Tag: IRCTC

In Past Five Year, 47 Incidents of Data Leak and 142 Data Breaches: MeitY

In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the minister also submitted that there were 10 data leaks related to government organisations in 2020, five in 2021 and seven in 2022.

New Delhi: As many as 47 incidents of data leak and 142 incidents of data breach have been reported during the last five calendar years, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) submitted in the Lok Sabha recently.

The information was provided by Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in response to a question from Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who had asked about the cases of reported leaks and breaches of user data during the past five years.

Bordoloi had also asked for the details of data hacked from the RailYatri app, which is authorised by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), and of the government websites from which data had got leaked.

The minister replied that “with the expansion of the Internet, more and more Indians coming online and increase in the volume of data generated, stored and processed, instances of data breaches have also grown.” He said as per information reported to and tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), there were 47 incidents of data leak and 142 data breaches over the past five years.

As for the hacking of the RailYatri app, he stated that “as per information provided by IRCTC upon receipt of information from CERT-In in December 2022 regarding leakage of data, acquired and maintained by RailYatri app, the ticket-booking facility on RailYatri app was stopped, penalty was imposed on the company which is the custodian of the RailYatri app, and the app was restored after taking necessary security measures.”

Furthermore, the minister said, “as per the information reported to and tracked by CERT-In, a total of 10, 5 and 7 incidents of data leak related to government organisations were reported for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively.” On observing data leak incidents, he submitted, CERT-In notifies the affected organisations along with remedial actions to be taken and coordinates incident response measures with affected organisations, service providers, respective sector regulators and law enforcement agencies.

The minister also spelt out how the government has acted on various fronts to “enhance the cybersecurity posture and thereby secure data against leak and breach, Government has acted on several fronts.”

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and information technology. Photo: Facebook/Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP.

In this regard, he said, several steps have been taken. As per these, “CERT-In, in April 2022, issued directions under section 70B for mandatory reporting of cyber incidents to CERT-In within six hours of such incidents being noticed or being brought to notice.” Thereafter, in December 2022, it also issued a special advisory on best practices to enhance the resilience of health sector entities, and urged the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to disseminate the same to all authorised medical care entities and service providers in the country.

The reply also stated that a Cyber Crisis Management Plan was formulated by CERT-In for implementation by all ministries and departments of the Union and state governments and their organisations and critical sectors to counter cyber-attacks and cyber-terrorism.

Also, it said CERT-In now conducts regular training programmes for network and system administrators and Chief Information Security Officers of government and critical sector organisations regarding securing information technology infrastructure and mitigating cyber-attacks. To this end, a total of 42 training programmes were conducted, covering 11,486 participants, during the years 2021 and 2022.

The reply added that CERT-In has empanelled 150 security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices and it issues alerts and advisories on latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers and networks on an ongoing basis.

Also Read: Why Is No One Ever Penalised for Data Breaches in India?

‘Long way to go’

Reacting to the minister’s reply, the Internet Freedom Foundation which “keeps a track of Indian citizen’s digital rights in the Parliament” tweeted that it appreciates the steps being taken by the Ministry and CERT-In “to prevent data breaches” but added that “the country has a long way to go before building its cyber resilience.”

The group also shared its recommendations on preventing data breaches and providing redressal against them which it had shared with MeitY. It said these recommendations were made “considering the possible violation of law by data fiduciaries in whose custody data was breached and the lacunae in the existing legal regime”.

The recommendations, among other things, had urged the government to “direct investigation into the conduct of data fiduciaries, including those mentioned below, that have faced data breaches in the past two years; mandate data fiduciaries to notify users in case they experience a data breach”; and “ensure that the Indian Citizens who have been impacted by data breaches are provided adequate compensation.”

For the First Time, Nitish Questions CBI’s Credibility in Cases Against Lalu, Tejashwi

Even before a CBI court rejected the investigative agency’s plea for the cancellation of Tejashwi’s bail, the Bihar CM had subtly pointed to the possibly suspect timing of these cases.

