Rs 310 drop in Mumbai-Bangalore AC bus fare

MUMBAI: The fare of the Mumbai-Bangalore AC sleeper coach reduced have has dropped by Rs 310 per seat - a 14% reduction in price.

With the current season being lean, the MSRTC has lowered its fares from the existing Rs 2,180 per commuter to Rs 1,870 to beat the competition from private operators, who are also known to lower their fares at this time of year. When contacted, MSRTC managing director Deepak Kapoor said, confirmed the "sudden" reduction in fares.

"We had to do it, keeping in mind the interests of our passengers. During off-season, most private operators lower their fares. We therefore cannot keep our fares constant through the year. To make it more competitive, we have reduced the fares by more than Rs 300. The reduction in price is a is a huge saving, especially for those travelling with families or in groupsand large families and groups, for passengers, specially those who travel in a group or family." Kapoor added.

The state's first ever AC Sleeper bus has been a hit with commuters. "We have two buses commuting between Mumbai Central and Bangalore daily in both directions,'' he said. The buses are expected to fetch additional revenue to the tune of four crore rupees annually, sources said.

Tickets can be booked online for the seats/berths. The USP of the new buses were not just the sleeper berths, but the fact that the fares were kept fixed (Rs 2,180 per seat). In comparison, private bus operators keep increasing the fares for Bangalore, and it is close to Rs 4,000 per passenger during peak season and festival rush. But now, even the MSRTC buses will charge Rs 310 less.

The state bus undertaking is mainly targeting business commuters and software professionals as these buses will go via Pune and Kolhapur. There are 32 luxuriously furnished sleeper berths in the Volvos. The bus leaves Mumbai Central depot at 1 pm and reaches Bangalore next day at 7 am. The return service from Bangalore starts at 4.30 pm and reaches Mumbai the next day at 10.30 am. The total distance travelled between Mumbai and Bangalore is 1,016 kms.

The transport corporation also has plans to "We also plan are determined to introduce AC sleeper coaches on other prominent long-distance routes such as Mumbai-Ahmedabad very soon," Kapoor added.

Nano car drives into Guinness World Records

BANGALORE: Tata Motors' small car Nano entered the Guinness World Records for driving on a longest journey covering the entire country, the company said on Monday.

"The expedition was accomplished in 10 days (March 21-30) covering 10,218 km in a Tata Nano from Kanyakumari in southern Tamil Nadu to circumnavigate the country and return to Bangalore," Tata Motors president Ranjit Yadav said at an event held here.

The car entered the Guinness World Records, breaking the previous record of 8,046 km.

The car was driven by city-based motoring enthusiast Srikarunya Subrahmanyam and his team.

"Tata Nano has put India on the world motoring map by demonstrating its robustness, reliability and frugal engineering. We will encourage motor expeditions to enable customers experience the brand's value," Yadav said.

India's first Formula One motor racing driver Narain Karthikeyan felicitated Subrahmanyam and the team for the record achievement on the occasion.

Karthikeyan also released a book 'Atop the World' authored by Thomas Chacko, a 63-year-old Kochi-based motoring enthusiast who accomplished a 78-day long national expedition driving in a Nano across the country in July 2012.

"I have seen a new breed of traveller emerge, one who has a streak of adventure and passion for motoring. I have known people who have driven long distances for the fun of it despite the option of taking a flight or a train being always there. This is the spirit that encourages enthusiasts like Srikarunya and Thomas to overcome challenges of driving long distances," Karthikeyan said.

Mercedes may assemble A-Class in India

PTI

New Delhi: Mercedes-Benz India is considering local assembly of its luxury compact car A-Class, encouraged by over 400 bookings received within 10 days of the car's launch, .
   
When asked if the Mercedes plans to assemble the A-Class in India, Mercedes-Benz India managing director and chief executive officer Eberhard Kern said: "Currently, we are doubling our capacity at Chakan (Maharashtra). We will add more models to be assembled there for which we will decide early next year."

