Google India to provide Wi-Fi in every train!

People these days are glued to their phones and most youngsters travel by the train for college and work. Since at some stations the signals are awfully low, Wi-Fi can help. Well, Indians railways will soon have high speed Wi-Fi in trains across 400 stations in India.

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Google will be helping the rail sector to get Wi-Fi for all the convenient stations across the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the U.S headquarters of Google and asked them to participate to help India become Digital; Google India too has taken a major step to help the people, who want access to the web.

The Indian Railways operated one of the largest rail networks and Rail Tel, Google’s team is working on bringing high speed internet to major stations in the next few months. The CEO of Google India has stated that the network will expand in a jiffy and reach some of the busiest stations across the country by the end of 2016. He also added that the speed is going to be fast and will have no problems at all.

People who are bored whilst travelling will soon be able to enjoy and download games, videos, movies, songs and much more by this Wi-Fi network. Google India is also planning to expand at almost every station possible with the help of Rail Tel and other partners, in the coming future.

Google had also launched the Android One in the previous year to help all the people to get access of smartphones and internet to explore and learn more. They have also made YouTube and Google Maps available offline plus you can download web pages faster without spending your data balance. There is nothing Google isn’t doing to help the people.

Not just all this but to also help those who cannot read or speak English, Google India had launched the Indian Language Internet Alliance in the previous year. This service has been helping a lot of people who do not have any access to English language. Hindi searches, keyboards and supports have made it easier for every person to use the web pages.

We are sure this Wi-Fi project is going to make life easier for everyone travelling daily by the trains. This is also a good mode for the safety of women and young kids, who have internet features in their phones. People will soon be able to quickly Google search any emergency numbers and contacts when they need it.

Hybrid vacuum toilets are in works!

The Railway Board has a new idea to incorporate vacuum and Bio toilets. This new type of toilet will be known as the ‘hybrid vacuum toilet.’ Stinking washrooms have always been an issue in every train. More and more passengers are becoming hygiene conscious these days. On Monday, a trail run of the vacuum toilets was launched on Dibrugarh Rajdhani. There will be an observation made for few days regarding this new service.

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The hybrid vacuum toilet has been fitted in the First AC coach. This service has cost around 3 lakh and it is also equipped with bio-digester system. Many who have travelled by aircrafts are aware about vacuum toilets.

According to the plan decided, the railway sector will be installing 80 hybrid vacuum toilets on Shatabdi Express. The rail sector has floated worldwide tenders for the installation of the toilets at a cost of around Rs. 25 crore. Multinational companies from across the world like USA, Spain, Germany and Denmark have also shown keen interest in the installing project, stated an official who is a part of the project.

The best part about the entire project is that the toilets are environment-friendly and the consumption of water will be lesser than before. Also, the cleanliness factor matters a lot. The same vacuum toilet will be installed at New Delhi Railway station also. For now, trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani have been equipped with the bio toilets featuring controlled discharge system. An official, who is part of this project, stated that the waste automatically gets discharged after the trains gain the speed of 30 km per hour thus preventing the disposal at the stations.

Till now 17,388 toilets have been replaced with the new bio-toilets. More 17,000 will be replaced by the end of the year.

This is a good way to save water since a conventional toilet takes up 10 to 12 litres of water per flush whereas a vacuum toilet only takes up around 500 ml of water per flush. Most of the foreign countries use the vacuum toilet system in their trains. And since the Indian Railways are all set to modernize and change the railway systems in India, this change was important and will be helpful.

Japan ready to invest $140 billion for modernizing 400 railway stations in India

Indian railways are soon going to become different, modern and better! Japan is going to contribute towards modernizing 400 railway stations all across the country. Not just this, but Japan will also invest $140 billion for Indian Railways in the next five years.

The project is all set to begin and the first step is going to be of studying opportunities. A Japanese delegation is going to visit India anytime soon and research and see what opportunities are there for the industries in the development plans for Indian Railways. 400 stations will be upgraded across India.

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Suresh Prabhu, India’s Railway Minister was recently in Japan and he discussed to make cooperation in order to strengthen the rail sector. He had several high level conferences with Mr. Shinzo Abe, the Japanese PM, Taro Aso Deputy PM and Finance Minister with few other seniors and ministers. Suresh Prabhu highlighted that Indian Railways needs to be a major destination towards infrastructure investment.

