by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will on Thursday lay the foundation stone for India’s first bullet train project, connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad, in Ahmedabad, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.
“The commencement of work on the country’s first High Speed Rail (Bullet train) project will begin on September 14 in Ahmedabad,” Goyal told reporters here, adding that the bullet train technology would “revolutionise and transform the transport sector”.
“This will be a historical moment as India will gets it first bullet train,” he said.
“This is an occasion to celebrate the advent of the most modern technology in India. It shall also benefit the farmers for transportation of agricultural produce in a fast mode,” Goyal said.
The Railway Minister said that the high-speed rail was envisioned by Modi to take Indian Railways towards “most modern technologies like developed countries”.
With the Indian Railways adopting most modern technologies, the bullet train was an endeavour to bring economic growth and prosperity in the country, he said.
The 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project will entail an estimated cost of Rs 1,10,000 crore.
“Out of this Rs 1,10,000 crore, Japan is giving a loan of Rs 88,000 crore and the interest on this loan is minimal, i.e. 0.1 per cent,” Goyal said.
“This loan is to be repaid to Japan in 50 years. Loan repayment period of 50 years with 15 years grace.”
Of the 508-km stretch, 92 per cent of the route will be elevated, six per cent in tunnel and the rest two per cent will be on the ground.
That is, 508 km stretch will have 468 km of elevated track, 27 km inside tunnel and the remaining 13 km on the ground.
The high speed train will also pass through the country’s biggest tunnel of 21 km, of which seven km will be under the sea.
Sushant Mishra, Infra Advisor to the Indian Railways, told IANS that Japan was awarded the contract because there had been no accident on its bullet train networks.
“They (Japan) are pioneers of bullet train technology, and their train has the highest punctuality rate,” Mishra said.
Japan was also ready to transfer the technology to India and sponsoring the project.
He also said that the works for the terminal in Sabarmati would start from September 14 itself.
“About 825 hectares of land would be acquired for the high speed rail,” he said.
On the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route, total 12 stations have been proposed that include Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.
The distance of 508 km will be covered in two hours and seven minutes by the bullet train if it stops at four stations namely Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Mumbai.
According to railway ministry officials, the operating speed of the bullet train will be 320 kilometers per hour and maximum speed will be 350 kilometers per hour.
If the bullet train will stop at all 12 stations, then it will cover the distance in two hours and fifty-eight minutes.
In a day, the high-speed train will make 70 Ahmedabad-Mumbai sorties.
“A total of 24 high-speed trains will be imported from Japan and then rest of the rakes will be manufactured in India,” Mishra said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Thane : Ten coaches of the Nagpur-Mumbai Duronto Express derailed in Maharashtra’s Thane district on Tuesday due to a landslide, officials said.
According to Railways spokesperson Anil Saxena, there were no reports of any casualties or injuries so far in the incident which occurred at around 6.30 a.m., between the Asangaon and Vashind stations.
Saxena told IANS: “Engine and nine coaches of the Duronto Express derailed. Prima facie it appears landslide due to heavy rains caused the accident.”
Heavy rains over the past three days caused a portion of the tracks to breach in the Kasara Ghats section.
Central Railways spokesperson Sunil Udasi appreciated the driver’s prompt action. “The driver applied the emergency brakes on time,” Udasi told IANS.
He said the stranded passengers were being shifted to their destination by buses and taxis.
Top Central Railway officials on Tuesday morning rushed to the spot to supervise relief and rescue operations.
The entire railway line has been affected, including the suburban services in the Mumbai-Thane sectors, hitting morning office peak hour commuters hard.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Mumbai-Pune-Nashik and the Konkan have been battered by torrential rains this week.
This was the third major incident of derailment in the past two weeks in the country and the second affecting the Mumbai suburban sector within a week.
On Friday, four coaches of a Mumbai local derailed near Mahim.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise
New Delhi (IANS) Union Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on Tuesday said the Indian railways system suffers from lack of investment which has hampered its growth.
Railway Minister Prabhu, who spoke at the inauguration event of Comrade Umraomal Purohit Memorial Research Centre here, compared the under-investment situation in the Indian railways with that of the Amtrak railway system of the US.
Prabhu pointed out that studies have shown that Amtrak got “derailed” due to lack of timely investment.
“Similarly, there was lot of concern in India that not enough investment was made into the Indian railway system over the years, hampering its expansion and modernisation,” Prabhu was quoted in a railway ministry statement.
Further Prabhu said that the government’s decision to enhance investments into the sector will save Indian railways from under-investment.
“Now the tempo of investment is continuing and more and more funds will continue to be invested in the railways in the years to come,” the minister said.
“Secondly, we are focusing on brining in best technology to ensure fully safe railway operations. We are also concentrating on more investment in research and development.”
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Investing
New Delhi, (IANS) Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday said he will meet US transport officials next month to finalise areas of cooperation between the two countries in the railway sector.
“I had fruitful discussions with the US Secretary of Transport during my last visit to the US and they were keen on engaging with India in the railway modernisation. I hope the next month’s meeting in the US will help in taking the partnership forward,” Prabhu said.
Speaking at the second Indo-US Infrastructure Summit, he said the Indian Railways have already signed contracts worth Rs.40,000 crore with major global corporations.
“American company General Electric and the French industry major Alstom have signed contracts with the Railways. I hope that more companies would be willing to invest in Indian Railways,” he added.
The minister also said the capital expenditure in Indian Railways has touched an all-time high of Rs.1.39 lakh crore.
“For the first time, the action taken report by the Railways was filed in Parliament and we will continue to do so. Work has already started on the proposals that I made in the budget speech”, he said.
He also spoke about decentralisation of authority in his ministry, claiming that he did not take any commercial decision as a minister.
“All the responsibilities are delegated. We have empowered general managers and others to take expeditious decisions. I only get involved in policy making and decision at macro level”, Prabhu said.
The minister said the Railways would become more passenger friendly in the coming years.
“Railways receive the largest number of complaints daily; it will monitor complaints on real time basis in the times to come,” he said.
