Indian Railways News

FalconZero

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News just out:-
Paradigm shift. Indian Railways Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) to be shut down, work of station redevelopment and maintenance to be handed over to Zonal HQs. Orders are already out.
Being done on reccomendation of Finance Ministry that has asked all Ministries to rationalize the number of PSUs working under them. This in turn is based on detailed Report by Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal, who has also asked for shutting down the Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE), Centeral Organization for Modernization of Workshops (COMW) and Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS). Other recommendations include merging Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON) and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), merger of RailTel with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), merging directorates to bring Railway Board strength down from 250 to 100, handing over of Railways Schools to respective State Governments or turning them into Kendriya Vidyalayas. Another reccomendation was to unify the following functions under IRCTC:-
  • Passenger tickets
  • Train crew management
  • Fixed and Rolling stock management
  • Freight invoicing
  • Train operations

https://swarajyamag.com/analysis/pe...ons-development-corporation-irsdc-closed-down
Wew any particular reason? one of the outright visible changes that i saw after 2014 was maintenance and management of railways, from online booking to railway station to increase in quality of food and even the trains. (Though most of the times i have travelled in 3rd or 2nd ac so i don't know if similar services are being replicated at the Sleeper and general). And i have travelled i think at least close to 25,000km in trains in just past 3 years.
Also, i want to point out that in those 3 years i never had to go to the railway station to book my tickets not even once, their online portal though can be more user-friendly but is still great.

Even during the first covid outbreak, i travelled through trains. I have travelled in general coach twice for around 4000km+ and it was a mess, I think it was a good experience on a spiritual level i should say in a way that it made me humble. As i have stated before i am not very extroverted person socially and i should say that i think i learned a lot from them, great people and it was in a way fun. It was 4 to 5 years ago, like the TT won't even bother checking the tickets, people will hide in toilets and some of them are lying on the floor, forget getting a seat you should be lucky to get a place on the frickin' floor. Mostly used by our hard-working but badly paid countrymen, labourers. I don't know how bad the situation is in those coaches or what we can do for them.

Apart from that, we already know that Railway under Piyush goyal did great in terms of electrification and DFC. Apart from that, I am extremely excited for Vande bharat trains. Really want to travel on them.

Was wondering if these reforms affect the railway like they did ISRO, not 1:1 comparison but railway was not doing bad either (Not talking about its losses, some thousands per annum), i just hope the transition is fluid i guess. SHSR and HSRs along with countrywide DFC is something that gives me something to look forward too.

I have spent hours watching videos of those trains, DFC their new engine in wag-12 to Train 18 and their countless videos on youtube are something really amazing.
 

Okabe Rintarou

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Wew any particular reason?
Seems like its being done pan-Central Government in order to achieve Modi's "minimum government maximum governance" mantra. I hope it doesn't end up rolling back the progress in Railways you've noticed since 2014. Lets wait and watch, we don't know the fine print, though on surface, this appears to be a step back. Also, not sure how many of the steps reccomended by the Principal Economic Advisor will be implemented.
 

FalconZero

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Seems like its being done pan-Central Government in order to achieve Modi's "minimum government maximum governance" mantra. I hope it doesn't end up rolling back the progress in Railways you've noticed since 2014. Lets wait and watch, we don't know the fine print, though on surface, this appears to be a step back. Also, not sure how many of the steps reccomended by the Principal Economic Advisor will be implemented.
One thing i really feel passionate (sort of interested you can say) is SHSRs like Train 18, i hope that it doesn't affect it. More than HSR i want Train 18 and it's iterations to succeed. Those trains are amazing, they need to upgrade the front section of the train with a better material as if you have search the videos of these trains in 2021 albeit most of the parts including auto on/off doors are still working and overall quality is better than average train they still need a better quality improvement in some parts including the front and rear sections which were badly damaged due to animals hitting them.

I think since there were only 2 of these operating maybe that's why there were managed badly. Let's hope that next prototype tb released next year succeeds and we get to see at least 75 of these trains running across India.

Only thing i hate about train 18 is their horn, i wish they bring back the old classic train horns. It feels incomplete without them or maybe that's just me 😁
 

ladder

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One thing i really feel passionate (sort of interested you can say) is SHSRs like Train 18, i hope that it doesn't affect it. More than HSR i want Train 18 and it's iterations to succeed. Those trains are amazing, they need to upgrade the front section of the train with a better material as if you have search the videos of these trains in 2021 albeit most of the parts including auto on/off doors are still working and overall quality is better than average train they still need a better quality improvement in some parts including the front and rear sections which were badly damaged due to animals hitting them.

I think since there were only 2 of these operating maybe that's why there were managed badly. Let's hope that next prototype tb released next year succeeds and we get to see at least 75 of these trains running across India.

