NHSRCL, the implementing agency of the Railways” bullet train project, said Saturday that they have reworked the design of the station in Thane, Maharashtra, to reduce the number of affected mangroves from the estimated 53,000 to 32,044.

National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHRSCL) MD Achal Khare said in a statement that all the required wildlife, forest and CRZ clearance has been taken. He said the forest clearance came with a few conditions. The Environment Ministry had put a condition that the Thane station design be reviewed so that the affected mangrove region can be reduced.

“That without changing the location of Thane station, in what all ways can we reduce the Mangrove region – this is what we discussed that design with Japanese engineers and modified it accordingly,” Mr Khare said.

“Passenger areas like the parking area and passenger handling area have now been moved out of the mangrove region. The location of station is the same but after redesigning it, earlier 12 hector mangrove region was getting affected in Thane, but now only three hector will get affected. So this way, we have reduced around 21,000 mangroves and now only 32,044 mangroves will get affected from the entire project. Earlier there were around 53,000 mangroves getting affected,” he said.

Mr Khare further said that the NHSRCL will get the mangroves affected by the bullet train project compensated at the rate of 1:5, by depositing money into mangroves cell, which will do the compensatory afforestation.

“So the number of mangroves which are getting cut is 32,044. Then around 1,60,000 new mangroves will be planted and the entire financial expense will be borne by NHSRCL. New mangroves will be planted through mangrove cells,” he added.

Earlier, Maharashtra Transport Minister Diwakar Raote had said on Monday in a reply to a question in the state Legislative Council that as many as 54,000 mangroves spread over 13.36 hectares will be affected because of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor.

Indian Railways allows its passengers to book wait-listed (WL) or reservation-against-cancellation (RAC) ticket apart from buying confirmed tickets for travelling on its trains. The PNR status of the ticket can be checked online on mobile applications and websites. The advance booking for train ticket opens 120 days before the date of journey, according to IRCTC’s official website – irctc.co.in. Passengers booking a ticket are assigned a passenger name record (PNR) number and a specific status while booking the tickets which can be confirmed later depending on the rush for that journey. If the passenger PNR status is marked as WL followed by a number, it means the passenger has a waitlisted status. (Also Read:Want To Book Indian Railways Tatkal Ticket? Find Out Timings, Charges Here)

PNR Status: Here is how you can check railways reservation status online:

Travellers who have booked a wait-listed or an RAC ticket can check their train PNR status by going online on indianrail.gov.in or clicking on NDTV Rail Beeps website application.

After logging on the page the user will be asked to put in their 10-digit PNR number which is mentioned on the top left side of the train ticket. Once the person mentions his or her PNR status he/she is required to click on the ‘check status’ link. Upon clicking that link reservation status will be displayed on the website.

Travellers can also check their reservation status by dialing 139 from their phones. Indian Railways also provides facility to check PNR status via SMS as well. In case of checking PNR status from SMS, travellers need to send an SMS to 139 mentioning their PNR number, Indian Railways said.

On a PNR which has all the passengers on waiting list at the time of charting, the name of such waitlisted passengers will not appear in the charts and such passengers, if found travelling, will be treated as unauthorized and charged accordingly, IRCTC noted on its website.

 A man, who was on the run since 2011 for allegedly killing his live-in partner and abandoning her body outside New Delhi Railway station, died in a hospital in Delhi Wednesday, police said.

The accused, identified as Raju Gehlot, allegedly killed his live-in partner Neetu Solanki in 2011, they said.

Police said he got himself admitted to the hospital under a fake name to hide his identity. He was being treated for a liver ailment and died at a private hospital in Gurgaon Wednesday.

Police are probing whether he was accompanied by any relative or a friend. They are also investigating where Gehlot had been staying all these years.

The accused, a proclaimed offender, was carrying a reward of Rs. two lakh.

Neetu Solanki’s body was found stuffed inside an air bag near the New Delhi Railway Station on February 11, 2011 and had remained unidentified until February 23.

Neetu Solanki used to work in the hospitality sector of a private airline.

Raju Gehlot’s involvement in killing Neetu Solanki was revealed after the arrest of his relative Naveen Shokeen, who allegedly helped Gehlot indispose off the body.

A slug has been blamed for a power outage that halted dozens of trains and delayed 12,000 passengers in Japan, the railway operator said Sunday.

The power failed on a couple of lines serving southern Japan operated by Kyushu Railway Co., known as JR Kyushu, on May 30.

