Tag Archives: Railways

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced in the Interim Budget 2024-25 that 40,000 rail bogies will be converted to Vande Bharat standard. The budget also includes the extension of key rail infrastructure projects, such as Metro Rail and Namo Bharat, to additional cities. This will strengthen the connectivity between various tourist destinations resulting in the escalation of the tourism industry.

Indian railways will be running 205 special trains for the Ratha Jatra in Odisha’s Puri on July 1. The state government expects 10 lakh pilgrims to gather at the temple town this year. The special trains will be run from Shalimar near Kolkata, Jagadalpur in Chhattishgarh and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, besides different parts of Odisha. 

Ashwani Lohani, Former CMD Air India and Chairman of the Railway Board, has joined as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for GMR Group’s Services Business (which includes railways). Lohani had recently joined as the Chairman of Andhra Pradesh Tourism Board. The latest move could be a good news for GMR, as it was looking at expanding its wings in the Railways sector by showing its interests in the private train project, station redevelopment plans and dedicated freight corridors (DFC).

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Government of India, said that his department is willing to look at single-window clearances for the hotel industry. He was addressing the hotelier and restaurant community across India via a live webinar conducted by the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI). “Yes, we will look at single-window clearances for licenses and simple online approvals. This can also take care of bureaucracy and corruption,” he said. The minister also responded well to the request for curbing illegal, unlicensed accommodation units in the country, especially those that are listed on OTAs. He said, “We will get this legally examined. There must be an element of registration or licensing that should be brought in for record-keeping purposes. Otherwise there is a risk of health and security. We must examine the legal implications.” The FHRAI team will now draw up specific and substantial ideas and revert to the minister.

In the Interim Budget 2019-20, the Railways has been allocated Rs 64,587 crore. The Railways’ overall capital expenditure programme is of Rs 1,58,658 crore. This was stated by the Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs, Railways & Coal, Piyush Goyal while presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20 in Parliament. He said, “Indian Railways has experienced the safest year in its history as all Unmanned Level Crossings on broad gauge network have been eliminated”. On the introduction of the first indigenously developed and manufactured semi high-speed Vande Bharat Express, he said, “ This will give Indian passengers world-class experience with speed, service and safety. This major leap in wholly-developed technology by our engineers will give an impetus to the Make in India programme and create jobs.”

Karnataka Tourism is planning to intensify its 2017 campaign ‘The Year of the Wild’ by installing intelligent displays at 279 railway stations, which will enable it to reach 10 crore people a month. The campaign is running across 7 states including Maharashtra, Telangana, Bihar, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka. This has been made possible as Karnataka Tourism has entered into collaboration with outdoor media company, Vyoma Technologies. From eco-trekking along the scenic Western Ghats, to celebrating the iconic Golden Chariot, tourism in Karnataka is definitely on the uptake, recording a 15.5% growth in tourism in 2016 as recorded by the Ministry of Tourism.

The Railways will provide free Wi-Fi at 100 station from 2016-17 and 200 stations by 2017-18. The following stations already have free Wi-Fi facilities-Kacheguda (Telengana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh), Patna (Bihar) Pune (Maharashtra), Ernakulam (Kerala), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Bhubaneshwar (Odisha), Raipur (Chattisgarh), Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh), Guwahati (Assam), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Allahabad (UP), Lucknow (UP), Lucknow Jn. (UP), Gorakhpur (UP), Sealdah (West Bengal), Puri (Odisha) & Kalyan (Maharashtra). This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Communications and Minister of State for Railways in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.