Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Mission, Railway - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Western Railway Zone

Explanation:
Indian Railway has over 30 thousand level crossings out of which nearly 40% are unmanned ones. The West-Central Railway (WCR) Zone, with its headquarters at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, became the first-ever zone of the Indian Railway to have eliminated all unmanned level crossings.

ANSWER: China

Explanation:
China on 28^th Dec 2016 commenced operations of Shanghai-Kunming line, the longest high speed railway in the world.

Link joins the prosperous east coast to the less developed southwestern part of the nation.

Launch of the Shanghai-Kunming line is an indication that China's high speed rail grid has taken shape and connects all provinces on most of the Chinese mainland.

The line is part of the China Railway High Speed's System of High Speed Rail Corridors, beginning in Shanghai and ending in Kunming.

China Railway High Speed is a high speed rail service operated by China Railway.

Hexie Hao is the designation for rolling stock operated for the service and CRH’s introduction was a major part of the sixth national railway speedup.

It was implemented on 18th April 2007 and every high speed train in commercial use in China is called CRH.

CRH1/2A/2B/2E/5 are expected to have a maximum speed of 250 km/h. CRH2C/3 have a maximum speed of 350 km/h.

The new trainsets CRH380A have a maximum test speed of 416.6 km/h. CRH380BL, the fastest trainset, attained a maximum test speed of 487.3 km/h.

Know More About the Shanghai-Kunming line

• Length: 2552 km
• Line is the longest east-west high speed railway in China.
• It passes through 5 provinces of Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Yunnn.
• It completes the journey from Shanghai to Kunming in 11 hours as compared to 34 hours.
• Maximum speed of the train is 330 km/hour.

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:

• The presentation of separate Railway budget started in the year 1924, and has continued after independence as a convention rather than under Constitutional provisions.
• The advancement of budget presentation by a month and completion of Budget related legislative business before 31st March would pave the way for early completion of Budget cycle and enable Ministries and Departments to ensure better planning and execution of schemes from the beginning of the financial year and utilization of the full working seasons including the first quarter.
• This will also preclude the need for seeking appropriation through 'Vote on Account' and enable implementation of the legislative changes in tax; laws for new taxation measures from the beginning of the financial year.

ANSWER: Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation:

• The Railways will continue to maintain its distinct entity -as a departmentally run commercial undertaking as at present; Railways will retain their functional autonomy and delegation of financial powers etc. as per the existing guidelines;
• The existing financial arrangements will continue wherein Railways will meet all their revenue expenditure, including ordinary working expenses, pay and allowances and pensions etc. from their revenue receipts;
• The Capital at charge of the Railways estimated at Rs.2.27 lakh crore on which annual dividend is paid by the Railways will be wiped off. Consequently, there will be no dividend liability for Railways from 2017-18 and Ministry of Railways will get Gross Budgetary support. This will also save Railways from the liability of payment of approximately Rs.9,700 crore annual dividend to the Government of India;
• The presentation of a unified budget will bring the affairs of the Railways to centre stage and present a holistic picture of the financial position of the Government.
• The merger is also expected to reduce the procedural requirements and instead bring into focus, the aspects of delivery and good governance.
• Consequent to the merger, the appropriations for Railways will form part of the main Appropriation Bill.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
The Union Cabinet has approved the proposals of Ministry of Finance on certain landmark budgetary reforms relating to

(i) the merger of Railway budget with the General budget,
(ii) the advancement of the date of Budget presentation from the last day of February and
(iii) the merger of the Plan and the Non-Plan classification in the Budget and Accounts.

• All these changes will be put into effect simultaneously from the Budget 2017-18.

ANSWER: Both a and b

Explanation:
The Ministry of Railways has finally yielded to industry's demand and discontinued the dual freight policy for transportation of iron ore and iron ore pellets.

• This policy came into effect from May 10th
• The decision that is likely to result in a boost in the movement of iron ore, was hailed not only by trade and industry but zonal railways as well.
• Under the dual freight policy, transportation costs for iron ore or iron ore pellets meant for export were higher than that for loads meant for domestic use.

ANSWER: AP, Kerala

Explanation:
Railways has signed an MoU with AP and Kerala for project execution. MoUs were signed with Kerala and AP governments for forming JV companies for faster implementation of rail projects in states. JV companies will have 51% stake of respective state governments and 49% stake of the railways. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu at the MoU signing ceremony indicated growing demand for numerous railway lines in many states.

ANSWER: Railway

Explanation:
The Rail Ministry has announced a new scheme, the Alternate Train Accommodation Scheme (ATAS), also called as VIKALP.
It would allow wait-listed passengers of a train to opt for confirmed accommodation in alternate trains.

ANSWER: Both b and c

Explanation:
Indian Railways has launched the facility for booking paperless unreserved tickets plus platform tickets for cutting down on queues in reservation counters. This initiate was started in suburban rail sections of Mumbai where close to 75 lakh passengers use the train services to commute between places. The IT enabled passenger services are in line with Digital India mission. Paperless ticket programme will also cover New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations. Currency coin cum card operated automatic ticket vending machine as also been launched at numerous Central and Western Railways on the occasion. Campaign will also be launched to combat ticketless travelling on Indian Railways.

ANSWER: Kolkata

Explanation:
South-Eastern Railway is the first to introduce Suvidha train to connect Kolkata and Ernakulam, a distance of 2,294 kilometer in just 37 hours. The first Suvidha train of South-Eastern Railway will start running from first of next month between Howrah and Ernakulam.