The company was forced to cancel 26 train journeys and delay other services, causing chaos in a country known for the efficiency of its punctual transport systems.

Weeks after the power outage, JR Kyushu said they had found the culprit — a slug, which had made its way into an electrical power device installed near rail tracks.

“We tracked down the device responsible for the power failure… We initially thought what’s in there was a bug but it turned out to be a dead slug,” a company spokesman told AFP.

Local media said the slug had been burned to death after short-circuiting the device.

The official said he did not know if this set a new precedent but described it as “rare”.

A team of private public relations professionals will soon drive the railways’ publicity campaign both at the Union ministry in the national capital as well as in each of its zones, with the national transporter for the first time issuing a set of guidelines to hire such private agencies to manage its publicity.

Sources said currently, around 70 officers – including one chief public relations officer (PRO) in each of its 18 zones — were engaged in disseminating information to the media about the railways and running its social media handles, along with several senior PROs and public relation inspectors.

Now, a team of 17 private PR professionals will be hired for each zone to assist them.

“We already have private agencies working with us in the zones, who help us with our publicity work. This is not new. What we have done now is that we have tried to standardise the process,” a senior Railway Board official said.

According to the guidelines, a team of 17 trained professionals, including a team leader, a social media manager, content analysts, content writers, video editors and others — will be engaged in each zone. Each of these teams, sources said will be hired at a cost of around Rs.2 crore.

The model document for the selection of such an agency issued by the railways states that these teams will work in collaboration with the chief public relations officers (CPROs) and handle social media activities, aggregate the grievances received by the national transporter through such forums, analyse media coverage, assist in gathering and dissemination of information to the media and also prepare reports to be submitted monthly and quarterly to senior officials.

The teams will also be tasked with creating a dashboard in their respective zones, where all news articles and television clips concerning the zone will be available online. The sources said this alone would be accomplished at a cost of around Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh per team.

The teams will be formulating strategies for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. They will also identify issues, themes and “social media influencers who are active in the media”, the sources said.

“Most of our officials engaged in publicity-related activities are not trained in this. They are railway officers. In this digital age, where communication is a significant aspect of governance, we need trained professionals. However, our CPROs will provide all the content and material for the information disseminated by these teams,” the Railway Board official

An order issued to officials of the Southern Railway to communicate only in English or Hindi was struck down on Friday following a new controversy in Tamil Nadu less than two weeks after a widespread uproar over allegations of Hindi being imposed on South Indian states.

In a circular dated June 12, the Chennai Division of the Southern Railway asked Divisional Control Offices and Station Masters to communicate either in English or Hindi, and avoid the use of regional languages, to prevent confusion.

Sources said the order was sent out after a collision between two trains was narrowly averted following a misunderstanding among officials speaking different languages.

Opposition parties, however, objected to the order. DMK and PMK called it another instance of Hindi being imposed on the state where the subject of linguistic identity is very sensitive.

DMK leader MK Stalin called it, “Hindi domination and destruction of a language” and warned Southern Railway that “We will stop you if you don’t stop this.” “They are playing with sentiments of Tamil people and provoking us,” he added. DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran also met the General Manager of Southern Railway.

Saying that a large number of North Indians were employed by the railways across Tamil Nadu, PMK Chief Dr Ramadoss said, “Non-Tamil-speaking railway employees ought to be instructed to learn Tamil. That’s the solution.”

Facing criticism, Southern Railways hastily scrapped the order, issuing a new one on Friday that asked officials to communicate without ambiguity.

Earlier this month, the central government made a big change in its draft education policyafter a huge outcry over a three-language plan that required children in southern states to compulsorily learn Hindi. In the new draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019, the reference to Hindi was removed in the controversial clause.

Last month, a panel led by Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, a former chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), had put forward the draft that said Hindi and English would continue to be among the three languages students would study in schools, be it in Hindi or non-Hindi speaking states.

Thousands, especially in the southern states, had protested what was seen as an effort to make Hindi mandatory till Class 8.

The subject of Hindi being taught in schools in South India has been an emotive one, particularly in Tamil Nadu. In pre-Independence era, the region saw anti-Hindi protests in 1937 that went on till 1940. In 1965, the issue flared once again, triggering riots that killed as many as 70 people. The incident led to an assurance by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that Hindi will not be imposed on non-Hindi speaking states till they want and English would continue as a link language.

