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NEW DELHI: The railways has maintained the best safety record in 2017-2018 fiscal in over five decades, according to official figures. As of March 30, 73 accidents were reported across the railway network, compared to 104 in the previous fiscal, the lowest in 57 years. “The main reason behind the improvement is track renewal, the railways carried out renewal of 4,405 km of old rails in 2017-2018. This is the highest ever progress of rail renewal and exceeds the target of 4,400 km kept for the year,” a senior official of the ministry said. In fact, the previous best track renewal was 4,175 km in 2004-2005, when the transporter was given a rehabilitation plan with a fund of Rs 17,000 crore. This fiscal has also recorded the longest ever distance travelled by trains. In 1960-61, trains collectively travelled just 388.1 million train km as compared to 1170.7 million train km in 2017-2018. Train kilometer is the unit of measure of distance which corresponds to the movement of a train ove

A shutdown, driverless diesel locomotive today rolled down the tracks before derailing at Anand Vihar railway station in Delhi, an official said, a week after 22 coaches of an express train travelled 10 km without its engine in Odisha. The incident happened at 14:33pm, when the diesel loco suddenly started rolling down the tracks at Anand Vihar station. The possible cause for the incident is the failure of the hand-brake, a Northern Railway spokesman said. “It rolled for about 40m and derailed at a point on the East end of the line by three wheels. All movements are safe and other train movements are normal. The driver has been suspended and an enquiry has been ordered,” the spokesman said. Hand-brake is applied from within the locomotive when it is shut down and “parked”. “There are dozens of locos that are shut down everyday and parked with their hand-brakes applied and no untoward incident happens if the handbrakes are gripping the wheels correctly,” an officer explained. On Apri

BALASORE: Six coal-laden wagons of a goods train travelled for 2 km without an engine here, an incident which comes a week after an express train in Titlagarh travelled for 10 kilometres without an engine. The incident occurred when six wagons of a goods train from Dhamara to Jamshedpur got detached from the rest of the train and travelled about 2 km, without an engine, between Khantapada and Bahanaga stations yesterday night, a railway official said. However, a mishap was averted and nobody was hurt as the incident was detected immediately and the railway officials acted quickly, he said. “The last six wagons got detached from the train due to snapping of coupling and some mechanical fault which was immediately resolved,” the Station Manager of Balasore Railway Station, Bhagabat Das, said. As a precautionary measure, movement of trains on the tracks was conrolled for around two hours. An engine was sent to Bahanaga railway station to bring the detached wagons and attach them to the

Of the 146 foreign arms vendors attending Defexpo 2018 in Chennai, Russian Helicopters, which builds the iconic, dual-rotor Kamov helicopters, is among the few with an assured major order. In 2015, on Vladimir Putin’s personal request, Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to buy 200 Kamov-226T utility helicopters for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and army without competitive tendering. Moscow and New Delhi have agreed that Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) would manufacture the Kamov-226T with technology transferred by Russian Helicopters. The two signed a shareholders agreement in October 2016, granting a 50.5 per cent majority stake for HAL, and 49.5 per cent for Russian Helicopters. Now Russian Helicopters is pitching to score another billion-dollar home run by winning the navy’s tender for 111 “naval utility helicopters” (NUH). With at least 140 Kamov-226T to be built in India (the other 60 are being supplied from Russia fully built), Russian Helicopters believes it can offer a compelling c

Mumbai:  Aerospace firm Boeing Co. on Thursday said it has entered into a partnership with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd (MDS) for manufacturing the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet in India, the company said in a statement. “Our partnership with HAL and Mahindra will enable us to optimize the full potential of India’s public and private sector to deliver next-generation F/A-18 fighter capabilities,” Boeing India president Pratyush Kumar said at DefExpo 2018 in Chennai, adding, “together we can deliver an affordable, combat-proven fighter platform for India, while adding growth momentum to the Indian aerospace ecosystem with manufacturing, skill development, innovation and engineering, and job creation.” Boeing’s Make in India proposal involves building a new, state-of-the-art facility that can be used for programmes such as India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft policy, a note issued by the US firm said. livemint

New Delhi:  Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd (HMSI), the country’s second largest two-wheeler manufacturer, has earmarked Rs800 crore as capital expenditure for FY2019, which will mostly be used to upgrade existing offerings of the company to Bharat Stage VI (BS VI) emission norms. The current fiscal will see the launch of one new product and 18 refreshes of existing products. The announcement by HMSI is testament to the enormous task at hand for the auto industry—complying with the BS VI emission norms by April 2020. This is drawing huge investments from manufacturers across segments. Further, HMSI under president and chief executive Minoru Kato will look to shift some of its scooter customers to the Grazia and bring in new customers for its motorcycle segment through the X-Blade to reduce dependence on the Activa—the highest selling scooter in the country. “We will use this investment for the BS VI preparation. The model line-up needs to change. As a result of the BS VI n

NEW DELHI: Yamaha Motor India Group Thursday said it has installed 1100 KW roof top solar power plant at company’s manufacturing facility in Chennai. With this new installation, the total solar capacity of Yamaha’s Chennai plant has increased to 1450 KW. The company has plans to increase the total rooftop solarcapacity to 3500 KW by the end of this year. The new rooftop installation would reduce CO2 emission to the extent of 1600 tons/year. Yamaha has partnered with Mahindra Susten for the installation of these Rooftop Solar panels. Riuji Kawashima, Deputy Managing Director, India Yamaha Motor, said, “The installation of the solar power project at our plants further reinstates our commitment towards building an energy saving factory that is friendly to people and the global environment. We also would like to highlight that our Chennai factory is the least CO2 emission factory among the Yamaha Motor Group Companies around the world.”  economictimes Related posts: 60% car buy