Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Windows on 1 AC on Rajdhani will be equipped with Liquid Crystal windows that become opaque at the touch of a switch, doing away with curtains, window shades or blinds:

https://twitter.com/drmubl/status/1354495239877136386
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by A Nandy »

Thats pretty cool. I hope they extend it to all AC coaches soon.
Also they should now consider reducing so much of iron bars inside the coach and replacing with hardened plastic(or whatever its called, used in aircrafts) for reducing weight.

https://swarajyamag.com/insta/indian-ra ... s-benefits
Indian Railways will spend Rs 40,000 crore to manufacture 8,000 locomotives, coaches and wagons in FY22, a significant jump from 5000 that were built in FY21

“A cargo train from Mumbai reaches Guwahati in approximately two and a half days compared to the earlier timeline of seven days. It has been a collective effort of industry and Railways which has helped to drive changes like faster speed for freight trains, extensive electrification of tracks to aid in total elimination of diesel ecosystem and shift from single tracks to double tracking,” Goyal was quoted as saying.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

^^^ A few weeks ago New Jalpaiguri to Cooch Behar was energized. Pole installation has reached Rangiya and perhaps Guwahati outer. Doubling is complete in many block sections between Rangiya----Bongaigaon----Alipur Duar----Coochbehar-----Jalpaiguri. There was a cockup on the second bridge over Teesta River between Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri to carry the double line. This huge river which flows swiftly can only be worked on during winter months when the volume of water is reasonable. A pier for the bridge sank unevenly and is not vertical. Blasting it is not permissible due to damage to the existing bridge. After 2 years after various engineering consultants advanced some sort of solution, presumably something positive can be done to rectify this failure by the construction company who did not properly calculate the flow volume and/or did not assess the instability of the footings of the pier.

Beyond Guwahati, doubling and electrification is proceeding to Lumding. Lumding is going to be very congested as the lines from Dibrugarh/Bogibeel bridge and Tinsukia and the lines from Agartala, which carries the new lines to Imphal, and Sairang(Mizoram) will come together at Lumding and the line from Meghalaya also comes and joins the Guwahati to Lumding line. Hojai to Lumding is doubled and so is Guwahi to Digaru, (so only Digaru to Hojai remains to be doubled) by mid 2022 Guwahati to Lumding will be doubled and electrified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c75gUZqNg8U

CRS inspection New Jalpaiguri to Cooch Behar electrification( 127 km)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgZyT9ez-RA
Last edited by vsunder on 30 Jan 2021 23:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Massive yard re-modelling is taking place at SWR HQ Hubli. SWR is on a re-naming spree. Hubli is re-named to SSS Hubli Jn. Sri Siddharoodha Swami Hubli Jn. who was a saint in the early part of the 20th century with his matha at Hubli. Likewise Sir Mokshagundam Visweswarayya Third Coaching Terminal Bypannahalli(the third station for Bangalore).

New pit lines and stabling lines are being built at Hubli and a new platform extension which is being touted as the longest platform in the world. The days of diesel EMDs based at Hubli are also coming to an end. All of this month there is a megablock of sorts with limited traffic to complete the re-modeling which is almost finished or finished now. Now they will connect the double track Unkal to Hubli(5km) to the re-modeled yard and finally Guntakal---Bellary-----Hospet---Gadag----Hubli----Dharwad----Londa----Tinaighat is doubled. So Chennai to Tinaighat is doubled and only Tinaighat to Mormugoa/Vasco-da-Gama(90km) remains to be doubled and so far the environmentalists are preventing it. Electrification is done Hospet to Guntakal. Wires have reached Gadag and between Dharwad to Londa wiring is complete. By May Hubli yard will be under wires and by September coast to coast Mormugoa to Vijayawada or Mormugoa to Chennai energized.

In other news the Supreme Court appointed panel had done a survey of the Tinaighat to Mormugoa piece for doubling since the Goans and Urban Naxals had created a ruckus to stop the doubling to Mormugoa. The panel walked along the tracks near Dudhsagar waterfalls and will now produce a report for the Lardships to mull over if doubling should be allowed. RVNL is the nodal agency.

Yard re-modeling works at Hubli this month. (you can already see in this video OHE masts erected in parts of Hubli yard preparatory to drawaing wires later on)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dPlTfWLMwA

The SC appointed panel walking on the tracks

https://twitter.com/RailVikas/status/13 ... 1829553155
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Rishi_Tri »

CLW is beginning to roll out 9000 HP locos.

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Vips »

SC permits felling of over 4,100 trees in TTZ for new Mathura-Jhansi railway track.

The Supreme Court Friday permitted felling of 4,108 trees in the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) for laying of a new railway track between Mathura and Jhansi.

TTZ is about 10,400 sq km, spread over the districts of Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Hathras and Etah in Uttar Pradesh and Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. The application filed by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for RVNL, told the bench that the proposed railway track is about 274 km, of which a stretch of 80 kilometre goes through the TTZ.He told the bench that central empowered committee (CEC) has given its recommendation and said that felling of trees for laying the railway track can be allowed subject to conditions, including compulsory afforestation.

