Power crisis: Railways missed coal train provision targets for over a year

 In April, state-run Indian Railways supplied 261 trains per day to Coal India for the power industry, the lowest in three months

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian Railways supply of trains to Coal India for transporting coal has fallen short of its monthly targets for more than a year, government data showed, highlighting the problems behind India’s worst power crisis in over six years. Indian utilities are scrambling to get hold of coal supplies to cope with record high power demand, but Indian Railways’ inability to supply enough trains makes it difficult to boost coal stocks, which are at their lowest levels in years.

Inventories at Indian power plants fell 13% in April despite a 27.6% growth in Coal India’s production, as a heatwave sent power demand soaring to a record high. In April, state-run Indian Railways supplied 261 trains per day to Coal India for the power industry, the lowest in three months. Indian Railways said at the end of April that it would cancel passenger trains to free up tracks and help to transport more coal to power plants…

Railway Board restructuring gets green flag: Vinod Yadav to be first CEO

The current restructuring will be a zero-cost exercise and money will be saved by surrendering posts in the board and stopping duplication of work

The government on Wednesday cleared the restructuring of the Railway Board to move to a corporate model, and the appointment of Vinod Kumar Yadav as the first chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the board.

Yadav is currently the chairman of the Railway Board. The Union Cabinet had in December 2019 cleared a proposal for restructuring of the board through a leaner structure on functional lines headed by the chairman and four members — covering infrastructure, operations and business development, rolling stock, and finance. In addition, the board will also include sectoral experts from industry, finance, economics, and management fields. Based on the decision, the chairman will be the cadre-controlling officer responsible for Human resources (HR) with assistance from a director-general (HR).

In addition to the CEO, the government has also appointed the four members — Pradeep Kumar for infrastructure, PC Sharma for traction and rolling stock, PS Mishra for operations and business development, and Manjula Rangarajan for finance. The appointments were cleared by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). Earlier, the railway services were organised into various departments like traffic, civil, mechanical, electrical, signal and telecom, stores, personnel, and accounts. These departments are vertically separated from top to bottom and are headed by secretary-level officers called ‘members’ of the Railway Board…Read More

Covid-19 crisis: Thackeray, Piyush Goyal fight it out over migrant trains

Piyush Goyal in his tweets demanded list of passengers from the Maharashtra government on the basis of the guidelines by the Ministry of Home Affairs

The demand for more Shramik special trains by Maharashtra to transport stranded migrants led to a political tug of war on Sunday, with Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal retorting with a dozen tweets stating that his ministry was ready to send as many trains as required, if the state can ensure that it will not return empty. The war of words started with a statement by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday that though his state had demanded around 80 Shramik trains a day, the Centre is providing only 30-40 a day.

Maharashtra has already made a list of migrants who want to go to their native states, he added. Soon after this statement, Goyal took a dig at Thackeray through a series of tweets till 2 am on Monday night. Thackeray is the second state chief minister after West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, with whom Goyal is in a duel over Shramik trains.

ALSO READ: Railways operated 3,000 Shramik trains to send migrants home: Piyush Goyal

Goyal in his tweets demanded list of passengers from the Maharashtra government on the basis of the guidelines by the Ministry of Home Affairs, stating the source state will have to provide a list of passengers to the national transporter and also to the destination state.

“Where is the list for 125 trains from Maharashtra? As of 2 am, received list of only 46 trains of which five are to West Bengal and Odisha, which cannot operate due to cyclone Amphan. We are notifying only 41 trains for today despite being prepared for 125,” the minister Tweeted. The Indian Railways had started Shramik trains from May 1 to May 23, around 2,600 trains were operated transporting over 3.5 million passengers,” he said…Read More

Covid-19 lockdown: Railways ferried 450,000 Indians in 428 special trains

Western Railways has operated a total of 191 Shramik Special ferrying over 225,000 migrants

Since the government has approved the movement of stranded people across the country, Indian Railways has operated 428 Shramik special trains to transport over 450,000 migrant workers, students, pilgrims and tourists stuck to their home states. However, in a late-night development on Sunday, the Railway Ministry announced that it has given green signal to passenger train services from May 12.

