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The Railway Board is yet to decide whether a loco pilot is fit to operate a train if a certain amount of alcohol is detected in their blood, given the current policy requiring zero alcohol presence, a senior official has told PTI, asserting that a decision in this regard should be taken at the earliest. The issue gained significance after a Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) investigation report noted that blood tests conducted on the running crew of two trains involved in a collision in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur in 2025 showed alcohol concentrations ranging from 3 to 10 milligrams per 100 mL (mg/dL) of blood. On November 4, 2025, the Gevra-Bilaspur MEMU passenger train rammed into the rear of a stationary goods train near Bilaspur, killing 12 people including the loco pilot of the passenger train and injuring around 20. The CRS investigation found that the passenger train had overshot a red signal, also noting that the loco pilot had previously failed a mandatory aptitude test and
In an unprecedented move that railway experts say amounts to "surrendering to protesters", the Railway Board on Friday has cancelled over 250 trains connecting New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations with destinations across the country ahead of a protest planned by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on October 10, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The cancellations cover passenger trains scheduled to depart from their originating stations after 2 pm on October 9, as well as those scheduled to arrive at New Delhi or Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations between 4 am and 2 pm on October 10. Trains scheduled to depart from these two stations for their respective destinations, along with local trains, have also been cancelled, taking the total number of cancellations to over 250. The move has drawn sharp criticism over the inconvenience caused to thousands of passengers. A section of railway experts, passenger bodies and recognised federations have criticis
A day before the CJP's protest in Delhi, its founder Abhijeet Dipke on Friday slammed the Centre, saying it should shut down the entire country if it is scared of the youth, a statement coming in the wake of cancellation of trains to and from the national capital on October 10. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has called for a massive demonstration at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Saturday to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar alleging massive irregularities in the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Railway Board on Friday cancelled certain Mail and Express trains scheduled to arrive at New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations between 4 am and 2 pm on October 10. The Delhi Police have urged the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to shut 57 metro stations to thwart the movement of youths who may be coming to join the protest. Talking to reporters over the development here, Dipke said there was no need for the
The Supreme Court has said the absence of recovery of a train ticket from a deceased passenger cannot result in defeating the compensation claim, as it restored the payout awarded to the parents of a man who died after falling from a moving train in Gujarat in 2017. A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and AS Chandurkar set aside the order of the Gujarat High Court rejecting the compensation awarded to the parents of Maheshbhai, who died falling off the general compartment following a sudden jerk and jolt while travelling to Surat via Ahmedabad on September 27, 2017. The bench on Friday said, "The high court gave undue importance to the absence of the railway ticket without taking into consideration the statement made on oath by the victim's father and the fact that the victim had been hospitalised for a period of more than one month. On the preponderance of probabilities, it can be concluded that the victim was a bona fide passenger and that absence of recovery of his ticket cannot ...
Indian Railways on Saturday approved multiple infrastructure and safety projects, including the installation of the automatic train protection system, electronic interlocking, and construction of a road overbridge in various railway divisions across the country to enhance operational efficiency and passenger safety. The indigenously developed automatic train protection system, Kavach Version 4.0, has been approved for 607.7 route kilometres of the Lucknow Division of North Eastern Railway at a total cost of Rs 252 crore, a Railway Ministry press statement said. The approved project will extend Kavach 4.0 coverage across the identified balance sections of the division, strengthening the safety infrastructure available for train operations. Kavach helps prevent trains from overshooting red signals by automatically applying brakes when required and supports safer train movement by monitoring train operations. In another significant decision, the Railway Ministry granted its consent fo
India is likely to overtake the United States of America in terms of metro rail network length in the next two years, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal said on Saturday after inaugurating the extended route of the metro rail service in Indore. "The US has a metro rail network of 1,386 km. With the extended Indore line, India's metro rail network has reached 1,170 km," he said noting the country's network length was now just 216 kilometres less than the US. Speaking after inaugurating the extended Indore metro rail service, built at a cost of Rs 2,850 crore, he said China currently has around 8,000 km of metro rail lines. "I think in the next two years, we will overtake the US and become the world's second-largest country in terms of metro rail network after China," the Union minister said in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014, metro rail services were operational on 245 km route acro