Patna: On October 18, when a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court refused to entertain the CBI’s plea to cancel the bail of Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav in an Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) case, it came across as an indictment of the Central agency’s credibility in the fresh cases it has pursued against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav and members of his family since the veteran leader was released on bail in the fodder scam cases.

Rejecting the agency’s plea that Tejashwi had “blatantly abused the liberty granted to him”, the court stated that it could not find any “specific ground” in the CBI’s allegation.

Four days earlier, on October 15, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, addressing a public meeting at Samastipur, had said, “They [the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the CBI] lodged cases against Laluji and his family when we [the Janata Dal (United) (JDU) and RJD) came together. Thus, we were separated. Now that we have come together again after five years apart, they are making new charges against Laluji and his family members. What type of elements are they?”

It was probably the first time that Nitish had ever questioned the legitimacy of a criminal case lodged by the CBI against Lalu and his family. 

Five year actions

Given the fact that Nitish is invariably measured in his public statements, he must have had a very strong reason to question the BJP and the CBI on the IRCTC cases.

The Bihar chief minister was the Union minister of railways in the 1999-2004 Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In this position, he was known for his efficiency, diligence, probity and performance. Thus, it would be foolhardy to underestimate Nitish’s knowledge of the railways and their functioning. 

In 2004, Lalu replaced Nitish as the Union railway minister. The IRCTC cases registered against Lalu and his family – one related to a ‘land for job’ scam and another related to awarding the operational contract of two IRCTCs hotels to private operators – have their roots in Lalu’s tenure as the railway minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government between 2004 and 2009.

Tejashwi, whom the CBI has implicated in an IRCTC case, was a minor when his father was the railway minister. The CBI had filed these cases against Lalu and members of his family in July 2017, eight years after Lalu ceased to be the railway minister and three years after Narendra Modi became prime minister. It was also two years after Tejashwi became the deputy CM in the Mahagathbandhan government headed by Nitish.

Moreover, Lalu performed very well in his position as the railways minister. No party, not even the BJP, objected to his performance. Towards the end of the Manmohan Singh-led government in 2012-13, while BJP leaders like the late Arun Jaitley, the late Sushma Swaraj and Narendra Modi attacked the UPA about the 2G and 3G spectrum scams and the coal scam, they never said a word about any scam in the railways.

But suddenly, in July 2017, the CBI raided Lalu’s Patna home and his other establishments and filed cases against him and members of his family, implicating Tejashwi in the IRCTC scam, but not any of Lalu’s other children. When this happened, Nitish Kumar asked Tejashwi to explain the charges against him and then left the Mahagathbandhan, citing his reservations against corruption cases as his reason.

As soon as Nitish joined the National Democratic Alliance, the coalition of parties led by the BJP, the CBI fell silent on the IRCTC cases. Tejashwi, Lalu and Rabri Devi received anticipatory bail in the cases in 2019 and the CBI did not challenge their bail in the higher court. However, when Nitish attended an iftar party hosted by the RJD this May, the CBI suddenly became active on the IRCTC cases again. It petitioned the CBI court for the cancellation of bail to Tejashwi after he became deputy CM again under Nitish.

Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad after their meeting with Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi, September 25, 2022. Photo: PTI /Kamal Kishore

Keeping mum

The Bihar chief minister is known to seldom comment on investigating agencies and court proceedings in any matter. Even when his relationship with Lalu was at its bitterest in the late 1990s and in 2005, when he replaced Rabri Devi as chief minister, Nitish said not a word about the corruption cases against Lalu or how the CBI was dealing with them. He also never publicly reacted to the courts’ verdicts against Lalu in the protracted cases that emerged from the fodder scam.

“Better you ask me about issues of politics and governance. My battle with Laluji is political in nature; we wish to replace him through the political process,” Nitish had told me in 2002 when I interviewed him for The Statesman and pushed him to speak about the charges against Lalu, who had been incarcerated at that time in the fodder scam cases.

 Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author and professor of journalism and mass communication at Invertis University, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.

