Kapurthala, April 24
If you want to see how the rail coaches in which you travel across the country are made, you may do so by visiting Rail Coach Factory (RCF) here.

The RCF authorities are in favour of opening the factory for tourists daily by connecting it with tourist circuit.

RCF general manager S.K. Suri suggested to Punjab minister Bibi Upinderjeet Kaur a few days ago to take up the matter with the state government for giving practical shape to the idea of connecting the RCF with tourist circuit of the state.

The Bibi’s response to the idea was positive, said Suri while talking to The Tribune on the telephone on Tuesday.

Earlier Suri had also discussed the idea of opening the RCF daily to tourists with Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner J.M. Balamurugan.

A large number of tourists from different parts of the country already come to the erstwhile princely state of Kapurthala to see the 11th century old historical buildings located in the town and to pay obeisance at the 15th century historical gurdwaras in the holy town of Sultanpur Lodhi where Guru Guru Nanak Dev had spent over 14 years and got enlightenment.

If the RCF located between Kapurthala and Sultanpur Lodhi is brought on the tourist circuit, the tourists would also be able to watch the 21st century technology used in the RCF to manufacture state-of-the-art coaches, Suri added.

Actually the RCF authorities already allow some tourists, especially students of different educational institutions to visit its workshops, but they are allowed to do so only for a few hours in the afternoon and that too on Saturday only. If it was connected with the tourist circuit, tourists might be allowed to visit the RCF daily and the timings for that would be fixed after a final nod by the state government, the general manager said.

The biggest rail coach manufacturing unit in Asia, the RCF has already manufactured approximately 18,000 coaches till March 2007.

Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had laid the foundation stone for the RCF at Hussainpur village on the Kapurthala-Sultanpur Lodhi road on August 17, 1985.

Following which manufacturing of coaches began two years later on September 19, 1987, and the first coach was rolled out on March 31, 1988. Presently, the RCF has one of the largest single location info-tech installations in the Indian Railways.

The ministry of railways chose the RCF for manufacturing modern high-speed state-of-the art stainless steel coaches with transfer of technology (TOT) from ALSTOM-LHB.

Following which, three Shatabdi rakes of LHB-Alstom design were produced recently. A person travelling in this train is likely to get a feeling as if he was travelling in an European train.

According to the information provided by its senior PRO Gurjeet Singh, the RCF has also inducted state-of-the-art machines and process for manufacturing high-precision components. It has also a well-equipped testing laboratory for chemical and metallurgical testing of materials.

Radiographic testing and spectrograph facility are also available. It has a well-equipped training institute for training of personnel. The computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) centre, equipped with a number of designs and drafting work stations, is the nerve centre of the RCF’s design and engineering activities. Further, many major developments on coaching stock such as manufacture of AC 3-Tier coaches, roof-mounted AC package unit, IRY/IR-20 coaches, self-propelled accident relief train, high capacity parcel vans, coaching container flat, refrigerated vans and MG-DMUs have taken place in the RCF.

During 2006-07, the RCF not only achieved the production targets but surpassed them. It produced 53 coaches more than its target of 1266 coaches. It has fixed target of manufacturing as many as 1435 coaches during the current financial year of 2007-08.

For achieving the target, the RCF is planning to expand it further by setting up a wheel shop within a year at a cost of Rs 68 crore.

Ten workshops, including cutting, designing, painting and assembling workshops had already been set up in the RCF, Suri told The Tribune, adding that in the absence of any wheel shop, wheels were being brought from different places, including Amritsar.

Kapurthala, April 24
The chairman of Ek Onkar Charitable Trust, Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal- doing the herculean task of cleansing Kali Bein- is not satisfied with the state government’s efforts in making steps of stopping flow of sewage water into the holy river.

Talking to The Tribune after a meeting regarding cleansing of Bein held under the chairmanship of its project coordinator P.Ram- principal secretary technical education, Baba Seechewal said that no concrete discussion was held in the meeting regarding the stoppage of sewage water flow into Bein.

Baba Seechewal said that sewage water of four major cities Dasuya, Tanda of Hoshiarpur district, Bholath and Begowal of Kapurthala district and several villages was flowing uninterruptedly into the Bein.

The chairman of Ek Onkar Charitable Trust said that what to talk of installing sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the four major cities, no effort was made to identify the land for acquiring the same to set up STPs.

“After the installation of STPs, efforts should be made to throw treated water in the fields for doing organic farming,” he added.

