NAGPUR: Here is how top officials of railways are themselves compromising the system's safety. Central Railway's Nagpur division's over 100 field employees, who have a major role to play in protection and safety of trains, are being misutilised including being deployed in bungalows of top officials for doing personal and family chores.

It could be an eye-opener for the Division officers specially against the backdrop of major derailment on Wednesday.

NAGPUR: The low cost air travel bubble seems to have burst. Given the steady rise in air fares, frequent air travellers are beginning to feel the pinch!

Dinkar Pande, a city entrepreneur was a frequent flyer of low cost air carrier until May this year. Pande shuttled between Nagpur and Mumbai on Mondays for business meetings and given the popularity of low cost airlines then, he ensured that he had booked the ticket much in advance.

"Kingfisher Airlines will re-start its winter schedule from this year and operate two regular flights to Hyderabad and Nagpur from this winter," announced Bhanu Mohan Kalia, head sales west Kingfisher Airlines India Limited during the opening of the company's integrated ticketing office on Saturday.

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NAGPUR: Rising airfares due to high jet fuel costs have begun to bite on India's civil aviation sector that was flying high just months ago. Nagpur-Mumbai sector, the busiest one from city, has also taken a hit. According to Airport Authority of India's (AAI) latest figures, traffic on the sector has dropped nearly 35% since June 2008.

The number of people travelling daily between the two cities has declined from about 1000 in June to just 650 this month.

NAGPUR: At a time when air turbine fuel (ATF) costs are rising, leading to higher fares and poorer load factor on most sectors, JetLite has brought some cheer to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport. The private air carrier has plans to start operations on the Dubai route from Nagpur from October.

Jet Airways, which operates JetLite, and offers domestic flights on Mumbai and Delhi route is planning to launch the daily operations to Dubai from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport during winter schedule this year.

Direct flights from Pune to Hyderabad, Nagpur and Ahmedabad have been launched by Jet Airways, to commence next week from July 15.

The direct flights between Pune and Hyderabad and Ahmedabad will operate daily, whereas the services between Pune and Nagpur are scheduled to operate every day except Saturday.

The routes will be operated by turbo-prop ATR 72-500 aircraft, which are French-made, modern and provide an impressive degree of cabin comfort.

Amravati (PTI): Central Railway on Saturday assured that three new trains will begin from Amravati railway station after it receives clearance by the railway board, a senior railway authority said.

"Railway Board will take a final decision about periodicity and timings of Amravati-Mumbai Express, Amravati-Surat passenger and Amravati-Nagpur Inter-city Express trains," Soumya Raghavan, General Manager (GM) of Central Railway said in a meeting here after inspecting Amravati, Badnera and New Amravati railway stations.

NAGPUR: Air India's ambitious freighter (cargo) service project with Nagpur's Dr Ambedkar International Airport as its hub has been postponed for an indefinite period again. This project, it has been claimed, has the potential to place Nagpur on the global aviation map even before the Multimodal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (Mihan) starts operations.

Air India (AI) was supposed to launch its much-awaited cargo services within the country from July 1. It was planning to connect six major destinations initially with Nagpur.

NAGPUR: Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation's (MSRTC) already bleeding city bus services has received a jolt with its load factor going down following recent increase in fares.

Nagpur, June 21 (PTI) The Central Railway has announced new two trains - Mumbai-Amravati superfast bi-weekly express and Pune-Nagpur tri-weekly Garib Rath from July 1.
The Mumbai-Amravati Express will depart on every Friday and Tuesday at 2220 pm, reach Bhusaval at 5.55 am. Next day and arrive at Amravati at 10-30 am. Similarly 2112 Express will leave Amravati 1715 pm and reach Mumbai next day at 5.15 am.