Nearly 1,000 workers from Tamil Nadu, stranded in Maharashtra, reached Tiruchirappalli by a special train operated by Southern Railways on Sunday. They operated similar services to ferry over 3,000 workers to destinations in Manipur and Andhra Pradesh among others from the state.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE

Similar trains left Chennai, one each for Srikakulam in AP, Jiribam in Manipur and Jagannathpur in Odisha with 881, 1081 and 1038 passengers respectively. Another special train carrying 1,140 migrant workers left from Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur to Muzaffarpur in Bihar. A train left for Jagannathpur in Odisha from here with 1,038 passengers, and another ferrying 1,126 people to Danapur in Bihar departed from Katpadi (Vellore).

2,280 more people began their journey to Jaunpur and Akbarpur, both in Uttar Pradesh, by two separate trains from Coimbatore, on Sunday. In Maharashtra, as many as 220 migrants, including women and children, were found going on foot towards Madhya Pradesh on the Mumbai-Agra national highway. They were accommodated in 10 buses and dropped till the border of their home state from Nashik. A Shramik Special train carrying 1,200 migrant workers also left Jalna for Unnao in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening.

Covid-19 lockdown: Passenger trains to be back on tracks from Tuesday

Initially 15 set of trains will be started and online bookings for these will begin from 4 pm on Monday

The Indian Railways will run fully air conditioned passenger trains from Tuesday (May 12) after about a month and a half of shutting the service in its 167-year history. Initially 15 set of trains will be started and online bookings for these will begin from 4 pm on Monday (May 11) on the website of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the government said in a statement on Sunday.

“Indian Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12 with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys),” the government said. These special trains will be run from New Delhi, and connect Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad, and Jammu Tawi. Fares will be equivalent to that of Rajdhani trains.

ALSO READ: Won’t cut flat price after lockdown is lifted: Godrej Properties MD

“Ticket booking counters at railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) shall be issued. Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter stations. It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear face coverings and undergo screenings at departure,” the statement said, adding that only those who don’t show any signs of coronavirus disease would be allowed to board…Read More

Karnataka cancels special trains for migrants after CM meets builders

The state government has been collecting railway fares from the migrants and every worker had to pay for both train and bus service to reach station in advance

The Karnataka goverment on Tuesday has cancelled all the special trains which were to ferry migrant workers to their home states following a meeting between Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and prominent builders of the state.

According to a Times of India report, N Manjunath Prasad, nodal officer for state’s inter-state travel has written a letter to Indian Railways saying Shramik Special trains will not be required from Wednesday.Karnataka had earlier arranged to run two special trains a day for five days to help stranded workers reach their home state amid national lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE update: India cases rise to 49,400; global tally 3.72 mn

“Directions were given to the ministers to convince the labourers to refrain from returning to their home states,” Yediyurappa tweeted after the meeting with the builders who expressed concerns of labour exodus. The CM said builders are providing all essential facilities to labourers and the construction activities have already started. ” The labourers should not heed to the rumours and avoid unnecessary travel,” he said, adding relief measures will be taken after a meeting with the finance department. According to a report in The Quint, an official said the decision has been taken to revive Karnataka’s economy.

Covid-19: How Indian Railways is transforming coaches into isolation wards

“Each cabin of a coach has been converted into an independent isolation ward which will accommodate one patient

With cases of coronavirus escalating in the country, the government has come up with measures including converting number of places into isolation wards. In view of this, Indian railways, the operator of the fourth-biggest network in the world, has started converting more than 5,000 train coaches into isolation wards, fearing the country may not have adequate infrastructure to combat the pandemic.

“Out of the 17 railway zones in India, the Railway Board has asked Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) and the Northern Railway to modify train coaches into isolation wards on experimental basis to deal with patients of novel coronavirus,” the NFR Chief Public Relations Officer Subhanan Chanda told IANS. He said such a plan can help the government and all other authorities to be well-prepared to meet any emergency. Chanda said a non-AC sleeper coach is already converted into an isolation ward for probable patients suffering from COVID-19. Besides, mosquito nets and charging points have also been fitted, and space for paramedics is also allocated

“Each cabin of a coach has been converted into an independent isolation ward which will accommodate one patient. There are nine such cabins in one coach. One of the four toilets of the coach has been converted into a bathroom with facility for shower,” the NFR official said. He said that insulated bamboo sheets were put up on the roof and the side walls of the modified coach for reducing the heat transfer and temperature inside the converted isolation wards…Read More

Covid-19: Trains, thousands under lens over travel to Tablighi Jamaat

State officials said that the railways is providing lists of passengers to the district authorities which are being compared to the list of participants of the event to ensure contact tracing

Railways is scrambling to provide information regarding thousands of passengers who travelled on five trains with people who participated in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, many of whom have tested positive. All these trains began from Delhi between March 13 and March 19 – the Duronto Express to Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, the Grand Trunk Express to Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Express to Chennai, New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express and the AP Sampark Kranti Express.

