Tag: Indian Railways

Indian Railways has made a significant change in online ticket booking. The change is related to ticket cancellations. As per the new decision, Railways has announced that tickets booked through the Indian Railways website and App will be refunded immediately upon cancellation. At the time of booking the ticket, those only paid through IRCTC iPAY, the payment gateway of IRCTC, will get a quick refund against cancellation. In 2019, Indian Railways introduced the iPAY system. iPAY was launched as part of the central government’s Digital India campaign. Currently, it takes two to three days to get a refund on ticket ... Read more

Safety and security is one of the priority areas by Indian Railways. Apart from safety and security of passengers, Railway Protection Force (RPF) has contributed in a big way during Covid-19 in Indian Railways efforts to sustain its fight against the virus. During the pandemic, RPF remained on the forefront of Indian Railway’s efforts like security of parked rolling stock, providing food to the needy, escorting all Shramik Special trains, handling 45 deliveries and about 34 medical emergencies in Shramik Specials. RPF has formulated a special plan ‘Reach out, secure and rehabilitate’ for protecting Covid orphans. RPF has initiated a ... Read more

Overcoming all hurdles and finding new solutions, Indian Railways is continuing its journey of bringing relief by delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen(LMO) to various states across the country. So far, Indian Railways has delivered nearly 4700 MT of LMO in more than 295 tankers to various states across the country. Yesterday Oxygen Expresses delivered record 831 MT of LMO, a record for One Single day. 75 Oxygen Expresses have already completed their journey so far. It is Indian Railways endeavor to deliver as much LMO as possible in the shortest time possible to the requesting states. Till the time of this ... Read more

The Indian Railways is working on a much-awaited project to connect the Char Dham sites in Uttarakhand through a 327-km-long railway line, ANI has reported. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, taking to Twitter, announced that the Indian Railways is going to make the Char Dham Yatra easy for crores of devotees. “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Railways is going to make the Char Dham Yatra easy for crores of devotees. Devotees will be able to travel by rail to visit Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath situated in the holy plains of Uttarakhand,” Goyal tweeted. The railway line will ... Read more

Indian Railways will introduce the first set of 12 private trains in 2023, followed by 45 more in the following fiscal. According to an initial timeline drawn by the Railways, all 151 private trains will be introduced by the end of financial year 2026-27. Proposals have been invited from companies to run these modern passenger trains on 109 pairs of routes across the country. The project would entail an investment of about Rs 30,000 crore. The request for qualification (RFQ), floated on July 8, is likely to be finalised by November. The financial bids will be open by March 2021 and selection ... Read more

In an effort to restrict the spread of the coronavirus during travel, the Indian Railways has rolled out a prototype of what it calls the first ‘Post COVID Coach’. The new railway coach is designed to reduce the odds of someone getting infected by the virus  during a train journey, by adding hands-free amenities to reduce surface contact.  It has been designed at the Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala, Punjab. “Sustaining the ruthless fight against Covid-19, Indian Railways’ production unit, Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, has developed a Post Covid Coach to fight Covid 19. This post Covid coach has design ... Read more

Rail travel in India is about to get better. Well, at least on paper. The Indian Railways has invited proposals from private companies to run 151 modern passenger trains on 109 pairs of routes across the country. The project would entail private sector investment of about ₹30,000 crore, the Indian Railways said in a statement. This is the first time private investments have been sought for running passenger trains in India. “The objective of this initiative is to introduce modern technology rolling stock with reduced maintenance, reduced transit time, boost job creation, provide enhanced safety, provide world class travel experience to ... Read more

Indian Railways introduces a new OTP based refund system for tickets booked through authorized railway ticketing agents. This is aimed to bring in a transparent and customer friendly refund system for reserved e-tickets which are cancelled or which are fully waitlisted dropped tickets. This new system will be implemented by Indian Railways PSU, Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC). The OTP (One time Password) will be received as SMS on the registered mobile number of the passenger (provided by the customer/passenger to the agent at the time of booking). The customer/passenger will be required to share the OTP ... Read more