Delhi Court Refuses CBI Plea to Cancel Tejashwi Yadav’s Bail in IRCTC Case

Special Judge Geetanjali Goel, however, asked the Bihar deputy chief minister to be more “careful and choose appropriate words” when criticising investigating officers and the CBI.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday refused to cancel the bail of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on a plea moved by the CBI in connection with the IRCTC scam.

A Delhi court had, in 2019, granted bail to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi, in connection with the case in which the CBI has claimed that operational contracts granted to a private firm, to construct two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation hotels, had irregularities.

In September, the CBI petitioned its special court at Delhi to overturn this bail. Earlier this year, Tejashwi had assumed the role of the deputy chief minister of Bihar after chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) broke away from its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In an analysis for The Wire, Nalin Verma had noted that the case began to be investigated much after Lalu quit as Railway minister in 2009 and that while Lalu was Railway minister, Tejashwi was a young teenager.

The CBI had claimed that at a recent press conference, Yadav had attempted to allegedly “subvert the process of law and thwart the entire investigation” as well as the consequent trial, and “blatantly abused the liberty granted to him.”

Special Judge Geetanjali Goel, on Tuesday, asked Yadav to be “more careful and choose appropriate words” when criticising investigating officers and the CBI.

“Should such statements be made while being the Deputy Chief Minister?” the judge asked him, according to NDTV.

The court passed the directions after hearing arguments during which Yadav claimed that he did not violate any condition set in the bail granted to him earlier.

“I (Yadav) am in an opposition party and raising questions on wrongdoing is my duty. The CBI and ED are being ‘misused’ by the present government. All opposition parties are feeling this,” Yadav’s counsel told the court.

“I am an easy target because I’m not with the current government. Nitish Kumar was all good for 15 years because you were in power with him,” Yadav’s counsel also said, according to NDTV.

The court said a detailed order will be passed later.

(With PTI inputs)

So Why Is the CBI After Tejashwi Yadav Now?

Several questions surround CBI’s specific targeting of the Bihar deputy CM. The timing of the move is also hard to ignore.

Patna: The Central Bureau of Investigation has petitioned its special court at Delhi to cancel the bail it gave four years ago to Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav in a case related to the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation.

The court had granted bail to Tejashwi, his father Lalu Prasad Yadav and his mother Rabri Devi in the case of allegedly selling off two IRCTC hotels, one in Odisha and another in Jharkhand, to private operators in an allegedly unlawful manner during the time when the Rashtriya Janata Dal president, Lalu, was the minister for railways between 2004 and 2009.

CBI had raided Lalu-Rabri’s Patna home on July 7, 2017, in this connection when Nitish Kumar was the chief minister of the Mahagathbandhan government comprising the Janata Dal (United), the RJD and the Congress.

When he was implicated by the investigating agency in the corruption case, Tejashwi was the deputy CM in the Nitish-led government.

The CBI’s case against Tejashwi functioned as the raison d’être for Nitish to ditch the grand alliance and return to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s fold. Nitish – conscious of his image as an anti-corruption crusader – had purportedly asked Tejashwi to explain the charges that the CBI had lodged against him before switching over to BJP.

Also read: Explainer: The Many Corruption Charges Against Lalu Prasad Yadav and His Family

The special court granted bail to Tejashwi, Lalu and Rabri in the case in 2018 – within a year after the CBI had filed a charge-sheet. Nothing was heard about this case for five years after Nitish became the chief minister of the JD(U)-BJP alliance government in July 2017. Last month, Nitish dumped BJP last month and returned to the earlier alliance.

In its petition to the court, CBI has alleged that Tejashwi was ‘intimidating’ CBI officials and was ‘influencing’ investigation in the case. The investigating agency has cited a press conference by Tejashwi in which the latter has allegedly labelled the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax as “extension offices” of the BJP, selectively targeting the right wing party’s rivals.

The court has issued notice to Tejashwi asking the latter to reply to the charges.