While there are yet no definite numbers with the railways on the actual number of people who could have come in contact with the participants of this event, sources say that each train carried around 1000-1200 passengers and other staff members which could put them all at risk. State officials said that the railways is providing lists of passengers to the district authorities which are being compared to the list of participants of the event to ensure contact tracing. Of the contacts being traced, one is the case of 10 Indonesians who took the AP Sampark Kranti Express back to Karimnagar district after the event on March 13, and subsequently reported positive for coronavirus.

Around 60 passengers who travelled on the New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express in the same B1 coach as a Malaysian woman who tested positive for the virus, believed to be part of the Nizamuddin Tablighi cluster, are under the scanner with the district authorities scrambling to find their whereabouts. The woman who travelled on the train on March 16 with 23 others tested positive and is Jharkhands first confirmed case of COVID-19…

Covid-19: FIR against Coca Cola plant in Himachal for flouting lockdown

Operation of all units barring those manufacturing essential commodities has been banned during the lockdown, they added

A case has been registered against a Coca Cola plant in Himachal Pradesh, operated by a separate entity, for running its factory in violation of an lockdown order issued to check the spread of coronavirus, officials said on Tuesday. Operation of all units barring those manufacturing essential commodities has been banned during the lockdown, they added.

The Coca Cola factory in Nalagarh falling under Baddi police district of Solan, operated by Krish Flexipacks, was found operational during a surprise check on Monday night, Baddi Superintendent of Police Rohit Malpani said. An FIR was registered against the factory and its owners under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Nalagarh police station, he added.

ALSO READ: PM Modi to address the nation at 8 PM tonight on coronavirus outbreak

There was no immediate reaction from the company to the official action. There is a provision of six-month jail and/or fine of Rs 1000 under Section 188 of the IPC. In his order, Solan deputy commissioner-cum-district magistrate K C Chaman banned operation of all units in the district during the lockdown period, barring those manufacturing essential commodities including pharmaceutical, medical devices, soaps, hand cleaners. The managements of all non-essential industries are directed to shut their units immediately failing which strong action will be taken against concerned starting registration of cases under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, as well as other relevant laws, the order stated.

Covid-19: Govt tells companies to protect wages, not terminate workers

Companies may look to terminate the contract of workers ‘on the pretext’ of the Covid-19 or may force their employees to go on leave without pay

The Central government has asked all companies to ensure that workers, especially contract labour, who take leave as a precaution towards the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) should be treated to be ‘on duty’ and their salaries should not be deducted. “In the backdrop of such challenging situation, all the employers of public or private establishments are advised to extend their coordination by not terminating their employees, particularly casual or contractual workers from job or reduced their wages, Union labour and employment ministry joint secretary Kalpana Rajsinghot said in a letter dated March 20 sent to employers’ associations, adding, “If any worker takes leave, he should be deemed to be on duty without any consequential deduction in wages for this period.”

A labour ministry official explained that if workers are considered to be ‘on duty’, they will be entitled to wages and other benefits. The advisory further stated that “if the place of employment is to be made non-operational due to the Covid-19, the employees of such unit will be deemed to be on duty.” This means that if any establishment is closed due to a positive case of Covid-19 virus in the premises then the employees will be considered to be ‘on duty’ and not on leave.

The government’s advisory stated that the companies may look to terminate the contract of workers “on the pretext” of the COVID-19 coronavirus or may force their employees to go on leave without pay. “The termination of employees from the job or reduction in wages in this scenario would further deepen the crises and will not only weaken the financial condition of the employee but also hamper their morale to combat their fight with this epidemic,” the labour ministry’s letter stated.

Coronavirus: India in lockdown mode; no trains or metros to run till Mar 31

For the first time in its 167-year-old history, the Indian Railways cancelled all services of passenger trains, including suburban ones, till March 31

The voluntary janata curfew called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was, in effect, extended by the Centre on Sunday. It announced a week-long lockdown in as many as 80 districts of the country that have reported confirmed cases of coronavirus. For the first time in its 167-year-old history, the Indian Railways cancelled all services of passenger trains, including suburban ones, till March 31. The nearest equivalent of this was the 54-day railway strike in 1974, when trains did not run in the country. The railways, however, said goods trains would run. Around 12,500 trains, including 9,000 passenger trains and 3,500 mail express trains, run daily.