Advising the state government and concerned Municipal Council and committees to speed up their efforts of identifying the land for setting up STPs, Baba Seechewal said that there were still 21 villages along the 160 kilometre long Bein where no sewage had been installed so far.

Apart from Baba Seechewal and P. Ram, Kapurthala DC JM Balamurugan, SSP Rakesh Agarwal and several other officers of different departments attended the meeting. It is pertinent to mention here that President APJ Abdul Kalam had praised Baba for his efforts.

Jalandhar April 24
Manoranjan Kalia, the Punjab minister for Local government, Industries and Commerce, disbursed capital subsidy of Rs. 8.25 crore among representatives of as many as 130 industrial units in a function organised at Red Cross Bhawan here on Tuesday.

Kalia, according to a press note issued here today, said that development of the industry was the top priority of the state government and the state government has taken steps to disburse an amount of Rs, 100 crore for clearance of backlog of sanctioned cases of subsidy. This exercise has resulted in clearance of sanctioned cases of subsidy till November 3, 1998, in case of general category and upto May 7, 2000 in respect of export oriented units.

Kalia further said that the state government would adopt consultative approach to frame and implement policies for promotion of trade and industry in the state and three development boards-one each for large, medium and small scale industry- would be set up in Punjab. These boards would have members from these three fields and they would be responsible for making policies for trade and industry.

He said that the long pending issue of transfer of the local focal point to the department of local bodies would be solved shortly and the Punjab state industry and export council has already deposited an amount of Rs. 21 lakhs with the Local government authorities for this purpose. Steps would be taken to provide better civic amenities in the area.

Jalandhar April 24
Young and not-so-young women danced to peppy bollywood tunes during a ‘Shakira’s Theme Dance Party’ organised by city based Sparkling Pearls Institute to mark the recent performance of renowned singer and belle dancer Shakira at Mumbai.

The title of ‘Shakira of the Evening’ was lapped up by Dr. Daizy Maan while Geet Kochar was adjudged to be the ‘Best dancer of the evening’. Speaking on the occasion, Gaggun Bedi, managing director of the institute, said that belle dancing which was available in Mumbai till recently, can now be learnt in the city now.

“The arrival of belle dance in Jalandhar can be noticed with this ‘Shakira’s Dance Party,” said Gaggun Bedi.

Jalandhar, April 24
Guru Amar Dass Public School organised an investiture ceremony in which 136 school office-bearers were administered the oath of office and presented badges.

The school was decorated with flags of different house colours and flags of different houses carried by the house captains along with their house masters and the school band gave a festive look.

Jalandhar, April 24
Dubbing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a party of business community, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has accused SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal of destroying the future of Punjab by having an alliance with such a party.

SAD (A) general secretaries Anup Singh Minhas and Bhai Ram Singh, and political affairs committee member Jagir Singh Wadala said that though the Chief Minister was responsible for welfare of Punjabis, the arrest of BJP MP Babubhai Katara while making an effort to smuggle a Punjabi woman to Canada had put a question mark on the sincerity of the SAD-BJP combine towards Punjab.

The woman, Paramjit Kaur, not only gave Rs 30 lakh to Katara but she also faced humiliation and had landed in jail for no fault on her part. Nearly 50 per cent of the MPs embroiled in various scams belonged to the BJP.

“Katara’s incident had exposed the loot of Punjabis by the BJP. If the BJP was sincere it should recommend the disqualification of Katara and not suspension. The members of the BJP should come out against such frauds,” the SAD (A) leaders demanded.

Jalandhar, April 24
‘Khulla Dil’, an audio album of Dalwinder Dyalpuri’s album, was released by famed Punjabi folk singer Malkit Singh (UK) here today.

Malkit Singh said Dyalpuri was firmly attached to his roots and churns out numbers which capture the true Punjabi flavour.

He said time has come when real singers are getting due recognition as people are getting fed up with the synthetic stuff.

Dyalpuri said music for his album is composed by Gurmit Singh, while Pooja was the co-singer.

The lyrics have been penned down by Jassa Fatehpur Wala, Meet Gurnam, Jogi Jandu Singhe Wala, Ball Butale Wala, and Fatehjit Kangniwal.

Jalandhar, April 24
Special police officers (SPOs) demand that their services should be regularised as they are still daily wagers despite performing their duties in the police department for the past 15 years.

There are reportedly 1,400 SPOs across the state but each of them is paid only Rs 90 per day.

Some SPOs, on the condition of anonymity, alleged that they were being discriminated against as compared to their counterparts in the home guards department.

They said that the emoluments of home guard jawans had been increased twice but those of SPOs were not even hiked for a single time.