Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

It is not just major cities but small cities and towns that have had their railway stations refurbished and beautified. Hospet station is one such. A dreary old and grim station before that I have gone through many times alighting at 6.30am for my visits to Hampi. It now sports a new look incorporating themes from Vijayanagar architecture including the famous Hampi stone chariot which is an hour away by road. The video is 10 months old, station is done and opened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW1F8OaWVsA

Belagavi/ Belgaum railway station has had a face lift, 190 crores were spent for this upgradation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGYB4roGrhQ

Machilipatnam railway station with the theme of fishes (Guntakal, Gooty, Secunderabad all have had facelifts)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YtKlAQSaLY

Dharwad railway station

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHvc5875nC0


Of course Varanasi has had a massive face lift as it is PM Modi's constituency.

Yog Nagari Rishikesh Station. This is the first station on the Rishikesh to Karnaprayag new rail line into the Himalayas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNkzzry_mB4
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Renders issued by Railway Ministry of the New station building for Trivandrum

https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia/status ... 61/photo/3

Madurai new railway station renders(Contract awarded Sept 2022, 36 months to finish the station works)

https://www.financialexpress.com/infras ... s/2931727/

Nagpur, Prayagraj, Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, New Delhi and CSMT, Mumbai will all get new station buildings. The CSMT heritage building will be incorporated into the modern station. The renders of all these are on the Internet.

Under SCR, that is in Telangana and AP the following stations are scheduled for re-development under the Amrit Bharat scheme

Karimnagar, Hi-tech city, Hafizpeta, Tandur, Vikarabad, Lingampalli, Parli Vaijnath, Zahirabad, Bidar, Bhadrachalam Road, Khammam, Madhira, Mahabubabad, Warangal, Manchiryal, Ramagundam, Peddapalli, Kazipet, Jangaon and Yadadri.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by hnair »

vsunder, as always, good to see you back and posting really valuable insights

Liked the renderings of Trivandrum Central and hope they start off! Because too many slips between cup and lip over terminal renovation was there in past too. But this expansion will be without effect unless the mere 8kms between Trivandrum Central and Nemom terminals are doubled and Central’s platform shortage is addressed. Also heard some renewed murmurs about a third phase of Sabari Rail project that will connect Nemom via a greenfield track till Punalur. That might take care of the upcoming Vizhinjam port’s container traffic by relieving it from the congested mainline. The mostly underground 9km Vizhinjam spur is also hanging.

Any insights on this area?

Also have any new updates on the track doubling that has been dragging on forever beyond Nemom till kanyakumari? Even the NH66 road work to south beyond Karode (kerala-TN border) has stopped due to Stalin admin not showing much interest for red-soil permits etc. Grapevine says Gadkari-ji has pulled the plug after trying a lot :(
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

@hnair Thanks. Yes there are issues with the re-development of Trivandrum. Funnily Laloo Prasad Yadav laid the foundation stone for that in 2006. However Kollam will get a brand new station with Corinthian columns. That has been tendered out.

Southern Railway has awarded the EPC contract to Bangalore- based M/s RITES – SCWPL (JV) on August 26, 2022, at a cost of Rs 361.18 crore. The redevelopment project will be completed within 39 months. The work of Project Management Services (PMS- responsible to monitor the redevelopment project) has been assigned to New Delhi- based M/s LEA Associates South Asia Pvt Ltd for Rs 7.94 crore.

Do not know about the other points. However, Kanyakumari to Trivandrum is just moving at a snail's pace. Trivandrum to Ernakulam was doubled finally and there is no more any tunnel (this was one of the first projects of Metroman Sridharan, building that tunnel in MG era) at Kottayam. They cut the whole hill down and put two tracks in it. Old tunnel may be used as a shunting neck.

Between Nemom and Trivandrum, its all smoke and mirrors. Some "collective, along with political parties" blames the Revenue department of KL for going slow, while TN has already obtained the land from Nagercoil to Kanyakumari, so very hard to sort out what really ails the land acquisition. TN will have doubled and electrified tracks from Chennai to Kanniyakumari by March 2024.

Funnily a traffic block for "doubling" is ongoing for "Trivandrum to Nagercoil section" till Feb 20, with several trains to Kanniyakumari from Mangalore canceled. So what is going on.

On the other hand Southern railway took a line block and activated double line in three sections around Madurai with yard remodeling at Madurai last week. They have also uprooted the existing BG lines in doubled sections between Madurai and Nagercoil and fixed the track bed to enable future 120 kmph speeds under Mission Raftaar, with an eye to run VB towards Kanniyakumari. So Chennai---Madurai----Tirunelveli is now doubled and electrified as of last week. All that remains is a small section near Tirunelveli 25km and a small section near Nagercoil and Chennai to Kanniakumari will be doubled and electrified with updated tracks for high speed. Speeds here were maximum 90-100 kmph so the upgrade in speed will be very good for really long distance trains that travel from Kanniyakumari to points in the far north.