Besides, the Central government asked states to suspend inter-state transport. The decision was taken in a high-level meeting of chief secretaries of all states with the Cabinet secretary and the principal secretary to the PM, on Sunday. All metro rail services, too, would be suspended till March 31. In Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a lockdown — sealing its borders, shutting down markets and directing private firms to give compulsory paid leave to all employees, including contractual — until the end of March. Beyond the 80 districts, states, including Maharashtra, which is leading in the number of coronavirus cases, Rajasthan and Punjab are now under effective statewide lockdowns after they imposed Section 144 that bars gatherings of more than four people.

India reported three coronavirus deaths on Sunday, including the first casualties from Bihar and Gujarat, taking the toll to seven, even as authorities took unprecedented steps to contain the spread of the virus. The number of positive COVID-19 cases rose to 396. Those affected by the railways order on Sunday include premium trains, mail/express, passenger trains, suburban train services, Kolkata Metro, and the Konkan Railway services. However, bare minimum services will be provided in suburban trains and Kolkata Metro, till late Sunday.

Keep Reading Live blog on Coronavirus Outbreak

IRCTC warns users against ‘fake’ IRCTC tourism website: All you must know

We have filed FIR against the concerned portal, IRCTC said in an email

The Indian Railway’s ticketing portal has filed a complaint against a fake website selling tourism packages in its name and even has a copycat digital assistant. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has warned the website (www.irctctour.com) is duping people with fraudulent transactions.

“The tourism portal is the website of IRCTC where the various tour packages and services of IRCTC are displayed,” says the fake website, which copies the design and features of the genuine portal. IRCTC sent an email to its registered users and even had put up a message on its portal about the fake website.

irctctour.comThe tourism portal is the website of IRCTC where the various tour packages and services of IRCTC, says the fake website IRCTC is the only entity authorised by the Indian Railways to provide online railway tickets, catering services to railways and packaged drinking water at railway stations and in trains. It is the world’s second-busiest and highest of 1.5 million to 1.6 million tickets every day. Meanwhile, IRCTC Tourism offers tour facilities to over 1.05 million persons annually.

The tourism portal is the website of IRCTC where the various tour packages and services of IRCTC, says the fake website. IRCTC is the only entity authorised by the Indian Railways to provide online railway tickets, catering services to railways and packaged drinking water at railway stations and in trains. It is the world’s second-busiest and highest of 1.5 million to 1.6 million tickets every day..

Indian Railways may rationalise fare, cut freight rates to boost economy

In September, the railways had announced several incentives to boost freight traffic

The railways may cut freight rates in a bid to boost economic growth, besides “rationalising” passenger fares. While Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav refused to say if passenger fares would see an increase, he hinted that freight rates might be reduced.

“We are going to rationalise the fares and freight rates. Something is being thought about. I cannot divulge more as this is a sensitive subject. While freight fares are already high, our target is to draw more traffic from road to railways in this regard,” Yadav said on Thursday.

In September, the Indian railway had announced several incentives to boost freight traffic. These included deferring the levy of busy season charge, waiving the supplementary charges applicable to loading rakes, and introducing the round-trip charge on container traffic.

The railways has been hit hard by the economic slowdown, with earnings from passenger fares dropping significantly. Passenger earnings stood at Rs 40,415 crore in the April-December period of 2019-20, according to Rail Drishti, the national transporter’s publicly available monitoring platform. Passenger earnings stood at Rs 51,066 crore in 2018-19.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report tabled in the recent Parliament session said the railways recorded an operating ratio of 98.44 per cent in 2017-18, the worst in the previous 10 years.

Rail Vikas Nigam IPO opens today: Why analysts suggest subscribing to it

RVNL, which is a project executing agency working for and behalf on Ministry of Railways, has an order book of Rs 77,500 crore.

Markets News: The Rs 482 crore initial public offering (IPO) of state-run Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) will open on Friday and close on April 3. The price band has been fixed at Rs 17 – Rs 19 per share. The issue is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) of 25.35 crore shares (12.2 per cent of post-dilution equity) by Government of India. Of the total issue, 0.3 per cent, or 6,57,280 shares, are reserved for the employees of RVNL. Retail investors and employees will be offered a discount of Rs 0.5/share.

SHOULD YOU SUBSCRIBE?

Most analysts have assigned ‘subscribe’ rating to the IPO, given its robust executable order book, growth prospects, government focus on rail infrastructure spend and attractive valuation.

