AUG 23, 2003
Rail
Project in J&K by Konkan Railway
Rajya
Sabha
The work
of construction of rail line from km 30 to km 120 between Katra-Qazigund
of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla project has been entrusted to
Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd.
The funding
of Jammu-Udhampur section is being done through budgetary support
of the Railways. Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla has been declared
as ‘National Project’ and funds are being provided
by Ministry of Finance as an additionality to the normal budgetary
support for Railways. The project is targeted for completion
by August 15, 2007.
The Minister
of State for Railways Shri Bandaru Dattatraya gave this information
in a written reply to a question from Shri Raju Parmar in the
Rajya Sabha today.
Price
of Rail Neer
Rajya
Sabha
Rail
Neer is available at the stations over Northern Railway and North
Central Railway and some of the trains originating from Delhi
area. Rail Neer is meant for Railway passengers and, as such,
is not made available in the open market.
The sale
price of Rail Neer on Railway premises including trains is Rs.
10/- per 1000 ml bottle.
This
information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri
Bandaru Dattatraya in a written reply to a question from Shri
Rajeev Shukla and Dr. Abrar Ahmed in the Rajya Sabha today.
Stainless
steel coaches in Rajdhani Express
Rajya
Sabha
Indian
Railways entered into a contract with a German Company M/s Linke
Hofmann Busch (LHB, now ALSTOM LHB) IN 1995 for transfer of technology
for manufacture of lightweight, high-speed coaches in Rail Coach
Factory, Kapurthala.
Coaches
in the world are manufactured with fire retardant materials,
which will delay the propagation of fire. Our coaches are also
manufactured using non-inflammable material with fire retardant
properties in accordance with international practice, thus minimizing
the impact of any fire generated in the coaches to the maximum
extent.
This
information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri
Bandaru Dattatraya in a written reply to a question from Shri
B.J. Panda and Miss Mabel Rebello in the Rajya Sabha today.
Final
report of Godhra Train incident
Rajya
Sabha
A judicial
inquiry is under process by the State Government.
Fifty-nine
passengers died out of which 52 were identified and 7 were not
identified. The break is as under: loss of life included male
21, female 26, children 5 and not identified 7.
Dead
passengers belonging to Gujarat State were 47 and Uttar Pradesh
State five. Bodies of 7 passengers have not been identified so
far, hence, their state of domicile not available.
Fifty-two
bodies have been identified and ex-gratia amounting to Rs. 7.80
lakhs paid to their next of kins. Seven dead bodies could not
be identified.
This
information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri
Bandaru Dattatraya in a written reply to a question from Shri
Abu Asim Azmi in the Rajya Sabha today.
Use of
Satellite phones by passengers
Rajya
Sabha
Satellite
telephones are being provided with Zonal and Divisional Railway
Headquarters exclusively for establishing communication from
any accident/disaster site, for use of Railway administration
as well as stranded passengers.
This
information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri
Bandaru Dattatraya in a written reply to a question from Shri
Yadlapati Venkat Rao in the Rajya Sabha today.
ADB Loan
from to Railways
Rajya
Sabha
Asian
Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of US$ 313.6 million
during December 2002, for Railway sector improvement. The loan
agreement has not yet been signed.
The loan
shall be available as per the provisions of a draft loan agreement
to be entered into by Ministry of Finance, on behalf of Government
of India. It has loan covenants relating to the Loan, Use of
Proceeds of the Loan, Particular Covenants, Suspension, Cancellation,
Acceleration of Maturity, Loan Effectiveness and Delegation of
Authority. These conditions have been finalized between the Ministry
of Finance, Ministry of Railways and the ADB.
The projects
to be funded by ADB under this loan will be implemented by Rail
Vikas Nigam Ltd., a public sector company, set up to undertake
the Golden Quadrilateral strengthening projects and other bankable
projects under National Rail Vikas Yojana.
This
information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri
Bandaru Dattatraya in a written reply to a question from Shri
Vayalar Ravi in the Rajya Sabha today.
Safety
surcharge on Railway Fares
Rajya
Sabha
A non-lapsable
Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) of Rs. 17,000 crores has been
created from October 1, 2001 for a period of six years to wipe
out arrears of replacement of over aged safety related assets
of the Railways. The Railways’ contribution to this Fund,
which is to be around Rs. 5,000 crores, is to be raised through
the levy of a Safety Surcharge on passenger fares with effect
from October 1, 2001.
To end
of March 2003, Railways have cumulatively collected Rs. 907 crores
as surcharge against a budgeted amount of Rs. 1,260 crores. The
shortfall in collection has been made good from Railways’
internal revenues. Budget Estimates, 2003-2004 envisage a surcharge
collection of Rs. 710 crores.
This
information was given by the Railway Minister Shri Nitish Kumar
in reply to a question from Dr. Abrar Ahmed and Smt. Ambika Soni
in the Rajya Sabha today.
Foreign
Exchange earned by Palace on Wheels
Rajya
Sabha
The average
occupancy of Palace on Wheels during the year 2002-2003 has been
42.98 per cent.
The foreign
exchange earned during this period amount to Rs. 1035.03 lakhs.
As per
the Agreement between the Indian Railways and the Rajasthan Tourism
Development Corporation (RTDC), the responsibility of marketing,
selling of tickets and hospitality services of the train are
with the RTDC while the Railways only provide the necessary facilities
for operation of the train. RTDC markets the train through its
nominated General Sales Agents (GSAs) in various countries and
by participating in major international tourism fairs such as
World Travel Mart, International Tourism Borse (ITB)-Berlin,
Dubai Festival as well as in the domestic tourism marts.
This
information was given by the Railway Minister Shri Nitish Kumar
in reply to a question from Shri Sukhdev Singh Libra and Dr.
Abrar Ahmed in the Rajya Sabha today.
Steel
Export to China
Rajya
Sabha
China
is currently the largest consumer and importer of steel in the
world. As per IISI estimates, China consumed 211 million metric
tonnes of finished steel products in 2002. Its consumption is
estimated to reach 240 million metric tonnes by 2005.
China
has imposed safeguard measures in the form of quotas on five
categories of steel items with additional tariff in case the
imports exceed the relevant quota. These measures do not apply
to India. The exemption is subject to the condition that import
share of India in a particular category should not exceed 3 per
cent of China's total import volume in that category.
India
exported primary and semi-finished iron and steel worth Rs. 2352
crore and iron and steel bar/rod worth Rs. 42 crore to china
during the year 2002-03.
There
is no imminent threat to Indian export of iron and steel from
China. At present, China is a net importer of steel and its average
import during the last three years was 25 million metric tonnes
per year, which is likely to touch 30 million metric tonnes per
year in near future. On the other hand export of steel by China
has remained between 5 to 7 million metric tonnes per year.
This
information was given by the Minister for Steel Shri Braja Kishore
Tripathy in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.