He said the authority will comply with all the conditions as stipulated by CEC. “We are of the view that it will be appropriate to permit 4,108 trees to be felled by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd for the purpose of laying down railway track,” the bench said.

The apex court said it is granting permission for felling of trees subject to conditions imposed by the CEC.

In its application seeking permission to cut trees, RVNL has said that laying of a third railway track in the stretch is necessary as the existing track is totally choked and results in hours long delay due to non-availability of railway track.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Suraj »

Budget announces three new DFCs:
Modi Govt To Invest Around Rs 2.17 Lakh Crore To Build Three New Dedicated Freight Corridors
In an effort to decrease logistics cost and aid the domestic manufacturing industry, on Monday (01 February) FM announced the East Coast Freight Corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, East - West Freight Corridor from Bhusawal to Kharagpur to Dankuni and North - South Freight Corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada.

The proposed 1,115 km long East Coast Corridor is expected to come at a capital cost of Rs 40,344 crore at an average of Rs 32.5 crore per km.

While the 1868 Km long East – West DFC is expected to cost around Rs 86,805 crore at an average of Rs 37.29 Crore per km, the North – South DFC covering 975 km is going to cost Rs 89579 crore at an average of Rs 35.36 crore per km.

Both Western and Eastern dedicated freight corridors are expected to be commissioned by June 2022. Government also announced that 100 per cent electrification of broad gauge routes will be completed by December 2023.
Interesting that the east-west corridor is 'only' from Itarsi to Kharagpur and Dankuni. It seems focused on the mining related industries there, as opposed to any connectivity to the WDFC (e.g. Itarsi -> Indore -> Vadodara) Same for the North-South corridor and East coast corridor, which pretty much form a triangle: Itarsi-KGP, KGP-Vijayawada, Vijayawada-Bhusawal.

Added later: it seems all three of these are subcorridors. The full north south corridor is Delhi-Chennai, the east-west one Mumbai-Kolkata, with one more southern corridor connecting Chennai-Goa (route not finalized)
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

^^^ Line tripling is going on the entire length of the Chennai to Delhi route. Some zones are not being diligent about it like CR and NCR, though SCR and WCR are being very diligent. The entire section Bina to Bhopal and Habibganj is third lined and bar a 25 km section in the ghats, Habibganj to Itarsi is third lined. This will mean 231 km triple lined on the Delhi to Chennai/Hyderabad/Bangalore Mumbai CSTM route, entirely on WCR. The remaining 25 km section is seeing 5 tunnels being drilled, the longest 1085m which is almost done. The target is early next year. SCR has already built and commissioned a third bridge across Godavari at Mancherial in Telengana and commissioned 55 km out of 243km between Balharshah and Kazipet. Kazipet to Vijayawada to Gudur is also being done briskly and I have posted some videos of this section a few days ago.
Under NCR, progress between Agra Cantt to Jhansi --Bina has been slow. Not even one section has been commissioned even though they started in 2017.

Same with CR, work has been going on in the ghats Itarsi to Nagpur and the highly congested Wardha to Nagpur where North-South and East-West run together. This is to be fourth lined but they have not done even 3rd line.

Bhusawal to Jalgaon is third lined and possibly will be fourth lined. Jalgaon connects via Nandurbar to Udhna/Surat and the WDFC, Jalgaon to Surat was doubled only recently barely 3 years ago. So once one is at Bhusawal there is an easy access to WDFC.

East to West line tripling is going on full swing, Kharagpur to Tatanagar works are going on, from Tatanagar more or less to Rajnandgaon it is tripled. Suresh Prabhu had announced tripling from Rajnandgaon to Nagpur but I have not heard anything.

LA is a big hurdle in India, and the DFC section announced go through sparsely populated areas where LA can be done quickly. Imagine greenfield alignments in coastal Andhra for a DFC to Chennai, it will be a nightmare. Even the videos I posted Vijayawada to Gudur tripling, the third line in some stations has no loop line due to LA constraints and utilizes existing loop lines at wayside stations in some spots. They must have learned these lessons with LA in the EDFC and WDFC and the enormous time taken to start work since even till today LA is incomplete, leave alone Dankuni Sonnagar, but even around JNPT where Thackeray is not cooperating. The PMO sometimes functions like a PWD office shameful that projects like this cannot be monitored lower down. Here PMO invariably gets involved because of LA issues or contractors not being diligent etc etc. So why announce a Chennai-Delhi DFC, when inimical state governments will not cooperate with LA on greenfield projects and the Centre will not be able to show progress in a time bound manner? Better to announce projects that can be completed soon and then over time the rest can be done.

The railways should go in to buying NTC machines like the DFC has done and use them for track laying quickly with precision Geometry and also modern ultrasound equipment to detect weak and cracked rails and bad welds. Using a hammer by the gangman is primitive. Modern machines to maintain OHE should also be built in India, for the WDFC I have posted a video made by OMAC/Italy which shows their equipment with precise tensioning equipment and precision controls that makes the wiring go fast and it is quality work. Standing on a bogie and manually doing many things leads to poor work. They should also convert to 2x25KV traction on all trunk routes and heavy haul branch lines.

