Centre gives nod to Rs 1,000-crore plan to upgrade Amritsar railway station
The Union railway ministry has chalked out a Rs 1,000-crore redevelopment programme for the Amritsar Railway Station that envisages new platforms, LED lighting system, elevators, Wi-Fi, malls, smart parking.
Tenders for the project, to be carried out with international expertise, will be floated soon, said Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik in the House on Saturday.
Malik added that railway minister Suresh Prabhu has already given a formal approval to this project.
“Preliminary concept plan for the project has been developed and a presentation given to the engineering department of the railways. The advertisement for international design competition is likely to be ready within a month and half,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Centre gives nod to Rs 1,000-crore plan to upgrade Amritsar railway station
punjab Updated: Apr 02, 2017 14:59 IST
HT Correspondent
HT Correspondent
Hindustan Times, Amritsar
Centre
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu.(HT File Photo)
The Union railway ministry has chalked out a Rs 1,000-crore redevelopment programme for the Amritsar Railway Station that envisages new platforms, LED lighting system, elevators, Wi-Fi, malls, smart parking.
Tenders for the project, to be carried out with international expertise, will be floated soon, said Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik in the House on Saturday.
Malik added that railway minister Suresh Prabhu has already given a formal approval to this project.
“Preliminary concept plan for the project has been developed and a presentation given to the engineering department of the railways. The advertisement for international design competition is likely to be ready within a month and half,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Ads by ZINC
“The tourism ministry has also sanctioned Rs 13 crore for the station and it will construct executive lounge on first floor,” he added.
NITI AAYOG OKAYS TO Rs 300CR 26KM FEROZEPURPATTI RAIL LINK
With the railways releasing Rs 300 crore for 25.47-km Ferozepur-Patti rail link — Patti (in Tarn Taran district) to Makhu (a rural town under Zira subdivision in Ferozepur district) — decks have been cleared for shorter travel between the northern states.
The project sanctioned by the Union railway ministry in 2013 had now also got the approval of the Niti Aayog. The link will connect Srinagar, Anantnag, Udhampur, Jammu, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Batala, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Patti, Ferozepur, Guruharsahai, Jalalabad, Fazilka and Abohar to Mumbai via Sri Ganganagar (Rajasthan) which would ultimately promote the overall development of the entire backward border belt of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/punja...way-station/story-qlRdjB0AQZhXrj8jZQU17J.html
Bullet train gets past major hurdle over BKC land
The railways have crossed a major hurdle in rolling out the ambitious bullet train project as the Maharashtra government has agreed to give land at the Bandra-Kurla complex (BKC).
The starting point of the Mumbai-ahmedabad high speed corridor at BKC was a bone of contention between the railways and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) as the latter was strongly opposed to giving land to the public transporter.
The proposed bullet train will start underground from BKC and travel 21 km in a tunnel passing through the sea before emerging overground at Thane.
The MRDA had wanted to use the BKC land for the proposed International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at BKC.
The state Urban Development Department had also asked the railways to explore alternatives near Bandra Terminus and Kurla.
However, the railways had rejected the suggestion and managed to convince the MMRDA that India's first high speed rail project should be constructed at an underground terminus at BKC, a senior Railway Ministry official said.
Since the station is planned to be built underground, the above space can be utilised for IFSC construction, the official said.
There are a total of 12 stations on the 508-km route — four of which are in Maharashtra and eight in Gujarat.
A formal announcement is likely to be made by the railways and Maharashtra soon ending the uncertainities over location of the starting point of India's first bullet train project, the official said.
The total land available at BKC is about 67 acres and the project needs about 10 acre land.
Passenger area, platforms, escalators, lifts among others will be constructed underground at BKC.
Estimated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81 per cent of the funding for the project will come by way of a loan from Japan. The project cost includes possible cost escalation, interest during construction and import duties.
Maharashtra and Gujarat will also share 25 per cent cost each for the project.
Currently geo-technical survey is going on to be followed by the final location survey to mark the alignment and exact spots for the pillars on which trains will run at higher speed to reduce the travelling time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad drastically.
It takes about seven hours to travel between the two cities and the bullet train aims to reduce it to about two hours.
Construction of the corridor is expected to start in 2018 and is estimated to be completed by 2023.
http://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/bullet-train-gets-past-major-hurdle-over-bkc-land/1024950
Bullet train project gets past major hurdle regarding BKC land
The railways have crossed a major hurdle in rolling out the ambitious bullet train project as the Maharashtra government has agreed to give land at the Bandra-Kurla complex (BKC). The starting point of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed corridor at BKC was a bone of contention between the railways and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) as the latter was strongly opposed to giving land to the public transporter.
The proposed bullet train will start underground from BKC and travel 21 km in a tunnel passing through the sea before emerging overground at Thane.
The MRDA had wanted to use the BKC land for the proposed International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at BKC.
The state Urban Development Department had also asked the railways to explore alternatives near Bandra Terminus and Kurla.
