You could have heard about new modernized features of Indian railways like bullet trains and trains with highly sophisticated coaches. Did you take a note of visually impaired friendly train? Indian Railways is all set to introduce its blind friend train…! This is one of the much appreciated initiatives taken up by the railways. Such moves made by government are aimed to make the society a better place to live in and make all the individuals a self-sufficient. This train is set to travel between Mysore and Varanasi. Let’s check out the key aspects of this train here under:

• This train is absolutely special…! Wondering, why it is so…? In our country, it is the first ever completely visually challenged friendly train. The successful implementation of this train has also led to the initiation of such other trains across the country.

• All the coaches of this Mysore-

Varanasi express (train number: 16229 / 16230) are provided with metallic Braille signage. This initiative has provided great ease to the blind people to recognize the indications like toilets, alarm pull chains, berth numbers and emergency windows.

• Earlier, the madras railway station was made blind friendly. About 400 metal signage scripted in Braille were installed at the station describing various needy places like distance of entrance, platforms, counters, toilet, schedule of trains and others. The menu card in the canteens is also made available in Braille. We can state that this move has inspired the Mysore-Varanasi express.

• Prominent people in the Indian politics are involved in this prestigious project. Pratap Simha, the Member of Parliament for Mysore constituency, has financed for this project. This took an expenditure of 2 lakh rupees and time of about 2 months to turn this idea into a reality. Inauguration of the train was also done by him. He played a key role in turning the Mysore railway station blind friendly in November 2015.

• Good news is that, an announcement was made in the recent past that there are plans of implementing this feature in a few other major trains running from Mysore. The trains worth mentioning in this context are the Chamundi express and the Mysuru-Talguppa express.

• IRCTC has stated that all the other features like booking and cancellation of tickets, pnr status railways and others will remain unchanged for these trains.

• Bind people have always found railway journeys risky. Finding their confirmed berths, needy places aren’t easy tasks for them. This initiative can put an end to all these troubles faced by them. The emergency exit plan is also scripted in Braille on the boards, so as to enable the blind people to trace the directions to escape in case of emergency.

In its first journey, though any visually impaired persons are found hardly, we can expect this train to gain a wide popularity among blind passengers sooner or later. This move from Mysore has inspired many other train stations to take up this initiation. Statistics say that around 118 train services and railways are set to follow the path laid by the Mysore-Varanasi express. This trend seems to be soon implemented on a large scale enabling the blind people to travel independently.

Can you guess the budget of Indian Railways for the coming 5 years…? It’s a whooping 142 billion dollars…! The Indian Railway is all set to get into a new phase. In the last year, 110 reform measures were initiated by the Railways which permit 100 percent private sector investment. In a short period of time, we could well be checking out pnr status mobile for the new trains. Check out more about this here under:

• The various targeted segments in this context are metro rails, suburban rails, manufacturing and maintenance and manufacturing, locomotives and rolling stock, electric and signaling works and dedicated freight lines.

• The designated authorities are trying to explore ways to raise the funds by working closely with the reputed financial institutions like World Bank and IFC. The railway minister stated that the e-commerce can help the railways to modernize, expand, introduce transparency, introduce clean energy resources, improve efficiency and meet expectations of the customers.

• The Indian railways in collaboration with the US EXIM bank is working to design the specific financing model to take complete advantage of the huge investments and business opportunities in this sector. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is a reputed organization involved in this aspect.

• Aiming to provide transparency in fare and freight pricing, the Indian railways has set to design a draft framework for the same. To make these huge investments a reality, the public and private sector partnerships are encouraged equally.

• A few projects which are on a run in Indian railways are: high speed trains across various cities, freight corridor, doubling and tripling train trips to facilitate heavy traffic, introducing modernized facilities in about 40 major railway stations, upgrading the existing signal system and instrumentation and a few other safety measures.

• In the last year November month, 7 billion contracts were awarded to GE and Alstom. A key role is played by Japan in this context to improve the Indian railway system. We can witness huge investments flowing from this country. Moreover, Japan is extending its financial and technical help in building India’s first bullet train. The Indian railway is all set to capitalize these investments.

• Our railway is also associated with France to improve its services. A major project undertaken in collaboration with France is to study the viability of upgrading Delhi to Chandigarh line which is a 245 km long track. About 400 major railways are set to be modernized under SNCF. The development of pilot projects in Ludhiana and Ambala are taken up by the French National railway.

• A major initiative which is worth mentioning in this context is implementing the renewable energy resources to power up the railways. Solar and wind energy are prominently considered in this aspect. Use of this clean energy is a welcome phenomenon to promote our struggles to reduce pollution levels. Apart from being eco friendly, this can also be economical to the Indian railways.