Incidentally I read a post where a forum mod and a poster bad mouthing V. K. Yadav who just stepped down as CEO Railway board. Both individuals exhibited crass ignorance. I do not carry a brief for Yadav, but he was GM of SCR and he has an impressive record there which is the best run rail zone in India. Under his leadership SCR had an impeccable safety record, managed to digitalize tendering processes and other housekeeping activties in SCR. It was the first zone under his leadership to eliminate all unmanned railway crossings and a record was set by SCR for the maximum number of kms to be electrified under his tenure and SCR lead all zones in this regard. Even implementing green sources of energy he steered SCR to lead in this role. I do not even mention the route kms of doubling, new lines etc under his tenure at SCR and neither the many initiatives while CEO and on the DFC.

SCR has the second highest route kms with 6000km+ and the second highest electrified network with 62% electrification. It started with zilch electrified network in the sense of no legacy lines like NR, CR, SER and ER and has surpassed all except NR. It was Yadav who gave a strong push during his tenure as GM at SCR.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Vips »

With record outlay in Budget 2021, Indian Railways to focus on faster trains, better passenger facilities,

Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways gets a record outlay of Rs 1,10,055 crore, of which an amount of Rs 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure, in the Union Budget 2021-22, which was presented by Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament yesterday. According to the Railway Ministry, the thrust of Annual Plan 2021-22 is on development of railway infrastructure, throughput enhancement, augmentation of speed of trains, signaling systems, development of terminal facilities, improvement of passengers’ facilities and amenities, safety works of road over bridges, road under bridges, etc. Take a look at the plan heads allotted highest ever outlays in BE 2021-22:

**The plan head for New Lines was Rs 26,971 crore in BE 2020-21 and Rs 40,932 crore in BE 2021-22, registering an increase of 52 per cent

**The plan head for Doubling was Rs 21,545 crore in BE 2020-21 and Rs 26,116 crore in BE 2021-22, with an increase of 21 per cent

**The plan head for Traffic Facilities was Rs 2,058 crore in BE 2020-21 and Rs 5,263 crore in BE 2021-22, with an increase of 156 per cent

**The plan head for ROB/RUBs was Rs 6,204 crore in BE 2020-21 and Rs 7,122 crore in BE 2021-22, registering an increase of 15 per cent

According to the Railway Ministry, national projects of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and North Eastern region have been allocated the highest ever outlay of Rs 12,985 crore in BE 2021-22 against the RE 2020-21 of Rs 7,535 crore i.e. increase of 72 per cent. Besides, Rs 37,270 crore of GBS has been allocated for investment in PSU/JV/SPVs, with allocation for the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) of Rs 16,086 crore, National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) of an amount of Rs 14,000 crore as well as Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL) of Rs 900 crore.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

OMAC/Italy OHE installation equipment at work on WDFC: sub-contractor Madhav Engineering for L&T and Mitsui.

https://youtu.be/1Xo7AWSaG4E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUAcJkEoqEc

OHE installation via trapeze artists and jugaad on NFR on IR between Guwahati and Jalpaiguri an ongoing project. Tensioning can be anything, and the km of wires installed per day is measly by this method of pulling wires by hand etc etc, and doing khemta dancing on top of tower wagons as these bogies are called. The OMAC machines do not seem particularly difficult to fabricate. More of ballet dancing on top of what are called "tower wagons":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caq5F1RJ4W4



On IR OHE systems are still using legacy systems based on SNCF designs(Societe Nacional Chemin de Fer) French systems from the 1960s. These OHE wires are 5.60m high for the regular OHE as on the Howrah-Delhi line. Height gauges at level crossings are 4.67m high. These are things that are checked by the CRS before authorization is granted.. Sag of the wires cannot exceed 100mm. Poles are to be erected so that they do not exceed more than 8cm from the vertical at the top.

Tensioning of OHE: Currently IR uses 1000 kgF tensioning using a pulley system and appropriate weights. Recall 1 kgF= 9.8 Newtons. This is enough for speeds upto 160 kmph. Beyond that one needs to tension OHE to 1200-1300 kgF. There is a reason for all this. Let me explain. In the video above you can see clearly the OMAC machine operator able to control the tension and the gauge is reading 6 Kilo newtons while paying out the wire, while final tensioning is >9.8 kilo newtons after final adjustment from what I say above. Watch lots of things in the video to learn.

Assume small oscillations. Assume u(x,t) denotes the oscillation of a wire at point x and time t. Let d denote mass/length -density of the wire and T the tension, like 1000 kgF above. Now set up a force diagram on a small length L of the wire. Horizontally no movement so sum of the of the horizontal components forces is zero, coming from tension at the right of the small section L and tension to the left of the small section. For vertical components of forces use Newton's law and we get(under the small oscillation assumption, or else one gets a nonlinear wave equation)

L d u_tt= LT u_xx , where u_tt is vertical accelaration, Ld is mass.

