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Trains Are Best, Alok Kumar Verma, IRSE (Retd) Profile picture
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Jan 13 • 10 tweets • 9 min read
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My new bio

I saved the country from 3 incredibly wrong & wasteful projects & two ruinous policies of building highspeed lines on Standard Gauge & DFCs. But 7 projects continue.

I was the first to raise the above issues & pursued them ceaselessly against all odds .. ImageImageImageImage
..This endeavour is a work in progress because Rly Board may try to revive these projects & policies: Officially there is no clear announcement of their abrogation.

The 7 projects that continue are the projects to build the lines in the Himalayas in Kashmir, Uttarakhand & .. ImageImageImageImage
..the North East.

The projects that have been shelved after my intervention are the projects to build the line to Leh in Ladakh, the Char Dham lines & the Kerala Silverline.

Although we are rid of lines on Standard Gauge & more DFCs, a lot remains to..

..be done to raise speed on the existing lines & build a whole lot of new lines for 200-250 kmph speed: Railway Board has still not come up with a coherent plan.

Social media played an important role as platform to raise these issues before people..

ImageImage
..Thanks for your participation and continued support.

I have given here links to some of my posts & some images & infographics for your quick reference.

..

ImageImageImageImage
..

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...
#DFCs #StandardGauge
#BulletTrains #Kerala_Silverline

#TheHimalayas
#Kashmir_rail_link #Chenab_Rail_Bridge #ManipurRailLink #MizoramRailLink #SikkimRailLink #NagalandRailLink
#MeghalayaRailLink

#Bilaspur_Manali_Leh_Railway #Chaar_Dham_Railway

..9/10

...10/10

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More from @trains_are_best

Trains Are Best, Alok Kumar Verma, IRSE (Retd) Profile picture
Jan 15
What a 20+ yr bonfire of public money!

When completed it will be:

World's costliest single line: > INR 30,000 crore to cross a distance of 50 km (So > INR 600 cr per km.

World's most unstable & unsafe line: How long will the tunnels, bridges & cutting built in crushed rocks..
..glued & stitched together stand?

Will Rly Bd obtain safety clearance from the Commissioner of Railway Safety or a committee of its junior officers as it did for the Lumding-Silchar line in 2015?

Truly an engineering marvel in the distorted imagination of Rly Board!?

The.. ImageImageImageImage
..progress was 90% in 2018 - How many more yrs to complete work at Sumber, Sangaldan, Br 60, Anji Bridge, Tunnel 1 & 14 & the culvert at Bakkal?

Won't this line be like those multi-storied hotels of Joshimath - built on a sinking slope - that are being demolished right now? ImageImage
Read 7 tweets
Trains Are Best, Alok Kumar Verma, IRSE (Retd) Profile picture
Jan 14
Is development incompatible with preservation of the Himalayas?

Certainly not.

Actually, this is not the right question that many, including media, seem to be asking in the aftermath of the Joshimath tragedy.

The question should be: Are we adopting the right technological..
..options?

This was the question which I examined while framing my proposal for changing the alignment of the Kashmir Rail Link project. This is also what I examined while dealing with the Railway's alignment for the line to Leh, Ladakh and the Char Dham lines, & also the plan.. ImageImageImage
..for Kerala Silverline.

For towns & cities like Joshimath, we need a separate building code for the Himalayas, & instead of building wide highways we should build a network of MG & NG railway lines, as in Switzerland, Australia etc.

I will deal with this in detail shortly. ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Trains Are Best, Alok Kumar Verma, IRSE (Retd) Profile picture
Jan 12
RISHIKESH -KARNAPRAYAG RLY PROJECT: Three More Reports of Cracks in Houses and Ground Subsidence

Since I wrote two days back, I have come across reports of cracks & subsidence at 3 more locations:

I) About 40 houses affected at Marora village..

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/…
..near Rudraprayag.

2. About 100 houses (224 families) affected at Sweeth Village in Pauri district where a 13.5 km long tunnel is being excavated.

3. There are reports of cracks in houses & ground subsidence at Srinagar town also where another long..

..tunnel is under construction.

These reports are of serious concern because this line requires construction of about 110 km of tunnels at shallow depth in weak, highly crushed and folded rock strata..

A thorough investigation of both the immediate..

pressreader.com/india/hindusta…
Read 5 tweets
Trains Are Best, Alok Kumar Verma, IRSE (Retd) Profile picture
Nov 29, 2022
The Wasteland of Kerala Silverline

So the Kerala Govt has now officially stopped wanton expenditure of taxpayer money on the fictitious plan for Kerala Silverline.

People of Kerala must be feeling relieved after 3 anxious years

As I wrote in my open..

newsable.asianetnews.com/india/kerala-g…
..letter to the Minister of Railway, just 2 days before the above order was issued by Kerala Govt, the cause of this deceptive & fraudulent plan's existence is that Rly Bd granted In-principle Approval based on a thoroughly fabricated Feasibility Report..

..which KRDCL hurriedly submitted to Borad in June'2019 just 3 months after the Preliminary Feasibility Report (which was prepared under my guidance) stronly advising KRDCL against the plan was given to KRDCL

Worse, Rly Bd has doomed many mega projects..

Read 7 tweets
Trains Are Best, Alok Kumar Verma, IRSE (Retd) Profile picture
Nov 28, 2022
Road and Rail lines in the Border Regions of Himalayas

Inherently rail lines are more reliable and efficient than roads. As we go up in the Himalayas it is difficult to get speeds above 20 kmph even in fair weather.

In monsoon roads are frequently ..

theprint.in/defence/modi-g…
..blocked by landslides.

But with its utterly flawed alignments, that too on Broad Gauge, Rly Board has messed up all the ongoing seven projects.

India should go for a trans-Himalayan rail network on MG from north-west to northeast.

China is..

.. systematically building a rail network on its side of Himalayas which along with roads will serve a vast area from Sichuan to the western end of Tibet.

I am working on such a plan of lines in Himalayas in India.

#Himalayas
#Lines_in_Himalayas

Read 9 tweets
Trains Are Best, Alok Kumar Verma, IRSE (Retd) Profile picture
Nov 25, 2022
Thread
@AshwiniVaishnaw

My Open Letter to Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw Ji, distinguished Minister of Railways on the subject:

"The Kerala Silverline, the most deceptive scheme for any large-scale public rail project, and its implications for the nation's rail transportation system".. ImageImageImageImage
..This letter is in the larger context of how the thoughtlessly planned & executed mega schemes & projects for construction of highspeed & semi-highspeed lines on Standard Gauge, the DFCs and the strategically vital lines in the Himalayas are threatening the future of rail.. ImageImageImageImage
.. transportation particularly travel by passenger trains in India

You can download the PDF file of the letter and Annexure I and Annexure II from the links given below:
3/4
 #IndianRailways #railwayboard
#Rail_Infrastructure
#Kashmir_rail_link
#DFCs
#BulletTrains #HighSpeedRail
Read 11 tweets

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