Indian Railways

Fail to get your point. Are you saying that I’m behind the curve? I have read all the posts since Azaad’s post and my post is still relevant. He claims that it is a colossal waste of resources and money and it should have been staggered over the years. Doesn’t matter. Better to bite the bullet now and get all that savings k stress of playing it cute and get caught flat footed, ie, the pandemic and the Russian Ukrainian war that drove inflation up.

ex-railways board member's issue is with what will happen to 50% of diesel locomotives in the current inventory.
 
ex-railways board member's issue is with what will happen to 50% of diesel locomotives in the current inventory.

Of course those locomotives will go idle due to lack of use. Besides we can always resell those locomotives to other countries who need diesel locomotives. Whatever it is it’s still an overall win. That’s the point I’m trying to make.
 
While I don't quite agree with his logic of comparing "coal based vs diesel based railway," using terminology he's used to describe this phenomenon of replacing the latter with the former , this one move has led to us stabling ( resting locomotives permanently in car sheds akin to the IAF retiring planes , keeping them in reserve) 2500 diesel locomotives @upto INR 50 cr per unit = INR 1,25,000/-

What a collosal waste of resources ?!

As per this article Standard 4500-6000hp D loco cost about 10-13Cr in 2018.That might've been most common category. Keeping them in reserves should cost much too.


I also remember reading that IR had tried to convert old Diesel loco into Electric ones for few crores. So losses can be cut to few thousands crore.

@ArjunMK1A can tell more about difficulties and economics involved.
 
As per this article Standard 4500-6000hp D loco cost about 10-13Cr in 2018.That might've been most common category. Keeping them in reserves should cost much too.


I also remember reading that IR had tried to convert old Diesel loco into Electric ones for few crores. So losses can be cut to few thousands crore.

@ArjunMK1A can tell more about difficulties and economics involved.
More than this bit of news you've shared let me draw your attention to this 👇



The entire contract value for this tender awarded in 2015 is ~ 3 billion USD which in today's exchange rate works out to ~ INR 26,000 crores . Some time after that Leaderji decreed we'd go in for 100% electrification.

If you take this quantity aside that's still ~ 1500 nos of Diesel Locomotives of different ages with still some or plenty of life left in them .

We've run such diesel locomotives for much more than their prescribed life spans earlier after refurbishments principally because the then administrations didn't see it worth investing in modernisation as this was supposed to be the prime mode of public transportation which also meant tickets were to be subsidised , hence things should just keep running irrespective of the shape it is running in .

Of course we can't dump all this on the GoI however convenient it is , as a paucity of resources was also the issue & these limited resources always had plenty of demand.

Besides have you checked what's the going rate for conversion to electric from Diesel Electric ? It's not economical nor can it be carried out on all such Diesel Locomotives & I'm not referring only to the obsolescence factor here. Certain designs don't lend themselves to such conversion.
 
More than this bit of news you've shared let me draw your attention to this 👇



The entire contract value for this tender awarded in 2015 is ~ 3 billion USD which in today's exchange rate works out to ~ INR 26,000 crores . Some time after that Leaderji decreed we'd go in for 100% electrification.

If you take this quantity aside that's still ~ 1500 nos of Diesel Locomotives of different ages with still some or plenty of life left in them .

We've run such diesel locomotives for much more than their prescribed life spans earlier after refurbishments principally because the then administrations didn't see it worth investing in modernisation as this was supposed to be the prime mode of public transportation which also meant tickets were to be subsidised , hence things should just keep running irrespective of the shape it is running in .

Of course we can't dump all this on the GoI however convenient it is , as a paucity of resources was also the issue & these limited resources always had plenty of demand.

Besides have you checked what's the going rate for conversion to electric from Diesel Electric ? It's not economical nor can it be carried out on all such Diesel Locomotives & I'm not referring only to the obsolescence factor here. Certain designs don't lend themselves to such conversion.

https://www.financialexpress.com/bu...ic-crores-saved-under-unique-project/1405329/

According to railway officials, only Rs 2.5 crore will be spent for conversion of a diesel locomotives to electric as compared to the mid-life rehabilitation cost of Rs 5-6 crore. That’s a saving of almost 50% for the Indian Railways.
 