After cancelling L, Voila this is the linear wave equation u_tt= (T/d)u_xx. Thus the speed of the disturbance propagates as (T/d)^{1/2} where T is tension and d is density. Now as a train is coming it disturbs the wire and you would like the disturbance to propagate faster than the train speed. Thus the tension T is such that not only must the OHE be taut, but also train must not overtake the disturbance. From the formula above disturbance speed can be increased by making density d small a bad idea, or making the tension large , a very good idea as it increases the disturbance speed and also keeps the OHE taut. Making T bigger makes the disturbance speed even more and so as the train speed increases, the disturbance still will outrun it. Naively it is akin to an aircraft approaching the sound barrier when the disturbance is no longer able to out run the aircraft. This is a crude analogy but also quite apt.

Thus running trains at high speed on legacy tracks, is not only just fixing tracks, curvature and permanent way, but OHE has to be also fixed for the reasons above.

Typically catenary wire is a Copper-Magnesium alloy and consists of 19 to 37 strands of wire. Each wire is about 2.1 mm in diameter and the combined strand is 65 mm^2 in cross-sectional area for the 19 strand wire to 125 mm^2 in cross-sectional area for the 37 strand wire. Eland Corp in UK also makes catenary wire where two of the strands are bronze alloy.

Distance between consecutive tensioning posts (see video above) on IR is set at 1500m.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Zynda »

vsunder saar, some one on SSC is claiming that SBC-MYS line was recently upgraded to 130 Kph. Is there any truth to it?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Zynda wrote:vsunder saar, some one on SSC is claiming that SBC-MYS line was recently upgraded to 130 Kph. Is there any truth to it?
Short answer I do not know. It will be difficult though. The original tracks were laid by the Mysore State Railways who also laid the tracks from Yeshvantpur to Hindupur (doubling for this will be commissioned soon, CRS has taken place from Yeshwantpur to Makalidurga a few days ago, and Makalidurga to Devarapalli is already doubled and electrified, this is the route north from Bangalore to Guntakal to Delhi and Mumbai. Yeshwantpur yard is getting re-modeled similar to Hubli yard whose videos were linked by me above). These were all meter gauge tracks with sharp turns and steep gradients at least towards Hindupur. When re-gauging happened, they did choose gentler gradients towards Hindupur, but towards Mysooru they more or less stuck to the old alignment except when the curves were so tight that it was unacceptable for BG and some straightening was done, but not a whole lot, IR was not focused on speed until 2016. Even the MG bridges were kept. MG lines around Bangalore were amalgamated into the Madras and South Mahratta railway, then into SR and now SWR.

Coming back to Mysore to Bangalore, the bridge over Kaveri at Srirangapatna was replaced by twin bridges to carry the double line and the MG bridge retired this happened in 2015. You can see the sharp curve at Srirangapatna station and others between Mysore and Bangalore. The Govt is focused on upping speeds to 130kmph on routes between the Metros and Howrah to Delhi is close to getting to 130 kmph with a lot of signalling equipment installed and major yard remodeling at Kanpur and Tundla with electronic panels. Chennai to Delhi, Mumbai to Delhi are next. So I am sceptical about this news. I hope it is true.

One has not forgotten the sordid saga of Tippu's armoury which came in the way of the doubling project at Srirangapatna on the Bangalore to Mysore route. ASI would not let the railways proceed for 10 years even though local people were using it as a toilet. When Modi came to power eventually by 2015 a US company was contacted who lifted the entire structure by hydraulic jacks and moved it by 300 m out of the way of the second line paving the way for the doubling project to go forward and eventually Bangalore and Mysore was connected by a double line. This was the abject incompetence the Railways had sunk to by 2014 that this armoury had stopped a project dead in its tracks for a decade, that too for a monument that the ASI was not looking after since its principal use was not for storing cannonballs or for tours but to have ones morning s***t.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

1 ha of land remains to be acquired for land acquisition to be complete on EDFC excluding Sonnagar to Dankuni section. 9 ha of land needs to be acquired mainly around JNPT for land acquisition to be complete on WDFC. This is the current situation.

Rough status of some sections.
1. Madar to Palanpur WDFC to be commissioned March 2021. This will enable connectivity to Gujarat Ports. What I foresaw has happened. JNPT has complained that earlier connectivity for Gujarat Ports and Adani ports will draw business from it. I had ^^^^ already foretold this that shippers will find Gujarat attractive and also save fuel to come to Gujarat ports from Bilait even via Cape and certainly UAE. Now I want some more drama, Thackeray ka drama is there with LA issues at JNPT, now an urban Naxal will bring in the Mudi shud rejine because he connected WDFC to his "chum" Adani's port first.

https://www.livemint.com/industry/infra ... 83091.html


2. Dadri to Rewari section 127 km, Sohna tunnel complete. Bridges across Yamuna and Hindon complete. Rail over rail bridge across Delhi--Mathura mainline launched Jan 26, 2019 and complete. Main issue is finishing earthworks, Sohna viaduct(see pic above ^^ of collapsed launching gantry) and laying tracks. March 2022 is the commissioning date. NTC machines lay about 2km of track a day. So it will take them 6 months to lay tracks with a lot of downtime and just one NTC machine working on the section which is likely. They have 3 I think on all of the WDFC. Track laying could have started by now from Dadri end. Main issue is the very long viaduct at Sohna and earthworks near Aravalli range at Rewari. L&T is the contractor. The earthworks near Arravali range are staggeringly high. You can take a look and judge for yourself the height, (I suspect this is to maintain the 1:200 grade a design requirement of the DFC to enable heavy rakes to be pulled)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qISchePZP24

DFC rakes 1500m, 13,000 tonnes, IR rakes 700m, 5,000 tonnes.