Ernakulam Jn and Ernakulam town are scheduled for re-development too. Maybe once people in Kerala see Kollam and how it turns out the state government might feel the heat. Here are the renders for Kollam

https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/ ... esign.html
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

One of the big ticket projects nearing completion on the Indian Railways, is the construction of a new bridge across the "Ocean" connecting Mandapam Camp on the mainland to Rameswaram. The old railway bridge with a span in the center that lifts to allow sea traffic to pass is aged and more than 100 years old. It was almost destroyed in the 1964 cyclone and a young Metroman Sreedharan became famous by having it operational and repaired in record time. The new bridge has place for two tracks for double lining in future and a new type of opening span using vertical lift in the center to allow nautical traffic to pass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXG8ve31BAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajI_bn9Nhrk

Rameswaram station built in 1906 is undergoing development and will provide amenities to pilgrims. 90 crores will be spent on this re-development. Renders are on the internet of what it will look like post re-development.

https://www.financialexpress.com/infras ... e/2954958/

With the completion of regauging of the entire Satpura narrow gauge network, Gondia to Jabalpur, and Chindwara to Seoni and then to Nainpur by electrified broad gauge, not only has this tribal area benefited, but also the distance from Kashi to Chennai and Rameswaram is shortened by 250 km and with a saving of 5 hours of journey time. The entire Satpura narrow gauge network is history. Project to re-gauge the entire network started in 2018.

Kanniyakumari station is also being re-developed and tenders have been awarded. Here are the renders.

https://www.railway-technology.com/news ... on-revamp/

Targeted date of completion of the New Pamban bridge March 2023, unlikely but by end of this year. 535 crores spent on bridge, and 84% complete as seen in videos linked above.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

The 55 km bypass around Kanpur of the EDFC is complete today with loco trials done.

https://twitter.com/dfccil_india/status ... 12/photo/2

Left portions of EDFC: 400km Ludhiana to Khurja single lined section(June 2023 target for completion). 30km of double lined section between Chunar and Mughalsarai/Deen Dayal Upadhyay(target March 31, 2023 in a month). Rest of 1335km is complete and operational, that is Dadri outside Delhi to Son Nagar Bihar 900 km alongside the busiest route Howrah to Delhi. Son Nagar to Dankuni in West Bengal another 500km in PPP mode is mired with land acquisition issues in Jharkhand and WB and may take forever to complete. With completion of this bypass freight will never enter Kanpur yard unless moving to Lucknow. Freight is re-routed around Kanpur and minimizes detention of both freight and passenger trains and faster movement esp. of coal rakes at 100 kmph around Kanpur.

Work going on to double Bengaluru to Hubbali and straighten curves to run VB. Only 20km left in 423km. Target end of March. Railway electrification is targeted for August 2023 and Bommai CM of Karnataka has promised a VB from Bengaluru to Belagavi(Belgaum) . Only electrification is left in 120 km between Bengaluru and Belgaum and this 20km of doubling in the video where curve straightening is also taking place. All other curves between Bengaluru to Hubli have been straightened, just one curve left. You can see in the video the new stations South Hubli and Kundgol, Saunshi , they demolished all the old wayside stations, raised platform height and built new wayside stations and installed electronic signalling and interlocking equipment. This is what has been going on at a massive scale all over India. So rural India does not think it is being left behind.

https://youtu.be/auStdO920Jc

Places that were promised connectivity since the time of Nehru have been connected by rail. Huge list there.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

The Story of a Bridge, Loha ka Pul (The Iron Bridge)

Nothing exemplifies the rot and paralysis that afflicted the UPA government than the story of this bridge. No the bridge is not in some obscure corner of India, but right in Delhi and carries the main trunk line out of the national capital Delhi to the east towards Aligarh, Kanpur and on to Howrah. It was the first bridge constructed across the Yamuna by the erstwhile East Indian Railway EIR that finally connected Kolkata to Delhi. It is Bridge 249 in the Railway's scheme of things. Construction started in 1863 and the bridge was commissioned in 1867. It is a bridge built on brick masonry piers and a double decker with pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the lower deck. The top deck carries the twin railway tracks. The lower deck is the haunt of drug peddlers, petty criminals, makeshift shops and so on all allowed by a lax Delhi administration and a security nightmare since the railway tracks are above. It does not take much to convince an addict to cause mayhem.

The rail and road traffic gets frequently disrupted as the Yamuna floods easily and the bridge is under water. The structure is unsafe and long in the tooth and there is a very serious speed restriction for trains that cross the bridge within minutes of leaving Delhi(Old delhi)Jn. Salimgarh fort and Red Fort almost abut the bridge. Initially there was only one track on the bridge. In 1913 a second track was put in.