More than this bit of news you've shared let me draw your attention to this 👇



The entire contract value for this tender awarded in 2015 is ~ 3 billion USD which in today's exchange rate works out to ~ INR 26,000 crores . Some time after that Leaderji decreed we'd go in for 100% electrification.

If you take this quantity aside that's still ~ 1500 nos of Diesel Locomotives of different ages with still some or plenty of life left in them .

We've run such diesel locomotives for much more than their prescribed life spans earlier after refurbishments principally because the then administrations didn't see it worth investing in modernisation as this was supposed to be the prime mode of public transportation which also meant tickets were to be subsidised , hence things should just keep running irrespective of the shape it is running in .

Of course we can't dump all this on the GoI however convenient it is , as a paucity of resources was also the issue & these limited resources always had plenty of demand.

Besides have you checked what's the going rate for conversion to electric from Diesel Electric ? It's not economical nor can it be carried out on all such Diesel Locomotives & I'm not referring only to the obsolescence factor here. Certain designs don't lend themselves to such conversion.

We can resell the locomotives to African countries and recoup our investments.
 
https://www.financialexpress.com/bu...ic-crores-saved-under-unique-project/1405329/

According to railway officials, only Rs 2.5 crore will be spent for conversion of a diesel locomotives to electric as compared to the mid-life rehabilitation cost of Rs 5-6 crore. That’s a saving of almost 50% for the Indian Railways.



Apparently we've some ~ 4500 Diesel Locomotives . @ezsasa
 
It could have been staggered. That's the whole point. IR went about it in mission mode for they were tasked with it & provided the funds for it with a deadline.
Well in business point of view it is always cheaper to built when you give out a large contract. The saving would be much higher rather than taking another 50 years in bits and pieces like congress does, economy of scale comes into play.
Where will you use a diesel locomotive in a fully electrified grid except for shunting ?

Well it will still being used, 97% of the railway is electrified and I still diesel locomotives being used. To be honest I don’t get your point we both will see it’s being used on railways and not just for shunting.


All capital goods are subject to depreciation. Are electric trains immune from it ? I also used the the word UPTO INR 50 cr & the estimates are obviously in the upper bracket.
Well I don’t get your point here ? It’s the diesel locomotives that we are trying to phase out not the electric locomotives. I was quoting at the number 1,25,000. So I don’t get when you compare the diesel locomotives to electric locomotives here !!!

Most of the locomotives are I think around 15 crore average as per sanik loco pilot channel don’t know how accurate is that
The cumulative value of the tender awarded to construct the Electric Locomotive factory in Madhepura & the Diesel Electric Locomotive in Marhowrah was 6 billion USD . Assuming it was split into half it still works out to 3 billion USD = ~ 26, 000 crores at today's exchange rates for 1000 DE locomotives .

On which planet do they employ 2500 DE locomotives as back up for a once in a blue moon event ?
Let’s say there is a grid failure, your one day loss will cover all the 2500 DE capital cost in future. You just don’t count the loss of goods but the whole cumulative loss of economy. And this can happen when Indian economy is 5 trillion.

Railway advisors didn't come up with this recommendation. It came from Leaderji . I state no studies or thought was applied to this move . Unfortunately our railway upgradation / modernization program is poorly conceived & not well implemented.

The entire program of spending crores on beautifying & upgradation of key railway terminus / stations is also part of this thought process. In a resource scarce nation like ours it's ill advised to spend the kind of money we're on it .

If anything we ought to have monetized these assets thru a public private partnership model where after identification of such assets for the purpose of real estate exploitation we formed a holding company in partnership perhaps with the state government & offered these places to the Pvt sector to lease for say a period of 25 years after getting them to beautify / modernise these stations & against payment of a fixed sum ( either on a lumpsum basis or on a partnership model or a fixed annual payment ) .

I'd further have local train network be handled by the state government leaving the centre to handle inter state network after due legislation specifying asset ownership distribution , maintenance , revenue model , safety etc .

