Indian Railways is the highest employer in the world in the public sector. There are more than a hundred thousand employees who are associated with Indian Railways. At present, the Indian Railways has trains running to almost all the towns across the country. The tracks which are present are 70 percent laid down by the British during their regime. There has been only 30 percent which has been laid down by the administration of India. The Indian Railways have the Indian Railways Tourism and Catering Corporation which serves for the amenities of its passengers. There are a whole lot of facilities that this corporation provides for its passengers. Also there is a possibility of booking the tickets online which is the latest feature of the Indian Railways. This feature is helping a whole lot of passengers from various remote destinations. With the advent of internet and the technological advancements, one can very well say that Indian Railways have made the maximum use of the same. The Indian Railway tourism and catering corporation have now introduced their Beta website which is a striking feature. There are many advanced features which make the ticket booking process easier for the customers. The Indian Railways also has the feature to provide food and snacks for the passengers on demand. There is a pantry car which is present in most of the long distance trains which can be availed for by the passengers by paying some money. The Indian Railways have made the improvisations in the first class and the air conditioned coaches. There is more number of trains that are being operated during the festive times and during holidays. Trains to the remote destinations have been introduced in the recent past for the welfare of all the people. Thus the Indian Railways have always proved to be customer friendly.

Maoists blew up a railway track, disrupting rail traffic in Bihar’s Begusarai District.

The ultras blew up the track between the Tilrath and Begusarai stations.

The Saharsha-bound Kosi Express was about to leave Tilrath station, when they got the information of the blast.

One of the gatemen said Maoists had given him a poster that mentioned two bombs placed on the tracks. Maoists also asked him to inform the higher authorities about it.

“Ten minutes later, I heard a very loud noise. I ran towards the station and gave the poster to the station master, which they (Maoists) gave it to me,” said Ram Vilas Yadav, the gateman.

The blast created a large crater.

“The incident happened around 11.30 p.m. (local time). About one metre of the railway track has been destroyed and a crater of about one-and-a-half metres was created. When we were informed, the police force was there on the spot,” said R. K. Mishra, Section Engineer of Badhra Zone.

The workers repaired the tracks and the railway services resumed on Saturday morning. By Pawan Kumar (ANI)

news source – sify news

The latest fare reduction announced by the domestic airline industry has further narrowed the gap between rail and air fares, especially between cities that are more than 750 km apart. Now, a passenger can look forward to travel between Delhi and Chennai for Rs 2,926 on the Delhi-based low-cost airline, IndiGo. This is only marginally higher than the Rs 2,700 that a passenger pays for travel in second AC on the Rajdhani. Air India which is a full service airline now offers fares between Delhi-Bangalore at Rs 5,275. In comparison, First class AC travel in Rajdhani costs Rs 4,625, while it costs Rs 2,765 to travel in second AC. In the last few days, the domestic airline industry has lowered fares passing on the benefits of lower aviation turbine fuel prices.Delhi and Mumbai than what a customer pays for unbranded diesel. The two metro airports are the busiest in the country. On the short-haul routes, however, the fare difference still remains substantial. Between Bangalore and Chennai, a passenger travelling on the Shatabdi is charged Rs 1,105 for travel in first AC, while the journey in second AC costs Rs 965. In comparison, the cheapest full service airline ticket is priced at Rs 2,325.

The airline industry, however, feels that the time and now money saved in air travel will lead to increase in passengers travelling by air. Airline officials point out that a passenger can fly from North India to the furthest point in the South in about four hours, while the same journey by train will take more than 48 hours. Officials indicate that it is still too early to comment on whether the lowering of airfares has seen any rail passengers look at air travel. Travel agents feel that it is still too early to gauge whether the narrowing if fares between rail and air will impact the travel policy of companies. low fare offers by some domestic airlines, rail travel continues to be cheaper in the country. According to sources, the cheap airfares on offer are only a handful whereas the average air travel continues to be expensive

There are several methods made available by many companies. I will point out some of them that I have used and found pretty useful. Just for the reference purposes I am mentioning the sites where the facility is available. None of them are related to my business or interests in any means. There are many web sites providing IRCTC PNR status online, some of them requires you to sign in and some of them allows you to check the status even without signing in. Just do a Google search on IRCTC PNR status, you will get the sites without much problem. In this article I want to mention some offline methods that you need to be aware of in case you don’t have access the internet.