"We have received over 400 bookings in just ten days after launch. This is a historical high for us as never in the past we had any models receiving this kind of booking," Mr Kern told PTI.
   
Mercedes Benz India assembles the E, C, S and M Class models currently and will also start rolling out the GL Class from August this year at the Chakan plant. The facility has an annual capacity of 10,000 units, which will increase to 20,000 units next year.
   
The company had launched two variants of the A-Class compact car in India on May 30 at an introductory price of Rs. 21.93 lakh and Rs. 22.73 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai).
   
Globally also the A-Class has received good response and has so far clocked 90,000 bookings within months of launch in September 2012.
   
Mr Kern said the waiting period for the model in India will be around three months and the company will continue to take bookings for the A-Class.
   
"For a booking made now in June, the delivery will be in September. We are in discussion with our headquarters to somehow meet the demand here in India," he said.
   
On the response to the A-Class, he said: "It is very much beyond our expectations. Somehow, the A-Class seems to be a choice of the new generation."
   
In order to strengthen its position in the market, Mr Kern said Mercedes will launch the new E-Class in India on June 25.
   
Merecedes has been focusing on its new generation cars (NGC), which comprises the A-Class, B-Class, CLA (sedan) and the GLA (compact SUV). It had launched the B-Class in India last year. The CLA and GLA are also expected to be hitting the Indian market in the near future.

Maruti saves Rs 354 crore in 2012-13 with employee help

It pays to listen to your employees, literally. Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest car maker, could save a handsome Rs 354 crore in FY13 by paying heed to their workers' suggestions to improve productivity and cut wastage.

Ever since its inception in the 1980s, the car maker has been engaging its staff across various levels and incorporating their suggestions.

During the last financial year, it received over 396,000 suggestions from its employees, which eventually resulted in the savings. In the previous year (FY12), there were 320,000 suggestions, which led to cost savings of over Rs 294.2 crore.

Guiding principle
"The guiding principle here is every employee, irrespective of his level, has the best knowledge of his work area. He is encouraged to look around his work area and come up with improvements that will enhance productivity, bring simplicity, save cost, energy, raw material, etc. Interestingly, each year, the cost savings arising out of these suggestions have gone up," said S Y Siddiqui, chief operating officer - administration (HR, IT and finance) at Maruti Suzuki India.

The suggestion scheme, adopted from parent Suzuki Motor Corporation, has seen employees being rewarded every month in both cash and in kind. Most ideas relate to improving quality and reduce costs, ways to speed up operations, improve efficiencies and streamline supplies. Some suggestions even helped improve efficiencies of the robots used on the shop floor.

"For instance, fool-proofing at line operations is very critical for our organisation. We felt the need to introduce fool-proofing at one of the locations and thus developed a small machine in house for the same. The total cost of development is around Rs 50,000. Had we bought the machine from outside, it would have cost us Rs 850,000, resulting in savings of Rs 800,000," said Siddiqui.

This scheme is being practised at many of Maruti's vendors as well.

There is also an on-line version, Sujhav Sangrehika, which gives real-time update on suggestions.

"To strengthen idea generation across business functions we are also organising specific training on Kaizen (continuous improvement). Through these workshops, we are requesting individuals to constantly challenge the status quo in their disciplines. These training programmes are helping them develop this ability and mindset," Siddiqui added.

After the ideas are implemented at one location, they are replicated at others to reach out the benefits on a larger, company-wide scale.

For example, a body-loading system installed in the vehicle assembly section increased the capacity by 80 vehicles a day at a cost of just Rs 15 lakh. This automation was done within a period of three months. In contrast, a new capacity to make 80 vehicles would have cost several crores," said Siddiqui.

Source : BusinessStandard

Experts from Belgium to develop Nagpur station into world-class terminal

A two-member expert team from Belgium has evinced keen interest in further developing the Nagpur railway station into a world-class terminal.

After visiting Nagpur station, the team has agreed to draft a master plan to be prepared within six months.