Anyway I digress . This is a topic for another day
This is one point I will stress at. No decision in any industry or sector is taken by the prime minister by his own no matter what party it is even in congress, though last time congress party was different where Rahul overrode the prime minister decision by just texting that was an exception.

But in this case maybe a through studies were not conducted but the advisor in the railway consulted with piyush goyal and then Piyush came up with plan to electrify it.

Side note
I don’t know how much you know about Piyush, He is the guy modi sends when there an problem with any ministry, he took care of coal and power which was under stress in 2014, then took charge of railways when there was an accident and now in trade union minister to improve exports. All the ministry he took there were radical changes.

Railways in India is going to play a big role in future to move people from one region to another for work, like in China.

There is a reason why railways budgets has increased 5 fold as it’s going to play a major role in boasting Indian economy

So you need 21st century infrastructure in railways you can’t have shitty stations, this is all crude mindset I can’t believe people are criticizing this

They tried public private it didn’t work, you need to get this done now, you can’t keep on waiting for private sector to pitch in. this is India’s chance if you miss this opportunity then I don’t know when again the opportunity will come.

Most of the retired guys from railways including my uncle who is from railways still has that old mindset where things use to take 25 years or 40 years to get done. I see sudhansumani interview where the 25 years public private station management he is talking about. But talking is easy if things are not happening some other approach needs to be worked out. You can’t wait 20 years for private sector to jump in.


I am done writing, good luck
 
Well in business point of view it is always cheaper to built when you give out a large contract. The saving would be much higher rather than taking another 50 years in bits and pieces like congress does, economy of scale comes into play.

I don't think you know the half of things yet it doesn't prevent you from commenting. This entire process of electrification is based on grids which is then split up into packages & tendered unlike what you think of it as a monolith where in the entire process is undertaken in one go.

Well it will still being used, 97% of the railway is electrified and I still diesel locomotives being used. To be honest I don’t get your point we both will see it’s being used on railways and not just for shunting.

So you mean all those diesel locomotives used to service the length & breadth of the land will now be servicing only 3% of it & you're fine with it

Well I don’t get your point here ? It’s the diesel locomotives that we are trying to phase out not the electric locomotives. I was quoting at the number 1,25,000. So I don’t get when you compare the diesel locomotives to electric locomotives here !!!

Most of the locomotives are I think around 15 crore average as per sanik loco pilot channel don’t know how accurate is that

I also mentioned all CapEx goods including electric locomotives are subject to depreciation & clarified that figure of 1.25 k crores was the upper limit. That figure of UPTO INR 50 crore / locomotive was mentioned in the video .


Let’s say there is a grid failure, your one day loss will cover all the 2500 DE capital cost in future. You just don’t count the loss of goods but the whole cumulative loss of economy. And this can happen when Indian economy is 5 trillion.

Let's extend your logic to residential areas. By your logic every household must invest in generators given such a grid failure. A great deal actually do given erratic power supply. That's not how you build a robust economy.

Besides all these units are probably stored in a few select locations across the country. It's not as if every major junction houses them. What this means incase of an emergency they need to be deployed. They won't be readily available. It's because the IR doesn't anticipate such a role for these diesel locomotives on a national basis for such emergencies.
This is one point I will stress at. No decision in any industry or sector is taken by the prime minister by his own no matter what party it is even in congress, though last time congress party was different where Rahul overrode the prime minister decision by just texting that was an exception.

This one was . Just like the Agniveer program. Both were initiated by the PMO.
But in this case maybe a through studies were not conducted but the advisor in the railway consulted with piyush goyal and then Piyush came up with plan to electrify it.

Side note
I don’t know how much you know about Piyush, He is the guy modi sends when there an problem with any ministry, he took care of coal and power which was under stress in 2014, then took charge of railways when there was an accident and now in trade union minister to improve exports. All the ministry he took there were radical changes.

The same Piyush Goel got booted out & Vaishnaw was gotten in besides being given charge of MeitY & Goel got the job only coz Suresh Prabhu couldn't deliver & lost the job when he couldn't deliver. Man got played like a fiddle by baboos during the Vande Bharat episode. Whatever progress we're seeing now happened due to its revival in Vaishnaw's tenure .