Seventy trains in Gujarat have been cancelled and twenty-eight have been partially cancelled by the railways as Cyclone Vayu inches closer to the state’s coastline. The cancellation of the trains will come into effect from today evening at 6 pm for two days for the areas which will be affected after Cyclone Vayu hits Gujarat’s coastline. Special trains will instead run from these areas, according to a statement tweeted by the Indian Railways. Cyclone Vayu, which instensified into a severe cyclonic storm yesterday, is expected to hit the Gujarat coast between Porbandar and Mahuva around Veraval and Diu region.

Nearly three lakh people are being evacuated starting today as Cyclone Vayu is set to make landfall. They will be shifted to around 700 cyclone and relief shelters. Gujarat’s Gandhidham, Bhavnagar Para, Porbandar, Veravar and Okha will likely be the areas which will feel the most significant impact as the cyclone enters land.

The entire coastline has been on high alert since yesterday, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told reporters. Schools and colleges along the entire coastline will remain closed till tomorrow.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed preparations being made to brace the impact of the cyclone. The Home Ministry has also sent detailed advisories to Gujarat and the Union Territory of Diu.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted to say the central government was “closely monitoring the situation” and said that he was “constantly in touch with state governments” to review the situation.

“Praying for the safety and wellbeing of all those affected by Cyclone Vayu. The Government and local agencies are providing real-team information, which I urge those in affected areas to closely follow,” he said in another tweet.

A five star hotel in Kanpur is under the scanner for serving stale food to passengers, one of whom was Fatehpur Lok Sabha lawmaker and Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, on board the Railways’ fastest train Vande Bharat Express, senior IRCTC officials said Tuesday.

Acting on the complaint of a Colonel in the Indian Army, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) which provides food on board the train is likely to penalise the hotel which supplies food for the train.

The complaint was received on June 9, they said.

“We have received the complaint from the passenger and we will take action. Prima facie it looks like the five star hotel in Kanpur supplied rice which was not fresh to the passengers. The Group General Manager, North, IRCTC is now at the hotel inspecting their food preparing and packaging chain.

“They have noticed that they are carrying the food in a non-AC vehicle which could have caused the problem. Because of the extreme heat things got aggravated. But this cannot be allowed and we will take corrective measures,” Rajesh Kumar, Group General Manager, Tourism, IRCTC told PTI.

Temperature soared to a high of 48 degrees on Sunday as northern India faced extreme heat wave.

The body of a woman was found in the Delhi-Saharanpur Janta Express at Shamli railway station, the railway police said today.

The woman, whose body was found on Sunday evening, has not been identified yet, they said.

The body has been sent for post mortem, they added.

For the first time in the history of Indian Railways, massage services will be made available for passengers on board running trains.

This facility will be made available in 39 trains departing from Indore, a railway official said today.

This was a proposal from the Ratlam division of Western Railway zone, the official said.

“This is the first time in history of railways that we will provide massaging service for passenger comfort on running trains. It will not only increase revenue but also add passengers. Railways will earn an additional revenue of Rs. 20 lakh annually and an estimated increase of Rs. 90 lakh per year through additional sale of tickets from about 20,000 passengers who will avail the services. This is the first time that such a contract has been signed,” said Rajesh Bajpai, director, media and communication, railway board.

The service will be available for Rs. 100 each for foot massage and head massage.

This scheme is part of the railways’ scheme whereby zones and divisions have been asked to come out with new and innovative ideas to generate non-fare revenue for the national transporter.

IRCTC or Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, the online ticketing arm of the Indian Railways, allows senior citizens, journalists and persons with disabilities to book concessional tickets through its website – irctc.co.in. Other eligible individuals can avail the concession by booking the tickets from the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) countersat the railway stations. For booking senior citizen concession tickets from IRCTC’s website, passengers are required to select “avail concession” option under “option for senior citizen concession” section of passenger details form. The quantum of these concession ranges from 40 per cent to 50 per cent, according to IRCTC.

Given below are key things to know about IRCTC senior citizen concession:

1. Concessions on fares are available for male senior citizens of minimum 60 years and female senior citizen of minimum 58 years. The element of concession is 40 per cent for men senior citizens and 50 per cent for women senior citizens, according to IRCTC.

2. The reduction in fares are available in all classes of Mail/Express/Rajdhani/Shatabdi/Jan Shatabdi/Duronto group of trains.