3. DDU to Ganjkhwaja 37 km( my video of drone images ^^^shows the structures that block the rail over rail bridge over Grand Chord) to be complete by Dec 2021. By March 2021(Ganjkhwaja to Chirailpathu 100km left) on the remaining part to Sonnagar.

4. Bhaupur to Shujaatpur 180 km, (between Kanpur and Prayagraj) Dec 2021. Shujatpur to DDU, June 2022, 220 km.
Signalling contract with a Chinese company cancelled due to non-performance and inability of the company to supply source codes. New tenders issued and work on laying signalling and comms equipment re-started on this section:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1357647051845115909

5. Khurja to Dadri 46 km June 2021. Track linking almost done here. Approaching Dadri track has to be on viaducts due to congested habitation in NCR area and the container yard at Dadri which will be enlarged.

6. Palanpur to Makarpura(Vadodara) 308 km, bridges across Mahi and Sabarmati river ready,. Track linking started a while back via NTC machines. March 2022 commissioning.

7. Makarpura to Sachin 135 km, two major bridges Narmada at Bharuch, Tapi outside Surat and and some rail over rail flyovers June 2022.

8. There are two tunnels to be made at Vasai on WDFC approaching JNPT, Vasai north tunnel 320m and Vasai south tunnel 430m, do not know if construction has started. These are the Vasai detour tunnels that JICA insisted be made to minimize displacement of population. There is no word about it at all in the media for sure. Has construction started?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by shaun »

Vsunder ji , love your writing style, informative and to the point. Maybe you should start writing books and at least a coffee table book regarding transformation happening in IR under the present leadership complete with pictures and anecdote. I am sure , there are lots of hungry readers. Kudos to other posters too for contributing
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by A Nandy »

EDFC

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... r%20trains.
KOLKATA: One of the major gains for Bengal in the Railway Budget of 2021-22 has been the clearance for the development of a coaching terminal at Dankuni. A coaching terminal handles passenger trains. In the days to come, Dankuni will also be a hub for freight trains as the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) is being extended till there from Sonnagar on a Public Private Partnership basis.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Y I Patel »

Vsundar ji has a distinguished record in writing, but nothing that would ever go in a coffee table book :D

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Had to brag that I have had the distinct pleasure and privilege of meeting vsundar ji in person.

Back to the topic at hand: Palanpur in Gujarat is close to Deesa, which is going to be IAF’s newest air base. So this ease of access will be a huge benefit. In general, I wonder if military freight will travel over DFC?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Y I Patel wrote:Vsundar ji has a distinguished record in writing, but nothing that would ever go in a coffee table book :D

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Had to brag that I have had the distinct pleasure and privilege of meeting vsundar ji in person.

Back to the topic at hand: Palanpur in Gujarat is close to Deesa, which is going to be IAF’s newest air base. So this ease of access will be a huge benefit. In general, I wonder if military freight will travel over DFC?
Shaun and YI Patel thanks for the warm words. Yes YIP that was maybe more than a decade ago if not more. I surmise you are not there anymore. Coming back to your observation here are two more:

1. EDFC passes behind the boundary wall of IAF Bamrauli(Prayagraj) which is Central Command. It has a civilian enclave and I flew from there in 2015, pilot was British and navigation was easy, just follow Yamuna to Delhi. Saw lots of Mirage 2000s as the plane taxied to the runway.

2. EDFC also passes next to IAF station Sarsawa next to Saharanpur, home of Special Group SG:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Group_(India)


EDFC crosses Yamuna three times, just before IAF Sarsawa and just after IAF Bamrauli and once in NOIDA.

The new Purvanchal expressway, Yogi's flagship project connecting Lucknow to Eastern UP is being readied for landings of the Rafale at Sultanpur, may happen anytime now. Mirage 2000 landed on the Yamuna Expressway. Similar landing areas are being constructed on the Gorakhpur link expressway and Bundelkhand expressway.

IAF station Sarsawa

https://www.google.com/maps/place/29%C2 ... 77.4180277

The EDFC at Sarsawa

https://www.google.com/maps/place/30%C2 ... 77.4484918


IAF Bamrauli

https://www.google.com/maps/place/25%C2 ... 81.7330473

EDFC Bamrauli

https://www.google.com/maps/place/25%C2 ... 81.7226732

You can see how close the locations are to the Yamuna too.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Suraj »

Metro Rail Guy has pages neatly summarizing the various HSR projects that have been cleared - all for top speed of 350km/h, regular running speed of 320km/h. The links decribe information, route map (tentative in some cases), tendering / construction and status:
Mumbai Ahmedabad
Delhi Ahmedabad
Delhi Varanasi
Varanasi Howrah
Mumbai Hyderabad
Mumbai Nagpur
Chennai Mysore
Delhi Amritsar
That's quite a lot of coverage. Probably other low hanging fruit would be the Delhi-Varanasi line having a spur at Agra to Bhopal and Nagpur. Nagpur to Hyderabad to Bangalore would complete the Delhi-Chennai connection.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Y I Patel »

IAF air base at Sarsawa was, IIRC, considered as a candidate for hosting Rafales before LA problems forced a reconsideration.

