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Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha on Monday accused the government of trying to take control of the Railway Board through the Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and alleged that it was avoiding scrutiny by a parliamentary panel. Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw moved the Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024, for consideration in the Upper House. The bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha in December last year, seeks to enhance the functioning and independence of the Railway Board. With the inclusion of the Railway Board under the 1989 Railway Act, the appointment, qualifications, tenure and criteria for the Chairman and members of the Board will be the responsibility of the central government. The Bill also includes provisions to appoint an independent regulator that will oversee matters like fare determination and ensure the competitiveness of the Railways. "You have just gone for 'governmentalisation' of the Railway Board," Congress member Vivek K Tankha said while initiating ...
Dilip Kumar, Executive Director of Information & Publicity at the Railway Board, on Sunday, informed that a two-member high-level committee had been formed to investigate the matter and determine the cause of the stampede at New Delhi railway station on Saturday, which claimed around 15 lives."A two-member high-level committee has been formed to investigate the matter," said Dilip Kumar.Kumar has assured that the situation is now under control, and passengers have been accommodated on special trains. Normal train movement has also resumed at the station."The situation is under control, and the passengers have been sent by special train... Train movement at the railway station is normal now," he added.According to Kumar, the station was experiencing an unusually high volume of passengers, prompting the railways to operate four additional special trains to manage the crowd.Unfortunately, the large number of passengers led to a chaotic situation, with reports of people fainting and
Railway Board has extended its deadline for the installation of Automatic Train Protection System, Kavach, on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi Kolkata route from March to December 2025. "Track side equipment for Kavach Version 4.0 on the 3,000 Km route of New Delhi-Mumbai and New Delhi-Kolkata will be completed by Dec, 2025 and work on the remaining section is underway," budget document, 'Railways estimates for Revised Estimates 2024-25 and Budget Estimates 2025-26' shared by the Board on February 1, 2025 said. The Railway Ministry had on August 7 last year said that Kavach work would be completed on the route by March, 2025. "Indian Railways has adopted indigenously developed Kavach as National ATP system in 2020 and after indigenous development specification for Kavach Version 4.0 was approved in July '24. Work for the installation of Kavach on 10,000 locomotives has already started," the budget document said. According to railways, Kavach is a complex technology with multiple components s
More than two years after deploying the Automatic Train Protection System Kavach on 1465 route km in the South Central Zone, the Railway Board has now included it in the Railway Act of 1989 through a recent Gazette notification and framed rules on its functioning. Kavach was adopted as the National ATP system in July 2020 and it was first deployed on 1465 route km in South Central Railway in 2023 and its further installation is ongoing. Safety experts said the deployment helped develop understanding about its functioning and optimisation which further assisted in making rules for its implementation. The government published a gazette notification on January 2 according to which, the Railway Act of 1989 was amended to include Kavach along with its definition. The Board separately framed new rules regarding its functioning and the role of the safety department in Kavach operational territory. On January 20, 2025, the Railway Board sent a written communication with these documents to
The Supreme Court recently said the Railways required immediate corrective steps for the "lapses" in the management of catering stalls at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai. Observing administrative lapses on the part of IRCTC, a bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Aravind Kumar said a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) report filed over the matter indicated "serious negligence" on the part of its divisional officials. The top court said the CVC report should be examined by the Railway administration and placed before competent authorities for action and corrective measures within a month and three months, respectively. "The report of the CVC is required to be implemented on the part of the Railways," it said on January 21. Though the CVC indicated no "mens rea" to initiate criminal action while only indicating negligence on part of the officials, the court underlined the utilisation of "immediate corrective measures" by the Railways to remedy lapses and improve IRCTC's ..
The Railway Board has asked the Centre for Railway Information Systems to provide alert to crew controllers in case of violation of its instructions regarding continuous night duty for running staff such as loco pilots. As per the board's guidelines, Continuous night duty for running staff should be limited to four nights with the fourth night towards the headquarters. However, it has been observed that railways are violating these instructions by continuing to book running staff after 4 consecutive nights due to absence of alert in CMS (Crew Management System), the Board said in its letter dated December 26, 2024 addressed to the managing director of the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS). In CMS reports for the month of October, November and December (till date), total 1360, 1224 and 696 cases of loco pilots with five and more than five continuous night duty were recorded respectively, the board's letter added. Advising CRIS to provide alerts on crew booking console of
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasised the need for three times more efforts on safety, maintenance, quality, and training to modernise infrastructure and provide a world-class experience to commuters. While conferring the 69th Ati Vishisht Rail Seva Puraskar to 101 railway officials and 22 shields to best performing zones in different categories on Saturday at the Bharat Mandapam here, Vaishnaw announced a significant focus on maintenance, innovation, industry collaborations, enhanced inspection systems, and improved training for officers and technicians, incorporating feedback from grassroots levels. Chairman & CEO of Railway Board, Satish Kumar, Members of the Railway Board, and General Managers of various Railway Zones and Production Units attended he event. According to a press statement from the Railway Board, Vaishnaw highlighted the transformative progress achieved by the Railways over the past decade. He emphasised the rapid construction pace, completing projects ...
The Railway Board has launched a safety drive and sought a report within a week after a preliminary investigation into the recent Secunderabad-Shalimar express train derailment attributed the mishap to a technician inadvertently hitting a loose switch of the signalling system. According to railway sources, the switch, also called a 'latch gear', was loose and it got activated as the technician's lower body hit it inadvertently while the train's engine, set for the mainline, was crossing the interlocking point. The point moved to the middle line direction, leading coaches to go on the middle line and resulting in the derailment. Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said the board has taken a very serious note of the incident and initiated a safety drive across the railways. "Safety drives are an integral part of railway mechanisms. We are extremely focused on ensuring the safety and security of passengers. A drive has been launched to further ...
The Railway Board has advised all 17 railway zones and its public sector undertakings to properly maintain reservation roasters of SCs, STs and OBCs so that its effective implementation can be ensured. In a written communication dated October 18 to the general managers of all the zones and the heads of the public sector undertakings as well as autonomous bodies, the board's Chairman and CEO Satish Kumar said that during the sitting of the Parliamentary Committee on Backward Classes held on September 9, the issue of proper implementation of reservation rules and maintenance of reservation rosters in the railways, particularly in its PSUs, were raised by various members. "These issues have also been raised earlier by the National Commission for Backward Classes during meetings or hearings held," he wrote. Kumar added that on May 3, the board emphasized all railway zones to ensure the proper implementation of extant reservation policies and the maintenance of reservation rosters both i