IRCTC chief talks about bandwidth clogging and steps to improve services

Sunday, February 26, 2012

1.Why is the bandwidth congestion acute during the morning window? 

The problem is that as the counters open at 8am sharp, the number of concurrent connections peaks. We have seen a maximum peak of up to 8 lakh concurrent connections -- it means there are 8 lakh people knocking on our firewalls during the first 10-15 minutes from 8 o’clock. This number goes up ahead of festivals and summer vacations. We have a capacity for 1,500-2000 successful transactions a minute. So, naturally there’s congestion. 

2.What steps are you taking to ease this congestion? 

Demand will always be there, in fact it will grow. We have added 52 servers which cater to peak traffic today and have plans to add 18 more servers. Scaling up is not the only solution. We have to add more trains and routes. If we were to increase our bandwidth to unlimited capacity, people in rural areas, who don’t have net access will always be deprived of Tatkal (reservations made a day ahead) tickets since all will be booked within the first 15 minutes of counters opening at 8am. 

3.So, is it a deliberate strategy by IRCTC to not increase website capacity to allow more transactions per minute? 

No. We have increased our bandwidth 10 times, to allow more people to come and log in. But traffic keeps on peaking, especially during a particular time in the morning. Suppose, we were to increase capacity to unlimited ticket bookings a minute, then most tickets will be booked in the first hour. Of the 8 lakh people who log on simultaneously between 8 am 8.10am, only 50,000 manage to get tickets. There are about 7.5 lakh people who go dissatisfied each day. If we increase our capacity to handle 15 lakh concurrent connections, then about 14.5 lakh customers will go dissatisfied. The solution is to increase the capacity and number of trains. My aim is to double the 50,000 bookings to over-a-lakh successful bookings in the first hour, which will reduce the number of dissatisfied customers. 

3.What is the reason that almost one-in-four is a failed transaction on IRCTC website? 

Failure of transactions may be for several reasons. Slow speed of online services of various banks – we have tie-ups with 18 of them -- is a major cause. The payment gateway transaction takes about 1.5-2 minutes. But for some banks, take longer, resulting often in failure. There can be customer-centric reasons like no money in account. Sometimes, customer gives a berth preference and it takes time for the system to find a particular berth. By that time a ticket may already be booked. We have already identified 7 to 8 issues. The aim is to reduce the time taken for each transaction. 

4.What are the steps IRCTC is taking to reduce this transaction time? 

We are looking at a rolling deposit system in which customers can deposit advance money into an account. They won’t have to go to a payment gateway then. They would not have to wait for two minutes for using the netbanking operations. I have put forward this challenge to our technologists and the systems architecture for it is being worked out. Also, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation works with the Ministry of Railways on a system of advance money. Every day I deposit about Rs 50 lakh in the bank account of Indian Railways -- advance money for the tickets I will buy from them that day. We are extending the same system for other websites such as MakeMytrip.com and Yatra.com to book rail tickets, which will ease the load on our site. 

5.Why customer’s money is not instantly credited back after a failed transaction?

After a failed transaction, a report goes back to the bank that a transaction has failed but money has been deducted. The banks make a report and send it to us. It takes 2 to 3 days. We release the money as we get the report. 

6.How do you look at your tenure with IRCTC? 

When I took charge of IRCTC in 2009, we used to book about 40,000 e-tickets every day. Now it has shot up to 4-4.5 lakh bookings a day. It is a quantum leap. Of course, we have become India’s largest e-commerce website -- IRCTC booked about 10 crore tickets worth Rs 8,000 crore in 2010-11. Today, we are able to manage 8 lakh concurrent transactions. In 2009, we used to do about 10,000 successful transactions in the first hour. Now it has gone up to 50,000 bookings per hour. My goal is to increase it to 1 lakh bookings. 

7.Is IRCTC targeting the hospitality and tourism on a big scale? 

We have a tie-up with about 8,000 hotels across India. These are 3 star hotels. We have not gone for 4-star and above because majority of the railway customers are not the airline customers. Over the last 3 years, our revenue through tourism has grown from Rs 10 crore to Rs 70 crore. By the end of this fiscal, we hope to touch Rs 100 crore. Our corporate booking segment is also growing. We are looking to tie-up with PSUs for their total travel arrangements. The company also has ambitious plans for air ticketing.