To remedy all these issues the Railways decided to build a second rail only bridge. That process started in 2002 and the rail ministers and ministry did nothing much. The ASI(Archaeological Survey of India) raised obstructions to a new bridge as it was too close to a Moghul monument of Salimgarh fort( a prison where among others Dara Shikoh was imprisoned by Aurangzeb). Eventually permission was given and pier construction started and then amazingly revoked as Aman ka tamasha gang raised a hue and cry. So Bridge illa. Finally after Modi came to power, plans were again made as there is a serious danger of the old bridge falling apart with its brick piers and this will cut off Delhi and rail traffic will have to be re-routed via New Delhi station. The hope is the new bridge will be completed early next year. The British built their bridge in 4 years and now it has taken 20+ years and the new bridge is still not ready. It is not a very long bridge either 902m. Currently there is a permanent speed restriction of 15kmph on the old bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55vVB4RFSL0

The old bridge with the Yamuna in flood which happens frequently as the bridge was built with poor data of Yamuna flood levels. Rail traffic comes to a halt and this happens with regular frequency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEv73i7Tx1k
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Atmavik »

Vsunder saar, i hope u can compile and publish ur posts. the last i read such details abt Railways was Bibek Debaroys 10 articles in 2014 for swarajya
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

@Atmavik: Thanks.

A Promise and a Bridge

This is the story of another bridge, one that is going to be operationalized in a few days maybe by March end. It is a bridge connecting Tarighat on the south bank of the Ganga and Ghazipur on the north bank of the Ganga. First a bit about this Ghazipur. It is home to the Indian Government Opium and Opiod factory, perhaps the only government institution in the world that extracts opium from poppies. From here the British exported opium down the Ganga to China. The Ganga furnished the immense amounts of water needed for the extraction process. Lord Cornwallis who was defeated at Yorktown by George Washington and so ended British colonial intentions in North America is also buried in Ghazipur. But we are interested in post-Independence events.

The HM Patel (Hirubhal M. Patel)Commission had strongly recommended to Nehru to build a railway bridge across the Ganga to galvanize Uttaranchal a traditionally backward part of UP. Nehru did not do much and promises were indeed made. Successive prime ministers also promised a bridge. Eventually a road bridge was constructed and named after Abdul Hamid PVC a hero of the Assal Uttar tank battle of 1965 who was from Ghazipur. The road bridge was not constructed using the best techniques and material in the 1970s and with heavily overloaded vehicles plying it, many of the bearings have failed and the bridge needs to be closed and refurbished. The story is similar to the bridge across the Ganga at Patna which though built in the 1980s by Gammon has structurally failed.

In 2016, Modi came to Ghazipur and laid the foundation stone of a new road cum rail bridge. In his speech he made a pointed reference to the HM Patel commission report and the promises of a long line of Prime Ministers who had promised much but delivered zero to the people of Uttaranchal. The bridge is important because it diverts traffic away from Mughalsarai yard and also provides faster communication between the districts of Ballia and Chapra in Bihar to parts of Eastern UP that lie on the South Bank of the Ganga. The bridge was also helped by the fact that Manoj Sinha was the Ghazipur MP. Then in 2019 Manoj Sinha lost the Lok Sabha elections and a Samajwadi party goonda became the MP. Construction slowed. Manoj Sinha is now the J&K governor. Finally the bridge is ready, track linking and approaches are finished and wiring and finishing works are going on with a target to finish by the end of this current financial year.
Ghazipur station has undergone a facelift and doubling all the way to Ballia and on to Chapra which too is in its last stages. The top deck is the roadway and though the road bed on top of the bridge is ready, the approaches of the road to the bridge will take some time. This will take pressure off the adjacent Abdul Hamid Setu. I am sure when PM Modi comes to inaugurate and dedicate the bridge to the Nation, he will spare no bones and recall the string of broken promises to the people of Uttaranchal starting from Mr. Nehru.

