Indian Railways News

[sukhish]

mamta cannot allow this anti people policy. it's anit people and mamta is pro people. the thing pr people is giving freebees like her parent party congress is good for.

 

[pmaitra]

WDG-5: The most powerful diesel freight locomotive of India?

 

[pmaitra]

AC Double Decker for Northern and Western Ralways

NR Trials:

WR Trials:

Credit: Vivek Manvi @ IRFCA

 

[pmaitra]

More on double deckers:

Three major services linking Delhi-Jaipur and Agra are yet to be flagged off and the much-publicised double-decker service between Jaipur and Delhi is awaiting administrative and safety clearance.
If officials in Jaipur are to be believed, the special rake, which was to run on the Delhi-Jaipur route, is currently being used for trials on the Mumbai and Ahmedabad routes.

Read more: Railways running far behind its Golden Triangle schedule | Mail Online

 

[Blackwater]

More on double deckers:



Read more: Railways running far behind its Golden Triangle schedule | Mail Online

What u expect from rail minister like ugly mamta and lalu who concentrate on Garib rath lolllllll

 

[pmaitra]

What u expect from rail minister like ugly mamta and lalu who concentrate on Garib rath lolllllll

I agree. Both have harmed IR in many ways.

Exception: Kudos to Mamata for introducing AC Double Decker.

 

[pmaitra]

First Look: Mumbai-Ahmedabad AC double-decker train - Rediff.com Business

 

[pmaitra]

Ahmedabad-Mumbai AC double-decker train from June | DeshGujarat.Com

 

[pmaitra]

AC double-decker train for Jaipur; Duronto for Mumbai, Ajmer | Original Story | Taaza News

 

[Folk hero]

bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad

MUMBAI: Two ambitious rail projects - proposed elevated rail corridor in Mumbai and a bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai - got a boost today as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finalized the targets for key infrastructure projects in PPP model in railways.

At a meeting with ministers and secretaries of key infrastructure ministries, it was decided to flag off the elevated rail corridor project for Mumbai suburban service with a total investment of Rs 20,000 crore in 2012-13.

The elevated rail corridor is crucial for Mumbai as it aims to give a faster service to daily commuters in the metropolis.

However, Railway Minister Mukul Roy was not present in the meeting. Chairman Railway Board Vinay Mittal attended the high-level meeting chaired by the PM.

It was also decided to finalise the action plan for the 500-km high-speed corridor from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, said railway sources. The project is estimated to cost about Rs 60,000 crore.

Known as bullet train project, the train is expected to run at 350 km per hour speed reducing the travel time to four hours between the two cities from seven hours by Duronto, the fastest train at present.

Green signal for bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad - The Times of India

:thumb:

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Double decker can also be used in between Delhi and Kalka..

 

[pmaitra]

Railways out of service tax net till September 30

NEW DELHI, July 3, 2012

Ahead of the Presidential election, the Trinamool Congress has successfully pressured the Union government into granting yet another term of exemption of service tax on high-end passenger fares and cargo freight for three months.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his capacity as Finance Minister, acceded to the request of Railway Minister Mukul Roy.

The Finance Ministry issued a notification to the effect exempting high-end passenger fares and cargo freight from the purview of service tax till September 30.

Mr. Roy told Dr. Singh the railways did not operate with a profit motive and that it was the preferred mode of transportat for both passengers and carrying essential commodities. Hence the imposition of service tax would adversely impact a large section of society with spiralling inflationary pressure.

The Finance Ministry under Pranab Mukherjee had ignored all requests from the Railways, including a letter from Mr. Roy to desist from the decision, and stuck to the budgetary proposal of imposing the service tax, which though was deferred till June 30.

The Railway Board issued a circular on June 27 intimating the zonal offices to be prepared to impose 12 per cent service tax amounting to 3.708 per cent, given the 70 per cent abatement allowed from July 1.

The circular, however, said the zonal offices should wait for a final word from the Railway Board.

It, however, was not issued till June 30, leading to confusion on the applicability of the service tax.

 

[RAM]

Russian LNG-powered trains headed to India

Russian gas-turbine electric locomotives using liquefied natural gas will be heading to India in the not-too-distant future. Indian Railways is set to announce an international tender in November for the supply of gas-turbine electric locomotives, unique machines that offers a viable alternative for trains running on clean fuel. A consortium of Russian Railways Concern (RZD) and associated companies like the United Industrial Corporation OBORONPROM will be bidding for it and will have practically no competitors.

Russia has the first mover advantage in this nice high-tech area, but it has no experience of their mass production either. India and Russia may, therefore, become pioneers in the commercial development of LNG-powered locomotives.

The experiments to create a railway locomotive with a gas turbine instead of a diesel power engine hark back to the middle of the last century. But due to their noise, high fuel consumption and structural complexity, gas turbine-electric locomotives didn't quite take off.

Meanwhile, Russia's Samara Scientific and Technical Complex specialised in the construction of gas-turbine engines for strategic bombers and gas-pumping units.

In the 1990s, they were asked to create a gas-turbine engine for an aircraft that would use LNG as fuel. Subsequently, the RZD got interested in the LNG gas-turbine unit based on aero-engine NK-256. The RZD considered building a gas turbine-electric locomotive for the Extreme North – where railways are not electrified but where there is a lot of natural gas – a machine of this type would be at least one-third more efficient than diesel locomotives.

At the end of 2006, Russian Railways placed an order with Kuznetsov Bureau to develop and to build a prototype engine for a gas turbine-electric locomotive (a GTEL is driven not by gas, but by the power produced by the generator which is connected to a gas turbine).