8.Has the new Tatkal scheme benefited users? 

It has benefitted the consumers who are net savvy. However, the rural Indian is still going to the reservation counters. With this scheme agents are also blocked from transacting on the net or counters in the morning.

Thus, demand will always be there, in fact it will grow. We have added 52 servers which cater to peak traffic today and have plans to add 18 more servers. Scaling up is not the only solution. We have to add more trains and routes.
 
RAKESH TANDON 
CMD, IRCTC

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Kingfisher submit fresh flight schedule before DGCA

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ailing Kingfisher Airlines, whose services remained affected for the sixth day, on Wednesday  submitted a fresh flight schedule with DGCA, scaling down its operations to about 170 daily flights with 28 functional aircraft. Faced with the regulators deadline, the airline submitted a revised winter schedule of flights it would operate till March. This schedule is being examined, DGCA sources said.

On a day when over 30 flights were cancelled by Kingfisher, DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan briefed Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on the tough financial situation faced by the carrier.

With reports that banks were offering to help out the airline, the Minister again made it clear that government would not give any dole to a private carrier.

“We have made it clear and I am sure Mr (Vijay) Mallya knows that Air India is a government concern. Whatever help we give them (Air India), we cannot do it to any private industry.

“We have said it before that banks will decide that (pumping in money). Government is not going to interfere in it. Banks have to follow RBI guidelines. They have to worry about their NPAs (non—performing assets). They have to decide on the basis of the business plan of the company. If they are satisfied with the business plan, they can lend money,” he said.

Sources said that as per the revised schedule, the airline would operate about 170 flights daily, instead of over 400 it had sought permission for last October when the winter schedule for the airlines came into operation.

At that time, Kingfisher had informed the regulator that it would fly 64 aircraft, a number which has now come down to 28 as many of its planes have either been taken away by the lessors or were awaiting repairs and spare parts or been cannibalised.

The DGCA, which summoned the Kingfisher’s CEO Sanjay Agarwal yesterday, had asked the airline to come up with a “realistic” schedule which can be operated by 28 planes.

Bhushan is understood to have apprised the Civil Aviation Minister on the discussions he had with the Kingfisher top brass and the airline’s plan to restore its flight schedule over the next few days.

Issues relating to whether any action could be taken against the struggling carrier for flouting the provisions of Aircraft Rules of 1937 are also understood to have come up for discussion, though the Minister has made it clear that closure of any airline would not be good for the health of the Indian aviation industry.

Kingfisher also partially resumed flights from Kolkata, operating four to the Northeast, though it cancelled 14 from Mumbai, eight from Bangalore and two from Delhi. The entire Kolkata operations were shut down from Friday night.

The cash—strapped carrier had faced the wrath of the Income Tax authorities which froze its bank accounts, which, the airline said had been primarily responsible for large— scale disruption of its flights.

Kingfisher, which suffered a loss of Rs 1,027 crore in 2010—11 and has a debt of Rs 7,057.08 crore, posted a Rs 444 crore loss in third quarter this fiscal.

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Kerala fishermen killing: Antony says, Guilty will be punished

Friday, February 17, 2012

India on Friday said the firing by armed guards on-board an Italian merchant ship killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala, was “against the laws and norms” and the guilty will be punished.

“We are taking this issue very seriously. What happened was against the laws and the norms. The guilty will have to be punished,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters here.

Underlining that India wanted to send “strong signals” on the issue, the minister said, “This is not only for India but for all others. Everybody should follow the norms and the laws.”

He was asked about the steps being taken by the government to book the guilty in the incident.

Mr. Antony said the Kerala police and the Indian Coast Guard were questioning all the people involved in the case and it would be “inappropriate” for him to comment further on the incident.

The two fishermen, native of Alappuzha, were killed on Wednesday night when armed guards on-board the Italian merchant vessel Enrica Lexie opened fire on their fishing boat.

The vessel was brought to Kochi on Friday and police and Coast Guard personnel were questioning the crew. The ship has been berthed at Kochi oil terminal, where security has been tightened.