Getting the PNR status for your IRCTC train ticket through mobile and other offline means One option is to install the official irctc mobile application from irctcmobile website Download and use. Its free and pretty easy to use. Another option is to install the ngpay application which helps you to check the PNR status through your mobile. Another way is to call 139. They offer IVRS system which asks your PNR number and tells you the latest status. Now a days all the mobile service providers in India has started giving alerts for IRCTC PNR status. Just contact your customer care for more details on that. Indian citizen can also send SMS to 58888 to get latest IRCTC PNR status. Last but not the least check for the Automated machines in some stations that uses interactive touch technology to give the status. This is now common in major stations throughout India.

Indian Railways has been one of the most viable modes of transport in the country. The upcoming Dussehra Festival celebrations in Mysore will ensure a heavy railway passenger rush to the city. To ensure a smooth tourist visit to Mysore during Dussehra. The Mysore Railways Station will soon have a dedicated website to be launched during the Dussehra Festival for the benefit of tourists.

The website will contain all information about the trains that come to Mysore or stop at Mysore, their timings, numbers and other information. The website will also show a geographical map of the station, including all the facilities available in the station such as a waiting room, lounges and dormitory. Important locations in the city will be marked along with their telephone numbers and places of parking lots will also be mentioned. Location and numbers of all tourist reservation counters will also be mentioned on the website.

The website will be regularly updated for any new developments at the station or change in train timings or new/ special trains passing deployed for such grand occasions such as Dusshera.

Apart from giving relevant rail information, the website for Mysore Railway Station will also have information of all important tourist spots in and around Mysore, the popular eating centres, entertainment centres, shopping centres and other information that is important from a tourist point of view.

Indian Railways Seat Availability – In an effort to make the Unreserved Ticketing Service easily accessible to passengers, Bangalore Division of the South Western Railways is planning to start a Janasadharan Ticket Booking Service at 16 places in the city.Divisional Railway Manager S Mani said the private service providers will sell unreserved tickets at these counters.The railways was also planning to open counters to sell unreserved tickets at 14 passenger reservation system centres across the city.”The counters have already been opened in Indiranagar, Austin Town, Electronic City, Koramangala, Banashankari, Jayanagar and Vijayanagar,” said Mani.”We are speaking to the BMTC and the KSRTC officials to start these counters at the Kempegowda Bus Stand to enable the passengers to buy the tickets as soon as they get down from the bus.”He said it will reduce the load on the counters at Bangalore City and Yeshwantpur stations.”We are also planning to shift the unreserved ticket counters at the Bangalore City Railway Station to the building that houses reservation counters,” said Mani.Mani also said the department would spend Rs 4.5 crore to upgrade the railway station in the next couple of years. A twoway road would be laid by demolishing some buildings to give smooth passage to buses that ply between the station and Kempegowda Bus Stand.A new concourse area with parking facilities, unreserved ticket counters and other facilities will be constructed at the Okalipuramside of the railway station. The digital reservation chart facilities would be extended to Yeshwantpur and Cantonment Railway Stations.

With mounting complaints regarding quality of food served and cartels holding sway over the catering business, the ministry of railways on Friday shifted the blame on its wholly-owned subsidiary Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for the mess in catering management in trains and stations to justify the move of introducing a new catering policy.

Vivek Sahai, chairman of railway board, stressed that under the new policy, the department will work on a no-profit, no-gain principle and serve only cheap and quality food for millions of passengers.

He was at pains to justify the move as IRCTC Indian Railway was created around 10 years ago during Mamata Banerjee’s first stint as railway minister and member (traffic) railway board as its chairman.

