The national transporter is at present constructing three significant railway bridges that will not only connect remote areas but also serve to be tourist destinations for their engineering uniqueness.

Indian Railways set to get new engineering marvels! Even as it focuses on enhancing passenger experience both in trains and at the railway stations, Indian Railways is also ramping up infrastructure, connecting several parts of the country including those with tough and challenging terrains. The national transporter is at present constructing three significant railway bridges that will not only connect remote areas but also serve to be tourist destinations for their engineering uniqueness. From the world’s highest railway bridge – Chenab bridge to the country’s first vertical lift bridge – Pamban bridge, India is all set to witness some of the best engineering marvels of the world. Take a look:

Chenab Bridge:  The world’s highest, Chenab bridge is being built in Jammu and Kashmir at a height of 359 metres above the waters of the Chenab river. Interestingly, this arch bridge will be taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The bridge forms a crucial link in the railway line between Katra and Banihal, a part of Kashmir Railway project’s Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla section. Considering the terrorism-prone region where the bridge is being built, 63 mm-thick special blast-proof steel is being used for the project. The bridge, which is being developed at a cost of around Rs 12,000 crore, is likely to be complete by the end of this year.

New Pamban Bridge:  Another big infrastructure project, the new Pamban bridge is going to be Indian Railways first vertical lift bridge over the sea. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for this project. The new Pamban bridge will be 2.05 km long and will be developed at a cost of Rs 250 crore. The bridge will have as many as 100 spans of 18.3 metre steel girder and one navigational span of 72.5 metre. The viaduct, which will be 3 metre higher than the existing bridge will be able to support double railway line. Currently, the movement of trains is controlled manually, however, the new Pamban bridge will support electro-mechanical controlled systems.

Bridge Number 164 in the North-East:  The world’s tallest girder railway bridge, known as Bridge No 164 in the Himalayan ranges is likely to be launched this year, enhancing connectivity across Northeast. It is being constructed across the valley of river Ijai near Noney, designed to take a maximum train speed of 120 kmph. The bridge will have a pier height of 141 metres, almost twice as high as Qutab Minar. The girder bridge is a part of the upcoming 111 km long Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal rail line. The bridge which is likely to help Indian Railways in crucial freight movement is designed to carry up to 25 ton axle-load freight trains as well. Last year, Saibaba, Chief Engineer Construction, Northeast Frontier Railway told Financial Express Online that the railway line is expected to be complete by 2020, while the girder bridge will be ready by this year.

Shri K. Suman, Shri D. Ashwini Dev, Shri Plamamuthu Vijay Kumar, Shri Suresh Babu, Shri Kotaram Satyadev, Shri Parayel Radhakrishnan, all our senior friends, citizens, from Alleppey who have joined us today. My young sister who has greeted me this morning and all the distinguished ladies and gentlemen assembled here. My greetings to all of you! In fact, I have just come two days after Vishu which you must have celebrated with great joy. I wish all of you and your family a very-very Happy New Year for 2019.

I would like to apologize that I reached late but my flight which was to come in from Lucknow to Bombay and then, Mumbai to Kochi. The flight from Lucknow came in very late and I am sorry that you had to wait for me.

I have come to God’s own country and actually, if I had been able to reach on time, I was hoping to see the famous boat races of Alleppey or the backwaters and the beautiful beaches. But I think I will have to wait not this time but after our candidate wins, I will come for the victory procession to enjoy the beautiful beaches. I am happy that the Bharatiya Janata Party has given a candidate to Alleppey who is truly a son of the soil, a person who is grown up in humble background, from a fisherman’s family and who has risen to such high levels of accomplishment. We are proud of Dr. K.S. Radhakrishnan – our candidate, former chairman of the Kerala Public Service Commission and vice-chancellor of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit. He truly represents the face of BJP.

Just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi grew up in very humble background and he experienced the pain, the difficulty of poverty, of simple life. In the same way, Dr. Radhakrishnan also understands the difficulties faced by a common man and will therefore, be a good Member of Parliament for the people of Alleppey, to serve the people of Alleppey.