The newest Russian gas turbine-electric locomotive with NK-361 engine set off on its maiden trip at the beginning of July 2008. For the time, it was acknowledged as the most powerful locomotive in the world that uses LNG – that is 8.3 MW, a feat that found mention in the Guinness Book of Records. This locomotive can accelerate to a speed of up to 100 kilometres per hour and cover 750 km on a full tank of fuel. It operates very well in mountain regions. In four years, it created several world records in the carrying capacity of the train it hauled. For example, last autumn it pulled a train weighing 16,000 tonnes (170 carriages) which stretched nearly up to 3 kilometres along the ring railroad of the Railway Research Institute (VNIIZhT).

This machine is environmentally friendly: its emissions in the atmosphere are 10 times lower than it is required even by the prospective European emission standards. In addition, the uniqueness of the up-to-date Russian GTEL is in the fact that it may be used not only as a locomotive, but as a mobile power station as well. It just comes to the specified place, gets two wires connected to it and gives electricity to a village or an enterprise. At the end of June, the RZD and Sinara Group concluded an agreement about the production and supply of 40 mainline GTELs consuming LNG by 2020. They will be produced at the Lyudinovsky Locomotive Plant which belongs to Sinara.

At the same time the RZD and OBORONPROM began to prepare for the Indian tender. In Samara they are sure that the world leader in this sphere is Kuznetsov Bureau and the RZD is the sole owner of a gas turbine-electric locomotive that can meet the requirements of the Indian Railways fully. According to informed sources, the Indian party is ready to finance the development activities aimed at adapting the power unit of the Russian GTEL to hot climatic conditions.

Only two questions still remain open: the creation of the requisite infrastructure to provide GTELs with fuel and the capacity of Samara engine plants to produce the necessary quantity of power units (RZD will need up to 200 machines, Indian Railways – up to 300).

The LNG-powered locomotives may take some time to come to India. The Indian Railways will be testing these machines for the next two-three years at least. Kuznetsov, United Engine Corporation and OBORONPROM have, therefore, some time to organise a full-fledged production of engines for the new unique Russian locomotives.

The Russian government has made a decision to strengthen the group of strategic bombers Tu-160 (White Swan), pacing the way for the resumption of the production of NK-32 engines in Samara. "It is most profitable from the economic point of view to produce engines based on a single gas generator. The one of NK-361 is much alike the one on NK-32. Now we are reorganising our production to resume making and repairing NK-32 engines for the needs of strategic air force. "Correspondingly, this very production will be aimed at making engines for GTELs as well," says Dmitry Fedorchenko, Chief Designer of OJSC Kuznetsov.

In addition, the enterprise plans to produce gears for power generating and gas pumping units with the power of up to 32 MW and aircraft engines with 30 tonnes of thrust (it may be installed, for example, in the largest cargo aircrafts – Ruslans) based on the single gas generator. This will take more than one year. But RZD needs only 40 GTELs till 2020.

Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of India

 

[anoop_mig25]

Russian LNG-powered trains headed to India

Russian gas-turbine electric locomotives using liquefied natural gas will be heading to India in the not-too-distant future. Indian Railways is set to announce an international tender in November for the supply of gas-turbine electric locomotives, unique machines that offers a viable alternative for trains running on clean fuel. A consortium of Russian Railways Concern (RZD) and associated companies like the United Industrial Corporation OBORONPROM will be bidding for it and will have practically no competitors.

Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of India

lets wait and see whether russians win it or europeans(german) win`s again

 

[pmaitra]

Oboronprom is a behemoth of an organization. It has experience with turbines.

Organisation

It has stakes in or controls the following entities:[2]

• Defence Systems (75%)
• Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant (36%), a design bureau.
• Kamov (49.46%), a helicopter company.
• Kazan Helicopter Plant (29.92%), (Oboronprom operates 21%) assembly plant for Mi-8 'Hip'
• Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant (75.09%), assembly plant for Mi-8 'Hip' and Mi-171
• Rostvertol (17.13%), assembly plant for Mi-24 'Hind', Mi-26 'Halo'
• Vpered Moscow Machine-building Plant (38%)
• Oboronprom Helicopter Service Company (100%)
• Novosibirsk Aircraft Repair Plant (50%)
• Stupino Machine-building Plant (60%)
• Oboronprom Middle East Joint Venture (Jordan) (51%)
• R.E.T. Kronstadt (9.37%)

Source: Oboronprom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Virendra]

Russian heavy industries are their forte. Still doing great !!
Questions:
-- Could these locomotives be more taxing to our tracks? Our tracks are at times not in the best health and there are quality hazards.
-- Are they capable of managing heat. Climate difference of Russia and India has shown up as a factor for our tank crews as well. How comfortable would the men operating it be?
-- If Russians can't mass produce it and we have enough Gas, is it possible to have a Brahmos like JV where we can co-produce these locomotives?
The engine's history is quite interesting

Regards,
Virendra

 

[sob]

IR should stay away from these locos for the following reasons

1. LNG is an imported source of fuel and subject to fluctuations in price

2. Infrastructure will have to be build u from scratch, which will be terribly expensive.

3. Technology not proven on a commercial scale.

4. Electric Locos are the most efficient and clean ode of transport.

5. Most importantly IR does not have the cash to get in this kind of experiments. They should rather spend the money on improving safety, providing more comforts to the passengers and increasing the electrification of tracks.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

In India we have many locomotives run on diesel, Are there locomotives use multi-fuel engines like tanks does ?

Excepts Kerosine and crude alternatives. ?

 

[pmaitra]

^^

Some use bio-diesel.

 

[pmaitra]

See video: Russian gas turbine locomotive sets 16,000- ton record | Video | RIA Novosti