By Francesco Rao

The laying of the “Italian” tracks for the second section of the United Arab Emirates’ national railway network has begun.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan recently inaugurated the construction site for Etihad Rail’s Package A — Stage 2, located in the Al Dhafrah region, which will connect the UAE’s railway network with Saudi Arabia.

The rails for Etihad Rail are produced in Piombino by JSW Steel Italy in the former Lucchini steel plant, currently owned by the Indian group Jindal.
However, in addition to the Piombino steel plant, two other important actors in the Italian railway sector are playing a leading role in the project: Italcertifer and Salcef.

Italcertifer, a certification company in the FS Ferrovie dello Stato group, has also been awarded the Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) activities for the 2D project package for the construction of the Emirates’ new railway network. This is in addition to the ISA assignment for another section called for in the project’s 2S package. Overall, this is Italcertifer’s sixth ongoing assignment in the Middle East, where the Italian specialist in railway safety certification also operates in Saudi Arabia.

For the Etihad Rail project, Salcef—a publicly listed Italian group that specializes in railway infrastructure—, will be responsible for the construction of 280 km of track, 27 turnouts, and a welding plant to produce long rails. In January 2020 Salcef was chosen to complete the track works by a joint venture that is managing a 410 million dollar contract, which is part of Etihad Rail’s package A. Salcef had previously taken part in the construction of the United Arab Emirates’ first railway line, constructing 420 km of single and double track lines for freight traffic.

L'articolo Making Connections sembra essere il primo su Artvalley.

By Suroopa Chatterjee

When we talk of poetry in the Indian context, the foremost name that strikes a familiar chord is that of Rabindranath Tagore who donned many roles: painter, poet, philosopher, traveller, social reformer, educator. But few know that this polymath and Nobel laureate’s family had a deep relationship with railway connectivity.

Dwarkanath Tagore, grandfather of Rabindranath Tagore had diverse business interests in banking insurance, shipping, and trading goods like indigo, silk, sugar and coal. His interest in railways developed on his visit to England and, subsequent to his return, he understood the need for railway connectivity in collieries and offered to raise one third of the capital for setting railway lines between Calcutta to the Raniganj coalfields. Apart from the emotional connection railways bring, they have played an important part in joining nations and establishing trade routes between India and its neighbours for quite a long time. Within the spectrum of this Indian subcontinent, Bangladesh and West Bengal particularly have had a special and unique equation.

Joined by shared civilization, cultural similarity, social and economic ties, Bangladesh and West Bengal share a common love for linguistics, heritage, music, and literature. The Sunderbans, famed the world over for the Royal Bengal Tiger, is the largest mangrove delta, extending across both the nations and covering over 10,200 sq. kilometres.

Similarities aside, Bangladesh is India’s largest trading partner in the South Asian context. According to a report published earlier in the Hindustan Times, total Indian exports to Bangladesh for FYI 2018–19 was $9.21 billion and Bangladeshi imports to India were around $1.22 billion. The pursuit of India’s own regional interests largely depends on greater regional interdependence and connectivity with its immediate neighbours. China is playing a very big role in supporting infrastructure, modernization and developmental initiatives in India’s periphery through fibre optic or rail links.

China has been relentlessly offering Bangladesh duty free access to its products. In this light India is strengthening its approach: a multi-pronged strategy to enhance its business and trade partnerships with Bangladesh. In order to achieve this, India is facilitating seamless connectivity for the movement of Bangladeshi products to landlocked regions on the Indian side particularly north-east India. There is a major thrust to increase connectivity via inland water transport, sea ports, highways and railways allowing Bangladesh to access the Bhutan and Nepal markets in addition to those in India. Both Bangladesh and India are activating measures for the restoration of the pre-1965 rail and other connectivity links.

Even during the pandemic that shook the globe, the July 2020 decision by the Government of Bangladesh to resume border trade via West Bengal will soon set a positive pace for greater exports into India after a brief hiatus. Grant help has been given to Bangladesh from India for myriad infrastructure projects including construction of the Akhaura Agartala rail link. Another area of rail connectivity that got a major boost was India giving 10 broad gauge locomotives to its railway counterpart in Bangladesh as a grant which is a sign of continued cooperation and goodwill between the two neighbours. The West Bengal government proposed to continue trade through Gede in south Bengal’s Nadia district in July. According to Mr. Alapan Bandyopadhyay, State Home Secretary, this was safer and acceptable.