3. Passengers availing senior citizen concession have to carry a proof of age while travelling, according to IRCTC.

4. Senior citizen passengers who wish to opt out of the concession fully or some part and contribute towards nation development may book their tickets without the concession element. To book tickets without senior citizen concession, such passengers can select “forgo full concession” option under “option for senior citizen concession” section of passenger details form.

5. To book tickets with 50 per cent of senior citizen concession, such passengers can select “forgo 50 per cent concession” option under “option for senior citizen concession” section of passenger details form.

Buoyed by the success of the Vande Bharat Express between New Delhi and Varanasi, the Railways is planning to explore the possibility of running such semi-high speed trains between Mumbai to Pune, Nashik and Vadodara.

The Vande Bharat Express has reduced the travel time between New Delhi and Varanasi by 40 per cent.

“We want to check whether the same train can be replicated for Mumbai to Pune or Mumbai to Nashik or Mumbai to Baroda (Vadodara)….trial runs will begin in the next week,” member (Rolling Stock), Railway Board Rajesh Agrawal said.

“We are going to start trial runs from the next week on the Vande-Bharat pattern. One AC-EMU rake and one non-AC MEMU rake will be given to the Central and Western Railways.

If the trial goes as per plan, we can reduce the travel time between Mumbai to Pune and Nashik to within two hours,” said Mr Agrawal, an ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India.

“No final decision has been taken yet. As of now, we are going to explore only the possibility,” he said.

Traffic congestion and upgradation of infrastructure including the tracks are bigger challenges for the railways, he said.

Mr Agrawal also said that by the end of March 2020, the railways has planned to run 12 AC locals in Mumbai, six each on the Central and Western suburban lines.

“We have no shortage of coaches as the coach production has seen a quantum jump…Till previous year, all coach factories used to produce less that 4,000 coaches annually and this year the number has been scaled up to 6,000.

Next year our target is to produce 8,000 coaches,” he said.

Mr Agrawal, who was in the city to review various works carried out by the Central Railway and Western Railway, lauded preparations for the monsoon, and expressed hope that even a rainfall of 200 mm in 24 hours will not disrupt the local train services this year.

From the BJP’s treasurer to its go-to man who has held coal, power, railways and finance portfolios, 54-year-old Piyush Goyal’s rise has been phenomenal.

A chartered accountant by profession, Mr Goyal, known for his corporate network developed during his days as an investment banker, is considered to be a key backroom strategist who played a significant role in resource mobilisation of the party.

Considered a blue-eyed boy of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, Mr Goyal was given the finance portfolio in May last year which he held till August, while Arun Jaitley was recuperating from a kidney transplant.

He was again handed over the charges of the Finance Ministry in January this year, when Mr Jaitley fell ill and presented the Interim Budget in Parliament.

Political observers say the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has not appointed another treasurer after Mr Goyal, depends on him to raise funds for the party.

Known to work with a team of around 20 trusted advisors, mostly graduates of top business schools, Mr Goyal has facts, figures, spreadsheets on the activities of his ministry at his disposal at all times. In fact, most of his public engagements through the day are streamed live on Twitter by his team.

As a railway minister, Mr Goyal, a Rajya Sabha member, achieved several firsts — it was during his tenure the government announced its first bullet train which would run from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, the prime minister’s home state, manufactured its first indigenously-built and engine-less high-speed train Vande Bharat Express, commissioned its longest bridge, converted a diesel loco into an electric one for the first time, built its first transport university, its first air-conditioned local train and perhaps its biggest first in last three decades – lowest accident figures.

He is also credited for making transformational changes in India’s power sector, including fast tracking of electrification of nearly 18,000 unelectrified villages, roll out of UDAY, a comprehensive reform of the power sector, world’s largest LED bulb distribution programme, UJALA for energy efficiency and a massive renewable energy expansion programme.

Mr Goyal, a technology buff, has also taken the initiative of digitising governance which he says brings transparency in the government — from e-auction of coal blocks to free WiFi across railway stations and live feed for passengers of how railway meals are cooked and packed — as a minister he has taken strides in using technology to simplify working of the ministries under him.

From an illustrious political family, his father Vedprakash Goyal was former Union minister of Shipping, and National Treasurer of the BJP for over two decades and his mother Chandrakanta Goyal was a three time MLA from Mumbai.

The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) made an epic comeback after a user of its official ticket booking application complained of obscene advertisements on the app.

