The first-ever private train service from Kerala will start on June 4 from Thiruvananthapuram. The service will be operated by Princy World Travels with SRMPR Global Railways. The train will conduct services to Mumbai, Goa and Ayodhya. The train, which can carry up to 750 passengers at a time, includes 2 sleeper class bogies, 11 third class AC coaches and 2 second class AC coaches. About 60 staff, including medical experts, also will be on duty. Food, wi-fi facility and a GPS system will be provided. Star hotel food,  accommodation and sightseeing are part of the package.   Kochi Metro Rail (KMRL) is first to introduce Google wallet app for digital ticketingAfter two days of the launch of Google Wallet in India, Kochi Metro Rail (KMRL) introduced Google Wallet for metro commuters. Kochi Metro is the first metro train service to introduce the ticket system through the Google Wallet app. The Google Wallet is a digital wallet that allows a person to securely store his cards, tickets, passes, keys and IDs. The app can be downloaded from Android playstore. Commuters can buy the QR code ticket of Kochi Metro trains through the Google Wallet app and keep the ticket in the app to access during the travel. The commuters can also cancel the tickets through the app. The facility will simplify the ticketing process for passengers and is expected to help the Metro increase its ridership. The system will also be extended to the Kochi Water Metro (KWML) services soon.‘Make in India’ steel bridge has been launched for Bullet Train ProjectThe first steel bridge of 100 m length has been launched over the Vadodara-Ahmedabad main line of Indian Railways, near Nadiad in Gujarat for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train corridor. Along with Japanese knowhow, India is increasingly using its indigenous technical and material capabilities to build the infrastructure under ‘Make-in-India’ vision. This 1,486 MT steel bridge has been fabricated at the workshop in Bhuj district of Gujarat, which is almost 310 km away from the location of bridge launching site and was transported on trailers to the site. The painting technique adopted for the steel girders is the first-of-its-kind in India.  Indian Railways targets raking in Rs.54 billion from scrap saleThe Indian Railways is aiming to earn Rs.54 billion from scrap sale in fiscal 2024-25, which is 3.8 percent higher than the Rs.52 billion scrap sale target that had been set for fiscal 2023-24. Northern Railways, which registered a record high scrap sale of `5.14 billion in fiscal 2023-24, has been tasked to rake in `5.3 billion in the current year. Scrap consists of rails and P-way materials such as sleepers, fixtures and fastenings, fish plates, condemned coaches, locomotives and wagons among others. Besides this, bogies, cut odds and ends of metal, used batteries, electrical items like fans, unserviceable compressors, motor generators, tube light fittings and nonferrous materials also comprise railway scrap.RailTel inks pact to implement train collision avoidance system projectsThe railways inked a pact with a tech firm to explore and deliver train collision avoidance system KAVACH implementation projects in India as well as other countries. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between RailTel Corporation of India and Quadrant Future Tek. RailTel said the agreement is to explore and deliver KAVACH (train collision avoidance system) implementation projects in India and other countries. According to RailTel, implementation of KAVACH on the Indian Railways network is one of the priority areas of the national transporter.Contact: RailTelTel: 11 22900600Website: www.railtel.in