RAILWAY SAMACHAR

Unprecedented checks by CRB in Mumbai

Mumbai : IN a day of high drama, the top boss of Indian Railways Mr. S S Khurana who is Chairman, Railway Board and ex-officio Principal Secretary to the Government of India, paid a visit to the Mumbai suburban railway section with mixed reactions.
He was impressed with certain facilities, announcing on-the-spot cash awards, but also ended up visiting the unexpected spots at Mumbai CST and Mumbai Central station, sending the entire officialdom into a tizzy.
The visit started at 10 am in the morning with him laying a wreath on the 26/11 memorial inside the CST station premises after which he boarded the first-class compartment of a local train and went to the railway carshed at Kurla.
"He inspected the facilities there and was quite impressed with the local train maintenance schedules and the entire work culture and announced a on-the-spot award of Rs 1 lakh for the staff. The money will be distributed to the staff," a senior official said.
After this, he came back to Mumbai CST, inspecting the entire route on the way till CST. Later in the afternoon at CST station, Mr. Khurana, with the zonal general manager Mr. B B Modgil and divisional railway manager Mr. J N Lal with the entire officialdom in tow, entered the crammed motormen's lobby and went straight into the canteen, a first visit by any person at this position.
There he questioned the canteen staff, checked refrigerator and asked them to maintain hygiene. "He has directed local officials to redesign the entire motormen's lobby and make it air-conditioned. After this, he spoke to motormen about their problems and assured more recruitment," said Mr. S S Siddiqui, divisional secrerary of Central Railway Mazdoor Sangh, who showed him the place around said.
After this, Mr. Khurana headed to the outstation train platform and inspected linen that are provided in trains. Unexpectedly, he opened the folds of the piled up linen at random and pulled up officials after finding that they were not clean. After this, he visited the base kitchen from where food is provided to the Rajdhani Express.
CRB travels by local, Rs 5,000 for motorman Mr. Khurana caught a suburban train at Kurla to leave for Mumbai CST. He found that the train was 9 minutes behind schedule. But motormen Pravin Tandon and guard P K Chaturvedi with the help of the signalling staff made up all the lost time and the train reached Mumbai CST on right time. He announced on the spot-cash award of Rs 5,000 for the motorman and guard.

Railawys Obsssed with MPs

My co-passenger on B1 of the 2825 Jharkhand Sampark Kranti Express and the TTE shared a hefty laugh when his ticket was compared with the name appearing on chart. The name of the passenger tarvelleing from Ranchi to NDLS was M P Sinha. His name tallied with the chart in English but did not in Hindi. “MP ” had become “Sansad ”( Member of Parliament) in Hindi. So his name in the chart in Hindi read- Sansad Sinha! Does the railway software have in-built translation command? In my case invariably “Narayan” reads “Naryan” in the charts in Hindi. It is understandable but how come “MP” become “Sansad” ! Are there other examples of such changes? -Hemen Narayan, passenger

New MRVC rakes hold up traffic
Mumbai : THE fleet of new age trains that were set to replace the older fleet and improve services and traveling conditions of Mumbai's suburban commuter are failing one after the other.
On Wednesday, 11th february, two new trains broke down due to motor and software problems holding up traffic, leading to collapse of the timetable. Siemens Ltd that has provided both the equipment has now planned to set up a special facility in railway workshops to replace all the defective parts. There were a lot of problems in the new trains and that the quality of the trains was questionable. On Wednesday, the authorities said they had identified two categorical problems, one with the motors and the other with the train software.
A Borivli-bound train that started from Churchgate at 2:29pm developed problems near Dadar and did not go beyond 30kmph. The train had to be terminated at Bandra. Another Virar-bound new train also developed a technical snag at around 3pm. These trains not only put the entire traffic behind them off schedule, but commuters had to face a lot of hardships.
"Commuters from the snag-hit Borivli train were told at Dadar that it would just go till Bandra and everyone rushed out at Dadar. There was chaos at the station," Amit Joshi, a software executive whose pocket was picked in the melee at Dadar said.
Railway officials said between January 2008 and February 2009, there have been 50 cases of motor failures with the highest 20 happening in January 2009 itself. "In the software error, you need to reboot the train's computer everytime the problem occurs," another official said.
"The software and the motors both are provided by Siemens. Officials from Siemens, Germany had a meeting with the ministry of railways and have worked out a solution," said Dr. P C Sehgal, managing director of the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC).
Mr. V B Parulekar, Director, Siemens Ltd and Head, Mobility Division in India, told that they had identified the problem and were working with railways to solve it. "We have set up special facility in railway workshops and are replacing the parts."
The new trains have been bought under the Rs 4,500-crore World Bank funded Mumbai Urban Transport Project-1, a mega project to upgrade the city's transport infrastructure. The MRVC is co-ordinating the project.
What is the problem?
Motor failures: The failure is happening as the bearings of the motors are breaking due to stress and jerks on the tracksSolution: Siemens officials have decided to change the design of the cage that holds these bearings.
Software failure: The microprocessor-based train does not run beyond 30kmph and the train's computer needs a reboot everytime it happens. This leads to the train getting detained. Solution: Siemens is reloading a newer version of the software.