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The railways is more focussed on increasing general compartment coaches in its fleet rather than AC1, AC2 or AC3, and 1,000 such coaches will be added by the end of December, Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Vaishnaw said the Modi government is dedicated to the welfare of the poor. "Today, more focus is given to increasing the general coaches. Focus is not on increasing AC1, AC2 or AC3. Focus is towards general coaches. By the end of December, 1,000 general coaches will be added to the railway networks and special step has been taken for the production of 10,000 general coaches," the minister said during Question Hour. Vaishnaw further said the Indian Railways is rebuilding 1,300 stations as part of a redevelopment project, which is considered to be the largest in the world, under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. Under this project, many stations will be rebuilt at a cost of Rs 700-800 crore while some others will be rebuilt at a cost of Rs ..
Every passenger gets 55 per cent concession on train journeys, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said regarding demands to restore pre-Covid fare concessions for senior citizens and media persons. Without giving any direct reply to questions by media persons on the restoration of concessions, Vaishnaw said, "The Indian Railway is already offering 55 per cent concession on train fares to every train passenger. Vaishnaw was in Ahmedabad to review the progress of the ongoing bullet train project among other things. Before the COVID-19 lockdown imposed in March 2020, the Railways offered 50 per cent concession on train fares to senior citizens and government-accredited journalists. Railway operations were completely shut down during the lockdown but when its full-fledged resumption in June 2022, the Railway Ministry didn't restore these concessions and since then the issue has been raised on various platforms, including in both houses of parliament. Vaishnaw maintained a similar stand
Bangladesh's main opposition BNP has demanded a UN-supervised investigation into a fire on a passenger train that killed four persons, calling it a "pre-planned" act of sabotage ahead of the general elections being boycotted by the party. The incident happened around 9 pm on Friday when four carriages of the Benapole Express that runs from Benapole, a town bordering the Indian state of West Bengal, were set on fire as it nearly reached its destination of the capital's Kamalapur Railway Station. Railway officials said that most of the train's nearly 292 passengers were returning home from India. Shahjahan Sikder, deputy assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence Media Cell, said they recovered four bodies from the gutted coaches of the train. In a statement, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) senior Joint Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi expressed concern over the "heartbreaking incident of casualties due to arson by miscreants on the Benapole Express train headed from ...
Aditya Birla Group flagship Hindalco Industries, and Texmaco Rail & Engineering on Thursday entered into a strategic alliance and announced a Rs 200 crore investment to develop and manufacture aluminium rail wagons and coaches that will help the Railways achieve emission goals and boost operating efficiency. The companies are identifying land in the Eastern region to set up a manufacturing unit and will invest around Rs 200 crore, Sudipta Mukherjee, the deputy managing director of Hindalco, which is the world's largest aluminium rolling and recycling company, told PTI. He further said, the partners are considering the Eastern region to set to up the plant and hope to commission the same over the next 18-24 months. The Railways has launched 'mission 3,000 mt' with a target of doubling freight capacity to reach 3,000 million tonnes by 2027 by augmenting its rolling stock, and help achieve a 45 per cent market share in freight. To meet this ambitious target, the Railways is seeking ..