A word about this Hirubhai M. Patel. He was the first Defence Secretary of independent India and was instrumental in diluting the powers of the Armed Forces under instructions from Nehru who feared a coup. This is the original babu who also served a Prime Minister of Pakistan. Same guy, same guy....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirubhai_M._Patel


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyVuujpFTus
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by suryag »

Vsunder sir, the rail link to Dhanushkodi seems to be approved and may be ready sooner than later. Am curious about extension and joining it to Talaimannar in SL( about 20 miles(?) in distance and shallow waters ?) I was trawling through some links and there seems to be some pre independence effort in this direction.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

@Suryag Train 16751 is colloquially still called today Boat Mail Express. It ran upto Dhanuskodi pre 1964 before the cyclone wiped off the connection with Rameswaram. The Boat Mail connected with a steamer to Talaimanar in SL pre-independence. Yes I have heard too that Dhanuskodi will be connected like before 1964.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Sachin »

suryag wrote:Vsunder sir, the rail link to Dhanushkodi seems to be approved and may be ready sooner than later.
vsunder wrote:Yes I have heard too that Dhanuskodi will be connected like before 1964.
Any idea what IR sees as a benefit in extending the line to Dhanushkodi? Dhanushkodi as of today is like a sand desert close to the sea. Saw only some fishing hamlets during my last visit. During British days, they had some good business benefit to run the Boat Mails+Steamer. Air travel was not very popular & was costly as well. This boat mail + steamer combo was also a cheap way for people to move across two British colonies. Brits too may have found this scheme to take the indentured labour from TN to work in the Tea plantations in Nuwara Eliya, Badulla etc.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by disha »

Sachin wrote:[Any idea what IR sees as a benefit in extending the line to Dhanushkodi?
I think this temple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kothandaramaswamy_Temple will be an attraction to visit Dhanushkodi. The temple is old. And as part of the sethu samudram project, some plans required demolition of the temple.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Sachin »

disha wrote:I think this temple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kothandaramaswamy_Temple will be an attraction to visit Dhanushkodi.
No idea if a temple alone would bring the revenue for IR to relay and retain this line. The temple can still be accessed by road from Rameshwaram. And there is also night curfew in Dhanushkodi at present. I was checking if there was any plan to restart the Talaimannar Boat Mail (i.e to/fro movement to Sri Lanka).
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Aditya_V »

Quite Frankly, I feel we should build a Road and Railway Bridge over Ram Sethu, get Triconamalee operating etc. Sri Lanka prospers when connected with India. But that is in the distant future, SL will need to comes to its senses and throw out China and India will have the economic heft. All this will take 2 decades.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Supercritical Projects on Indian Railways

A number of projects on Indian Railways were classified as Supercritical in 2016. These projects are located at sites which are severely congested and are the cause of major detentions of freight. Two such projects are 1. The Powarkheda to Jujharpur flyover, that allows freight coming from South India and Mumbai and traveling towards Bhopal and Delhi to jump over the Mumbai to Itarsi tracks and completely avoid very busy Itarsi yard. It can also be used by Rajdhanis and Durontos towards Hyderabad, Chennai that do not stop at Itarsi. Itarsi is at the heart of the IR network and a fire in the early days of the Modi Govt in 2015 at the main control room at Itarsi had paralysed rail movement East to West and North to South. This flyover is now 82% complete.

https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia/status ... _JxqAtAAAA

2. The Katni Grade separator. Katni yard is one of the busiest yards in India. Coal, Steel and ore flows through this yard from Chattisgarh and Odisha towards Western India and Northern India. Severe detentions are everyday. To address this a very ambitious grade separator project is being completed here which contains several kms of viaducts that will hop over the yard and allow freight to move rapidly through the yard. This is the longest elevated rail flyover in India. L&T is the construction company. 34.9 km viaduct at 1250 crores. Project started in Dec 2020, completion Dec 2024. Currently about 54% complete.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is_KuSUcBPw
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by venkat_kv »

vsunder wrote:@Atmavik: Thanks.

A Promise and a Bridge

.........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirubhai_M._Patel


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyVuujpFTus
Vsunder Saar,
thanks for these info filled posts and welcome back after the haitus.
I have a question though, how do you mange to get the info about so many different projects spread across the length and breadth of the country.
Do you only see youtube channels, (as there also seems to be no single channel that is giving all the info) and how do you come across the anecdotes about the reasons that cause delays in many projects. Thanks in advance.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Ashokk »