In fact, I was seeing the results of last election and I suddenly found that both the candidatesof the last election have disappeared from Alleppey – Mr. K.C. Venugopal whom you had elected last time, was scared to even contest the election this time and decided to not fight. He ran away from Alleppey because he knew that for five years, he has not worked for the people of Alleppey, for the development of Alappuzha and I think the CPM candidate also decided to go away from here because he knew that the people of Alleppey will not elect a Congress or a CPM candidate this time. But a lot of Congress candidates are running helter skelter. Their own party president has run away from Amethi because Smriti Irani Ji is going to defeat Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. But people of Kerala are very smart. They don’t want second hand material, they don’t want discarded material. So, I am sure even from Wayanad, the people of Kerala will defeat Rahul Gandhi so this dynastic politics is completed from India and we are good, clean, honest people who want to serve the motherland as our representatives.

Both Congress and Communists – both the names start with ‘C’ and both of them stand for corruption, both of them are totally confused. Whether it is the solar scam, whether it is the ice-cream parlour scam, whether it is the land scam – one after the other – all the corruption is coming out and Prime Minister Modi, your Chowkidar, will make sure that action is taken against all the corrupt people.

One day – they make an alliance, second day – they break the alliance, third day – they hug with each other, fourth day – they go to one stage, all hands holding up that we are together, we will all defeat Modi, fifth day – they fight with each other. We don’t whether they are both one side of the coin and whether they are both one party. I think CPM and Congress both of them have the same agenda of destroying Kerala’s culture and destroying the rich tradition of Kerala.

Kerala is the land of peace, harmony, freedom but all that the Congress and CPIM in Kerala have given the people is political violence, bloodshed and killed so many BJP and RSS workers, murdered in cold blood by the Congress and CPM party workers. The Communists and Congress also have double standards when it comes to women’s empowerment. When we are trying to give respect and dignity to our women by passing the Triple Talaq Law so that no woman will become a destitute without proper compensation, the Congress and Communists oppose that. They do not want dignity for our Muslim sisters. They want to continue the brutal and barbaric practise of Triple Talaq. They are also playing a dangerous game regarding sensitive issues of our faith and I want to assure all of you the BJP-NDA government will give constitutional protection to the faith of the people of Kerala, to the beliefs of the people of Kerala.

I was just reading before I came here about the Kollam Bypass. The Kollam Bypass was pending since 1972 when the work started. It is only the Modi government when they came in, then we were able to complete in January 2019. Prime Minister Modi had come also for the inauguration. I think the Congress and the Left parties do not want development. They are only interested in political murders and I believe Alleppey saw seven political murders in a short span of two months as per a report in the media in 2017. While the BJP and the NDA want development. We want development of the Coir industry which is very famous in Alleppey. We want development of Tourism in the state of Kerala. We want to ensure the safety of every citizen of Kerala who may be working anywhere in the world. We want to have a better future for the fishermen of Kerala but Congress and the Left parties do not want development. They are only parties of corruption and appeasement of minorities. Therefore, I think just like the Kollam Bypass in the 2019 election, the people of Kerala will save Bye, Bye and give a bypass to both the Left and the Congress and the BJP will win and the NDA will win this election.

And we need not think that the Congress and Communists cannot be defeated in Kerela. Look at what happened in Tripura, after 30-35 years, after no development in Tripura for so many decades keeping the people backward, the people of Tripura decided they will defeat both the Left and the Congress and the BJP – which had only secured 1% vote in Tripura in 2014 – last year, we formed a absolute majority government in Tripura, securing 51% votes. From 1% to 51% in only four years. The same thing happened in West Bengal. Today, in West Bengal the BJP will win more seats than any other party and Congress and Communists will reduce to zero in West Bengal.

After all , who is the strongest leader in the country today? Who can protect our borders? Who can make sure that terrorist activities are given a befitting reply? Only Prime Minister Narendra Modi…

Who is the leader who cares for our mothers, our sisters, our daughters? Who made sure that every home will have a toilet and constructed more than 10 crore toilets in more four-four and a half years so that no woman in India ever has to be facing the indignity of going out into the freeze.

From independence till 2014, only 13 crore families had LPG gas connection. In the last five years, we have almost doubled that figure and today, almost every home has an LPG gas connection. The few that are left will be finished in next one year. More than 7 crore out of this have been given free LPG connection by the Modi government. Fifty crore brothers and sisters will get free healthcare under Ayushmann Bharat so that no poor person, no middle class person ever has to suffer for lack of adequate medical treatment.

We have already started giving Rs. 6,000 income support to every small and marginal farmer since February, 2019 and in our manifesto, we have announced that after the new BJP-NDA government comes in – we will give all the farmers Rs. 6,000 every year as income support.