The discussion also included the fact that certain areas of the railways need to be modernized and there has to be technological upgrade with the help of Japanese railways and companies. Japan has agreed to modernise and upgrade. Other than that, they have also agreed in assisting India’s public transport in reaching the zero-accident mission.

A MoU will be signed by the Research Designs & Standards Organisation with the Railway Technical Research Institute of Japan to start out the project and researches to finalise the plan.

Mr. Prabhu had also held few other meetings with the heads of some of the leading financial institutions in which he highlighted the investment plan for the Indian Railways. Apart from modernizing and developing railway stations, Japan will also help the Indian rail sector in providing expert tips and technology to maintain sanitation issues and also to develop clean, odourless toilets at the stations and in the trains.

Not just this but the country is also planning out developments in Indian Railways for high speed railway in India.

We hope that Suresh Prabhu, who is on a two-nation trip to Japan and Korea since the 7th of September gears in Korea to provide investments and resources for the development of Indian Railways.

 

ISRO systems for unmanned railways crossing

The new security warning systems for any unmanned railway crossings, which were developed with the help of the ISRO, are all set to be rolled out. There a number of things that the Government departments want ISRO to help with. Some of them are, making yoga popular, keeping a check on oil spills, securing any unmanned crossings at the railway stations, mapping areas of mosquito breeding and snake bites.

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Around 15,000 officials from state and central governments were a part of the daylong meeting, which was held on Monday with the senior ISRO scientists. There was a long discussion about many different technological problems.

All the ministry departments stated that they wanted ISRO to train their staff so that there is help when it comes to space technologies. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has called this meeting as he was very overwhelmed by the ISRO facilities he noticed last year on his visit. The last final session of the assembly was held on Monday and Mr. Modi was a part of the entire meeting. Before this, eight secretaries discussed their presentations and summarised many improvements needed.

Narendra Modi has already made announcements of the new systems. He also stated that this technology will utilise similar technology, which helps airline pilots to alert their passengers before they are going hit an air pocket or when they are entering dense clouds.

The PM is also planning on finding new cost-effective ways to bring in new technologies to safeguard the country. He had spoken about this project to the scientist when he was in Varanasi few months ago. Mr. Modi is very happy that scientists took a note of it and found the correct solution in just four months.

This new technology is going to improve the facilities at the Railway Stations and save lives, as well.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu meets Japanese PM!

Our Railway Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu is currently on a long trip. He will be visiting two nations during the entire week. Yesterday, the Railway Minister met Mr. Sinzo Abe, who is the Prime Minister of Japan. The two met at Tokyo and had a long discussion. It is heard that there will be cooperation between the two countries to bring in the zero accident target in Indian Railways.

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Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu has already decided that he will be heading to South Korea next to explore any possibilities to get their co-operation for high speed bullet trains for Indian Railways. While the railways are facing a lot of train accidents in recent times, Japan is well-known for having a zero accident rate when it comes to the rail sector.

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Besides that, Japan is also involved in the building of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. The railways are in course of importing around 40 high powered electric engines from it. The JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) had conducted a study of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route to test the feasibility of the high speed bullet train in the country.

It is heard that the Minister had discussed about the issues, which have been affecting the railways. There was also a talk about ways to improve and strengthen the cooperation in the railways with countries like Korea and Japan.

Railway Advisor, Girish Pillai has also accompanied the Minister on the tour. The Railway Minister will be returning to India by 13th September, and before that, he is expected to see new and advanced signal systems and experience high speed services in both Japan and South Korea.

If all goes well, soon India will also have its first high speed bullet train. With this, Indian Railways will also have new and improved signal systems as well as zero accidents.

IRFC to give Indian Railways LIC loan of Rs. 1,50,000 cr.

Indian Railway Finance Corporation is set to provide the rail sector a large amount of money, which is of Rs. 1,50,000 crore. This is a loan which will be provided to the rail sector.

This loan will be from Life Insurance Corporation and the instrument used will be a 30-year paper, which shows competitive rates for the Indian Railways.  The loan is going to be raised from LIC over 5 years. This money is going to be used to expand the railway systems. This money will also be beneficial for the delayed projects.

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Since the railways cannot directly borrow and take services of IRFC, many funds will be raised by IRCON and RITES from LIC. It is heard that the other rail PSUs will be raising around Rs.17,000 crore funds this year from LIC.