The preliminary assessment of the marine authorities is that the armed guards aboard the ship might have fired at the fishing boat mistaking it for a vessel belonging to pirates.

Italian Consul General in India, GiamPaolo Cutillo, was in Kochi on Thursday in connection with the incident and had met the city Police Commissioner there.

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New initiative to tackle cyber threats

Sunday, January 29, 2012

A new initiative has been launched at the World Economic Forum to strengthen cyber security & efforts to contend rising cyber risks. The initiative 'Partnering for Cyber Resilience' is a set of shared principles, promoted by chief executives of firms that recognise interdependence of organisations in tackling cyber risks.

Citing the importance of the initiative, India's largest software exporter TCS CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran underlined the need for consistent processes and uniform policy framework (in the digital world) that can be implemented internationally.

The new programme would engage the corporate firms into working towards a safer digital environment.

"We need to recognize that making the world more resilient to cyber-risks is a challenge that can only be addressed collectively by policy-makers, business and civil society," Alan Marcus, senior director and head of Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries at WEF USA, said.

"Everything attached to a network can be hacked and everything is being attached to a network," Rod A Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer of the Internet Corp of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said.

US consultancy major Deloitte LLP was project advisor to the programme, developed through multi-stakeholder dialogue across the globe.

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Voting Day in Manipur

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Voters lined up before 2,357 polling stations across nine districts of Manipur as elections began in 60 Assembly constituencies in between tight security. An electorate of 17,40,576, including 8,82,236 woman voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise to choose their representatives from among 279 candidates in the 10th Assembly polls.

A total of 12,967 polling personnel have been deployed to conduct the elections which began at 7 am and would continue till 4 pm. Chief Minister Ibobi Singh cast his vote at a polling station in Khangabok of Thoubal district, officials said.

Around 350 companies of security personnel including 270 central paramilitary forces were deployed besides the State armed police.

Prominent candidates in the fray include the Chief Minister, who is contesting from Thoubal constituency, former vice-chancellor of Manipur University Ng Bijoy (Khurai) and Forest Minister Th Debendra (Jiribam).

Manipur has nine districts — Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnnupur and Thoubal (all in valley) and Churachandpur, Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel in the hills.

Security forces are keeping a tab on the situation in the State, where blasts have taken place in the past few days, amid reports that insurgent groups might target some candidates.

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Twitter's censorship plan rouses global furor‎

Friday, January 27, 2012

Twitter has refined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis.The additional flexibility announced on Thursday is likely to raise fears that Twitter’s commitment to free speech may be weakening as the short-messaging company expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and make more money.

But Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or “tweets,” remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world.

Before, when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweet containing content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.

Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed. That’s similar to what Google has been doing for years when a law in a country where its service operates requires a search result to be removed.

Like Google, Twitter also plans to the share the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the chillingeffects.org website.

The similarity to Google’s policy isn’t coincidental. Twitter’s general counsel is Alexander Macgillivray, who helped Google draw up its censorship policies while he was working at that company.

“One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice,” Twitter wrote in a blog post. “We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The tweets must continue to flow.”

Among other things, Twitter wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active uses now, to more than 1 billion. Reaching that goal will require expanding into more countries, which will mean Twitter will be more likely to have to submit to laws that run counter to the free expression protections guaranteed under the First Amendment in the U.S.

If Twitter defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested. Twitter said it hadn’t yet used its ability to wipe out tweets in an individual country. All the tweets it has previously censored were wiped out throughout the world. Most of those included links to child pornography.

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Delhi on high Security on Republic Day

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Delhi was under a very high and tight security on Republic Day as thousands of armed personnel kept a tight surveillance to prevent any terror strike or any untoward incident during the celebrations.Snipers with sophisticated arms and binoculars were on rooftops while hundreds of police personnel kept the eight km parade route from Rajpath to Red Fort under their watch to ensure that nothing untoward happened.

Around 25,000 police personnel, including those from paramilitary forces and sharpshooters from the elite National Security Guards (NSG) were deployed across the city in the run-up to the national celebrations.

Policemen kept a tab on the visuals from over 160 CCTVs between Rajpath and Red Fort, the route of the parade.

Mobile hit teams, anti-aircraft guns and sharpshooters of the NSG were also on the job at various places while paramilitary and Delhi Police commandos kept a close watch along the route.