Technical director Marc De Vreese and architect Eric Kellens of Euro Station, a Belgian government-owned company, who have extensive expertise in transforming historical railway stations into modern international terminals, said there was enough scope for developing Nagpur into a world-class stoppage.


 Belgium team was in the city as part of its commitment to explore possibilities to redevelop Nagpur, which is among 50 stations designated to be developed across the world.

Dixit said the same team had transformed historic Antwerp station in Belgium, which was facing demolition.

The team was impressed to note how 125 trains and 60,000 passengers were handled by the administration daily with limited resources.

The team visited the base kitchen, retiring rooms, lobby, etc. and were positive about the scope for development. It also looked into the possibilities of easing congestion and create better mobility. The station re-development will include technical modifications, Mr Vreese said.

The station building which has completed 83 years is a heritage structure and utmost care will be taken to develop it without damaging its original fabric, he added.

"Nagpur in Central Railway which connects north-south and east-west, is the pilot project to start with. Things will begin with master planning, followed by technical feasibility," Mr Vreese said.

"By November this year, all ground work will be done by steering and working groups of experts to determine and define scope and modalities of activities and projects. Things will be finalised during the Belgium Prince's visit to India in November," he said.

Driverless cars may hit Britain's roads in 20 years

Driverless cars may hit Britain's roads in 20 years with a UK minister pushing for a change in law to make it a reality.

David Willetts, minister for universities and science, has revealed that he has persuaded the UK Department for Transport to relax regulations to allow an Oxford University team to test its self-drive vehicle on public roads.

The move is expected to pave the way for such cars to hit the roads within 20 years.

"In California they have a regulatory regime in place that permits these cars to operate on public roads. The Department of Transport is now going to introduce a regulatory regime that makes that possible here," Willetts told the 'Sunday Times'.

The minister, who oversees technology policy, has tested Google's driverless car on the highways outside Palo Alto in California and wants British scientists to have the same freedom.

The RobotCar project based at Oxford University uses a modified electric Nissan Leaf fitted with a combination of cameras and high-tech laser sensors.

Via an onboard computer, these help to control everything from steering to direction-indicating.

"Driverless cars will happen, they are an inevitability; much of the technology is already in existing vehicles," said Malcolm McCulloch at the RobotCar base - Oxford University's department of engineering science.

"The next stage is where the car drives a route it has navigated before under various conditions, and has learnt; that could be deployed within five years.

The second stage is where the car navigates a route that has not been driven before, using shared vehicle data. This is probably 10 to 15 years away," he added.

The Department of Transport, however, said that no final decision has yet been made on allowing driverless cars on public roads.

Metro in Indore, Bhopal in five years: Gaur

INDORE: Indore and Bhopal will have metro rail within five years time, said urban administration and development minister of Madhya Pradesh Babulal Gaur here in Indore on Friday.

Gaur stressed that work on metro rail will be completed in five years from the time of beginning of works. In Indore metro rail will have around 32.16 km route and it is expected to cost Rs 7500 crores while in Bhopal metro will have 28.5 km route and it is expected to cost Rs 6000 crores.

Minister said DPR will be prepared in eight months time. In first three months company will carry out survey for three modes of public transports--metro rail, mono rail and light rail transits system. On the basis of the survey report state government will choose one particular mode of transport, in next five months company will prepared DPR for the selected mode of transport.

He said state government has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with a joint venture firm comprising German firm LRTC (GmbH) and Mumbai based Rohit Associates Architects & Engineers Pvt Ltd for preparing detail project report (DPR).

Firm has been selected through international tendering process and state government has issued work to joint venture firm, said Urban Administration and Development minister Babulal Gaur here in Indore on Friday. "This is first time when an international firm has been appointed for preparing of DPR for metro rail in the country," Guar said.

Chennai-Bangalore AC double decker express train starts operations

CHENNAI: Travellers between Chennai and Bangalore have much to cheer as Southern Railway will start running double decker trains between these stations from April 25. Reservation will begin on Tuesday and fare for AC chair car will be 470.