Lots of Army bases and formation HQs are on major rail lines. No coincidence. vsundar ji your mention of Itarsi rang a bell - Babina, which is quite close if I am not mistaken, is a major armoured corps base.

Yes, I have long since moved on from where we met!
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Babina is actually 20kms from Jhansi. The entire Jhansi to Itarsi section 384 km is under tripling with 210 km complete. Bina to Bhopal/Habibganj is tripled while Habibganj to Barkheda is tripled, and Barkheda to Budni in the Ghats 5 tunnels under construction for the third line. Animal overpasses and under passes due to Ratapani reserve forest in the ghats are under construction where the mainline goes through and Budni to Itarsi tripled. Itarsi has an Ordnance factory. Sudershan Corp a strike corp HQ is at Bhopal. As soon as you exit the airport at Bhopal you see the gates of Corp HQ and establishments on top of "Dronagiri hill". Moving forward Talbehat, Babina and Jhansi all have Armored corps formations and then again the entire line upto Delhi from Jhansi is being tripled through Gwalior TACDE and 7 squadron at IAF Maharajpur and then Strike corp at Mathura.

Daund to Manmad is being doubled and just electrified now. That passes through Ahmednagar and Armoured corps establishment is there. Yogi Adityanath has set up what is called the Defence Corridor between Babina-Jhansi and north to Kanpur( Jhansi to Kanpur being doubled) and the Bundelkhand expressway which is being expedited and LA is complete and construction about 20% done, completion by end of this year is envisaged. Kanpur has an ordnance factory, HAL, parachute factory and other defence establishments. Road and rail mobility is supposedly going to help attract defence based industries with so many formations nearby.

PS: The famous Great Hedge of India passed through the Babina armored corps firing range. It was a massive Hedge stretching for thousands of miles from Punjab to Odisha of thorny bushes and trees (chiefly Indian plum)that the British established as a customs barrier to levy tax on salt. Some portions of the embankments on which the thorny trees were planted still remain, but a lot of it is gone. It rivaled the Great Wall of China in length. Stupendous in folly too. It was known as the Inland Customs Line in the officialese of the 19th century

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Customs_Line

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Hedge-Indi ... 0786708409

One of the customs officers to enforce this regressive customs levy and maintain this hedge was no other than Allan Octavian Hume, the founder of the Khangress party. Go figure..
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Sachin »

Zynda wrote:vsunder saar, some one on SSC is claiming that SBC-MYS line was recently upgraded to 130 Kph. Is there any truth to it?
Jumping the gun here :). I don't think so IR will have any motivation to increase the speed on this sector. Because this line is more of a dead-end. The SBC-MYS stretch is not part of any major trunk route, which requires rapid movement of trains. At least from IR side, MYS is more like an out-station for SBC, with perhaps trains getting extended to MYS mainly to remain parked there (as SBC platforms and pit lines are over utilized).
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Zynda »

vsunder saar, thanks for your reply. I guess the poster saw a video posted by RM on twitter where an inspection train on SBC-MAS line was going at "high speed" and was demoing glass water spill test (spoiler: not a drop spilled :)). The RM was saying that continuous track maintenance has improved ride quality immensely even at high-speed but he did not mention what speed the train was travelling...

Sachin saar, MYS-MAS section has been earmarked for HSR. So there must be some utility in this section...my guess is that in future, the line might see some upgrades to allow 110 Kph (probably 120 Kph for Shatabdi in certain segments). Also a lot of people do commute to BLR from MYS side and vice versa in the evenings...probably not much freight action...
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

https://twitter.com/SahilInfra/status/1 ... 4926026754

First open foundation L&T, package C4, Bullet train project, countdown started Dec 2024 completion.

LA is an issue in MH
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Suraj »

Also from theMetroRailGuy:
https://twitter.com/TheMetroRailGuy/sta ... 8028928001
1st concrete pour for India's 1st high speed rail project Clapping hands sign Beyond stoked!