“There was special emphasis on anti-sabotage checks, access control measures and intelligence coordination. The entire route of the parade was covered by special security and anti-terror arrangements.

“Elaborate air defence measures, including deployment of anti-aircraft guns, were also taken to check intrusion of air space,” a senior police official said. Besides the air defence measures, helicopters of the Indian Air Force hovered around Rajpath and all along the route of the parade.

Vehicles entering the city were randomly checked.

As the city witnessed a terror strike only four months ago, the security establishment left no stones unturned to ensure an incident-free celebration.

No vehicles were allowed to ply on the Rajpath from 6 p.m. on Wednesday while vehicular movement was restricted on Tilak Marg, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, Netaji Subhash Marg upto Red Fort from 4 a.m.

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Salman Rushdie:Rajasthan Police invented plot to keep me away

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Controversial author Salman Rushdie said that the Rajasthan Police “invented” a plot to keep him away from the Jaipur Literature Festival by claiming that they received a call from Mumbai underworld about him being killed if he visits the event.

“Rajasthan police invented plot to keep away Rushdie’ I’ve investigated, & believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry,” the writer of the banned ” The Satanic Verses” posted on Twitter.

The Rajasthan Police refused to comment on Rushdie’s charge that it had concocted the story about assassins from the Mumbai underworld hired to kill him in Jaipur.

Sources in the police said they had intelligence about threat to the author.

Rushdie Friday announced that he had called off his visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival after intelligence sources told him that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld were out to kill him.

“For the last several days I have made no public comment about my proposed trip to Jaipur at the request of the authorities in Rajasthan, hoping that they would put in place such precautions as might be necessary to allow me to come and address the Festival audience in circumstances that were comfortable and safe for all,” Rushdie then said in a statement read out by the organisers of the festival.

“I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to ‘eliminate’ me,” he had said.

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MMRDA Ground - Venue for Anna's fast

Friday, December 23, 2011

Anna Hazare Friday threatened to oppose in jail if he was not bestowed a locale for his hastening from Dec 27 for a muscular Lokpal pecker.There are more problems for Team Anna over its dissent venue in Metropolis after the suggest sports division denied permit for a section of Azad Maidan which it controls.

Mumbai Personnel, which expects a rattling great displace, had asked Team Anna to get primary authorisation for this portion of Azad Maidan as healed to fit so umpteen fill.

The force had said that only then would it supply the clearances needed for the three-day dissent inhabit which begins on December 27.

Early, after Maharashtra honcho diplomat Prithviraj Chavan failed to respond to Unit Anna's appeal to abandon or concentrate the fees for using the MMRDA make at the Bandra-Kurla Compound (BKC), India Against Immorality members on Thursday moved retinue as its ending help to get a large space for its unrest. The Bombay Great Romance also denied to intervene in the matter.

At the duplicate clip , they inalized on Azad Maidan as the centrestage for the anti-corruption advertise.  The religionist is that people of Metropolis are existence denied of the citizens tract to traveling a objection at a locale , which is unimprisoned of outgo and has adequate store. The appeal will be heard at 11am in the HC by Doj Majmudar and Administration Bhatkar , said Praful Vora , co-ordinator , IAC Bombay.

Address to reporters in his human village, Hazare blamed the polity for creating obstacles in his allegro.

"I was to sit in Delhi from Aug 16, they did the synoptic, they were not giving a situation to sit. At finish, we said we give go to clink and after that they gave expanse to sit on meteoric. The assonant testament chance here if they don't employ judge, we faculty sit in jailhouse," he said.

Hazare was to fleet in Metropolis, but the locus was shifted to City in the backwash of the scary winter in the person city. The venue in City has not yet been finalised.

Time permit was denied for Azad Maidan, a tear of Rs.3.5 lakh per day has been quoted for the MMRDA scene, added proposed venue.

Offensive the government's writing of Lokpal programme which was introduced in the Lok Sabha Weekday, Hazare said the invoice was "wrong". "The Lokpal program, the government deglutition is dishonorable. Why should the regime solo accomplish the enter?"

"…they (people) are the masters…they (politicians) should consult people before making any law."