The RJD’s national vice president Shivanand Tiwary in a statement said, “The CBI was sleeping over the case for five long years – while the JD(U)-BJP government was in office. The CBI has got into action now that the BJP has lost its sleep in the wake of Nitish joining hands with Tejashwi. It’s obvious that the CBI is targeting Tejashwi to serve BJP’s interests.”

In the 2020 assembly election, Tejashwi gave a spirited fight to BJP despite his father Lalu being in jai at the time. RJD emerged as the single largest party despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing as many as 42 election meetings in Bihar and attacking Tejashwi directly in many of his speeches.

Also read: Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader, Has Arrived

With Nitish Kumar, too, gone from its camp, BJP has a tall climb ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024.

Many say BJP’s ‘Hindu Rashtra’ concept has little appeal in Bihar, and that the party has consistently failed to convince the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) and Other Backward Class (OBC) vote bases the way it has done in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Moreover what Shivanand has said about the CBI has been echoed by almost all non-BJP parties – be it Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal or Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“We have every reason to believe that the BJP had used the CBI against Tejaswhi in 2017 to break the Mahagathbandhan. It’s evident from the fact that the CBI has failed to procure any evidence to support its charge on Tejashwi in five years,” JD(U) national president Rajeev Ranjan (Lallan) Singh recently told a press conference at Patna.

Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav. Credit: PTI/Files

Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav. Photo: PTI/Files

‘Most corrupt’

AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, meanwhile, has turned the heat on the BJP, describing it as the “most corrupt party in 75 years of Independence ”.

Close on the heels of the CBI raiding the Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s establishments while probing “irregularities’’ in the scrapped liquor excise policy, the Anti Corruption of Branch (ACB) of Delhi police has arrested the AAP’s Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan for irregularities in recruitment to the Waqf Board’s.

In the same way the RJD has linked CBI’s action in Bihar with the setback to the BJP after Nitish joined the Mahagathbandhan, Kejriwal has linked investigating agencies’ heightened action against the AAP MLAs to AAP’s fight against BJP in the assembly poll-bound Gujarat.

Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia have also accused the BJP of offering money to AAP MLAs in various states to bring down the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab.

Also read: On Day of Bihar Floor Test, CBI Raids RJD Leaders’ Residences

The JD(U) appears to be walking the same line and has heaped corruption charges on the BJP’s newly appointed in-charge of Bihar affairs, Binod Taware.

The party’s spokespersons, Anjum Ara and Arvind Nishad called a press conference recently at Patna to specifically allege that Taware had allotted a contract for fire extinguishers worth Rs 191 crore for schools in Maharashtra to his cronies in 2015 when he was Maharastra education minister.

Besides, he was involved in several other cases of financial scandals, the JD(U) spokespersons alleged. “How can the BJP accuse the Bihar leaders of indulging in corruption when it is full of Taware-like leaders who are themselves neck-deep in corruption,” Anjum Ara asked.

‘Inexplicable’ charge

Born on November 9, 1989, Tejashwi is the youngest son of Lalu Prasad Yadav. He was barely 14 years old when Lalu became railway minister. “It is inexplicable how the CBI made Tejashwi an accused in the case involving Lalu as a Union minister,” said a senior IPS officer of Bihar, adding, “It’s more ludicrous to see the CBI instituting a case against Lalu, Tejaswi and Rabri in 2017, eight years after Lalu had quit as the railway minister in 2009”.

Some BJP leaders had complained about alleged ‘irregularities’ in IRCTC functionings by Lalu in 2008-09. CBI investigated these and closed the case in 2011 after finding the allegations false. It is unclear how the CBI resumed investigation in the same case in 2017.

Senior police officers at Patna who spoke to this writer said that another point leapt out as questionable in CBI’s latest actions against Tejashwi. “The CBI has said in the charge-sheet that Tejashwi and Rabri were beneficiaries of the dividends that Lalu got for selling off the two IRCTC hotels. But why did they leave out Misa Bharti, Tejpratap Yadav and other members of Lalu’s family?” one of them asked.

Could Tejashwi’s role as Lalu’s successor be responsible?

Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author and professor of journalism and mass communication at Invertis University, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. 

IRCTC Will Promote ‘Vegetarian-Friendly Travel’ on Some Trains To Religious Sites

According to a press release issued by the Sattvik Council of India, it has tied up with IRCTC to introduce services that “fit the requirements of vegetarians and promotes vegan travelling to holy destinations”.

New Delhi: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will promote “vegetarian-friendly travel” by getting some trains “sattvik certified”, especially those running on routes connecting religious sites, according to a statement by the Sattvik Council of India, which is involved in the process of granting the certification.

No one from the IRCTC, the catering and tourism arm of the Indian Railways, was available for comment.

According to a press release issued by the Sattvik Council of India, it has tied up with IRCTC to introduce services that “fit the requirements of vegetarians and promotes vegan travelling to holy destinations”.

The IRCTC runs the Vande Bharat Express which travels from Delhi to Katra. It will be certified as ‘sattvik’, it said.

The Sattvik Council of India said it will launch the ‘sattvik’ certification scheme along with IRCTC on Monday. It will also develop a handbook of vegetarian kitchens jointly with the IRCTC.

Also Read: India is Not a ‘Vegetarian Country’ Like the EAT-Lancet Report Would Have Us Believe

In the release, it said the IRCTC has an “understanding” with it and has decided to seek “certification” for some of the trains that go to pilgrimage destinations like the Vande Bharat Express which goes to in Katra, the end stop for Vaishno Devi temple.

“This formula is likely to be replicated in around 18 trains,” it said.

“IRCTC base kitchens, executive lounges, budget hotels, food plazas, travel and tour packages, Rail Neer plants will be ‘sattvik’ certified to ensure vegetarian friendly travel,” the statement said.

(PTI)

Train Services Resume With 15 Pairs of AC Trains From Delhi to Different Cities

A detailed SOP issued before the start of services asks people to maintain social distancing and other precautions.

New Delhi: The Indian Railways on Tuesday resumed passenger train operations with 15 pairs of trains from New Delhi to different parts of the country. Prior to the launch of the service, a detailed standard operating procedure was issued to ensure social distancing norms and either precautions against COVID-19 are followed.

All the trains that began operating on Tuesday comprised first, second and third AC coaches. Given that these services are likely only to be availed by the economically better off, questions have been raised on why simultaneously some regular passenger services have not been restored.

The Railways, meanwhile, began the operations from Delhi to Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi with certain safeguards in place to ensure that the trains do not result in the spread of the coronavirus.

E-tickets work as curfew passes

The Railways’ SOP covered several aspects, ranging from how passengers would travel to the railway stations, the checks to be performed there and their conduct on the trains. The movement of passengers as well as the driver of the vehicle transporting them to and from the station shall be allowed on the basis of a confirmed e-ticket. It also provided that “only those passengers with confirmed e-tickets shall be allowed to enter the station”.

Further, the Ministry of Railways said that “all passengers shall be compulsorily screened and only asymptomatic passengers are allowed to enter/ board the train”. Also, it said “all passengers shall be provide with hand sanitizer at entry and exit points at station and in coaches”.

The SOP also laid down that the passengers would wear masks while entering the station and all through their journey by train and that they would also be required to maintain social distancing during boarding and travel.

At the destination station, the Railways clarified that the passengers would have to adhere to health protocols as specified by that state or Union Territory.

Passenger in a train as services resume. Photo: PTI

More services would depend on the availability of coaches

While announcing the resumption of services, the Railways had clarified that it would soon start special services on new routes based on the availability of coaches. It has reserved 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and more for enabling operation of up to 300 ‘Shramik Special’ trains for stranded migrants.

The booking for the trains that operated on Tuesday was scheduled to be launched at 4 pm on Monday on the IRCTC website, but due to some glitches, it began at 6 pm.

To begin with, the Railways has stated that ticket booking counters at the railway stations would remain closed. E-ticketing is being provided through the IRCTC’s website and mobile app. The booking of tickets through ‘agents’ (of both the IRCTC and Railways) has also not been restarted.