Details: http://bit.ly/3aPztQo
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

1. Triple line CRS, Kharagpur to Jhargram 37 km, on the 132 km Kharagpur---Tatanagar/Adityapur section. CRS trial at 120 kmph yesterday Feb 9th.
1. Howrah---Kharagpur is triple lined. With Kharagpur to Tatanagar tripling, Howrah to Rajnandgaon (1000 km) will be essentially tripled on the East-West Quad of IR, Howrah to Mumbai. A few block sections here and there remain.
https://twitter.com/RailVikas/status/13 ... 1985208321

Kalaikunda/Kharagpur/Nimpura yard was re-modeled and equipped with electronic interlocking. Nimpura is a huge yard where East-West and East coast Howrah to Chennai/Hyderabad come together(Jan 2021)

https://www.psuconnect.in/news/RVNL-com ... ard/26148/

2. Mangalore Central yard re-modeled, electronic panel installed and Mangalore Central to Netravathi cabin 3 km doubled, CRS inspection yesterday. Finally the last section Chennai to Mangalore is doubled. Netravathi cabin is where the line from Mangalore Jn comes to join the line from Mangalore Central before they cross the twin Netravathi River bridges to Thokottu--Ullal and Kerala.

3. Yelahanka to Makalidurga from Feb 11-Feb 21, traffic blocks and major disruptions (due to non-interlocking work)as doubling is being commissioned between Bangalore and Penukonda. Makalidurga to Devrapalli(next to Hindupur) is already doubled and commissioned a year ago. SWR claims to finish the doubling to Penukonda by June this year.
Beyond is SCR territory where several block sections to Gooty are doubled between Penukonda---Anantapur---Gooty.

4. Tumkuru to Bangalore will be soon under wires maybe by April and possibly MEMU services will start. Tumkuru is becoming a major logistics hub and a manufacturing center has been sanctioned there by CCEA which will employ 90,000 people. Rotary wing division of HAL is also there at nearby Gubbi. Gubbi to Nittur (on Tumkur to Hubli line) was recently doubled 10 days ago. Ponneri/Krishnapatnam in TN/AP has also been selected as a manufacturing hub. So need good connectivity freight to Mormugoa port via electrified double line via Hubli and Mangalore port(RE for which Tumkur--Arsikere---Hassan-Mangalore) is sanctioned in this budget.

https://swarajyamag.com/insta/big-boost ... d-tumakuru

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey2vo6p ... e=youtu.be

5. Electrification on Konkan Railway will miss March deadline.

Bijoor to Thokur(Mangalore) 107 km CRS finished and energized

Kumta to Bijoor, 76 km waiting for CRS, ready

Karwar---Ankola---Gokarna----Kumta 55km, almost ready for CRS, excl Karwar.

Madgaon(Goa) to Karwar 59 km, pole fixing, wiring and foundations for poles going on

Verna (Goa) to Madgaon(Goa) 12 km wiring completed, pole fixing/ wiring left at Verna and Madgaon yards.

Last days of diesel between Bangalore and Hubli in sight and pretty soon within a year and a half no more single line between Bangalore----Hubli----Londa. Only essentially 100km left for doubling between Hubli and Bangalore and Hubli to Londa is doiubled after yard re-modeling finishes at Hubli by this month end. Total distance Bangalore to Hubli is 469km and only 100 km left for doubling on a once MG line.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Kakkaji »

Railways rolls out AC 3-tier economy class coach
New Delhi: Railways on Wednesday rolled out its first air conditioned three-tier economy class coach which is being touted by the ministry to be “synonymous with the cheapest and best AC travel in the world".

These coaches, officials said, will be “economical” and in between the current AC three-tier and non-AC sleeper class.

It was conceived by RCF and work on its design started on war footing in October 2020. The new coach can carry more passengers as the berths have been increased from 72 to 83.

"Many innovations have been incorporated in the design of the coach. The high voltage electric switchgear presently installed on board has been shifted below the under frame, thereby increasing the passenger capacity by introducing 11 additional berths," a statement from the ministry said.
Each coach is provided with a wider and one disabled friendly toilet entry door which is a new initiative, it said.

Several design improvements have also been made for improving passenger comfort like redesigning the AC ducting to provide individual vents for each berth, it said.

The coach also has improved and modular design of seats and berths, foldable snack tables in both longitudinal and transverse bays, injury free spaces and holders for water bottles, mobile phone and magazines, it said.

Individual reading lights and mobile charging points are provided for each berth in addition to the standard socket.

A new ergonomically improved design of ladder for accessing the middle and upper berths is also a new feature. There is an increased headroom in the middle and upper berths as well.

The design has been improved for both Indian and the Western style lavatories while public address and passenger information systems have been installed as part of passenger facilities, it said.

“Ambience and ease of access into coach has been improved by aesthetically pleasing and ergonomic entrance. The interior of the coach has luminescent aisle markers, illuminated berth indicators integral with night lights with luminescent berth numbers," the statement said.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Kakkaji »

Four West Bengal cities to be added to Varanasi-Kolkata rail corridor
NEW DELHI: The Centre is planning to link four major West Bengal cities — Asansol, Durgapur, Burdwan and Kolkata — as stations on the 798-km high-speed rail route proposed to the state capital from Varanasi.
Suraj
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Suraj »

Bibek Debroy writes about the National Rail Plan:
National Rail Plan maps existing railway network on a GIS platform, identifies gaps
Often, people do not notice what the Union budget says about the Indian railways. The points that may register are the following. First, there is a National Rail Plan (NRP) for 2030. Second, the Western dedicated freight corridor (DFC) and the Eastern DFC will be commissioned by June 2022. Parts of DFC will be in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Third, there will be an East Coast corridor (Kharagpur to Vijaywada), an East-West corridor (Bhusaval to Kharagpur/Dankuni) and a North-South corridor (Itarsi to Vijayawada). Fourth, all broad-gauge routes will be electrified by December 2023. And fifth, there will be safety and passenger amenity measures.

