यमला-पगला-ट्रेन का-दिवाना - कार्तिक

Mumbai-Kolhapur Special Train with revised train number and composition

Railways have restored the services of special train no. 01411/01412 running between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai and Shri Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Terminus, Kolhapur from 1.7.2021.
Now, it is decided to revise the train number and composition with effect from 01.11.2021:
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Special Train no 01411 will run with revised Train no 07411 (ex Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai) and Special Train no 01412 will run with revised Train no 07412 (ex Shri Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Terminus, Kolhapur)

Revised Composition: o­ne First AC cum AC 2-Tier, o­ne AC 2-Tier, Three AC 3-Tier, 12 Sleeper Class and 4 Second Class Seating.

NOTE: There will be no change in timings, frequency, and stoppages of these trains

For detailed halts and timings please visit www.enquiry.indianrail.gov.in or download NTES App.
Only passengers having confirmed tickets will be permitted to board this special train adhering all norms, SOPs related to COVID19 during the boarding, travel and at destination.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the city of Mumbai have been reducing for the last few weeks and the citizens have been able to resume activities as per the unlock guidelines issued by the state government. However, despite the drop in cases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has not permitted the Mumbai local train services to resume  for the general public. As of now, only employees working in the essential services are allowed. 
The Municipal Corporation has received several requests regarding the same demanding the services to resume for everyone. On the other hand, the railways department has also identified several citizens who have been travelling in the Mumbai local trains using fake tickets and ID cards. To control the same, the state...
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government has taken an important decision as the number of such incidents have increased over time, eventually leading to more congestion and crowding in the local train.
Also Read: Local trains for all will not start immediately, says BMC chief
To tackle this situation, the government has decided to implement a pass system with QR code. Called as the Universal Travel Pass and the QR code pass, this will be issued only to employees of the essential and emergency services, who will have access to the railway station only with this identity card. Furthermore, passes with QR codes will be checked using a smartphone or QR reader machine and this is expected to help identify travellers with fake identities.
Besides this, the QR code system will add pressure on those traveling on fake IDs and this will eventually reduce the number of commuters. Emergency and essential service personnel can get a pass with QR code  at the railway station. 
Sharing more information, the Free Press Journal quoted a senior railway official and reported, “The difference between the QR code identity cards this time and the one introduced earlier is that now, there will be a photograph of the person in the ID card. Our staff will scan these QR coded cards. However, the difficulty is monitoring commuters during peak hours - it becomes difficult to scan everyone entering the station, as it would cause crowding.”
Also Read: Mumbai Local Trains will not resume for the public until COVID-19 pandemic ends: Vijay Wadettiwar
Travel using the passes has been categorised under multiple levels, basis which one can commute during the level of restriction imposed by the government. In case a pass mentions level 3, the passenger can travel during first, second or third level of restrictions. Moreover, firms will have to reach out to the Disaster Management Authority if they wish to apply for the ID cards with QR codes. Information regarding the employee, role, and organisation will have to be submitted for the officials to decide on issuing the pass.
A letter has been sent to the Director General of Central and Western Railways for the same and the decision is yet to be taken. However, once implemented, officials expect this method to be successful in reducing the number of fake IDs used for travelling. As of now, more than 3000 passengers with such IDs have been caught by the officials from Central Railway. The report published by the Free Press Journal mentioned that a sum of INR 15 lakh has been collected as fine from 750 people. Meanwhile, INR 1.09 crore have been collected from over 30,000 passengers who were travelling without the ticket in June 2021.

Following a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union government on Wednesday announced that Indian Railways will now be provided with 4G spectrum for communication, thereby replacing the current 2G spectrum, to facilitate faster communication channels. It also added that the government will be improving the automatic train protection mechanism in India by installing the collision avoidance systems in the trains for the safety of passengers.

“Until now the railways were using optical fibres for communication but now this modern spectrum will bring radio communication to railways and...
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with the help of such setup, real time communication can be established. This will increase safety to a great extent and will transform the railways greatly...,” Union minister Prakash Javadekar said, while addressing a press conference.

He added that the signalling system for the trains is being renewed as well.

Also Watch | Petrol in Delhi over ₹95/litre, above ₹100/litre in six states

Javadekar added that automatic train protection is also being strengthened in Indian railways by the introduction of collision avoiding systems.

“The matter of pride for India is that these collision avoiding systems for railways have been designed by four Indian companies. This is a beautiful brainchild of the Make in India campaign,” he added.

Javadekar said that both these decisions are aimed at increasing the safety of passengers and making more trains available. “By speeding up train signalling, more trains will be running on the tracks now,” he said.

Defining a timeline for these projects, Javadekar said that all this work will be completed in the next five years. “Ninety-six per cent of total traffic in India runs on these 34,000-kilometre-long railways lines and [this is] where such communication and signalling set up will be installed over the next five years,” he said.

He added that the total expected expenditure on these projects is around ₹25,000 crore.

The new aircraft-style toilets not only improve sanitation in trains and railway stations, they also prevent corrosion of tracks from scattered human excreta, which adds Rs 400 crore a year to maintenance costs.

According to a North Western Railway spokesperson, the 10 train services were cancelled due to a low passenger load.

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Indian Railways has installed 2,58,906 bio-toilets on all its long-distance trains at a cost of about Rs 1,500 core, which will significantly reduce filth and corrosion on its tracks, officials said.

It has installed the aircraft-style toilets in 73,078 coaches by the end of May, which will prevent around 2,74,000 litres of human excreta and waste from being litterred on railways tracks. This is expected to save about Rs 400 crore a year in maintenance as human waste corrodes rails and fittings, a railway official said.

"Not only will the railways save money by not paying for the (railway) tracks to get cleaned but will also increase the lifetime of the tracks," the official said.

The Indian Railways started installing the vacuum bio-toilets in 2019 after its earlier installed toilets were criticised for being no better than septic tanks.

The national carrier had spent nearly Rs 1,370 crore on 136,985 bio-toilets till 2019 before deciding to switch to bio-vacuum toilets.

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The new bio-vacuum-toilets are dry toilets that treat human waste by a biological process called composting. They decompose human excretory waste in the digester tank converting it into methane gas, carbon dioxide, and water.

The new vacuum toilets have been designed by the Indian Railway along with the Defence Research Development Establishment (DRDE) and Research Design and Standard Organisation (RDSO).

Experts say the new human-waste disposal mechanism will also improve efficiencies in running trains.

“It is a terrible task trying to maintain tracks, fix faults, and detect technical failures amid the human excreta coupled with debris and muck lying on tracks,” a Mumbai-based analyst said, adding that faster track maintenance will improve the efficiency of trains.

The new toilets are also expected to save water on-board trains as a bio-vacuum toilet consumes around 500ml per flush while the earlier used toilets on average used 10 to 15 litres of water per flush, a Mumbai-based analyst said.

The Indian Railways is also planning to put sensors to prevent bio-toilets from getting clogged and also replace the P-trap pipe of the toilet with an S-trap pipe, which will be more effective in preventing clogging, the official said.