The IRFC has managed to rise over Rs 1.3 lakh crores from investment markets for the Indian Railways in the past 26 years. Raising funds from LIC for railways is a win-win situation as LIC too will benefit from the projects. As for the rail sector, long delayed projects will be completed quickly and other projects can start up as well.

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The railway has made a budget for the highest capital investment of Rs. 1 lakh crore for current fiscal. This also includes a support of Rs. 17,655 crore and Rs. 40,000 crore from the IRFC.

It is heard that the IRFC is more than happy to raise more and more funds for the Indian Railways. The IRFC will only earn marginal return of around 50 bps. There are interest and money risks, which are accepted by the Indian Railways. The loan is a 30-year lease, and within half of the time, the interest rate and principal have to almost be recovered by the financial organization.

We just hope that the money is utilised in modernizing and bringing new advancements to our rail sector.

Easy ways to make train reservations!

If you are confused on how to make train reservations then keep reading. We know that it might not be easy for some of you to decide on the trains, check the timings, and check the seats and so on. You can always book your tickets on the IRCTC website. But make sure you make the reservations in advance since most of the trains are usually booked for months.

If you have had troubles booking your train tickets, then here is a guide for help: –

  • You can check train seat availability on TravelKhana’s official website to know if the train you want to travel has any seats left. Once you find the name and number of the train you are going to travel from, select your berth. Other than checking the seats, you can use their train tracking system to check the status of the train at all times.
  • Make sure you enter the right details of the station you will start from to the station you will get off at.
  • If the trains do not have the class you want then be open to the others. Do not be picky because sometimes it can be tough to find seats on trains in your desired class.
  • Always book in advance. You always have the option of cancellation. So do not worry. Booking 3 to 4 months in advance is always better than booking at the last minute.
  • Make sure you note the number and name of the train you will be travelling from. Also if you want to check the time or want to track your train, then you can go to TravelKhana or download their mobile app for train tracker This will help in to manage your time since you can see when you train will arrive.
  • Other than booking the train, it is important to make sure you have booked for food too. You do not have to compromise for the unhygienic and tasteless food they provide on the train. Instead you can book amazing and different cuisines and snacks from travelkhana.com. They have a wide variety of cuisines and snacks you can pick from. So once you have confirmed your train tickets, you can go and book for some hygienic and tasty food too. If you miss out on booking in advance for the food, do not fret. You can always use the mobile app to book any food item you want while in the train too. TravelKhana has great and quick services. You will receive your food on time even if you book at the last moment too.
  • Other than reservations, make sure you pack your bags well and carry fewer loads on the trains. It is not easy to manage everything if you are travelling for the first time by trains. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes, carry all your gadgets and keep them safe, keep your money safe and make sure you carry wet wipes and tissues with you.

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Train travelling is not easy until and unless you are on a luxury train. So always be prepared, reserve your tickets beforehand and do not forget to book good food via TravelKhana.

Train platform tickets and monthly season tickets to be paperless soon!

Yes, you read right! All the monthly tickets and the platforms tickets are soon going to be paperless since the Indian Railways is planning on launching a mobile app for the service. Cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi will be able to take the perks of this service in the upcoming few days. The Railway Minister has confirmed the launch of this facility in the above mentioned cities in the upcoming few days.

He also has launched two distinguished IT based services at New Delhi Station, which are cash and smart machines and a special mobile application for monitoring any freight operation. The app is called Parichaalan. He stated that about 70 lakh passengers utilise the monthly tickets in the city Mumbai along out of the 2 crore passengers daily. He added that a high number of people use monthly tickets at many stations in cities like Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai.

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This initiative is a part of government’s Digital India plan, which will not only save paper but reduce the crowd and load at booking counters. This mobile app will help people in saving a lot of time while travelling. And since most people own smart phones today, it is going to make a lot of passengers happy.

The unreserved paperless ticket system in the Delhi-Palwalunit covers around 11 stations. This app is available currently for Android and Windows phone users. Sadly, people using iPhones might not be able to take the perks of this facility, but we hope that IOs too has this important mobile application. The app will not only give you the benefits of booking train tickets online but also provide important alerts for guiding every passenger during any booking process. There is a railway wallet through which you can make your payments. Once you book the ticket, you will receive a confirmation on the screen, which has all the information about your train ticket.

Before this, the mobile app was launched on trial basis in the month of April in the Egmore and Tambram sections of Chennai. Then the app was imitated in the Western Railways at stations, Churchgate and Dahanu.