Flatbottom as the activist attacked the Congress, he was all commendation for quondam paint rector Rajiv Statesman.

"Rajiv Statesman wrote a laurels to 5.5 lakh community sarpanchs for 73rd and 74th amendment," he said.

The 73rd and 74th Amendments of the Soldier Commencement, passed in 1993, devolved monumental turn of country to localized governments or panchayats.

Hazare also attacked Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) important Lalu Prasad Yadav and said he should think the fodder rig. "Fill will request him who has sown which seeds. Has he forgotten the 'grass' outrage."

Meantime Metropolis Law has also supposition authorisation to Bharat Against Degradation to drink protest in Ramlila Maidan from Dec 27th to Jan 1.

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Raja accuses CBI of creating ‘false witness’

Former Telecom Diplomat and the key accused in the 2G scam A. Raja on Fri accused the Central Bureau of Investigation in a City retinue of making his ex-aide Aseervatham Achary a "specious witness" to declare against him.

"He is a created incorrect attestor and this is my supreme showcase," senior advocate Sushil Kumar, who is defending Mr. Aristocrat, contended before Primary CBI Judge O.P. Saini.

Mr. Achary, Mr. Raja's quondam additional clubby helper and a key CBI undergo in the cover, in his buildup gave details of how Mr. Patrician was in regularised deed with additional accused corporate honchos and their companies which were acknowledged spectrum in infringement of law.

Mr. Kumar, breed examining the signer, further contended that Mr. Achary's evidence on Weekday of state threatened by a individual movement in the grounds gathering was a "drama" which was motivated to impact the pending bond orison of Mr. Raja's late backstage desk and co-accused R.K. Chandolia which would be heard by the Dominant Deference on Jan 2.

"This complete episode was meant for Jan 2 when Chandolia's recognizance is coming in the Dominant Solicit as he (Mr. Achary) told the authorities that the organism threatening him was motion with Chandolia," Mr. Kumar far said.

At this present, the adjudicate desired to bang whether Mr. Achary had earlier complained near any threat to his story.

"He (Mr. Achary) did not say anything originally and had he said it then it would love been on list and some of them (accused) would not get got bail," the jurist said.

Mr. Patrician, who had refused for over a period to cover investigate witnesses expression he would not do so deedbox the CBI files its bag train paper and completes its penetrate in the containerful, started his vindication on Weekday by skeptical Mr. Achary.

The CBI had filed the base criminate wrapper on Dec 12 after which Mr. Raja had said that he module span investigate witnesses only when unexclusive servants oust on the emerge of governing insurance.

Mr. Aristocrat had posed several questions to Mr. Achary ranging from his conversation with past corporate lobbyist Niira Radia to oftentimes dynamical his abode and transferable numbers.

Mr. Achary had on Thursday complained to the justice that he was receiving threats from a individual nowadays in the courtroom who was motility with Mr. Chandolia in the greeting.

The man, who had proven to run off, was caught but was free in the evening after the Delhi personnel saved no prospect to capture him after interrogating him.

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New Lokpal Bill introduced in Lok-Shabha

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The government on Thursday tabled the anti-graft Lokpal bill in the Lok Sabha. The long discussed bill images on the setting up of an ombudsman to check corruption in the country and bringing the prime minister under its sphere.

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Kalam frisked in US

Sunday, November 13, 2011

In a shocking incident, former President A P J Abdul Kalam was twice subjected to frisking at New York’s JFK Airport with US security officials even taking his jacket and shoes to check for explosives.

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Not possible to cut petro-products price: Pranab

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said the two most vexed issues facing the nation are price rise in essential commodities and petro-products.It is not possible for the Centre to decrease the price of petro-products because huge subsidies are already being given to the oil companies for sale of fuel at controlled rates, Mr. Mukherjee told a Congress seminar here.

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Delhi Metro Gets UN Certificate for Reducing Pollution

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Delhi Metro has been certified by the UN as the first Metro rail in the world that has helped in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, an official statement said Sunday.According to the UN, Delhi Metro has helped in reducing pollution levels in the city by 6.3 lakh tonnes every year, thus helping in mitigating impacts of global warming.