After the Union budget, some may have downloaded and read it, in the 49-page PPT style version. The more intrepid will read the 124-page executive summary. Only the most courageous will read the complete 1,178-page document. Among other things, the NRP is meant to increase the share of railways in freight, rectifying the pre-Independence and post-Independence bias, and develop capacity that will cater to demand in 2050. Most earlier committee reports concentrated on policies — financials, human resources, fares and cross-subsidies, competition, regulator, and investments. I am not aware of one that has mapped the existing railway network on a GIS platform and identified gaps. Perhaps technology has made it easier. In any event, that, and not mere length, is the NRP’s defining characteristic, making it a worthwhile exercise.
The stated report is here - 49 pages, PDF
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Ashokk »

Vips
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Vips »

AC 3 Tier Economy Coach
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by AkshaySG »


The grey/wooden look on the backrest is fine but the pink/flesh is absolutely ghastly tbh... Really hope they don't go with that, Very easy to stain and not easy on the eyes
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by SRajesh »

WoW!!!
Mera Desh mahan!!
these photos will be eye-gouging and major bile-venting time by Rail Mantri of Napak( is it still Sheik Rashid) :D
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Sachin »

^^^ I also sincerely hope that our Rail Yatris also take pride in this and do not vandalize/steal things from these coaches.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Santosh »

vsunder ji, great job and great updates!!! Bharatvarsh is definitely on the march.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Santosh wrote:vsunder ji, great job and great updates!!! Bharatvarsh is definitely on the march.
Thanks.

Eastern Railway becomes the first zone to achieve 100% electrification.

https://www.financialexpress.com/infras ... 3/2191090/

More on EOTT and the roll out of the devices. 10 units bought from US and 1000 units from South Africa at the end of Phase 2. Passenger trains still will have a guard. They will need about 16,000 units or more eventually.

https://www.railpost.in/guardless-goods ... -dec-2021/
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by A Nandy »

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/busin ... 33421.html
3 new dedicated freight corridors to see Rs 2.17 lakh crore investment
The asset monetisation plan includes leasing out the tracks to private players to operate their trains

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/ind ... 37219.html
Indian Railways plan to connect all the state capitals in the country's north-eastern part received a boost after the Union government in its Budget for the year 2021-22 has allocated Rs.1, 000 crore for the Bairabi – Sairang project in Mizoram.

Northeast Frontier Railway(NFR) is executing the Bairabi – Sairang new railway line project in Mizoram. Railway Ministry plans to complete the project by March 2023.From Bhairabi there will be four stations namely, Hortoki, Kawnpui, Mualkhang and Sairang in the project. From Sairang station the capital of Mizoram Aizawl is not far away.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Haresh »

Rsatchi wrote:
Ashokk wrote:
just googled his name, he is a disaster. Imagine being off loaded from a flight in Toronto ??
"due to non-issuance of clearance by the Canadian authorities.[40]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Rasheed_Ahmad

Who was the idiot who said pak didn't need railways because sowdi didn't have them ??
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Habibganj Railway station modeled on Heidelberg railway station in Germany is scheduled to open end March 2021. PM Modi most likely will open the station. The commercial building on the left possibly will take more time to open. This video contains in part interviews with DRM Bhopal, Uday Borwankar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr9d7xIWNZM

Passenger segregation is part of the design between incoming and departing passengers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FuMBIpCro0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmG1mTlXaSA

The opening shots in the last video ^^^are of the commercial complex on the station premises that will open later. It will have offices etc and will possibly be run by Bansal One, the developers re-developing the station.
Gandhinagar railway station should also be done soon with a 318 room luxury hotel run by Leela
group on top of the tracks with an ingenious design where there are no pillars.

Stations at New Delhi, Kanpur, Tirupati, Trivandrum, Chandigarh, CSTM-Mumbai and other places are scheduled
to get a makeover. The Railways calls them Railopolis. New Delhi station designs are out too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDKdURf14uQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT9nCEeIU-g

New Delhi Railway station

https://www.financialexpress.com/infras ... t/2171512/
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Suraj »

PK Engineers Win 2365 KM High Speed Rail Projects’ Ridership Study
PK Engineers India today emerged as the lowest bidder for conducting ridership (traffic) studies to help develop individual Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for approx. 2365 km of new High-Speed Rail projects in India.

The 2365 km figure includes the following 4 lines:

Delhi – Amritsar High Speed Rail (approx. 459 km)
Mumbai – Hyderabad High Speed Rail (approx. 711 km)
Chennai – Mysuru High Speed Rail (approx. 435 km)
Varanasi – Howrah High Speed Rail (approx. 760 km)
India’s National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) had invited bids for this mega study-package, along with another one that deals with data collection & survey works, in early-December with a 180 day completion period. Technical bids were opened in January to reveal 4 bidders.
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