Apart from that the industry I'm in is closely related to infrastructure particularly in case of building construction . Large scale discrepancies were reported during Goel's tenure in all those projects for redevelopment of key railway stations . These were among the reasons he was rumoured to have been shunted out of Railways.
Railways in India is going to play a big role in future to move people from one region to another for work, like in China.

There is a reason why railways budgets has increased 5 fold as it’s going to play a major role in boasting Indian economy


So you need 21st century infrastructure in railways you can’t have shitty stations, this is all crude mindset I can’t believe people are criticizing this

Acquaint yourself with the difference between architectural functionality & architectural grandeur. Perhaps just perhaps you'd get what I mean though I highly doubt it .
They tried public private it didn’t work, you need to get this done now, you can’t keep on waiting for private sector to pitch in. this is India’s chance if you miss this opportunity then I don’t know when again the opportunity will come.b

PPP is already happening in modernization / redevelopment of key railway stations. Which world are you in ? I was arguing for something similar yet different & a different revenue model with something more comprehensive as far as PPP goes

Most of the retired guys from railways including my uncle who is from railways still has that old mindset where things use to take 25 years or 40 years to get done. I see sudhansumani interview where the 25 years public private station management he is talking about. But talking is easy if things are not happening some other approach needs to be worked out. You can’t wait 20 years for private sector to jump in.


I am done writing, good luck
 
As per this article Standard 4500-6000hp D loco cost about 10-13Cr in 2018.That might've been most common category. Keeping them in reserves should cost much too.


I also remember reading that IR had tried to convert old Diesel loco into Electric ones for few crores. So losses can be cut to few thousands crore.

@ArjunMK1A can tell more about difficulties and economics involved.


Well. Current new diesel engines were exclusively made for freight like GE ones. Our passenger ones were still old WDP-4. We scaled up electricification and facing shortage of Electric locos. So we are using WAG-9 since we don't have WAP5 & 7. Also WDM-3A is there which is anemic to handle current trains of 22 compartments.


Electric locos will be extremely powerful. Eg. WAG 12 - 9900HP and VB trainset have max output of 9000HP. They will be always efficient compared to an Diesel engines.

We somehow got the roadmap for future.

High traffic intercity - VB, VB sleeper.
Long distance - Amrit bharat (Push-Pull).
MEMU- VB metro.
Intracity - Namo Bharat, metro.

Diesel engines will be forced to operate in low traffic areas only.

Current challenges is increasing speeds, Yard remodeling, kavach implementation, ETCMS, station upgradation.

Also, SR have one Loco shed for diesel. GOLDEN Rock. SWR have hubbali. Maintenance shed also slowly coming down diesel and remaining ones were converted into Electric loco maintenance.
 
Also, SR have one Loco shed for diesel. GOLDEN Rock. SWR have hubbali. Maintenance shed also slowly coming down diesel and remaining ones were converted into Electric loco maintenance.
SR has Ernakulam (ERS) too which holds only diesel locomotives, but some rumours are floating around that it’s going to be shut down. SWR has Krishnarajapuram (KJM) in Bengaluru too, which like Hubli holds both Diesel and Electric Locomotives.
 
I don't think you know the half of things yet it doesn't prevent you from commenting. This entire process of electrification is based on grids which is then split up into packages & tendered unlike what you think of it as a monolith where in the entire process is undertaken in one go.
Ok may be you are right I don't know. but to be honest I knew you are going to come up with this.

I knew they were split but even with the split they were massive in scale.

And here is what I read. maybe the author is not as knowledgeable as you are but check the contract size before full electrification was decided and after the full electrification was decided.

You don't have even search I will give you the data here. just have time to read it through. 1736223056125.webpchrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://cag.gov.in/uploads/download_audit_report/2017/Chapter_2_-_Progress_of_Electrification_in_Indian_Railways_of_Report_No.22_of_2017_-_Performance_audit_Union_Government_Electrification_Projects_Reports_of_Indian_Railways.pdf1095

in 7 years vs 1 contract 1500 and the minimum contract of 500 directed to electrification directorate.

