara the only city in the world equipped to deliver all key electrical and mechanical components for the manufacturing of railway vehicles.

The company said that its Savli manufacturing site, built in a record 18 months, will be operating soon. The first railway cars are expected to roll out of the assembly lines at Salvi by March 2009. Bombardier’s new manufacturing site in India was designed and built from scratch following the most modern industrial standards worldwide and based on a transfer of technology from Bombardier’s state-of-the-art railway vehicle manufacturing plant located in Gorlitz, Germany, it added.

Meanwhile, the new manufacturing site at Vadodara is set to serve projects in India as well as in the South East Asia region, the first order of which being the delivery of 424 Bombardier Movia metro cars to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation .

Bombardier Transportation has been present in India for over 35 years, supplying the Indian Railways with technologically advanced rail products, such as the WAP5 and WAG9 electric locomotives for passenger and freight applications and the Mumbai Traffic Management System. This system controls the 60-km rail stretch around Mumbai, which is one of the world’s heaviest rail commuter traffic areas. It is along this route that the Western Railways runs as many as 1,000 trains everyday.