Recommandations about World Class Railway Stations in Indian Railways

World-class railway stations

The Ministry of Railways has decided to constitute a Core Group for monitoring of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects related to development of 22 World Class Railway Stations across the country including New Delhi Railway Station. The Committee will set up clear timeframe for each of the 22 railway stations, which will be upgraded to world-class stations.

Dial '139' countrywide common telephone no. for train enquiry

In a new endeavour, to provide new, modern and improved facilities to the passengers, the Indian Railways has introduced the Integrated Train Enquiry System (ITES) 'Rail Sampark' call centre with common telephone number 139. This significant passenger friendly initiative is now available for general public throughout the country. Under this system, the MTNL and BSNL subscribers in the covered area may make a local call at telephone No. 139 (without requiring STD facility) to get basic enquiries pertaining to train journey like arrival/departure of train, status of availability of seats, train fare etc. Highly skilled and trained customer care executives have been deployed at these Call Centres provide 24X7 Customer Care Services. This service will ultimately also be made available to all general public in the country who may subscribe to any telecom service provider irrespective of the type of telecom service (basic, mobile, WLL).In addition to Hindi and English, enquiry services will also be available in regional languages. The work of implementation of Integrated Train Enquiry System (ITES) is based on public-private partnership (PPP model).

Indian Railways Performance in Year 2007

Most important topics discussed about performance of Indian Railways in year 2007 are:

Making India global hub for international railway managers, Joint venture agreement with NTPC for setting up power plant, Revenue generation goes up by 12.11%, Dial '139' country-wide common telephone no. for train enquiry, etc.

In the past few years, Indian Railways have registered an unprecedented turnaround in its fortunes and profits that has helped launch itself towards a path of gigantic growth and development in all major areas, keeping in view the future transportation needs of the economy in modern India.

Milestones have been bettered and sights set on newer ones, especially those that beckon it during the 11th Plan period such as the freight loading target of 1100 million tonnes during that period. The year 2007 has been significant for the Railways in achieving goals and targets with regard to the following:

Delhi Metro - First Railway Project on United Nation's Green list

Delhi Metro has become the first railway sector project in the world to be registered at the UN under the clean development mechanism (CDM) scheme. This would enable it to earn carbon credits in coming years. This will also help Delhi metro financially and it is one step further towards Railways Environment Care. DMRC can now claim 40,000 CERs per annum for a ten-year period.

By selling these earned carbon credits, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) would now earn Rs 1.2 crore per annum for atleast a ten year period starting December 2007. This will help DMRC financially and also will improve its image on international stage.

The buyer for the CERs is Japan Carbon Finance Ltd for the entire ten year period started from december last year. They have also funded the consulting study for the project. The project document was prepared by Indian office of Ernst and Young. This project is for the use of regenerative braking systems in trains wherein the kinetic energy released when the brakes are applied is supplied back to the overhead electricity lines. This results in about 30 per cent of electricity saving.