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Plane Crashed In Nepal - 10 Indian Tourists Died

Today's morning was not good for everyone, as one one aircraft of "Budh Airlines" was suddenly crashed early morning around 7:00 am due to bad whether conditions near Katmandu. A report from local media says that more than 22 peoples were died during this incident and out of these 10 are Indian tourists who are from Kerela.

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27 Rs.lead to murder In Gurgaon's Toll Plaza

Saturday, September 24, 2011

An attendant named Umesh Kumar Pandey in toll plaza near Kheri Daula, Gurgaon was shot dead Today at 00:30 am. As usual Umesh was performing his duty at booth number 11 when a car reaches his booth, Umesh and the car driver had some issue regarding the tax which is Rs.27 (standard amount for the cars for entering or leaving Gurgaon) says source. The area where the incident happen is just a kilometer away from the Haldiram's outlet in Manesar border.

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NASA's Dead Satellite Hits on Earth

NASA says that their one of the satellite which was not functioning from last some days named UARS  has crashed through atmosphere on Saturday morning around 8:18 am. NASA predicted that their spacecraft has been crashed in between the ocean near North America.

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"Sachin scared of my Bowling" - says Akhtar

Friday, September 23, 2011

Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar claimed that Indain cricketer Sachin Tendulkar scared from his bowling attack in is just published biography "Controvertially Yours". He also claimed that Sachin and Dravid are not match winners and even they don't know the art of finishing the game.

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PM consoles Mansur Pataudi's death

Prime Minister 'Manmohan Singh' consoled the death of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi on Friday. He says that Pataudi was an iconic figure with full confidence that takes indian cricket to  different level.

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Strong Earthqauke causes deaths, destruction in India & Nepal

Sunday, September 18, 2011

At least 9 people were killed and about 200 injured on sunday as a 6.8 intensity earthquake 


ravaged Sikkim-Nepal border region, shaking large parts of India, Bangladesh and Nepal 


and causing widespread panic.

Tens of thousands people are out of their homes just after 6 p.m. in numerous cities including New Delhi following the powerful tremor that was quickly followed by two major aftershocks.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the epicentre of the quake was on the Sikkim-Nepal border.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately convened a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority. The Indian army was put on alert for deployment in Sikkim.

In no time, the Indian Air Force flew five cargo planes with relief material and rescue personnel for deployment in West Bengal and Sikkim, which accounted for four deaths.

One of the dead was a child, officials in Gangtok said. Another was Sandipan Banerjee, an official with a pharmaceutical company who died when a house collapsed in Rangpo, 40 km from Gangtok.

Another man died when his vehicle was trapped in a massive mudslide on the outskirts of Gangtok.

The worst, officials said, was feared in the Sikkim-Nepal border region, where mudslides had blockaded roads.

Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth told reporters: “As time passes, we will get more information… Everyone is helping out.”

At least five people were killed in Nepal, three of them in Kathmandu alone, triggering panic and chaos all across the Himalayan kingdom, news reports said.

The British embassy in Kathmandu, located in the Lainchaur area close to the Indian embassy, collapsed after the quake, smashing a car and killing three people inside.

Dozens were injured as houses crashed across the mountainous country, snapping communication lines.

Across India, buildings shook triggering panic almost all over northern and eastern India, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Mizoram.

In Assam’s major city Guwahati, people ran out of their homes.

Power supply was disrupted in parts of northern West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata.

“In no time all the people in my neighbourhood were out of their apartments,” said Anjani Kumari, who lives on Boring Road in Patna, Bihar.

The experience was particularly frightening for those in high rises.

“I was watching TV and for a few seconds thought my head was spinning. When I realised it was an earthquake, I ran out,” said Meenakshi Sinha, who lives on the seventh floor of an apartment complex in Noida.

She said the tremors lasted 30 to 40 seconds.

Lucknow resident Vijay Dutt told reporters, “There were strong tremors. In our building, everybody rushed out fearing the worst. The furniture shook and windows rattled. It was scary,” he added.

In Tripura, officials said the quake was also felt in neighbouring Bangladesh.

This is the fourth earthquake to hit India this month.

An earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter Scale had shaken north India Sep 7 at around with its epicentre near Sonepat in Haryana, 65 km from New Delhi.

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