The month of July 2020 saw a lot of rail activities between the two countries as a parcel train containing chilies from the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh reached Bangladesh. A month prior, more than 100 freight trains carrying FMCG products, essential and finished items were ferried between the two regions. Another significant development was declared by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, on his twitter handle in July 2020: “From Bareilly to Bangladesh! 51 trucks exported from India to Bangladesh via Indian Railways. Railways is at the forefront to promote exports.” The Petrapole-Benapole Integrated Check post, which constitutes almost a third of Indo-Bangladesh bilateral trade (USD 8.7 billion), is now fully functional on both sides.

The special element that ties the two Bengals is undoubtedly the warm camaraderie and familiarity of language between the two regions. Passenger trains like the Maitree Express, which means “Friendship Express”, has been bringing the citizens of both sides even closer together since its inauguration in 2008. In 2017 a second train service connecting Kolkata with Khulna in Bangladesh, the Bandhan Express, was inaugurated.

Railways will continue to thrive, survive and revive business links between India and Bangladesh with growing infrastructure and improvement in services, a common focus from both sides. Railway service will provide additional impetus to trade by reducing time and cost of import export between the two countries reducing the rate from Rs 7,000/tonne to Rs 1500/tonne. Transportation time by train will reduce transport times from almost a fortnight (when done through Surface transport) to just a few hours.

Doubtless both passenger and commercial rail links will bring movement and forge more connections between India and its closest eastern neighbour. Tagore himself noted the changes wrought by rail in his famous poem Railway Station, penned in 1940: “On and on with repetitive movement / Eastwards, westwards, rapid as storms.”

L'articolo Transport and Poetry sembra essere il primo su Artvalley.

By Suroopa Chatterjee

Kolkata, a thriving metropolis, is home to around 5 Million residents, and it is estimated that around 1.5 million people come daily from suburban and rural areas to earn their living and go back in the evening, making it the 13th most populous city in the world.

The metropolitan area is spread over around 1900 sq. km. and is also the main business, commercial, and financial hub of eastern and north-eastern India, as well as the only city in this part of the country to have an international airport.

The city is in dire need of a complete overhaul of its urban transportation system. Only 6% of the area of Kolkata is available for roads (as compared to 20% in similar metropolitan areas of India) and its projected that the vehicle population shall exceed 4 million in 2025 and transit trips shall be well over 40 million by then. Expansion of roads and highways is not a solution to address this enormity.

A Metro network was identified as the only viable option for the city’s population, with a dual target – to ease the pressure on roads by encouraging the inhabitants to use the Metro instead of conventional travel by car, and also to reduce carbon emission from vehicles.

The City saw its first metro line and now the second one – which has been christened the East-West Network Corridor connecting Howrah on one bank of the Hooghly river with Sealdah – located on the other bank of the same river. The East West Corridor is also unique since a part of the corridor passes under the Hooghly – a first in India. Incidentally, Kolkata is also the first.

A person whose hometown is Kolkata, Mr. Kalyan Sen, Joint General Manager, Finance and Accounts, Afcons Infrastructure Limited, who is also a part of the organization that was involved in both phases of Metro construction (in 1971 as well as today) remarked– “I am eagerly looking forward to boarding the train in Howrah and de-board at Sealdah. That day is not very far off – maybe a year from today.”

Kolkata was the first Indian city to have a fully operational Metro in 1984, though work began in 1971, when former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi inaugurated its operation on the stretch between Dum Dum and Garia.

The city  is getting its second metro line after a gap of 36 years. Mr. Piyush Goyal, the Central Railway Minister, this February launched the first phase of the city’s East West Metro Line from Sector V in Salt Lake, Kolkata.

It’s a 16.5 km stretch which will connect Howrah on the West bank of the Hooghly River with Salt Lake City, the IT Hub on the East Bank. About 10.8 km will be underground and 5.8 would be elevated as the remaining portion. The underground portion stretches from Phoolbagan and Howrah Maidan, the stretch having a total of six stations over a 12-km distance. For now this is the section that will be in operation.

The portion under the Hooghly River will only begin operating in 2021 after construction of the entire stretch is complete. The tunnel will cross the Hooghly river between Mahakaran and Howrah station and passengers will be able to cover this distance in about a minutes time as the train speed is estimated to be around 80km/hour.

There is much excitement surrounding the project that is being executed by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation as once again the city will be the first in the country to have a metro train that runs under a river (the Hooghly). The project executors are Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRCL) with financial assistance from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JICA).