New Delhi: In a major shift from the past, Indian Railways plans to bid out large tenders as high as 1,500km under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model for railway electrification, to achieve its target of full electrification by 2021.
The move will bring electrification costs substantially down for the national carrier, which at present pays around Rs1-2 crore per km for electrification."

Hope you are satisfied with economy of scale argument. And because of economy of scale Self Propelled type Wiring Trains were brought in other wise for small contract it would not make sense.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.railsaver.gov.in/documents/IRElectricalDirectorate.pdf

The above link is a good read I know it's from Electrical directorate so they will always put positive about electrification but still a good read

I think most of the contract went to RVNL
1736223745195.webp
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://rvnl.org/RVNL_cms/uploads/news/18_Yrs_RVNL_Book_10_11_21_Reduce.pdf
So you mean all those diesel locomotives used to service the length & breadth of the land will now be servicing only 3% of it & you're fine with it

I don't understand this statement, I am saying they will continue working on electrified lines. just because you have electrified the whole network doesn't mean you can't use diesel locomotive. they will keep on operating normally.
Let's extend your logic to residential areas. By your logic every household must invest in generators given such a grid failure. A great deal actually do given erratic power supply. That's not how you build a robust economy.

I like your thinking but just need a little bit of tweak, instead of residential example you should have thought of industrial example. As we are talking about economy in this case.

Most of the industry which needs powers always have a back up generators in case of grid failures.

This one was . Just like the Agniveer program. Both were initiated by the PMO.

Come on that's a insult to Modi as a politician, when you say PMO was in favor of Agniveer. Do you agree Modi is a cunning politician ?

Think why would one make people angry and lose votes, he knew he will lose votes when he brought Agniveer. That's where the difference is "country before politics". It was a bitter pill to take but something had to be done the armed forces were desperate, everything is not in the open.

Just like he said he is not a fool to stop Manraga, actually he put more money into it then congress did though he didn't believe in it. But sometimes votes are mote important then you belief.


The same Piyush Goel got booted out & Vaishnaw was gotten in besides being given charge of MeitY & Goel got the job only coz Suresh Prabhu couldn't deliver & lost the job when he couldn't deliver. Man got played like a fiddle by baboos during the Vande Bharat episode. Whatever progress we're seeing now happened due to its revival in Vaishnaw's tenure .

Apart from that the industry I'm in is closely related to infrastructure particularly in case of building construction . Large scale discrepancies were reported during Goel's tenure in all those projects for redevelopment of key railway stations . These were among the reasons he was rumoured to have been shunted out of Railways.

Well we had issue with export mainly in textiles, which uses a lot of labor, so he was shifted rather then booted, as I said he is sent to places where things are really bad.

Lets count things were done in his tenure of 2017 to 2021
1 Vanda Bharat still came under his period.
2. Electrification
3. Bringing contract working to ICF( I don't know how many people know here but ICF output has increased significantly as there are 4 lines, 3 of them are run by contractors now and only 1 is left to ICF employee. the news wont come out but the contractor efficiency is damn good.( Again I had this chat years ago so I can’t remember accurately how many lines were there)
4. whole ICF was revamped and reequipped, things were take out of that sand from last 50 years and recycled
5 Vista dome coaches
6 During corona virus he took the benefit and finished 200 pending projects
7 tried to finished 5000 unmanned crossing, majority of work was done in his period.
8 Kavach, it was in his period that it was started.

I can keep on going if i search internet but this just on top of my mind.

Acquaint yourself with the difference between architectural functionality & architectural grandeur. Perhaps just perhaps you'd get what I mean though I highly doubt it .
Well when people don't really have something productive to say they come up with this, I hope we can do better. lets discuss things with data and keep it more informative. just my 2 cents again.

PPP is already happening in modernization / redevelopment of key railway stations. Which world are you in ? I was arguing for something similar yet different & a different revenue model with something more comprehensive as far as PPP goes

My bad when you said PPP i thought you listened to this video and were commenting on that, that railways is going for EPC model as PPP model the private industry is not that keen as of now.

