Railways increases vacancies for asst loco pilots, technicians to 60,000

In a big relief to nearly 4.8 million candidates appearing for the first set of computer-based tests for the 26,502 vacancies of assistant loco pilots (ALP) and technicians to be held on August 9, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the number of "vacancies" has been more than doubled to 60,000.

Around 4.756 million candidates have applied for the posts.

"Government has more than doubled the vacancies for assistant loco pilot and technician posts from 26,502 to 60,000, ensuring more jobs in Railways," Goyal tweeted.

Railways has activated the mock link for the first stage of the computer-based test on July 26 and E-call letters can be downloaded from the recruitment board website four days prior to the exam.

No train ticket bookings for 2.5 hrs in Delhi tomorrow; what you must know

Rail services on Delhi passenger reservation system (PRS), including enquiry on 139 and ticket bookings, will remain unavailable for a period of two and a half hours tomorrow and the day after, the Northern Railway said today.

The services will remain shut from 11.45 pm on May 18 to 2.15 am on May 19 due to upgradation work on Delhi's computerised PRS, it said in a statement.

"All the services of Delhi PRS, that is reservation activities, enquiry on 139 and internet booking will not be available during the period," the statement said.

This is the second time this month when the PRS services will be suspended temporarily.

The PRS of the Northern Railway, the North Central Railway, the North Western Railway and the North Eastern Railway was shut for around three hours from 10.30 pm on May 5 to 12.15 am on May 6 and again from 05.15 am to 06.25 am the same day.

A routine electrical maintenance activity was the reason behind the May 5-May 6 suspensio

Rlys eyes income boost, to build walls along high-speed corridors for ads

The Indian Railways is considering a proposal to generate revenue through advertisement on walls along the tracks on high-speed corridors, sources have said, amid a push by the national transporter to boost its non-fare earnings.

In talks with contractors, who can deliverer pre-fabricated walls, the railways plans to generate revenue through advertisement to recover the cost of the build. The sources said the idea is to share revenue with contractors, thus enabling the railways to get the walls built at minimum cost.

"With the plan for the Delhi-Mumbai high-speed corridor underway, the need for such walls is imperative for issues of safety. We are mulling the option of generating revenue from them through advertisement as they are high density areas and will get maximum exposure. Pilot projects are already underway and we are hoping to put up walls across the network starting with urban areas," said one of the sources.

Indian Railways may soon shorten recruitment process from 2 yrs to 6 months

The nearly two-year-long recruitment process for Railway jobs may soon be over in just six months, if things go according to plan.

Hit by a severe staff crunch, Railways is mulling shortening the process by introducing online tests among other steps.

In a meeting of general managers with Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani soon after the derailment of the Vasco-Da-Gama-Patna Express on November 24, the zonal heads raised the issue of filling up of vacant posts in the Railways, according to the minutes of the meeting available with PTI.

"The process of recruitment takes too long, taking almost two years since submission of application. Many candidates get alternative jobs, leading to poor materialisation of indents (vacancy notice). With online tests, etc, the process should be speeded up," general manager of Northeast Frontier Railway Chahatey Ram suggested in the meeting in the presence of 17 GMs.

In response, Lohani said that the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) should review the process "with a target to complete it within six months".

The board has instructed its departments to submit their proposals on the issue by December 20.

As of December 2016, Railways has a staff strength of more than 1.3 million, while it has 225,823 vacancies in Group 'C' and Group 'D' categories.

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New toilets in Indian trains no better than septic tanks, reveals IIT study

A new kind of toilet using bacteria to break down human excreta has been deployed in Indian trains over four years to 2017, at a cost of Rs 1,305 crore, but this toilet is no better than a septic tank, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has concluded after a two-year long study.

As many as 93,537 “bio-digesters”–as the toilets are called–have been installed in mainline express and mail trains by the Indian Railways. These are small-scale sewage-treatment systems beneath the toilet seat: Bacteria in a compost chamber digest human excreta, leaving behind water and methane. Only the water, disinfected later, is let out on the tracks.

That is how it is supposed to work.

However, sanitation experts and various studies–including commissioned by the railways–have pointed out that most of the new “bio-toilets” on Indian trains are ineffective or ill-maintained and the water discharged no better than raw sewage.

“Our tests have found that the organic matter (human waste) collecting in the bio-digesters do not undergo any kind of treatment,” IIT professor Ligy Philip, who headed the latest study, told IndiaSpend. “Like in the septic tanks, these bio-digesters accumulate slush (human excreta mixed with water).”
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Budget 2017: Aadhaar maybe made mandatory for rail concession

Latest News - The government is contemplating to make Aadhaar or Unique Identification (UID) card mandatory to avail rail concession, and an announcement is likely to be made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the first combined General and Railway Budget on February 1.

The move will help the government in better targeting of benefits and check misuse of the facility, sources said.

The Railways provides concession on tickets to more than 50 categories of passengers which include senior citizens, students, research scholars, teacher, doctor, nurse, patients, sports people, unemployed youth, Arjun awardees among others.

At present, Railways is (Read More)