Vande Bharat sleeper: Russia’s TMH-RVNL consortium emerges lowest bidder to make Rajdhani-style Vande Bharat trains
Russia’s CJSC Transmashholding (TMH) in a tie-up with Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) has emerged as the lowest bidder in the tender for manufacturing and maintaining 200 sleeper variants of the Vande Bharat Express trains. BHEL-Titagarh has emerged as the second lowest bidder. Indian Railways is looking to manufacture 200 Vande Bharat Express sleeper trains - a more premium version of Rajdhani Express trains.
Sources told TOI that Indian Railways is looking to ramp up the production of Vande Bharat Express trains by awarding this contract. The present technology used to manufacture Vande Bharat trains will be used by the new manufacturer. The sleeper version of the Vande Bharat train is being designed and this contract will help in scaling up their production, sources said.
Russia’s TMH and RVNL had estimated a cost of Rs 120 crore per train set for manufacturing. This is less than Rs 128 crore per Vande Bharat train set as manufactured by ICF.
Indian Railways had qualified the technical bids of five players for the Rs 58,000 crore project; BEML-Siemens, BHEL-Titagarh, Alstom, Stadler-Medha and Russian TMH with RVNL. The lowest bidder has to manufacture and maintain 120 Vande Bharat sleeper trains, while the second lowest bidder will get a chance to match the lowest bid and manufacture and maintain 80 train sets.
In their present form, Vande Bharat Express trains are air-conditioned chair car services. The self-propelled Vande Bharat trains are capable of running at speeds of 160 kmph.
According to the tender documents, the Vande Bharat Express sleeper trains will offer passenger amenities that are “best-in-class” of trains running globally. The trains will be premium offerings in terms of aesthetics, functionality and comfort. Indian Railways had asked the bidders to study the stainless steel LHB coaches that it currently manufactures to ensure that the amenities for passengers on Vande Bharat sleeper trains are “far superior”.
The new Vande Bharat sleeper trains will be manufactured for a life of 35 years and are expected to be used for medium to long-distance travel. Railway experts have been stressing on the need to launch the Rajdhani-style variant of Vande Bharat Express since the demand for overnight travel is higher. According to rail experts, semi-high speed trains like Vande Bharat sleeper can help bring down travel time between major cities to under 12 hours.
Meanwhile, Indian Railways has separately floated a tender for manufacturing 100 aluminium Vande Bharat trains in India, which will be a first for railways. The technical bids for the tender were recently submitted. France’s Alstom and Swiss major Stadler in a tie-up with Medha were the only two bidders for the ambitious Rs 30,000 crore project.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

@venkat_kv Thanks.

EDFC Section Rajpura to Ambala(one of the sections lagging in Construction on the EDFC)

The Rajpura to Ambala section of the EDFC is single lined as all the section Khurja to Ludhiana 400 km of the EDFC is single lined due to land acquisition problems in Punjab and Western UP. The Rajpura to Ambala section is the one section that is lagging on the EDFC with earthworks not completely done. All bridges are done and all rail over rail flyovers are finished. Earthworks in a few parts and track linking left. Target for completion is June 2023. But could go over. Info about this section is rare but here is a recent video. It starts from Rajpura station. You do not really see the EDFC since it is left of the train and videographer is on the right waiting to catch the EDFC once the alignment changes once EDFC crosses tracks by a rail over rail flyover bridge that was installed a few months ago. You start seeing earthworks soon after Rajpura station, that is not the EDFC, it is an afterthought, it is a spur line that connects the EDFC to the IR, Rajpura--Patiala--Bathinda line. Soon after train passes under a bridge at 3:14, the rail flyover, after that you see the EDFC on the right.

That is the EDFC crossing over the IR tracks(Amritsar to Ambala) from left to right, alignment change. You can see NTC track laying machine on the high embankment laying sleepers and rails on the EDFC. The embankment slopes down and eventually joins the Rajpura--Patiala--Bathinda spur line at EDFC station New Shambhu and then one sees track linking done near Ambala on the EDFC. EDFC curves around Ambala (so will not be seen at Ambala Cantt. station) and jumps over Delhi--Ambala track via a Rail over rail flyover(already installed) and the GT road via a bridge(already installed) and rejoins running parallel to IR tracks after Ambala on the right around IR station Dukheri between Ambala and Saharanpur. Given what I see in this video the June 2023 target will not be met by GMR construction, incomplete DFC stations, earthworks, OHE work, Signals and Telecom S&T work, incomplete track linking. But by Dec 2023 certainly done. Video made 19th Feb. 2023. Pilkhani(Saharanpur) to Khurja is in better shape. And Rajpura to Ludhiana is also in good shape, so is Ambala to Saharanpur.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9VRpWajjsgw

After inspection by SAG(Senior Administrators Group) on March 2nd, Kanpur bypass of the EDFC has been thrown open to commercial operations. So there is about 900 km of doubled and electrified track between Dadri(Delhi) and Son Nagar, Bihar. This is seamless level crossing free track, which does not intersect Indian Railways. A further last part of 40km between Chunar and Deen Dayal Upadhyay is scheduled for opening March 31, this month end, at which point ALL of the main arm of the EDFC between Dadri and Son Nagar is complete and only the 400 km Khurja to Ludhiana, single lined section remains to be opened.

https://twitter.com/dfccil_india/status ... Sg1aQtAAAA

This 7.5km spur connects WDFC to the line to Pipavav port. This will allow freight from Pipavav to directly hop onto the WDFC and on to Northern India.

https://twitter.com/dfccil_india/status ... qDiqMtAAAA

Maersk Lines has started Pratigya Express, a freight only train from Inland Container Depot(ICD) Sonipat in NCR with guaranteed 60 hour delivery to Pipavav port using the WDFC. WDFC is operational from Rewari to Sanand (800km) outside Ahmedabad and with connections at Palanpur to Gujarat ports, Mundhra and Kandla. This connection bypasses Palanpur yard and freight directly moves to the IR double electrified line to the ports. All this happened in the last 5 months. The 60 hour time is going to come down to 36 hours in the next year.