The fare structure of the ‘Special Trains’ that began operations on Tuesday was comparable to the Rajdhani trains.

Earlier, railway minister Piyush Goyal had tweeted about the resumption of this service.

However, his post had led to people raising a number of concerns regarding how passengers would travel from their homes to the stations and the precautions that need to be taken. The SOP appeared to have answered most.

Many questions and some suggestions

There were queries on whether those alighting from these trains would be put in quarantine for some period of time before being allowed to go home.

Questions were also asked about why train services were stopped when the total COVID-19 cases were 540 and are being resumed when the tally has crossed 70,000.

Some said the decision to only allow staff and passengers, along with licensed porters, into the stations should henceforth become a norm, as with airports. This would ensure social distancing and also keep the premises in better shape, they suggested.

For maintaining social distance, others commented that the Railways should now also ensure for all times to come that only as many passengers are allowed to board a train as the number of seats and that there should be no overcrowding.

Lockdown: Railways Set to Cancel Nearly 39 Lakh Tickets for Travel Between April 15 and May 3

Earlier in the day, thousands of migrant workers converged near the Bandra railway station in Mumbai.

New Delhi: Railways is set to cancel around 39 lakh tickets booked for travel between April 15 and May 3 due to extension of the nationwide lockdown and suspension of passenger trains till then in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, sources told PTI.

With the national transporter allowing tickets to be booked during the 21-day lockdown for journeys after April 14, around 39 lakh bookings were made by passengers hoping that trains will be in operation post-lockdown.

However, with the announcement of the extension of the lockdown period, the railways on Tuesday not only cancelled all its passenger services till May 3 but also stopped all advance bookings.

Even as the announcement stalled over 15,000 passenger trains of the railways, thousands of migrant workers converged near the Bandra railway station in Mumbai hoping to catch trains back to their home states.

While they were dispersed later, questions were raised as to why railways kept bookings open despite the uncertainty over the extension of the lockdown period.

Railways, however, said all passengers will get full refund for tickets booked for the cancelled trains as well as for those booked in advance.

Also read: ‘Let us Go Home’: No Sign of Relief in PM’s Speech, Migrant Workers Take to Mumbai Streets

Railways has also said full refunds would be automatically provided by the national transporter for its online customers, while those who have booked at the counters can take the refunds up to July 31.

Customers will also get full refund of their tickets if they are cancelling their advance bookings of tickets for trains that are not yet cancelled, it said.

It also said that no advance reservation of train tickets, including e-tickets will be allowed till further orders though the facility of online cancellation will remain functional.

“As far as trains cancelled up to May 3 is concerned, the refunds would be made automatically by the railways online to the customers while those who have booked at the counters, refund can be taken up to 31st July. Full refund will be given for tickets for the bookings made for the trains cancelled.

“Full refund will also be there for those cancelling the advance bookings of tickets for trains not yet cancelled,” Railways said.

Before the pandemic, on an average, around 8.5 lakh tickets were booked daily on the IRCTC website.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced that the lockdown across the country will be extended till May 3 to fight the coronavirus pandemic, saying the measure has produced a significant outcome in containing the infection.

After Modi’s March 22 announcement of a 21-day lockdown across the country, the railways on March 24 had announced that its suspension of all passenger services will continue till April 14 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Around 15,523 trains run by the railways have been affected including 9,000 passenger trains and 3,000 mail express services which are run daily under normal circumstances.

The death toll in the country due to novel coronavirus rose to 353 with 29 fatalities reported since Monday evening, while the number of cases saw a record jump of 1,463 to go up to 10,815 cases on Tuesday, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stands at 9,272, As many as 1,189 people have been cured and discharged, and one has migrated to another country, it said.

Modi Expected to Flag off IRCTC’s Third Train in Varanasi This Week

The move is widely seen as a precursor to full-fledged private rail operations, whose bidding process will start in a month.

New Delhi: Buoyed by the successful run of two trains on a special fare structure, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will be operating a third train from next week between Indore and Varanasi.

