The total goods earnings have gone up from Rs. 1577.16 crore during the period from July 11 to 20, 2010 to Rs. 1743.64 crore during July 11 to 20, 2011, showing an increase of 10.56 per cent. The total passenger revenue earnings during the period July 11 to 20, 2011 were Rs. 804.79 crore compared to Rs. 715.44 crore during the same period last year, reflecting an increase of 12.49 per cent. The revenue earning from other coaching amounted to Rs. 68.10 crore during this period compared to Rs. 61.73 crore during the same period last year, showing an increase of 10.32 per cent.

The total approximate number of passengers booked during the period July 11 to 20, 2011 was 231.28 million compared to 221.09 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 4.61 per cent. In the suburban and non-suburban sectors, the number of passengers booked during July 11 to 20, 2011 was 121.65 million and 109.63 million compared to 116.85 million and 104.24 million during the same period last year, registering an increase of 4.11 per cent and 5.17 per cent respectively.

The Union Minister for Railways, Dinesh Trivedi holding discussions with the Minister of State for Railways, Bharatsinh Solanki and officials of Railway Board at Rail Bhavan in New Delhi.

Breaking Tourism News…BTN India
On his first visit to Rail Bhawan today after being sworn in as Union Railway Minister on July 12, 2011, Dinesh Trivedi has held discussions with his colleague Minister of State for Railway Bharatsinh Solanki and the officials of the Railway Board.

Later, while interacted with the media persons, Mr Trivedi outlined the focus and priorities set for the growth of the Indian Railways. He said “Indian Railways is one of the best organizations in the World, a lifeline of the country, which has done the nation proud. Considering the constraints under which it has to work, it has rendered phenomenal service to the nation, which is only possible because of the dedication of all the workers and the management.”

1. To improve productivity and efficiency.  To respond to the needs of the 21^st century with associated tools and technologies, to help workers and unions achieve their best.  This will also include Process Reforms.
2.  Passenger – ultimate customer.  Their security, safety, service, comfort and flexibility are of utmost importance.
3. Substantial expansion of the Railways in handling of passengers and freight, to add and to grow in the Indian economy and respond to the needs of business and service sector.
4. Land use through preparing national database of railway owned land, management of the same and potential to create new community assets through PPP.
5. Modernize Railway stations through PPP. To create community space not only for transport but also for education, health, business and entertainment. Provide Wi-fi in Railway stations and trains. Revive Rail-Tel.
6. Modernize Railway factories to increase capacity. Emphasize indigenous design and development, local production to create new jobs.
7. Real-time Track management.
a. Implementation of modern e-signaling systems for train protection, improving track capacity and efficiency.
b. Advanced Anti Collision Devices on trains for averting both head on collisions as well as accidents caused due to track obstruction.
c. Implementation of GPS systems for real tracking of trains, advanced traffic analysis for efficient logistics of passenger and freight trains.
d. Manning/Over-bridge for all the unmanned level crossings.
8. Mobile ticketing, associated mobile commerce and other services for passengers and vendors. Railway Debit Cards to be made available at stations via digital kiosks for the purpose of purchasing items from vendors and can be used to purchase tickets as well.
9. Timely completion of East West Dedicated Freight Corridor.
10. Explore new projects, such as high speed rail to meet growing needs of the Indian Transport sector linking with other transport hubs to create seamless integrated connectivity.

He said that the priority would be given to the timely completion of the projects which have already been initiated and announced in the previous Railway Budgets.

At an impressive programme jointly organized by Eastern Railway and Kolkata Metro Railway yesterday at Kolkata, former Union Railway Minister and presently the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee launched this unique public friendly facility. Minister of State for Railways, Mukul Roy was among those especially present on this occasion.

The e-ticketing module of the Indian Railway Portal is expected be the most sought after facility by the normal passenger. The e-ticketing operations of IRCTC on its website shall also continue in parallel. In the additional facility of e-ticketing provided by Portal, no travel agents have been allowed so that normal passengers can have ease of booking during peak hours.

The Portal will broadly provide e-ticketing on the Internet and mobile phone (booking and cancellation).
Individual users choosing to use the e-ticketing facility shall be required to register for the first time for this purpose after submitting the mandatory details and shall be provided a unique user ID. This registration will be free of charge. Thereafter they can avail the services of booking and cancellation of e-tickets. They can take a printout of the e-ticket which is known as Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS).

Individual users desirous of utilizing the facility of booking e-ticket on mobile phone ( which is being named as m-ticket), having requisite internet facility can do so by downloading the mobile ticketing application on the mobile phone from the IR Portal, using the URL sent in SMS. On completion of booking and payment formalities, a SMS containing the ticket details will be sent to user which is referred to as Mobile Reservation Message (MRM). The cost of MRM from IR Web Portal shall be borne by Indian Railways. Such passengers need not require carrying a print out of the ticket and instead display the SMS (namely MRM). Similarly a Screen-shot of the e-ticket displayed through laptops/palmtops (referred as Virtual Reservation Message – VRM) will also be construed as e-ticket and such passenger also need not take a print out of the e-ticket and instead display the Screen-shot on their laptops/palmtops.