However, the railways had rejected the suggestion and managed to convince the MMRDA that India’s first high speed rail project should be constructed at an underground terminus at BKC, a senior Railway Ministry official said.
Since the station is planned to be built underground, the above space can be utilised for IFSC construction, the official said.
There are a total of 12 stations on the 508-km route — four of which are in Maharashtra and eight in Gujarat.
A formal announcement is likely to be made by the railways and Maharashtra soon ending the uncertainties over location of the starting point of India’s first bullet train project, the official said.
The total land available at BKC is about 67 acres and the project needs about 10 acre land.
Passenger area, platforms, escalators, lifts among others will be constructed underground at BKC.
Estimated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81 per cent of the funding for the project will come by way of a loan from Japan. The project cost includes possible cost escalation, interest during construction and import duties.
Maharashtra and Gujarat will also share 25 per cent cost each for the project.
Currently geo-technical survey is going on to be followed by the final location survey to mark the alignment and exact spots for the pillars on which trains will run at higher speed to reduce the travelling time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad drastically.
It takes about seven hours to travel between the two cities and the bullet train aims to reduce it to about two hours.
Construction of the corridor is expected to start in 2018 and is estimated to be completed by 2023.
http://indianexpress.com/article/in...past-major-hurdle-regarding-bkc-land-4606151/
Railways clocked best-ever numbers in some segments; road projects too, says Edelweiss
Financial year 2017 witnessed good performance by both the railway and road segments. News reports indicated that as far as the freight business is concerned, Indian Railways (IR) carried 1,107 MT of goods in FY17, the highest-ever in its history; also, originating passengers for IR increased after a hiatus of 4 years while passenger earnings jumped by ~`19 bn versus last year. Broad Gauge (BG) line commissioning at 2,855 km in FY17 was the highest ever; so was electrification of 2,013 km of lines in FY17 (up 16% y-o-y).
Road project awards in FY17 touched ~16,000 km as against ~10,000 km in FY16. With NHAI project awards being flat y-o-y, the entire increase came from state PWDs’ awards. Flat performance by NHAI was a dampener for listed road companies which mainly compete for NHAI projects.
Road construction in FY17 touched ~8,100 km versus ~6,000 km in FY16 and ~4,400 km in FY15 — while NHAI construction was up 32% y-o-y, MoRTH project construction was up 36% y-o-y. The key beneficiaries in the roads space include KNR Constructions (BUY), Sadbhav Engineering (BUY), PNC Infratech (BUY) and Ashoka Buildcon (BUY). The railway sector beneficiaries include KEC International (BUY) and logistic companies like CONCOR (Not Rated).
IR turns corner on freight business
To tackle loss of market share in the freight business, IR has taken several steps to attract more freight on its network. These measures seem to be bearing fruit with IR carrying 1,107 MT of goods in FY17. IR exceeded the revised freight target of 1,094 MT in FY17, despite the tough market scenario and surpassed the 1,102 MT freight carried in FY16. For FY18, IR is targeting 1,165MT of freight loading.
Freight rebates: To make itself competitive, IR withdrew the busy season surcharge and port congestion charges. News reports indicate that annual loading from Coal India in FY17 is expected to be ~223 rakes per day, which is the highest ever.
Expansion of freight basket: News reports suggest that IR achieved this by expanding its basket to include goods like automobiles, stones, vegetable oil, chemical, fly ash, red mud, timber, etc. During FY17, IR carried ~80 MT of these “other goods”. In addition, IR hauled 137 MT of iron ore in FY17 compared to 117 MT in FY16. IR also witnessed highest steel loading of 48 MT surpassing the previous best of 42.5 MT.
Passenger segment sees growth after 4 years
Originating passengers for IR had been declining continuously since FY13. To reverse this, IR had initiated multitude of steps to improve service quality for passengers. These include starting 87 new trains and increasing frequencies of certain trains; also, 586 additional coaches were added in regular trains. News reports suggest that as a result, originating passengers for IR have increased after a gap of 4 years while passenger earnings have spurted by `19 billion compared to last year. We believe this is a huge positive as far as IR’s earnings and profitability are concerned.
Railway capex on an uptrend
IR commissioned 2,855 km of BG lines in FY17; the target for FY18 is 3,500 km of rail lines. IR exceeded its target by electrifying more than 2,000 km of lines in FY17 (up 16% y-o-y). For FY18, the electrification target at 4,000 km is almost double that of FY17.
http://www.financialexpress.com/eco...ents-road-projects-too-says-edelweiss/621846/
Railways supply chain to go digital ?
The Indian Railways will be launching digital contract, a system of digitisation of its entire supply chain across all zones.
The step is aimed at improving the ease of doing business and transparency.
With 100 per cent E-tenders and E-auctions already assimilated into the system, railways are further planning to build on these initiatives to achieve seamless flow of material, finances and information.
