Peak hour train services on Central Railway's main line were disrupted on Friday morning due to a "rail roko" protest by Shiv Sena workers at Mulund against the fuel price hike by the UPA government. Over 50 Sena activists led by a local corporator went on the tracks at the station's Nahur-end at about 9.30 am and blocked movement on all the four tracks. Train movement was completely halted and the GRP men dispersed the mob within a short while. However, the traffic movement was restored by 10 am, the railway police said.

IN a major boost to the Mumbai Metro rail project, the Central Government has sanctioned Rs 4,500 as a viability gap funding for the project that is estimated to cost Rs 22,000 crore. Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy made an announcement to the effect on Wednesday. "Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had requested for funds from the Centre. The Centre is sanctioning Rs 4,500 crore as viability gap funding for the Mumbai Metro Rail Project (MMRP)," Reddy, who was in the city to attend Sant Gadgebaba Rural Cleanliness Campaign Award functions, said.

Railways have decided to replace all electric bulbs in its colonies with compact fluorescent light (CFL) across the country as part of its efforts to check climate change. "A total of 2.6 million CFL bulbs will be fitted at every household in railway colonies as part of the clean development management and equal number of incandescent bulbs withdrawn," a senior railway ministry official said. However, railways will not bear the cost of the CFL replacement as all the compact fluorescent bulbs will be provided by an agency according to the proposal.

The Delhi High Court dismissed a petition seeking to scrap Metro's elevated corridor project in south Delhi on the ground that it would cause noise pollution in residential areas on Friday. A Bench headed by Justice T S Thakur, however, directed the Centre and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) to make all possible efforts to reduce the level of noise pollution which will be caused by the Metro rail running on the elevated corridor.

In a bid to save wild animals from getting killed after being hit by trains in north Bengal, the state will urge the Centre to ask the railways to follow norms while running trains through the forests of the area. State forest minister, Mr Ananta Roy, today said at Writers' Buildings that a number of elephants and other wild animals like snakes and bison were killed in north Bengal over the past few years after these were hit by speeding trains.

The government plans to spent Rs 20,000 crore to develop

After scripting a turnaround in the fortunes of the Indian Railways, union minister Lalu Prasad has now envisioned the prospect of utilising surplus water from various rivers using large pipes for the country's 24,000-km railway tracks. "The railways is like an empire, it is a league apart, its vast network criss-crossing across the country can help the government in water management," said the minister, who was in Malaysia to witness the signing of a railway double track contract awarded to public sector company IRCON by the Malaysian government.

Underlining India's close economic and strategic relations with Bhutan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday pledged to extend the Indian rail network into its northern neighbour. Dr. Singh made this commitment to his Bhutanese counterpart, Jigmi Y. Thinley, on the first day of a two-day visit to the country the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 15 years.

Making further inroads into the growing South-East Asian nation, Indian Railways have signed a mega $ 1 billion rail link project in Malaysia. Railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is on a two-day visit to Malaysia, inked the contract for Electrified Double Tracking Project between Seremban and Gemas bagged by IRCON International Ltd, a public service undertaking of the ministry of railways, with Malaysian minister of transport Datuk Ong Tee Keat in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.