Everyone including the government was PPP model, I agree on that but according to sudanshumani he is saying it's not happening and I didn't verify the facts.


View: https://youtu.be/fFIhikU6hGY?si=ez3CBvSAnnnMEtXW&t=333

And what every I wrote I can back it up with data, of course that is available on internet.
 
Last edited:
Ok may be you are right I don't know. but to be honest I knew you are going to come up with this.

I knew they were split but even with the split they were massive in scale.

And here is what I read. maybe the author is not as knowledgeable as you are but check the contract size before full electrification was decided and after the full electrification was decided.

You don't have even search I will give you the data here. just have time to read it through. View attachment 20954chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://cag.gov.in/uploads/download_audit_report/2017/Chapter_2_-_Progress_of_Electrification_in_Indian_Railways_of_Report_No.22_of_2017_-_Performance_audit_Union_Government_Electrification_Projects_Reports_of_Indian_Railways.pdf1095

in 7 years vs 1 contract 1500 and the minimum contract of 500 directed to electrification directorate.

New Delhi: In a major shift from the past, Indian Railways plans to bid out large tenders as high as 1,500km under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model for railway electrification, to achieve its target of full electrification by 2021.
The move will bring electrification costs substantially down for the national carrier, which at present pays around Rs1-2 crore per km for electrification."

Hope you are satisfied with economy of scale argument. And because of economy of scale Self Propelled type Wiring Trains were brought in other wise for small contract it would not make sense.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.railsaver.gov.in/documents/IRElectricalDirectorate.pdf

The above link is a good read I know it's from Electrical directorate so they will always put positive about electrification but still a good read

I think most of the contract went to RVNL
View attachment 20955
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://rvnl.org/RVNL_cms/uploads/news/18_Yrs_RVNL_Book_10_11_21_Reduce.pdf


I don't understand this statement, I am saying they will continue working on electrified lines. just because you have electrified the whole network doesn't mean you can't use diesel locomotive. they will keep on operating normally.


I like your thinking but just need a little bit of tweak, instead of residential example you should have thought of industrial example. As we are talking about economy in this case.

Most of the industry which needs powers always have a back up generators in case of grid failures.



Come on that's a insult to Modi as a politician, when you say PMO was in favor of Agniveer. Do you agree Modi is a cunning politician ?

Think why would one make people angry and lose votes, he knew he will lose votes when he brought Agniveer. That's where the difference is "country before politics". It was a bitter pill to take but something had to be done the armed forces were desperate, everything is not in the open.

Just like he said he is not a fool to stop Manraga, actually he put more money into it then congress did though he didn't believe in it. But sometimes votes are mote important then you belief.




Well we had issue with export mainly in textiles, which uses a lot of labor, so he was shifted rather then booted, as I said he is sent to places where things are really bad.

Lets count things were done in his tenure of 2017 to 2021
1 Vanda Bharat still came under his period.
2. Electrification
3. Bringing contract working to ICF( I don't know how many people know here but ICF output has increased significantly as there are 4 lines, 3 of them are run by contractors now and only 1 is left to ICF employee. the news wont come out but the contractor efficiency is damn good.( Again I had this chat years ago so I can’t remember accurately how many lines were there)
4. whole ICF was revamped and reequipped, things were take out of that sand from last 50 years and recycled
5 Vista dome coaches
6 During corona virus he took the benefit and finished 200 pending projects
7 tried to finished 5000 unmanned crossing, majority of work was done in his period.
8 Kavach, it was in his period that it was started.

I can keep on going if i search internet but this just on top of my mind.


Well when people don't really have something productive to say they come up with this, I hope we can do better. lets discuss things with data and keep it more informative. just my 2 cents again.



My bad when you said PPP i thought you listened to this video and were commenting on that, that railways is going for EPC model as PPP model the private industry is not that keen as of now.

Everyone including the government was PPP model, I agree on that but according to sudanshumani he is saying it's not happening and I didn't verify the facts.


View: https://youtu.be/fFIhikU6hGY?si=ez3CBvSAnnnMEtXW&t=333

And what every I wrote I can back it up with data, of course that is available on internet.

