Railways Formed Joint Venture with Chhattisgarh Government
- The Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu joined hands with the Chhattisgarh government for laying of 762 km long rail line in the State on February 9, 2016 as part of the rail infrastructure development plan.
- The MoU envisages formation of a joint venture company with the State for execution of rail projects. The JV companies will have 51% stake of the state government and 49% of Railways.
- The three rail corridors involving 762 km will improve the connectivity in the state as well as country. With this, Chhattisgarh is the fifth State to join hands with the Railways for speedy execution of rail projects through JV route.
Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu Launched Three IT Enabled Projects
- IT-enabled handheld terminals for Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs). A paperless unreserved ticketing mobile application and a facility for e-booking of disposable linen on trains were launched by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on February 10, 2016.
- The handheld terminals launched in Northern Railways. It will enable TTEs to update an entire train’s passenger list and highlight vacant berths which can be sent back to HHT application servers, the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) terminals and indianrad.gov website.
- Unreserved ticketing mobile application ‘UTSONMOBILE’ launched in South Central Railway. It was developed with the help of Centre for Railway Information Systems (CR1S). The application was earlier launched in select sectors of South, Western, Northern, Eastern and Central Railways.
Union Government Released Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for North-East
- The Minister of State (IC) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan released the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for North-East India on February 9, 2016. The vision 2030 outlined steps to leverage the hydrocarbon sector for development of the region in Guwahati.
- The Vision Document has been a focused and consultative exercise to develop a common and shared aspiration for benefiting people of the North-East region. CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory has been the Knowledge Partner to develop this Vision report.
- The objectives of the plan are to leverage the region’s hydrocarbon potential, enhance access to clean fuels, improve availability of petroleum products, facilitate economic development and to link common people to the economic activities in this sector.
- The States covered include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas has consciously and constantly focused efforts towards making hydrocarbons a tool to enable social and economic development.
‘Tourism Infoline’ Launched in 12 Languages
- The Union Tourism Ministry launched the tourism helpline number in 12 languages on February 8, 2016. The helpline will be available in English, Hindi, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese and Russian. Previously, it was functioning only in two languages Hindi and English.
- The Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Mahesh Sharma also introduced the 24×7 toll-free helpline I number 1800-11-1363 or short code 1363 for tourists travelling or planning to travel to India.
- The initiative has been planned under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the idea is to generate faith in j the people that India is a safe country for travel. The infoline has been developed in cooperation with a start-up, Tata Business Support Services.