There are a lot of fishermen in Alleppey. Some of you may remember on 1st February, 2019 when I presented the interim union budget, we gave a lot of facilities to the fisherman. We announced a Rs. 10,000 crore corpus to upgrade the infrastructure and give better facilities to the fishermen.

Fishermen will also be given Kisan credit card and the loan to fishermen will now be at par with the loan to farmer so they will also have to pay much less interest and will get an interest concession just like the farmers. We are also looking at the integrated development of coastal areas so that the cities near the coast can have fast development.

To promote tourism, now you have Kerala’s own brother – Alphons as the Tourism Minister of India. Now, tourists from 166 countries can come easily by taking e-visa so that tourism develops in Kerala and all of you can see a better future for your children – more jobs, more income, more economic activity.

We have upgraded the Alleppey railway station – there is now a new footover bridge, there is escalators. We have raised the platform level. Now, there is a train that passes via Alleppey – straight goes to Delhi. And we want to do lots more if the state government supports us, helps us get land. We can expand the Railways very rapidly so that more and more transport and, more and more connectivity will be available to the people of Alleppey.

In fact when the Congress along with the support of the Communists was in power in Delhi – central government from 2009-2014, only Rs. 1,800 crore was invested in Railways in the whole state of Kerala. We have more than doubled it and in the last five years, we have invested nearly Rs. 4,700 crore in Kerala alone.

Now, I wish all of you vote for development, vote for an honest government, vote for a bright future for our children, vote for the safety and security of every Indian. And you have one of the best sons of the soil, one of the best candidates Dr K.S. Radhakrishnan whose symbol is Lotus. On voting day, 23rd April, I appeal to all of you to please cast your vote early morning before it gets hot – before 10.30 in the morning. Each one of you, your family members, your neighbours, your friends, your colleagues in office – everybody should come out before 10.30 in the morning.  Don’t have an Idli, first cast your vote, then come and have idli and filter coffee.

Because vote is not just our right – it is our responsibility. It is our responsibility to bring back the glory that Kerala always had. The glory of illustrious Adi Shankracharya who came from Kerala, the glory of Shri Narayana Guru who made every Keralaite proud, the glory of Chattampi Swamikal, the glory of Mahatma Ayyankali to bring back the pride of every Kerala citizen.

Let us take this message to all our brothers and sisters in Alleppey, to our brothers and sisters and friends in this constituency. Let us cast our vote for BJP, give a good government under the Prime Minister Modi in the Centre and protect this country from terrorism, protect this country from corruption, protect this country from divisive forces like Communists and Congress.

Thank you very much.

Bharat Mata Ki… Jai! Let’s put our hands together and take a pledge for the victory of Dr. Radhakrishnan.

Thank you very much.

The Indian Railways has had a very productive last 12 months, a period in which it not only enjoyed a surge in profits, but also ensured better safety standards and enhanced passenger and freight numbers. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal held a comprehensive review in Mumbai on Wednesday, whereby he revealed a drastic reduction in the number of accidents, and consequently, fatalities and injuries as well.

“In 2018-19, the number of accidents went from 73 to 59, while the number of deaths reduced to 37 from 57 a year ago, and injuries went from 197 to 108. There were 0.06 accidents per million train kilometres in 2018-19, while the corresponding figure for 2017-18 was 0.09. All of these prove 2018-19 has been the safest year for the railways,” a Railways official told DNA.

Credit for these statistics must go to a renewed focus on improvement of safety standards. “The Railways is poised towards a zero accident mode,” the officer said, adding that Goyal reviewed performance on various parameters, including punctuality, safety, freight and passenger figures, earnings and expenditure, infra and capacity augmentation, production of locomotives and coaches, track maintenance,” etc.

And the enhanced focus on safety and punctuality has also helped augment the Railways’ earnings. In 2018-19, the Railways’ total earnings surged to Rs 1,89,610.6 crore, as against Rs 1,78,701.15 crore in 2017-18. A large proportion of this was down to increased revenue from goods (Rs 1,27,207.3 crore as against Rs 1,17,055.40 crore), while passenger revenue rose to Rs 51,000.2 crore as against Rs 48,643.14 crore over 12 months.

Source: https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-indian-railways-focus-on-safety-pays-off-as-accidents-drop-2740742