Next sections on WDFC to be operationalized: Rewari to Dadri(greenfield) 135km the toughest section of the WDFC, June 2023 only a 8km section remains to be track linked in the Arravali hills, Makarpura(Vadodara) ---Surat----Vaitarna(MH) June 2023. Sanand ----Makarpura(green field) Dec 2023. Thanks to Thackeray and a lax Tata construction, Vaitarna to JNPT 125km section possibly June 2024. Then DONE.

By Dec 2023 I expect EDFC complete except the Jharkhand and WB section that is mired in politics and the 125km last section from Vaitarna to JNPT section of WDFC that got delayed by Thackeray.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Makarpura(Near Vadodara) to Sachin ( a bit beyond Surat) WDFC section. State of WDFC near Makarpura which will be a major container terminal. Target for completion June 2023 for Makarpura to Sachin section of WDFC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyc1GahLXB4
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Atmavik »

^^ Thanks , I did not know that we will have private trains running on DFC. This is welcome news

We will also need a new deep water container port near vadhavan , but last I heard it was mired in protests by the usual suspects. Maybe we can expand ot build a new port near surat
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Yes private companies are allowed on the DFCs. Maersk runs Pipavav. Launch of Pratigya Express in Nov 2022.

https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/20 ... il-service
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by chetak »

Tracklaying has begun on this marvellous bridge



Image
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Atmavik »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60-1IgD0TnM

Jiribam - Imphal Railway project in manipur

cutting travel time from 10 hrs to 2.5 hrs

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

I had posted this on some other site some months ago. It is a travel from Sahnewal the start of the EDFC outside Ludhiana. You see the Doraha canal over which the EDFC bridge was winched across some months ago. New Chawapail EDFC station, New Mandi Govindgarh EDFC station. After New Mandi Govindgarh the EDFC gains height and crosses the Ludhiana to Ambala line by a rail flyover. The DFCs never intersect Indian railways tracks and are level crossing free. So after New Mandi Govindgarh alignment is on the left, past Sirhind and Rajpura and then again crosses IR tracks via rail flyover near New Shambhu see video linked above. Track linking is complete and the EDFC stations seem complete in the Sahnewal to Rajpura section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K50TnQSdcXw

The 400 km single lined section Ludhiana to Khurja joins the main arm of the EDFC at Khurja. The main arm of the EDFC is 940km long from Dadri outside Delhi to Son Nagar in Bihar. 900 km of this level crossing free and free of intersecting Indian Railways is already operational with the last 40km section to become operational end of this month finishing the main arm of the EDFC. On the DFC, freight runs at 100kmph and freight trains are 1500m(almost a mile long) long as opposed to 800m IR rakes and DFC freights loads are 13,000 tonnes as opposed to 5000 tonne IR rakes which run at average speeds of 30kmph.

There is also a design requirement on the DFCs that is the ruling gradient cannot exceed 1:200.
That is for every 200m you travel, you never rise or descend more than 1m. so sin x=1/200 for the slope. This is to minimize the force on the couplings, especially the loco and rake lead coupling for such long, heavy rakes. In comparison the Bhore and Thull ghats out of Mumbai towards Bhusawal and Pune are 1:34 ruling gradient, on the Grand Chord 1:70 and on the Dharakoh ghat section on the Delhi Chennai line between Itarsi and Nagpur 1:70.

Because of this requirement DFCs faced engineering challenges on the Dadri to Rewari greenfield section

On the 1502 km WDFC, 843 km is operational. Double stacked containers can travel on the WDFC. Pipavav Port, Mundhra and Kandla ports are connected to the WDFC via electrified lines. Ports left to connect, Hazira(Petrochemicals), Dahej and JNPT, Mumbai.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by suryag »

12 more cables to string out of the 96 for the Anji Khad bridge, eagerly waiting for that completion(apparently in the next one month it should be done).
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

So finally you get to see the two iconic projects of India. WDFC and Delhi--Mumbai Expressway cross each other, with even vehicles plying on the Expressway.