Only thing i hate about train 18 is their horn, i wish they bring back the old classic train horns. It feels incomplete without them or maybe that's just me 😁
Also add Tejas with aerodynamic locomotive.
 

here2where

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Wrong... This is completely newly built railway terminal utilising the existing railway coach terminal land at maruthi seva nagar.
Baiyappanahalli railway station is another railway station in baiyappanahalli on chennai line 2kms away from this new terminal
and the funny thing is there is no approach road to this spanking new station called Sir M Visvesvaraya terminal .... so no one can use it.. and its inauguration never happened .. :rofl:

and all this in the IT capital of our country ... :facepalm2:
 
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LondonParisTokyo

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News just out:-
Paradigm shift. Indian Railways Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) to be shut down, work of station redevelopment and maintenance to be handed over to Zonal HQs. Orders are already out.
Being done on reccomendation of Finance Ministry that has asked all Ministries to rationalize the number of PSUs working under them. This in turn is based on detailed Report by Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal, who has also asked for shutting down the Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE), Centeral Organization for Modernization of Workshops (COMW) and Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS). Other recommendations include merging Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON) and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), merger of RailTel with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), merging directorates to bring Railway Board strength down from 250 to 100, handing over of Railways Schools to respective State Governments or turning them into Kendriya Vidyalayas. Another reccomendation was to unify the following functions under IRCTC:-
  • Passenger tickets
  • Train crew management
  • Fixed and Rolling stock management
  • Freight invoicing
  • Train operations

https://swarajyamag.com/analysis/pe...ons-development-corporation-irsdc-closed-down
This is great! Defund the federal government. It'll help balance the budget. But here's the issue, if the same babus in these organizations just move to the new entity, did anything really change?
 

Tshering22

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This is great! Defund the federal government. It'll help balance the budget. But here's the issue, if the same babus in these organizations just move to the new entity, did anything really change?
I remember that there was this talk of allowing railway stations up for private concessions, along the lines of airport concessions. IRCTC does the infrastructure maintenance of tracks, signal lights, etc., while the commercial aspect is taken care of by private companies.

There was even an RFI floated during Suresh Prabhu's time. Any ideas what happened to that plan?
 

LondonParisTokyo

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I remember that there was this talk of allowing railway stations up for private concessions, along the lines of airport concessions. IRCTC does the infrastructure maintenance of tracks, signal lights, etc., while the commercial aspect is taken care of by private companies.

There was even an RFI floated during Suresh Prabhu's time. Any ideas what happened to that plan?
Suresh Prabhu era was a great era for this government. The current regime is useless. Most likely trashed.
 

Tshering22

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Suresh Prabhu era was a great era for this government. The current regime is useless. Most likely trashed.
Now now... Ashwini Vaishnaw is actually quite a good person. He's touted to be somewhat like Jaishankar from what I hear. Sure this decision to close down IRSDC was a bummer. But could it be due to the fact that they might be bringing privatization again to the front? PPP model for train stations?

Air India recently saw immense success in something no other government managed to do without controversy; maybe they are just getting encouraged from this development and planning to modernize the stations with private participation in the near future?

If I could be a concessionaire, I would happily invest in such a proposition. Since we have so many train stations, it is likely that each bid would comprise dozens of railway stations to be managed by one concessionaire company/consortium.
 

indus

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Suresh Prabhu era was a great era for this government. The current regime is useless. Most likely trashed.
Suresh Prabhu s era saw some of the worst train accidents in the recent history. It was the reason he was removed. Passenger safety is always the first priority which was lacking in his tenure.
 

Gandaberunda

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and the funny thing is there is no approach road to this spanking new station called Sir M Visvesvaraya terminal .... so no one can use it.. and its inauguration never happened .. :rofl:

and all this in the IT capital of our country ... :facepalm2:
Fob on existing chennai line track which is sole road to the terminal is getting built and when the terminal is operational the 2 lane road will be cloged. Even maruthi seva nagar and Banaswadi bridge can't cater to the traffic it attracts once operational.
 

here2where

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Fob on existing chennai line track which is sole road to the terminal is getting built and when the terminal is operational the 2 lane road will be cloged. Even maruthi seva nagar and Banaswadi bridge can't cater to the traffic it attracts once operational.
that new terminal is fucked. that much i know.
 

ezsasa

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Looks like this project is almost done. Now let's see if this model works.
=========
Habibganj Railway Station Redevelopment
Habibganj Railway Station renamed as Rani Kamlapati Railway Station
=============
PM Narendra Modi will inaugurate the redeveloped Rani Kamlapati Railway Station in Bhopal during his visit to Madhya Pradesh tomorrow: PMO

 

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