Railway Current Affairs Part - 2 English

Table of Contents

India’s first railway station inside tunnel to come up in Himachal Pradesh
India for the first time announced a railway station named, the Keylong station, to be built inside a tunnel at a height of 3,000 metres in Himachal Pradesh.
This will be built along the Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line close to the SinoIndia border.
The station will be at a height of around 3,000 metres and will be inside a 27-km-long tunnel.
It will connect all important locations between Bilaspur and Leh like Sundernagar, Mandi, Manali, Keylong, Koksar, Darcha, Upshi and Karu and other towns of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
After completion, the line will halve the duration taken to cover the distance between Delhi and Leh, from 40 hours to 20 hours

4th annual Carnot Prize 2018 to Union Minister Piyush Goyal

Minister of Railways & Coal and former Minister of Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal was awarded the 4th annual Carnot Prize 2018 by Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, United States.
The award was presented to Piyush Goyal as a recognition to the major transformations in India’s energy sector under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which aims to eliminate energy poverty with sustainable energy solutions.
It also recognises India’s climate conscious and development driven energy governance.

Q) Which of the following zones has become Unmanned Level Crossing (UMLC) Free Zone ?

North Eastern railway
South Central railway
North Western railway
Southern railway

The Southern Railway became Unmanned Level Crossing (UMLC) Free Zone, eliminating over 1,000 such level crossings.
This includes : Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai Divisions which became UMLC free in the 1st quarter of the present financial year.
This was done by the elimination of all 1054 UMLCs by providing alternate routes like provision of subways, the road under bridges etc.
In 2010, the Railway Board formulated policy to eliminate all such level crossings for road and rail users
Ministry of Railways wins ‘Swachchta Hi Seva’ award Ministry of Railways was named the best department for its contribution to “Swachchta Pakhwada” under the “Swachchta Hi Seva” category of awards.
This was declared in an inter-ministry initiative organised by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to encourage cleanliness in government offices and health facilities.
The award was presented to the Railway Ministry on the 4 th anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission (October 2).
Project Utkrisht launched by Indian Railways
On October 2, 2018, Indian Railways launched its Project ‘Utkrisht’.
Railways has plans to develop 640 Utkrisht rakes as part of upgradation of its mail/express trains in the next two years at a cost of Rs 4 billion. In the first phase 140 rakes is to be developed by March 2019.
The Facilities offered by the Project Utkrisht are:
Installing ‘Swachh Rail Toilet’,
Fitting of energy-efficient LED lights – in the main interior,v doorway, gangway and inside toilets, Provision of dustbins in the toilets,
Stickers with ‘Go Green‘ messages,v Provision of integrated basin-cum-dustbins in AC coaches.
Braille signage & night glow stickers, LED panel photo frame in first AC coaches, new types of
bottle holders, big size mirrors, Anti-graffiti vinyl wrapping in the gangway area,
New types of fire extinguishers
The first train to have been revamped is: 12311/12312 Howrah-Kalka Mail of Eastern Railway which was coloured beige and maroon.

Q) The Rail Coach Refurbishing and Rehabilitation Factory will be set up in which of the following districts of Haryana ?

Sonipat
Panipat
Jhajjar
Kurukshetra

The Rail Coach Refurbishing and Rehabilitation Factory will be set up at a cost of Rs 500 crore at Barhi in Sonipat district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a rail coach refurbishing factory, s
250 passenger train coaches will be repaired and modernised every year at the factory.

Q) What is the purpose of recently launched honey bee sound system scheme ?

Protecting Elephants from Rail Tracks
Saving the bees
Promoting Beekeeping
None of the above

North East Frontier Railway has installed unique honey bee sound system at rail tracks to avoid elephants death in Assam
It uses a device costing about Rs 2,000 which will bev installed at level crossings at these accident prone areas.
The device works by loudly broadcasting the buzz ofv swarming honeybees, audible up to 600 meters, a sound that would keep the elephants away.
This is because the elephants have a natural fear of thev perilous stings of the insects.

Q) Who flagged off 900th coach of Modern Coach Factory in Rae Bareli ?

Narendra Modi
Pranab Mukherjee
Ram Nath Kovind
Piyush Goyal

IRCTC launched ‘Ask Disha’ chatbot on its e-ticketing website Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has launched ‘Ask Disha’, the new artificial intelligence-enabled chat bot.
It will be integrated in IRCTC Rail Connect Android app and will be voice-enabled soon.
It can be used by Indian Railways passengers to get their questions answered through the chat bot.
RailRestro RailRestro in partnership with Yescom Global Kart Pvt Ltd has launched their very own food delivery fleet brand named Railivery.

UTS on MOBILE

Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS)ü The ‘UTSonMOBILE’ application enables booking and cancellationü of unreserved tickets, issue and renewal of season and platform tickets, check and load R-wallet balance and helps maintain user profile management and booking history.
On 29th September 2018, Arun Kumar was appointed DirectorGeneral of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
Rajesh Agrawal took charge as the new Member (Rolling Stock),v Railway Board and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India
Vinod Kumar Yadav appointed as the new chairman of thev Railway Board

Q) Name the senior Congress leader who was India’s Railway Minister from 1991 to 1995 who passed away recently ?

Mohammad Mustafa
Zafar Ansari
Shabab Ahmed
CK Jaffer Sharief

Q) Which of the following trains completed its 88 years of service on 1st June 2018 ?

Deccan Odyssey
Palace on Wheels
Deccan Queen
Shimla Kalka

India’s first railway university

On 15 December 2018 , Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani dedicated the nation’s first National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI) in Vadodara, Gujart.
It is India’s first and world’s 3rd railway university after Russia and China.
Bogibeel Bridge, India’s longest rail cum road bridge Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s longest rail cum road bridge of 4.94 km Bogibeel bridge
It spans the River Brahmaputra between Dibrugarh and Dhemaji districts ofv Assam.
It is India’s only fully welded bridge for which european codes and weldingv standards were adhered to for the first time in the country.
The 4.94 km structure was built at a cost of Rs. 5900 crores by Indian Railways.
Bogibeel Bridge Project was a part of Assam Accord 1985 and wasv sanctioned in the year 1997-98.
The foundation stone of the Project was laid by Prime Minister of India, H D Deve Gowda on January 22, 1997 And commencement of the project work was done by Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee on April 21, 2002. The bridge will facilitate connectivity between north and south banks of the Brahmaputra in the eastern region of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. A distance of about 600 km now being covered between the two parts willv be cut short merely by 40km.