With this unique and ambitious, first-of-its-kind underwater metro service in the country, Kolkata joins the ranks of other international cities like London, New York, San Francisco, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Earlier, Minister Goyal had stated that such a project was an example of excellent engineering and a symbol of progress of the railways in the country. The metro is built with state-of-the-art modern facilities that will reduce total travel time, make travel easier, and provide advanced in-class service for the citizens of Kolkata and its suburbs.

The metro project involves the tunnel crossing underneath the Hooghly River for approximately half a kilometer. According to published data, the tunnel would be below water at a depth of 13 km. Two tunnels, bored at a distance of 13 meters, are for the outbound and return trips.

Two German machines were used for the tunnel boring.
The metro may be considered technologically on par with Eurostar high speed railway service that crosses through the Channel tunnel between the UK and France. According to the published data, the estimated project cost is around Rupees 9,000 crores. According to officials, approximately 2100 passengers at a time will be able to take advantage of the service consisting of six coaches. Trains would arrive at 90-second intervals.

An obvious, and possibly the most important, challenge was to ensure that there would be no water seepage. The tunnel is designed in such a way it is made of rings of 1.4 m width with a special gasket that would swell up in case of any seepage or water contact. The project cost is increasing and might touch 8,500 crores till its operational by 2021.

Most daily passengers traversing the distance from Salt Lake to Howrah, or vice versa, frequently complain about the delays and hassles they currently encounter.

The metro, once in operation, would greatly reduce travel time and passengers would not have to use the ferry service between Howrah and Kolkata and also avoid above-ground travel times of almost an hour and a half.

The service would greatly lessen pollution which is very important as most countries around the world are consistently striving to lessen carbon footprints through alternative options. Safety measures inside the train include fireproof seats, smoke detectors and cameras. According to a report, by 2035 this project would attract commuters numbering around 10 lakhs.

Suroopa Chatterjee is a Kolkata-based Writer.

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By Mangal Dev, Director Hitachi India 

In the Hindu way of life, the journey is more important than the destination, because the journey is your experience, from this earthly realm to another higher planetary realm. 
The journey of your life stands on four pillars called the purusharthas. Dharma (fundamental duties based on your competencies), Artha (essentials for making offerings thus leading to survival), Kama (regulated desire and its fulfilment), Moksha (ultimate positioning for eternity). 

The journey is how you relate to and utilize the lifetime for a greater purpose or greater cause. The more engaging and joyful the journey, the better the arrival at your next destination. Therefore, the traits or behaviors of Dharma (धर्म), Patience (धैर्य) and Courage (साहस) are important.
In Vedic culture, there are all kinds of travels even the inter-planetary travels. However, for travel on the planet earth, railway was quite a unique innovation. It is linked to the horse driven cart, which essentially is based on the concept of the Chariot of the Sun God that travels around in the Universe. 

The history of Indian railways is not only about iron, tracks and engines; it is a history of projects, mindsets, intellectual achievements. The railways are a boon of modern-day industrialization.
The first railway in India was operated between Mumbai and Thane, in Maharashtra. It was only 60 km and it was used mainly for transporting spices. It was the beginning of the railways in India, but railways have since become the “social fabric” of Indian society. 

Railway functions as a kind of “social network” encompassing not only its 1.5 million employees but millions and millions of travellers.
People look forward to traveling on trains where you are never alone. They like to travel with family, with friends, in groups of like-minded colleagues, etc.
Because of India’s vastness, the journeys are quite long and are very joyful. The train is like home away from home. Passengers carry their own food, they carry their daily essential items, they carry their bedding to a rail “apartment” on the train: it’s just like an extension of their family home.

Personally, my first love is aerospace. Aerospace has its own fascination, because you fly in the clouds, traveling in different planes.
When I landed in the industry, by coincidence, from the air I landed on the ground in the automotive sector; and from automotive I moved on to railways. Always transport!

Photograph: Retina Charmer Photography

Discovering transport is something very interesting, because people travel. Initially, a long time ago, people used to travel for one main reason, and that was for pilgrimages, to perform tīrtha (तीर्थ). It is an opportunity for a common householder to acquire knowledge from the rishis, saints, sadhus, learned brahmans who also come together during seasonal kumbh to disseminate their revealed knowledge of God.

In India you have countless places of tīrtha from north to south, from east to west. Performing tīrtha is one of the fundamental duty of human beings and the railways are the only transport that criss-crosses the entire nation. We have a train travelling from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, which is one of the longest route. So tīrtha and railway is synonymous.
 