The all AC 11-coach train (no. 22625) will leave Chennai Central at 7.25am and reach Bangalore at 1.30pm. From Bangalore, the train is scheduled to leave at 2.40pm and reach Chennai at 8.45pm.

The train will have seven stops, including Krishnarajapuram and Bangalore Cantonment on the Chennai-Bangalore route. However, on the Bangalore-Chennai route it will not stop at any stations after Arakkonam.

Frequent travellers said the train's timing had been scheduled in such a way that it could handle spillover passengers from Brindavan Express.

The double decker train can carry 120 passengers per coach as against 73 per coach in Brindavan Express and 78 per coach in Shatabdi Express. Railways had sanctioned the train on this route because of high passenger demand.

"This will be an advantage for passengers because the train will improve supply of seats in the sector. The demand is high for a day train. The stop allowed at Krishnarajapuram will be a bonus because most passenger get down at this station on the outskirts of Bangalore," said S Sundar, a frequent traveller.

The train was introduced after a few trials. Platform canopy has been altered to suit the specifications of the train.

324 special buses for Eamcet-2013

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad zone of the APSRTC will be operating 324 special buses for the Eamcet-2013 examination in the twin cities.

The front and back destination boards of the special buses will read, “Eamcet-2013 Special.” They will run to pick up engineering aspirants from 10 am to 1 pm and medicine candidates from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm from several important places of the twin cities, touching all examination centres in both directions.

The buses will be run on routes from Secunderabad station to Afzalgunj, Dilsukhnagar, LB Nagar, NGO’s Colony, Jiyaguda, Barkas and from ECIL to Tarnaka, Vidyanagar, Koti and Afzalgunj. These special buses will be increased according to demand and necessity.

APSRTC officers and supervisors will be available at important points en route and ensure punctuality of the special operations to avoid inconvenience to the candidates.

Soon, four-seater flying car!

New York: Stuck in traffic jam? Use your car's flying button. Seriously!

US scientists have designed a gen-next flying car capable of taking off vertically and flying completely on its own - and it could be on the roads within a decade.

An ambitious US engineering company has released images of the flying car, the four-passenger TF-X, and it won't require a pilot's license to operate.

The Terrafugia TF-X flying car can take off vertically and has a flying range of 805 km. Once airborne, the two propellers fold back and propulsion is handled by an engine mounted behind the cockpit, 'New York Daily News' reported.

Everything from take-off, to flying, and eventual touch-down at the chosen destination will be handled automatically by the Terrafugia. The manufacturers claim the TF-X is a plug-in hybrid. Electric motors handle road driving, and assist during takeoff and landing.

Terrafugia claims its road-legal and highly automated flying car could be on the road (and in the air) within 8-12 years.

The TF-X's vast array of sensors and GPS monitors make flying to a destination as simple as punching in an address in current satellite-navigation devices.

The TF-X calculates the total distance, and determines whether there is suitable fuel range. Factors such as current weather conditions, to restricted airspace and a suitable first-alternate landing location are calculated into the trip, the report said.

Terrafugia estimates it takes just five hours of practise to learn to drive and fly a TF-X. The Transition flying car has already undergone a number of test flights.

Delhi auto drivers to face action for overcharging

The Delhi government today warned the auto-rickshaw drivers of punitive action if they overcharge commuters and refuse ply by fare meter.

At a meeting with various stakeholders, Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami asked enforcement wing of his department and police to come down hard on errant auto drivers.

Heeding to a long-standing demand of the auto-rickshaw and tax unions, the Delhi government last week hiked the fares by 25 per cent. The revised rates came into effect from last Saturday.

"We are determined to regulate plying of auto rickshaw. We will take action against those auto-drivers who refuse to ply by the metre," Mr Goswami said, adding that refusal to ply or misbehaving with commuters will also attract penalty as per license condition