Sources say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to flag off the Humsafar service, named as ‘Kashi Mahakal Express’, with state-of-the-art facilities on February 16 from Varanasi with much fanfare. The overnight train will cater to the increased demand of the passengers connecting Lucknow, Kanpur, Bina, Bhopal and Ujjain along the busy routes.

IRCTC, a railways PSU, is currently operating two Tejas service between New Delhi-Lucknow and Mumbai-Ahmedabad. On these trains, passengers have to pay 20% to 30% more than the regular service as the fare is determined through dynamic fare system.

Though IRCTC-run trains cannot strictly be described as a privately-operated train, since the PSU is under the administrative control of the Indian Railways, it is widely perceived as a pilot run before 150 trains are allowed to be run by players from the private sector.

While IRCTC decides the fare structure and is responsible for providing on-board amenities – including catering, the safety. Security entailing the signaling system, loco drivers, platform and stations are with the Railways.

According to the mutually agreed arrangement, IRCTC will pay about Rs 1000 per km as haulage charge to the Railways for availing the railway system, including trains and infrastructure.

Started last month, the Mumbai Tejas Express is running with full occupancy and the revenue collection is ranging between Rs 11.1 lakh and Rs 11.5 lakh per day.

Also Read: As Buzz Builds Around IRCTC’s Tejas Express, Will Privatisation Take Wing?

However, the Lucknow Tejas launched in October last year, is currently having about 80% occupancy. The revenue earning ranges between Rs 9 and Rs 10 lakh a day.

While the Tejas service is equipped with all AC Executive and Chair Car seating arrangement and meant for a day-long journey, Humsafar is for overnight travel with a full three-tier AC service. The Kashi-Mahakal Express will have 15 AC coaches, a modular pantry and two power cars.

According to sources, since the revenue collection based on the dynamic fare system for the Tejas Express is fairly okay, the Railways decided to give another train to the IRCTC to run between Indore and Varanasi.

Narendra Modi Dumka

Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking in Dumka, Jharkhand on Sunday. Photo: PTI

Tender to be called for private players soon

Meanwhile, going ahead with the process of handing over 150 trains to private players, the Railways will float the tender inviting the probable bidders to participate in the race shortly.

The tender document is being finalised and it would be floated by the month-end, said a senior railway ministry official.

The Rs 22,500 crore private train operation project entails operation of 150 trains on 100 routes across the country. Trains connecting all major destinations like Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Patna, Ranchi, Bhopal, Varanasi and Lucknow are on the offer.

Private players are expected to introduce modern trains with 16 coaches, each equipped with upgraded facilities which include better interiors, comfortable seats, onboard entertainment, modular clean bio-vacuum toilets, good food served in an overall better hygienic condition.

There are many global players from France, the US, Spain, Japan, South Korea and China who have evinced keen interest to run trains in the country. Major rolling stock companies such as Talgo, Alstom, Bombardier, Siemens, Hyundai, Macquarie, Hitachi and CRRC have also shown interest, while top domestic giants like Tata and Adani are also expected to enter the race.

Also Read: Faced With Mounting Losses, Indian Railways Starts New Year With a Fare Hike

Among the Indian companies, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, Medha, Bharat Forge, BEML, IRCTC, RK Associates, Gatx, Essel Group, Adani Ports and SEZ were present in the stakeholders meet and are expected to be in the race to run private trains in the country.

Facing a loss of over Rs 40,000 crore in the passenger business, the Railways has recently hiked the fare from January 1, 2020. While there is no increase in fares of suburban services, in the case of non-suburban services, a nominal increase of one paisa per km has been done. In the case of non-AC and AC classes in Mail and Express trains, the fare has been increased by two paise per km and 4 paise per km respectively.

Though the Railways aims to mop up Rs 2,300 crore in a year from the recent fare hike, the passenger business is facing a huge loss. Since freight businesses earn profits, the passenger service is cross-subsidised from it.

Arun Kumar Das can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com.