With my family, we made a pilgrimage just after the summer, in the months of October and November. In Hindu philosophy, the month of October is a very important time. There’s a nine-day period (Navratri) which is the most auspicious time to go to a tīrtha. The festival of Durga Puja (worship of the goddess Durga) is nine days, eleven days before Diwali—celebrating the victory of dharma over adharma. The victory of Lord Rama (an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) over Ravan, celebrated across all of India and as homecoming after the tīrtha. In this period people want to visit Vishnu’s temples, to connect or to find a better understanding of our inner-selves as Vishnu in the form of paramatma (Supersoul) also resides as guhya (गुह्य) is covered as a secret in each of our hearts (अधोक्षज). Planning for this type of journey starts two months before. 
 
There are so many pilgrimage places and people want to travel to visit them. The journey, as I said, is as important as the place of pilgrimage. That is why railway travel is the most appreciated; because of the joy of the journey and its connectivity throughout the country. People generally travel in big groups; you travel with your family, your neighbours, colleagues, friends, other like-minded people, so you continue the whole journey and it is very important to be together, experiencing life in the same coach…
 
Children often cherish the experience, the sound and sight of the passing trains. The whistling of trains, especially on long bridges over freely flowing rivers, tunnels cutting through the high green mountains and forming serpentine while climbing hills or manoeuvring curves in plains. Bollywood poets have written amazing lyrics using railways as the theme, तू किसी रेल सीगुज़रती है, मैं किसी पुल सा थरथराता हूँ (you pass like a train and I tremble like a bridge underneath). It leaves an indelible mark in your mind. Therefore, the most inspiring kind of trip for any child is to travel by train.

Getting into the coach of a train is like a holiday for the children. Railway travel is such a nice thing… you can freely move around in the train. So, there’s no restriction, you don’t have to stay sitting in one place. These small things let everybody find moments of joy. There are people selling food and goods, musicians, singers & actors performing on the train to entertain the travellers. Sometimes people interact with other people so intensively that at the end of the journey there is a marriage proposal. This is also because it’s a long journey, it can be up to one week. At minimum there are 2 days of travel in one direction. Sometimes, babies are also born on a train journey. Amazing things happens on Indian railways in incredible India.
 
When we talk about new-age, high-speed trains, they are more appropriate for people who are business oriented, people who have very little time.
In parallel, railways also offer overnight trains with sleeper cars, so travellers can sit during the day, but they can also sleep comfortably at night. And they bring their own bedding, their own food, and they share what they bring with their fellow travellers. This experience must continue to be available to retain the joy of free-minded travel. They will both co-exist to complement each other, as each is important for its own style of traveller. 

L'articolo The journey of experience sembra essere il primo su Artvalley.

Riccardo Pasinetti is the Commercial Director of Lucchini RS Railway Division, the global multinational for sustainable mobility progress based in Lovere (BS), which produces high-end rail components for high-speed, locomotives, passenger trains, trams and subways.

The LRS Railway Division is involved in various projects in the Arabian Gulf both as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and for the provision of maintenance. For desert environments, the most inhospitable in the world, LRS Railway Division has developed innovative wheels in a special steel known as Sandlos®.

Characterized by extreme temperatures, desert environments are also known for sand, which is among the most aggressive natural elements when it comes to railway applications. In what is known as ‘three-body abrasion’, generated by the presence of sand on the wheel interface, a third element (sand) interferes with the behavior of materials subject to contact wear.
Ordinary maintenance to remove sand from the wheels is not enough: for this reason, LRS developed Sandlos®, a ‘specialized’ steel that creates innovation, designed to protect wheels in the desert and reduce the speed of wear.

Which projects is Lucchini RS working on in the Arabian Gulf as an OEM?

LRS confirms its involvement in OEM projects with Alstom, for the Dubai Metro, and for the new EXPO2020 trains, of which we are not exclusive suppliers. Another project in which we are involved is the high-speed Haramain (Medina-Mecca) train in Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the Spanish train manufacturer Talgo. In addition, we are working on the Riyadh Metro, where LRS provides wheels and axles for trains made by two great builders: Siemens Mobility and Bombardier Transportation.

And in terms of maintenance provision?

For the after market we are offering Sandlos®. The supply of spare parts for the Dubai Metro (already in service) should begin in about 24 months. The fleet is of interest to LRS in terms of proposing innovative services for optimized maintenance.

What was your impression of Middle East Rail 2019?

Middle East Rail 2019, where LRS was a major presence, was positive: we have definitely noticed an increase in attendance when compared to the last 2 years. This higher turnout is perhaps due to a general positive trend in the GCC economic system and to the fact that the date of Expo 2020 is fast approaching, which makes the players in the area more actively involved. There is also a lot of expectation in regards to the new infrastructure projects.

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