This is part of the 135km link that connects the end of the main arm of the WDFC that ends at Rewari with the end of the main arm of the EDFC that ends at Dadri. It is entirely greenfield and loops around Delhi, starting from UP(Dadri) through Haryana(Faridabad, Sohna) and through part of Rajasthan and crosses back to Rewari(Haryana). The big challenge is cutting through the Arravalli Hills in a 10km section. 1:200 grade was established by a 3km long viaduct that brought the track to the right height at Arravalli hill, a sequences of 60-70 feet embankments, the highest railway embankments in India, 3 small viaducts and a 1km+ tunnel the Sohna tunnel and deep cut and cover works under the Western Peripheral expressway(KMP Expressway) and then to New Mewat DFC station. Earthworks on this 10km section where the tunnel is located is finally complete and awaits track laying. Remaining 125km is track linked and trials have taken place. Rewari to Sanand outside Ahmedabad, the WDFC is operational on 840km.

What I had only dreamed 6-7 years ago is a reality in these drone shots of the 27km Sohna viaduct to Pirthala section. Only OHE work left, track linking over. Pirthala to Dadri 45km operational and so too 50km Rewari to New Mewat trials done. 27km track linking over. That means 10km still left to finish that is Sohna tunnel and the Arravalli hill part and those three small viaducts. From Pirthala an IR line also goes to ICD(container terminal) Tuglakabad. Delhi--Mumbai expressway crosses over WDFC on the blue bowstring bridges.


https://youtu.be/od_5IPDjmIA


Drone shots starts at the 3 km Sohna viaduct and ends at Pirthala WDFC station. The last girder has been placed on the small viaduct next to the Sohna tunnel and there were pics of officials inspecting the deep cut on the other side of Sohna tunnel before it it passes under KMP expressway. No tracks yet, may be 1km of blanketing and then track laying over the 10km through Sohna tunnel will start which will finish Dadri to Rewari track linking by end April. Then OHE work and any remainig S&T work. So June 2023 or a month or two later looks very good for finishing Dadri to Rewari section.


There was also an obstructing foot overbridge in DDU yard. The new and longer foot bridge is commissioned. This will allow NTC track laying machines to finish track laying and linking from East Receiving cabin DDU to New Dagmagpur/Chunar 40km and that is heading for commissioning soon by end of this month or early April completing main arm of EDFC 940km.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Prem Kumar »

vsunder: loving your detailed posts. It makes what can be construed as a "dry subject" into something fascinating.

Mags like Swarajya have dedicated InfraHub sections where there are daily articles. Given your immense knowledge, perhaps you could consider writing for them. These will reach a wider audience

And of course, you could post on Twitter as well, if you are comfortable with Social Media
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

EDFC Sahnewal(Ludhiana) to Khurja Section 400 km Single Lined, Target June 2023.

1. Historic moment. Last Rail over rail flyover launched over EDFC at Tapri Jn. over the Saharanpur--Shamli---Delhi line 5 days ago. All rail over rail flyovers complete, all bridges done. Earthworks left on the Rajpura to Ambala section at a few places and track linking, followed by OHE work and signals and stations.

https://youtu.be/ffXSCYOztIg


The Khurja--Ludhiana section is single lined due to non-availability of sufficient land. So stations on the EDFC on the Khurja to Ludhiana section are 10-15 km apart like IR block sections so that crossing of freight is easier. Where DFCs are double lined, stations are 40km apart.


2. Drone shots of EDFC between Khurja and Hapur. Here both IR and EDFC are single lined. Traveling south from Hapur towards Khurja.


https://youtu.be/Q4RIBDMb_-0


3. Drone shots of EDFC Meerut, North towards Mansurpur, Here IR is doubled while EDFC is single lined. Note the huge sugar factory at Mansurpur, EDFC runs along the boundary wall. This is one of the largest sugar mills in Asia. Note too after Mansurpur almost at the end of the video, EDFC starts to move to the left away from IR tracks as it starts on a greenfield alignment around both Muzzafarnagar and Deoband and rejoins running alongside IR tracks at Talheri Buzurg, to Tapri where it jumps over ^^^ IR tracks towards Shamli--Delhi and then to Saharanpur.


https://youtu.be/UU8_JmZWzas


Notice track linking is finished just wiring left in a few places. So this section is in very good shape. June 2023 is the target. For sure December 2023 its all over all the way to Sahnewal from Khurja. Khatam ho gaya!!! all 1335 km of EDFC. 500km in PPP mode from Son Nagar to Dankuni in WB through Jharkhand is mired in politics, Ram Bharose. One proposal is to cut the EDFC in WB and only build it to Bandel just inside the WB border from Jharkhand and this will cut the EDFC from its planned 1835km length to 1735km, 100km will be cut in WB due to Mamata Banerjee and her antics.

4. Chunar to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Jn(Mughalsarai Jn.) 40km EDFC Double lined, Last remaining section of the Main Arm of the EDFC to be Completed, Target March 2023. 900 km of the main arm of EDFC is Operational.