Congratulations ! 👆This is something much better than this 👇.

Screenshot_2025-01-07-04-25-03-385_com.android.chrome~2.webp

It's better compiled has data to back up your claims & in general is well presented.

I don't have much to object & I don't argue for the sake of it except to say the tender for VB was released in 2019 & the THIRD VB came out only in September 2022 , a year & quarter after Vaishnaw took over & resolved the issue of the VB stuck as it was due to the vigilance enquiry thanks to the feuding between the 2 factions or rather branches within the IR catering to diesel & electric locomotives - looked after by electrical engineers & rolling stock & MEMU looked after by the mechanical engineers . You can look it up.

As far as the issue of replacement of Goel with Vaishnaw goes , in the field that I operate in there were rumours of massive corruption in the tendering process of the Amrit Bharat stations which could also be seen in the number of little known / unknown entities awarded these projects as compared to established players. I'm neither confirming nor denying these played a role in Goel's removal merely conveying the news.

Architectural functionality refers only to the bare basics vs architectural grandeur which is about grand facades . Currently the latter seems to dominate in the redesigning & redevelopment of various stations under the Amrit Bharat stations program which IMHO is a waste of resources as it costs a pretty penny.
 
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Congratulations ! 👆This is something much better than this 👇.

View attachment 20961

It's better compiled has data to back up your claims & in general is well presented.

I don't have much to object & I don't argue for the sake of it except to say the tender for VB was released in 2019 & the THIRD VB came out only in September 2022 , a year & quarter after Vaishnaw took over & resolved the issue of the VB stuck as it was due to the vigilance enquiry thanks to the feuding between the 2 factions or rather branches within the IR catering to diesel & electric locomotives - looked after by electrical engineers & rolling stock & MEMU looked after by the mechanical engineers . You can look it up.

Architectural functionality refers only to the bare basics vs architectural grandeur which is about grand facades . Currently the latter seems to dominate in the redesigning & redevelopment of various stations under the Amrit Bharat stations program which IMHO is a waste of resources as it costs a pretty penny.
Phone vs laptop
 

Locals don't even become a election issue. Like there was a plan to replace all the current trainsets with AC Locals but that tender was scrapped. AC Locals have seen good adoption in western railway probably because the general populace there is more richer than their central railway counterparts specially people who come from outside Mumbai to work.

Currently tickets are priced to high in AC locals for it to get widespread adoption and the anger among people intensifies even more when a normal scheduled train is replaced by an AC Local. As the station becomes even more crowded because not a lot of people board the AC Local
 
SR has Ernakulam (ERS) too which holds only diesel locomotives, but some rumours are floating around that it’s going to be shut down. SWR has Krishnarajapuram (KJM) in Bengaluru too, which like Hubli holds both Diesel and Electric Locomotives.

KR Puram stopped diesel maintenance long time back. My relative worked in there and retired, nowadays it is fully Electric. Ernakulam may be for the Konkan route. With Konkan railways also electrifying this may be the past. SSS Hubbali started the transition for some time. SWR is replacing few diesel engine trains to Electric. Most the diesel will be moved to service in Northeast Railways.

Plan will be Golden Rock Trichy will be the Diesel hub (Employees will be less), with maintenance of both normal and Nilgiri Diesel ones. But nowadays the quarters closed down and the area is pretty much abandoned. Just skeleton crew will do the job.
 
KR Puram stopped diesel maintenance long time back. My relative worked in there and retired, nowadays it is fully Electric. Ernakulam may be for the Konkan route. With Konkan railways also electrifying this may be the past. SSS Hubbali started the transition for some time. SWR is replacing few diesel engine trains to Electric. Most the diesel will be moved to service in Northeast Railways.

Plan will be Golden Rock Trichy will be the Diesel hub (Employees will be less), with maintenance of both normal and Nilgiri Diesel ones. But nowadays the quarters closed down and the area is pretty much abandoned. Just skeleton crew will do the job.

Is converting Diesel engine into Electcic feasible? What percentage of similarity in parts?
 

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