In the recent past, two Indian Railway entities – IRCON International (IRCON) and RITES (RITES) – debuted at the bourses. Of these, only RITES is trading above the IPO price, while the former is trading at 16 per cent discount (as of Thursday’s close) to the IPO price.

“RITES predominantly is a consulting arm of Indian Railways, while IRCON is normally into project execution and can execute projects across the spectrum. Though both IRCON and RITES are not perfect peers to RVNL but can be considered as proxy peers as they majorly cater to Indian Railways,” wrote analysts at Choice Research in the IPO note…

Click Here: Rail Vikas Nigam IPO

Miscreants pelt stones at Train 18, damage India’s first engineless train

Earlier in November, the first trial run of Train 18 was successfully conducted on tracks at Moradabad-Rampur section of Northern Indian Railways

BS: During the trial run of indigenously developed India’s first engineless train, ‘Train 18′ between Agra and Delhi, some miscreants pelted stones at the Railways’ fastest train damaging one of its windows.

The Chief Design Engineer and other officials were on board when the incident took place. “On Thursday speed trials were being conducted for Train 18 between Agra and New Delhi, with Srinivas, the Chief Design Engineer, Integral Coach Factory (ICF), among the inspecting crew on board, some miscreants from outside threw stones on the train, that damaged one of the windows of the Train 18 on one side,” said GV Venkatesan, Public Relation Officer, ICF.

Condemning the act, Venkatesan appealed to the public not to vandalise railway properties. “Such act of vandalising the public property such as trains, railway stations, are condemnable, in particular, a prestigious brand new train such as Train 18. Public are requested to desist from vandalising railway properties including trains, railway stations and defacing them. After all, it is the public property that belongs to them,” he said.|Read More –> Business Standard

Train 18, India’s first engine-less train, set to hit tracks on Oct 29

The swanky 16-coach prototype without a locomotive (engine) will cut travel time by 15 per cent compared to the Shatabdi

Train 18, the country’s first engine-less train which is being regarded as a successor to the 30-year-old Shatabdi Express, is set to hit the tracks for trials on October 29. Driven by a self-propulsion module sans a separate locomotive, the train, capable of running at a speed of up to 160 kmph, comes with technical features for enhanced quick acceleration.

The swanky 16-coach prototype without a locomotive (engine) will cut travel time by 15 per cent compared to the Shatabdi. Developed by the city-based Integral Coach Factory in 18 months, the full AC train is designed in such a way that passengers can have a look at the driver’s cabin.

ICF General Manager Sudhanshu Mani told PTI that it cost nearly Rs 1 billion to build the prototype and subsequent production would bring down the cost. “It will be unveiled on October 29, then it will do three to four days of trial outside the factory and then will be handed over to Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) for further trials,” he said.

The self-propelled train, fitted with CCTV cameras, would have two executive compartments in the middle with 52 seats each, whereas trailer coaches would have 78 seats each. It has a potential to travel up to the speed at 160 kmph as against 130 kmph of Shatabdi and would result in the travel time being reduced by around 15 per cent once the tracks are fit to suit Train 18’s speed.| Read More 

8 people died every day on Mumbai locals last year, toll 18,000 in 5 years

As many as 49,790 people died on railway tracks after being hit by trains nationwide between 2015 and 2017

Eight people died every day on Mumbai’s railway tracks in 2017, down 20% from 10 deaths every day in 2013, data from Government Railway Police (GRP), Mumbai, show.

About 8 million passengers–more than the population of Hyderabad–travel on the Mumbai rail network every week day on 2,800 services with the highest passenger density in the world.

A woman was killed after being hit by a train at Mumbai’s Bandra station on July 19, 2018, while trying to cross the tracks with her two kids who were injured, Times of India reported on July 19, 2018.

In another incident, a 50-year old banker died after she slipped into the gap between the train and a platform at Borivali station, First Post reported on July 13, 2018.

Mumbai’s Elphinstone station was renamed Prabhadevi on July 19, 2018, which led to questions about renaming stations instead of focusing on the city’s crumbling rail infrastructure.

Article Source : BS

Indian Railways gives another chance to 70,000 candidates to apply again

The Railway ministry has asked these aspirants to rectify their mistakes in the application process by July 20

JOBS : Indian Railways is giving a second chance to 70,000 candidates whose job applications were rejected for uploading faulty photos. The Railway ministry has asked these aspirants to rectify their mistake by July 20.