The IRCTC app user, named Anand Kumar, tweeted to IRCTC’s official account, tagging Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, that he was seeing obscene ads on the IRCTC app and even attached screenshots of the advertisements visible on his mobile screen.

“Obscene and vulgar ads are very frequently appearing on the IRCTC ticket booking app. This is very embarrassing and irritating @RailMinIndia @IRCTCofficial @PiyushGoyalOffc kindly look into it,” he tweeted.

Soon after IRCTC’s response on Twitter, social media flooded with memes, trolling the user.

Megha Kaveri tweeted, “When IRCTC burns you like there is no tomorrow.”

However, web developer named Gagandeep S Luthra said that the IRCTC’s HTML code shows Javascript loaded from a push notification platform, which is not strictly monitored and one can send any link.

“A look at the irctc html code shows Javascript Loaded from http://izooto.com, which is a Push Notification Platform. Push Notifications are not strictly monitored and one can send any vulgar link endlessly using that. I was surprised to see its use on irctc,” Luthra tweeted, attaching the screenshot of the HTML codes.

For the first time in Jammu and Kashmir, an electric bus service was operationalised on Monday in Jammu city. An official statement said, “K Skandan, advisor to state Governor today flagged off the electric bus service from Railway Station, Jammu.” The advisor said that the government would initially operate 40 electric buses in the state.

He emphasised on running more electric buses that would protect the environment and also benefit the people. He said that with the commencement of electric bus service, the state has made advances towards an electric vehicle fleet for its public transport needs as these buses are fully eco-friendly with no pollution.

An electric bus can cover a distance of around 150 kms on a single charge besides various charging stations would be installed at different locations en route the destinations. The buses have also been equipped with CCTV cameras.

 Suburban train services of the Central Railway (CR) were affected Sunday evening after a coach of a Kalyan-CSMT local train derailed between Vidyavihar and Kurla stations, an official said.

Before the derailment, a short circuit was spotted in a ladies compartment around 7 pm when the train was approaching Vidyavihar on the slow track, he said.

After some women commuters drew station officials’ attention to sparks and flames coming out a switch board in the ladies compartment, the train was halted.

After the problem was resolved, the train resumed its journey towards the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in south Mumbai, but one of its coaches derailed around 8.55 pm, the CR official said.

As a result, locals running on the slow track were shifted to the fast track, delaying several services, he said.

Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) have released new dates for the aptitude test for Assistant Loco Pilot and Technician in Odisha. The examination was scheduled on May 10 but was postponed on account of the Cyclone Fani. The Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) for Assistant Loco Pilot and Technician will now be held on May 21 for all such candidates whose examination had been postponed.

The official notice released by RRBs says, “Due to cyclone FANI, the Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) scheduled on 10.05.2019 in the cities of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur under the jurisdiction of Railway Recruitment /Bhubaneswar and in the city of Balasore under the jurisdiction of Railway Recruitment Board/Kolkata was postponed as per notice issued on 07 05-19.”

The exam shift and city details for these candidates will be released shortly on the official RRB website. Candidates will also be informed through email and SMS on their registered email id and phone number.

All important services such as rail & road communication, power supply, water supply, mobile, internet etc. were badly affected in Odisha in the aftermath of Cyclone Fani. As a consequence, not just RRB CBAT, but several other recruitment and entrance examinations were postponed for applicants in the area affected by Fani.

As per the official recruitment notice for RRB ALP and Technician, “Candidates will have to qualify in each of the test battery of Computer Based AT for considering them for the post of ALP. The Computer Based Aptitude Test shall have questions and answer options only in English and Hindi. There shall be no negative marking in Computer Based AT.”

Two persons, one of whom claimed he was a personal assistant of West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, were arrested from Asansol railway station on Monday, following the seizure of unaccounted cash amounting to Rs. 1 crore from their possession, railway police sources said.

Gautam Chattopadhyaya and Lakshmikant Shaw were intercepted by the railway police at Asansol station, when they were trying to board a train to Kolkata, they said.

Mr Chattopadhyay, after his arrest, said he worked as an assistant to Dilip Ghosh.

“They were carrying a huge bag with them and were moving suspiciously at Asansol station when the officers spotted them. When we searched the bag, we found cash amounting to Rs.1 crore,” they said.

During interrogation, both admitted that they were taking the cash to Kolkata, the sources added.

A couple of days ago, the state police had seized over Rs. 1 lakh from BJP’s Ghatal candidate and former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh’s vehicle