Rakteem Katakey / New Delhi August 26, 2008, 0:52 IST

Indian Railways, which are likely to post a cash surplus of Rs 31,000 crore in the current fiscal, should pay market rate for the diesel they consume, as they are one of the largest consumers of subsidised diesel that contributes significantly to the under-realisation losses, state-owned oil companies said in a letter to the petroleum ministry.

Raghvendra Rao

Indian Railways' plan to use state-of-the-art technology to operate Electrical Multiple Units (EMUs) in the Mumbai suburban area, primarily aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and earning them carbon credits, is now on track with the Railways Ministry finalising the project design and initiating the process of getting approval from the Environment Ministry.

The project essentially envisages adoption of a three-phase Insulated Gate Bi Polar Transistor (IGBT) technology on the three-phase EMUs in the Mumbai suburban area of the Western and Central Railways.

After the in-principle approval of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to the Himachal Pradesh proposal on the railway line to Leh via Manali and 13,051-foot-high Rohtang Pass, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Tuesday offered to the Centre to undertake the entire land acquisition and rehabilitation process along 400-km Himachal stretch and get a pre-feasibility report on the project prepared by November 30.

THE government is planning to ensure dedicated express rail and road connectivity for future greenfield airports. Mandatory connectivity by mass rapid transit system to airports is expected to be a part of the airport's master plan. The government is planning to build new airports in some of the major cities such as Pune, Navi Mumbai and Vishakhapatnam.

KOTTAYAM: With the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) submitting a negative Environment Impact Study (EIS) report on the Sabari Rail from Angamali to Azhutha, the meeting scheduled by the district and Railway authorities on August 4 at Pala to hear the complaints of the aggrieved in the land acquisition for the railway line, may turn out to be a noisy affair.

Babu K Peter | ENS Kochi

THE Sabari Rail project is all set to chug into history. After 14 years of surveys and discussions, it is a NO for the project. The Environment Impact Assessment study jointly conducted by the Kerala Forest Research Institute in association with Kerala State Biodiversity Board termed the project as "unviable and superfluous."

A consortium led by Maytas Infra Ltd, a real estate infrastructure company promoted by Satyam Computer owners, has bagged the country's first urban transit project on public private partnership (PPP) mode by quoting a negative grant to the Andhra Pradesh government.

Northern Railway (NR) is continuing with its cleanliness drive at Charbagh station. On Tuesday, three persons were caught for littering the station area and Rs 100 was recovered from each of them as fine. Besides, ten people were fined Rs 2,714 for roaming without platform ticket and one person was fined Rs 200 for smoking at the platform. In the past five months of action, the special task force has mopped up Rs 4,00,162 as railway revenue by slapping a fine on 1,832 people caught littering the station, moving without platform ticket and smoking at the platforms. TNN