It is mandatory that at least one passenger booked on the e-ticket/m-ticket carry at least one of the eight proofs of identity (in original) : 1) Voter Photo Identity Card, 2) Passport 3) PAN Card 4) Driving License 5) Photo Identity card 6) Student Identity Card 7) Nationalized Bank Passbook with photograph and 8. Credit Cards with photograph.

ERS/MRM/VRM along with any one of the eight prescribed ID proofs in original and the indication of the passenger(s)’ name(s) in the Reservation Chart will entitle the passenger(s) to travel.

ERS/MRM/VRM along with one of the eight prescribed proofs of Identity in original will also authorize the passenger to enter the platform on the day of journey and he/she will not be required to purchase platform ticket. ERS/MRM along with original ID proof will be required to be produced on demand by Ticket Checking Staff on the platform.

The facility of booking e-tickets through IR Web Portal will be available from 00.30 hours to 23.30 hours daily. The booking for a particular train shall be permitted up to the time of preparation of reservation charts.

A maximum of eight PNRs per user ID per month shall be permissible. The passengers can book seats/berths on the e-ticket on the web portal against General quota/Tatkal quota/Ladies quota/Senior Citizen Quota. No concessions, except Senior Citizen concession, will be allowed on e-tickets. No Group Booking shall be permissible on e-ticketing through Indian Railway Web Portal.

The service charges levied by the Railways will be Rs. 5/- per ticket for Sleeper Class (SL) and Second Sitting (2S) classes and Rs. 10/- per ticket for all other Reserved Classes.

The salient features of the Time Table i.e. TAG are as under:
1. Encouraged by the public response over the past few years all the user-friendly features of Trains at a Glance viz. how to read a table, route map, station index, trains between important stations, station code index, Train number index, Train name index, has been retained.
2. Five digit numbering scheme for train services has come into force from December 20, 2010. This has been necessitated as the numbers in four digit numbering scheme got exhausted as also to enable capture of all types of passenger train services viz. Duronto, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and other Mail/Express services, sub-urban, holiday specials, etc. on Indian Railways. The five-digit train numbering has been accordingly indicated in Trains at a Glance.
3. Colour coding scheme adopted for various categories of trains: (a) Pink for Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Garib Rath Express and Duronto Express (b) Yellow for Double Decker services and other superfast trains (d) blue/white for other mail/Express trains.
4. New category of services viz. Double Decker services, Rajya Rani services, Vivek Express, Kavi Guru Express have been included.
5. Commercial information of passenger use and interest viz. advance reservation period, reservation through internet, refund rules and rail travel concessions have been suitably updated. New addition to the fare chart is the fare for AC and mixed type of Duronto services.
6. Information regarding Vigilance organization, Public grievance machinery, disaster management and catering services have been incorporated.
7. The Metro Railway, Kolkata has been added in the list of Zonal railways. The website addresses of all Zonal railways have been added this time.

Vinay Mittal, Chairman, Railway Board

Officer of Indian Railway Traffic Service (1975 batch), Mr Mittal has worked in various capacities all over the Indian Railways and has acquired vast and varied experience in the field of Railway Administration in his distinguished career. He has worked as the General Manager of North Western Railway, Addl. General Manager, Central Railway, Divisional Railway Manager-Bilaspur, Chief Passenger Transportation Manager, Chief Freight Transportation Manager, Chief Commercial Manager & Chief Operations Manager of Central Railway and Executive Director, Traffic Transportation (Movement) in Railway Board.

He was a part of the Indian Delegation which visited USA and China in 2005-06 in connection with Wagon/Bogie designs and Freight Operations.

He is credited with huge improvements in freight loading and punctuality performance in Central Railway and North Western Railway.

The total goods earnings have gone up from Rs. 1607.96 crore during the period from June 11 to 20, 2010 to Rs. 1798.32 crore during June 11 to 20, 2011, showing an increase of 11.84 per cent. The total passenger revenue earnings during the period June 11 to 20, 2011 were Rs. 756.77 crore compared to Rs. 664.38 crore during the same period last year, reflecting an increase of 11.62 per cent. The revenue earning from other coaching amounted to Rs. 71.08 crore during this period compared to Rs. 64.64 crore during the same period last year, showing an increase of 9.96 per cent.

The total approximate number of passengers booked during the period June 11 to 20, 2011 was 232.40 million compared to 218.07 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 6.57 per cent. In the suburban and non-suburban sectors, the number of passengers booked during June 11th to 20, 2011 were 118.47 million and 113.93 million compared to 111.17 million and 106.90 million during the same period last year, registering an increase of 6.57 per cent and 6.58 per cent respectively.