Taking a cue from the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s clarion call in his Independence Day speech to eliminate single use plastic in the country from 2nd October, 2019, Indian Railways has once again risen to the occasion to shield the environment from the menace of plastic. Ministry of Railways has directed all Railway units to enforce ban on single use plastic material, with less than 50 micron thickness from 2nd October, 2019. Emphasis is on making necessary arrangements to minimize generation of plastic waste and its eco- friendly disposal. In this regard, Ministry of Railways has issued a circular stating ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: India Rail Info All mountain railways in India will now have vistadome coaches, allowing passengers to enjoy the scenic beauty of hilly terrains. The latest addition of vistadome or glass-enclosed coaches have been made to the Nilgiri Mountain Railway. Luxurious 13 coaches with glass ceiling termed as- Vistadome coaches having panoramic view have been introduced on 8 scenic routes by Ministry of Railways. Some of these coaches will have infotainment system as well along with larger glass windows and high-class interiors. Cost of manufacture of a new Broad Gauge (BG) Vistadome coach is approximately Rs 4 crores. The ... Read more

Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal, launched 3 projects supported through ‘Rail Sahyog’, which is a platform for the Corporates and PSUs to contribute to creation of amenities at or near Railway Stations through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. These projects would help augment Railways infrastructure, improve passenger experience and enhance cleanliness and hygiene. According the initiative, Wi-Fi Facility at 4,791 stations will be carried out by Tata Trust. Indian Railways is striving to provide high speed internet services to its passengers over its network as part of the Prime Minister’s initiative to create ‘Digital India’. Out of 8,738 stations, 6,441 ... Read more

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has flagged off the Bandra- Jamnagar Humsafar Express, at Jamnagar in Gujarat. The tri-weekly special Humsafar Express train service between the cities of Jamnagar and Bandra, is mainly helpful for pilgrims and tourists visiting the holy temple town of Dwaraka as well as the other places of interest in Saurashtra. The inaugural special train will reach the Bandra Terminus Railway station tomorrow, i.e., March 5 at 4:10 AM. The regular train operations of train number 22923/22924 Humsafar Express will begin on March 6 from Bandra Terminus Railway station and on March 7 from Jamnagar. Train number 22923 Bandra Terminus-Jamnagar ... Read more

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal launches the new feature As part of enhancing travel experience of the passengers and to bring greater transparency, a new facility for ‘Public Viewing of Train Charts and Vacant Berths’ is launched by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways & Coal. Railway Board Chairman, V K Yadav, Member Traffic, Railway Board, Girish Pillai, other Railway Board Members and senior officials from Railways were also present on the occasion. The information about occupancy in trains as per Passenger Reservation Charts will now be available for public view on the internet through IRCTC website (www.irctc.co.in). This will facilitate ... Read more

  On the formation of Telengana state, Indian Railways was required to examine establishing a new railway zone in the successor State of Andhra Pradesh. The matter has been examined in detail in consultation with stake holders and it has been decided to go ahead with creation of a new zone with headquarter at Visakhapatnam. The new zone named ‘South Coast Railway (SCoR)’, will comprise of existing Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions.  It was announced by Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Railways. Accordingly, Waltair division shall be split into two parts. One part of Waltair division will be incorporated in ... Read more

India’s first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) is coming up in Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Corridor. The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal, which include construction of RRTS, covering a distance of 82.15 km (68.03 km elevated and 14.12 km underground) at a total completion cost of Rs 30,274 crores Photo for representative purpose only Cabinet also approved Central financial assistance of Rs 5,634 crore in the form of grant and sub-ordinate debt. Decision on institutional arrangement and legal framework for the project and conditions of sanction of the project also has been taken. The RRTS is a first-of-its-kind, rail-based, high-speed regional transit ... Read more