Indian Railways has received 4.8 million applications for 26,500 posts of assistant loco pilots and technicians.

“We realised that among the total applications that were found ineligible, around 127,000 candidates were found ineligible for invalid pictures. Out of the 127,000 people, now, 70,000 have been asked to make the changes in the pictures and upload them again,” Rajesh Dutt Bajpai, Director Information and Publicity, Railway Board said to PTI.

An email and a message have been sent to the 70,000 applicants, who were given a second chance.(Indian Railway Jobs)

The first phase of examination for the various posts will be conducted in September-November. The exams were postponed from May-June due to a high number of applications. The railways took time to scrutinise all the applications.

The Indian Railways will fill up over one lakh vacant posts by March-April next year.

The Railways received around 22.7 million applications for about 110,000 vacancies it had advertised.(Source : BS)

RITES IPO opens for subscription on June 20. Should you invest?

Established in 1974, RITES has undertaken projects in over 55 countries including Asia, Africa, Latin America, South America and Middle East

 

The initial public offer (IPO) of RITES – a government-owned railway consultancy firm and a Miniratna (Category – I) Schedule ‘A’ Public Sector Enterprise – opens for subscription on June 20. The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs 180-185 a share (discount of Rs 6 per share for retail shareholders and employees), and the government aims to raise up to Rs 460 crore via this sale. The issue closes on June 22.

Established in 1974, RITES has undertaken projects in over 55 countries including Asia, Africa, Latin America, South America and Middle East regions. It is the only export arm of Indian Railways for providing rolling stock overseas (other than Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia).

Also Read: Investors will know we are here for 44 yrs, like an Indian MNC: RITES CMD

Going ahead, the company plans to scale up operations in the transport infrastructure space (expansion into turnkey railway, airport, metro projects etc.) along with strengthening its international operations, reports suggest.

So, should you subscribe to this IPO? Here’s what leading brokerages across the country suggest.

ANGEL BROKING

In terms of valuation, pre-issue price-to-earnings (PE) works out to 12x of annualised FY18 earnings per share (EPS) of Rs 17 (at the upper end of the issue price band), which is reasonably priced considering: (a) 3.5x of order book with execution capability and experienced management, (b) maintaining the RoE level in the range of 17- 18%, (c) diversified client base and (d) increasing opportunity of revenue from Railways due to new investment in electrification and infrastructure.

Given that the RITES is a preferred consultant of Indian Railways along with other government authorities with exposure in international operation and fair valuation of issue, we recommend subscribing to issue.

CENTRUM WEALTH

Over FY13-17, RITES registered revenue and PAT CAGR of 9% and 11%, respectively. Average earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margins and return on equity (RoE) over the period stood at 28% and 18%, respectively. RITES is a virtually debt free company.

Keep Reading : RITES IPOs

Hate trains running late? Here's Indian Railways' worst performing division

Though Railways has made an all-out effort to prevent delays by improving the punctuality rate, Mail and Express trains are sometimes running more than 5 to 10 hours behind schedule

Howrah Division in Bengal is the worst performer as far as trains running on time is concerned, with a punctuality performance of only 34 per cent for the week ended June 3. It is closely followed by Lucknow Division with 39 per cent.

Curiously, an above 80 per cent punctuality rate is considered "reasonable" for Indian Railways, one of the largest railway systems in the world. Currently, Indian Railways' overall punctuality rate is about 65 per cent -- not an ideal situation for authorities or passengers.

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani has said: "At the moment, punctuality rate is 65 per cent and I am not satisfied."

Zone-wise, South East Central's punctuality performance has remained at the bottom at 44 per cent followed by North Central's 47.5 per cent, according to Railways data.

However, Bhavnagar has fared extremely well with 99.27 per cent while Sealdah Division has clocked 98.19 per cent in the week from May 28 to June 3 this year.

Delhi Division's performance is below the 65 per cent mark at 64.64 per cent, while Mumbai Division is even worse at 55.5 per cent for the same period.

Though Railways has made an all-out effort to prevent delays by improving the punctuality rate, Mail and Express trains are sometimes running more than 5 to 10 hours behind schedule, causing much inconvenience to passengers.

Even premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto are running late in some sectors due to various reasons, including ongoing track renewal and maintenance, bridge repair and speed restrictions.

"In order to ensure safety, Railways has undertaken a massive track renewal job, replacing old and aged lines in a concerted manner," a senior official involved with safety operations told IANS. He added that track renewal is underway in almost every section.

Click Here : Indian Railways