These initiatives taken up the Indian railways are truly fascinating. In this massive scale, we can expect our railways to modernize at a faster rate.

In India, the railways are the backbone of long distance travelling. There are complaints against the tatkal booking system since a long time. Indian railways have come up with a new set of cancellation / refund rules putting an end to dissatisfaction among passengers. These new rules have come into action since 12^th November 2015. It is aimed at the following aspects:

• To prevent misuse of tatkal scheme.

• To fulfill the proposed objectives like mobile tickets and paperless tickets to the passengers.

• Put an end to the agents/touts in railways.

As a part of these modifications, the Indian railways have enabled UTS counters, where the cancellation requests are undertaken and the refunding process is carried out beyond the working hours of PRS. If you booked your tickets online, you will be refunded automatically. Prior to the introduction of this scheme, ticket deposit receipt has to be filed for the refund process.

A few noteworthy changes are mentioned here under:

• The cancellation charges for the unreserved, RAC and waitlisted tickets are doubled.

• There is also a significant hike in the cancellation charges of the confirmed tickets.

• In case of refunding on unused RAC/WL tickets the time limit is reduced to half an hour from 3 hours.

• Cancellation of e-tickets no longer requires the filling of TDR.

Another important modification is that the passenger will not be refunded in case of cancellation of unused tatkal tickets. However, in some special circumstances like late running of trains, this rule will be exempted.

These set of new rules can help the Indian railways to use the seats optimally as the passengers have to cancel the tickets 4 hours prior to the departure to claim refund. The hike in fares can also put an end to the agents and touts who book the tickets on fake names and make money by selling them at higher prices. A significant growth in the revenue of the Indian railways can be observed as the cancellation charges are increased.

New booking rules:

The modifications are also extended to the booking policies, which have been effective from 12^th November 2015. Check out the important feature of these modifications:

• One can witness the final chart at least four hours prior to the departure of the train. This feature enables the passengers to plan well in advance for their journey.

• Once the final reservation chart is on, booking counters will reopen on internet and on PRS counters. This can enable the passengers to book the available accommodation in the trains. If you wish to cancel your RAC/waiting list ticket, you have the time up to 30 minutes before the scheduled departure of the train.

• Just before departure of the train, a second and the final chart will be prepared and is made available to the ticket checking staff.

The implementation of these new policies has benefited the railways to a large extent. When you get to know your PNR status railway, make sure to have these changes in your mind.

“100 stations will go Wi-Fi by the end of 2016”, you don’t believe us…? These words are said by the Google CEO Pichai himself. Isn’t this great news..? Let’s check out more about this here under:

Free Wi-Fi in railways:

Internet has turned out to be a great medium to connect the citizens of India, which is second highly populated country. As a part of this, the government in collaboration with Google has stepped forward to bring free internet to the railway stations. This isn’t going to be an easy task especially in our mighty railways. Initially, it is planned to bring internet connectivity to 400 stations across India and making this come true, the plan for the first hundred stations has been announced. An agreement has been signed between the Railtel and Google regarding this project. This project will be evaluated at the end of 2016 and necessary steps will be taken to successfully complete it. The key points to be worth to be mentioned in this context are as follows:

• Pan-India optic fiber network, which has laid over 45,000 km of optic fiber network, is utilized by the Google to accomplish this task. The ISP will be provided by the Railtel and the WAN will be taken care by the Google. It is to be noted that this internet access is confined only to platforms and trains are not included under this project.

• The speed and efficiency are given utmost importance. The users can watch HD standard streaming videos.

• If you wonder, if this service is free of cost, you are not the only one who thinks of it. Taking example of airports, the Wi-Fi is free only for a limited period of time and there are chances that the same can be applied to the railways. This project can last for a longer period of time, only it can manage to explore different revenue models.

How can the free Wi-Fi benefit us..?

• The first thing that strikes many passengers, when they hear the combo of railway and the Wi-Fi, is checking the railway pnr status Many times, you may have to constantly monitor your pnr status and it could be a hectic task without internet access. All that you need to do is, visit the official site of Indian railways, enter your pnr number and get the status.

• The foreign tourists can be highly benefited by this service. It can help to explore information, which can make their plans easier. This has an indirect impact on the Indian tourism.

• Fraudulent touts and middlemen have become an albatross in major railway stations. Free internet access can completely put an end to these anti-social elements and ensures high safety.

• Students extensively use trains to travel. This project can help them to use their time effectively. Isn’t this a step towards smarter India…?

There are many hidden benefits of this project which has direct and indirect impact on various issues. The biggest advantage is that, your waiting time for the train will be less boring..!