“Complaints over the quality of food have been on the rise and IRCTC was not addressing them properly. While IRCTC was responsible for quality of food, the blame was coming to the railways directly. Hence, it has been decided that board will take over the responsibility itself,” Sahai said.

Sahai admitted that there is a dire need to introduce a new catering policy since the existing one failed to live upto its expectations.

He blamed lack of proper monitoring mechanism of IRCTC for the poor quality of food being served on board and at stations.

“Under the new system, the monitoring mechanism will be more effective. As per the new policy, zonal railways will be entrusted with the responsibility of both quality control and monitoring,” he added.

IRCTC stands to lose Rs 400-crore worth of catering business, and will now be responsible for selling e-ticket and i-tickets and running `Rail Neer’ — the in-house mineral water business.

Clarifying that the PSU would not be wound up, Sahai said: “they will focus on tourism business and manage the food plazas. Tourism is a growing industry and there are excellent scope in it.”

East Coast Railway would run 227 including 34 special trains to Puri during the fete.

To cater to the needs of the huge pilgrim crowd 25 special ticket booking counters, besides the regulars would be made operational.

Twenty close circuit security cameras would be installed at a number of stations to monitor the pilgrim crowd.

Saturday’s rain partially disrupted road traffic and train services on Western and Central line.

The Met department recorded a rainfall of 26.13 mm.

While eastern suburbs received 21.85mm of rainfall, the western part recorded 10.98 mms of rain fall.

The Met department reported that from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, Colaba recorded 86.6 mm of rainfall, while Santacruz received 40.3 mm.

Trains on Western line ran late by 10 to 15 minutes, although no cancellations were reported.

However, rail service on the central and harbour lines were badly affected, trains ran late by 60 to 90 minutes.

“Almost 38 trains were cancelled on the main line and 14 on the harbour line,” said Central Railway PRO A.K.Singh.

The airport authorities said that the flights operated normally without any disruptions.

Civic officials said that water logging was reported from several low lying areas like Hindmata, Dadar, Sion, Matunga, Mahim and Andheri subway.

Severe traffic jams were reported at Peddar Road, Babulnath, and JJ flyover, Kalachowkie, Hindmata, Ghatkopar and Haji Ali.

On the other hand, the Western Express Highway, Malad, Borivli and Andheri station road also experienced slow traffic due to water
logging.

The Met department has forecast heavy rains and thunder showers in parts of Mumbai and its suburbs in the next 24 hours.

With the opposition parties calling ‘Bharat bandh’ tomorrow to protest against the price rise, Mumbai police has geared up and will put entire strength of the police force on the city’s streets to avert any untoward incident in Mumbai.

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I appeal people to come out. We have taken all security measures to ensure no untoward incident takes place. Anyone who takes law into their hands and attempts to paralyse the city shall be dealt with strict action,” warned Mumbai police commissioner Sanjeev Dayal.

He urged citizens to call the police in case of violence. “Our entire 40,000 policemen’s force will be on duty to maintain law and order,” Dayal added.

“Besides city police force, additional forces such as rapid action force and state reserve police force will also be present on the street to maintain vigil,” he said.

Mumbai police has short listed the names of ‘trouble makers’ belonging to various political parties and issues notices to them under section 149 of Criminal Procedure Code which allows police to prevent cognizable offences.

“We have issued notices to over 1,000 people associated with various political parties, including BJP, Shiv Sena and MNS, who may create trouble. Some more may receive such notices today as well,” a senior police official told PTI.

“Any person or political party indulge in any act of violence and arson will be made to pay compensation,” the official added.

The government is likely to file a contempt petition against the parties forcing the bandh after Monday.

The state government has set its sight on the Supreme Court judgment to prevent the parties from paralysing the city and rest of the state on July 5.

As the suburban trains are likely to be targeted by protestors supporting bandh, adequate number of railway policemen would be deployed at stations for smooth functioning of railway service, police said.

“We have asked our staff to be on high alert,” said a Western Railways spokesperson adding that “motormen will also be guarded by security men as the protestors may target them to derail train services.”