Digital contract, a seamlessly integrated digital supply chain, to be launched by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on April 11, envisages involving stakeholders including industries, financial institutions, internal customers of railways and inspecting agencies to create an efficient, responsive and transparent system.
The system includes digitisation of processes like bill submission, inspection, dispatches, receipt, bill passing and bill payments, warrantee monitoring and enabling use of analytics for increasing supply chain efficiencies in real time.
"Digitisation of supply chain should be seen as a tool for generating efficiencies, reducing entry barriers and transaction costs and increasing transparency," said a senior Railway Ministry official.
Railways have a vast supply chain to maintain, sustain and build its huge asset base, to run the system, and to provide transportation service which is safe, secure and efficient.
The supply chain of railways has a large number of stakeholders and involves huge recurring expenditure of the order of Rs 50,000 crore annually.
This supply chain of railways generates large volumes of business and employment upstream, hence it is critical in railway functioning.
Digitisation of processes can also help in linking budgets directly with the outcomes, a move government is focusing on, the official said.
Such digitization will enable use of analytics for decision-making, reduce inventories and reduce procurement cycle time leading to reduced cost of products/services.
The railways have been stressing on the need for maximising use of ICT for increasing transparency and efficiency of government business processes on the one hand and improving ease of doing business on the other.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had highlighted the commitment of the ministry in his budget speech 2016.
"We intend to usher into a new era by switching over to paperless contract management system, where not only the bids are invited online but the entire process leading to award of a tender is also done electronically.We have completed the trial run for the above and intend to roll it out on all India basis in next financial year."
Since paperless tender finalisation has been implemented and the entire process from publication of tenders to issue of acceptance letter is now digital we are going to launch digital contracting, which is resulting from digital and paperless decision making process, the official said.
The supply chain digitisation would encompass integration of information flows, physical flows, and financial flows between railways and its supply chain partners.
It involves completely digitising the internal business processes of material supply chain and seamlessly integrating processes controlled by different stakeholders digitally to achieve a completely integrated, paperless and digitised supply chain.
The supply chain of Indian Railways is regulated through a single online website, which handles more than Rs 50,000 crore procurement through 100 per cent E-tenders annually.
The supply chain also handles more than Rs 2,500 crore auction sale through 100 per cent E-auctions in a year.
Besides, having more than 52,000 registered vendors for supplies, the vast supply chain handles more than 2,664 registered bidders for sale of scrap material.
This huge supply chain is managed from the headquarters of 17 zonal railways and 8 production units with more than 300 field locations spread across the length and breadth of the country.
Any transformational change in such a huge supply chain, requires innovative and out of the box solutions, while being within the public procurement systems.
In the last few years, the railways have substantially enhanced ICT for digitization of supply chain starting with e-tendering and e-auctions and moving towards paperless decision making process.
The railways' journey towards digital supply chain is now moving towards complete supply chain digitization.
Railways are holding a conference tomorrow which aims at creating a platform for different stakeholders to share their plans and ideas for identifying challenges and opportunities for achieving the vision of completely digitized supply chain.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/8591768_Railways-supply-chain-to-go-digital--.html
For Indian Railways, Santa Claus never came all this while: Suresh Prabhu
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday drew a parallel between the Centre's decision to get railway infrastructure financed from resources outside the Budget to that of Santa Claus coming on Christmas eve.
"Santa Claus comes only when he wishes to. He will not come when you want him to come. The railways has been waiting for Santa Claus for too long," he said addressing a gathering after launching various infrastructure projects of the Konkan Railway simultaneously in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
"Unfortunately, the Santa Claus had many-many other children to take care of, so he did not find railway as a very attractive destination," he said.
The minister was referring to the union government's initiative to have railway infrastructure financed by raising resources outside the Budget.
"We have started financing railway infrastructure by raising resources outside the Budget. I prepared a (infrastructure upgradation) plan of Rs 8,66,000 crore which I presented to the Parliament more than two years ago.
I am happy to say that during the last two and a half years, the amount of capital expenditure we have created is about Rs 3,50,000 crore," he said.
"This year the capital expenditure, the plan outlay is Rs 1,31,000 crore. The finance minister has provided the support of Rs 65,000 crore, so the balance of Rs 66,000 crore is coming from outside the Budget.
So if we don't create infrastructure at the right time and if we still wait for the Santa Claus to come, it will not happen," the minister said.
Prabhu said all these years the lack of funding for railways resulted in several negatives.
"Railways did not get money and it suffered. The suffering of the railways was reflected in the fact that our capacity to add freight was going down, efficiency had gone down, we were not able to upgrade infrastructure... Electrification and all of this had taken a big hit," he said.
Hailing the achievements for last couple of years, Prabhu said "at first we (government) decided to raise the resources."
"The World Bank is keen to finance the railways and the Asian Development Bank has also come up with the proposal to finance the railways as they claim that they have seen so much action in this department," he said.
There will be externally financed projects for the railways which will help boost the infrastructure.
http://www.business-standard.com/ar...-this-while-suresh-prabhu-117040900442_1.html