The app is developed by CRIS (The Centre for Railway Information Systems) and is called UTSONMOBILE. Paperless unreserved ticket feature in this application focuses towards eliminating the need to waste paper and print tickets.

Government expediting Rs. 42000 crore railway locomotives unit project in Bihar

Before the state elections take place, the government has decided to expedite a much delayed project to set up engineering units for the railway locomotives, which will bring in a ton of money of around Rs. 42,000 crore in Bihar. Two global majors are against each other currently in the race.

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According to sources connected who are a part of the development, USA based GE are coming in to the picture for the diesel locomotives plant, which is going to be arranged at Marhowra. Alstom, French major is winning the rat race of the manufacturing unit set ups for electric engines. A senior executive of the Railway board stated that the plans have suffered a lot in the past for about 10 years but now, they are very sure of rewarding them on the last week of this month. He also added that the interest that the foreign companies are showing is very encouraging and will bring in more and more investment from outside India for the railways.

This project had been first talked about in the years 2006 by Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Railway Minister. But now BJP government has put a lot of light on this project as they are gearing up to battle with the Yadav & Co in the forthcoming Bihar elections. The projects are going to be a big employment initiator for Bihar.

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The projects have been set under the private and public partnership model in which the Railways owe 26% and private developers control the remaining 76%. The proposals opened on Monday for the electric locomotive units for Rs. 20,000 crore, and it had 3 global engineering leaders, which are Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.

The project has a fixed procurement of about 800 engine units by Indian Railways in the next upcoming ten years. The Rs. 22,000 crore bids for diesel locomotive units began on Tuesday.

It also involves a guaranteed offtake of about 1000 units over the upcoming decade. GE won from the 2nd bidder, which was the Electro-motive diesel. Many related to this project have said that global majors are noticing the growth of Indian transport.

The 4 most luxurious Indian trains that will give you a royal treatment

The fanciest way to explore and discover the Indian cities, regional areas and coastal towns in comfort is only through the medium of trains. Indian Railways has few of the most unforgettable and spectacular rail journeys and is the world’s 4th largest railway network. However, what most of us are not aware of is that Indian railway also runs a number of luxury trains that cater to tourist throughout India. These 5-star trains are named as Heritage on Wheels, Fairy Queen, The Splendor of South and the Indian Maharaja. These trains will leave you with a life time experience of pure Indian royalty.

  1. Palace on Wheels
    Palace on Wheels, India’s very first pan-country train, was started on Indian Republic Day, January 26, 1982. The train service was then remodeled and relaunched in 2009 with great new looks and more luxurious services. Palace on Wheels is India’s best royal train and the 4th best luxury train of the world. The train has 15 salons, which are named after the various provinces of Rajasthan. It has two fine restaurants named as Maharani Restaurant and Maharaja Restaurant respectively. Other class facilities include exotic bar, live TV, spa, internet connectivity, television and music. Another train to explore Rajasthan is Heritage on Wheels.
  2. The Maharaja Express
    This luxurious train is a joint venture of the IRCTC and Kings India. The train embarked on its first journey on January 9th, 2010. The Maharajas Express is the newest and by far the costliest train in India. It is equipped with facilities of international standards such as large dining, lounge, bar, generator, direct dial phones, LCD TVs, internet connection, in suit bathrooms and individual temperature controls. The train on a whole offers royal experience to discover the top destinations in India. The journey is of 8-9 days from Mumbai to Delhi.
  3. The Golden Chariot
    Yet another luxury train, the Golden Chariot was started by KSTDC for a journey across the most popular tourist destinations of Karnataka and Goa. This royal train has 19 coaches painted purple and gold, two restaurants, conference room, a lounge bar, spa and a huge gym. The train was named after the Stone Chariot of Hampi and went on its first voyage on March 10, 2008. Discover the amazing architectural designs and fascinating natural landscapes of the Southern part of India on the Golden Chariot.
  4. The Deccan Odyssey
    This luxury train, called the Deccan Odyssey was started by a joint venture of MDTC and IRCTC together. This 5-star train covers the heritage sites of the western state of Maharashtra on the Konkan railway route and boosts the state tourism. This latest luxury train of India carries 21 coaches and is equipped with a bar and a restaurant, a sauna, computers, internet and business canter.

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So if you want a mesmerizing experience on a train, check the train ticket availability and the train seat availability with the help of travelkhana. Happy Royal Journey!