4. An old foot over bridge obstructed the right of way in DDU yard and prevented NTC(New Track Construction) machines from laying track from East receiving cabin DDU to Chunar. The old FOB was demolished and a wider and longer new FOB is now complete and operational, so NTC machines can finish the 5-6km of track laying and be done. There is a maze of tracks and loop lines in DDU yard laid out for the EDFC that even though segregated from IR is a real spaghetti. This foot over bridge is now complete and the DDU to Chunar section we will hear good news soon that it is operationalized, target end March and this finishes Dadri to Son Nagar 940km of double lined EDFC. In fact only 14km was left to track link between DDU and Chunar from Ahraura to DDU yard and that was 8 months ago. In this video you start from DDU and see EDFC and the blanketing is solid 0.5m as opposed to 0.3 m on IR. Blanketing is the white stuff, crushed stone on top of the mud seen in the video. Blanketing gives superior load bearing capacity to the tracks and prevents the sub-base/mud from leaching into the ballast. The DFCs have been built with this thickness of blanketing at all places as opposed to sub-standard Indian Railways construction. DFCs have been built to 32 tonne axle load specs as opposed to IR where tracks and track bed and bridges are rated for ar most 25 tonne axle loads.


Next you cross Jeonathpur which will become a big intermodal hub soon, EDFC, IR, NH-19 and IW-1 (Inland Water way Ganga Route 1)Varanasi port here and a big Gati Shakti container terminal so to build all the spur lines etc is work. The intermodal hub at Jeonathpur is being built at a cost of 170 crores and in Phase -1 will handle 0.6 million tonnes of freight per annum.


Look at DDU yard on Google Earth and the maze of loop lines for EDFC, really long ones to handle 1500m rakes (DFC rakes are almost double the 800m length of Indian Railway rakes, so loop lines for parked freight or freight to be overtaken has to be accordingly very long so as not to obstruct the main through line) and all this has to be segregated from IR with of course spurs to IR tracks at a few places. After Ahraura you see doubled EDFC tracks in video all the way to Dagmagpur and in Chunar yard a very long rail over rail flyover where EDFC jumps over the IR tracks to Chopan and Renukoot. Its this 14km section Ahraura to DDU/Mughalsarai that involves loop lines, intermodal terminals etc that has taken up much of the 8 months before throwing the entire 40km section open. The EDFC is operational Dadri to Dagmagpur and beyond Mughalsarai from Mughalsarai to Son Nagar in Bihar. Only this 40km section there is a gap on the main 940km section from Dadri/Delhi NCR to Bihar and the single line 400km section, Khurja--Meerut--Saharanpur--Ambala---Rajpura--Sirhind---Ludhiana, see parts 1,2 above. That Khurja to Ludhiana section is targeted June 2023, but most likely it looks like Dec 2023 for completion.

At the start of the video you see the famous DLS-MGS, Diesel Loco Shed, Mughalsarai of yore. It might be functioning as an ELS, Electric Loco Shed now. This video was shot 8 months ago and very little was left to do then to connect Chunar/New Dagmagpur to DDU, only 14km, 8 months ago. So this month end commissioning is almost certain especially since top officials of DFCCIL have made several inspection tours of this 40km section and exhorted all parties to stick to the end of March deadline.

https://youtu.be/DKx47-u_jG4

843 km of WDFC is operational which is fully double lined, electrified with high mast 11m overhead wires to accomodate double stacked container freight to Gujarat Ports and JNPT(Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Mumbai). This is from Rewari near Delhi to Sanand an Ahmedabad suburb. Completion is March 2024. By December 2023, everything will be built except a 135km section from Vaitarna to JNPT docks all in MH, which was delayed when Uddhav Thackeray and his Govt. delayed land acquisition and also Tata Construction due to poor project management did nothing. They were kicked out of the project and they threatened to sue. JICA(The Japanese agency funding the project) then brought pressure on Indian Govt to re-instate Tata and after 1 month this was done and now Tata has promised to complete the project by a new deadline of March 2024. Does not look possible. All packages of WDFC involves a Japanese company+Indian company. This last section Vaitarna to JNPT is Mitsui+IRCON+Tata Construction. Mitsui must have pushed JICA too as they got a bad name. Tata is notorious for poor project management for many of their projects. They should stick to Air India, Lakme, and other forms of Khemta Dancing.

L&T + Sojitz(Japanese Company) have done the other packages on WDFC and have outperformed Tata esp. in the difficult Rewari--Dadri 135km package that involved tunneling in Sohna(outside Delhi) through the Arravalli and also in the Tata packages, L&T have built the twin WDFC bridges across Tapi river in Surat bypass. Very good work and project management and mobilization of labor. GMR construction on EDFC has also done well. GMR did two packages, Pilkhani(Saharanpur) to Ludhiana and Kanpur to Mughalsarai(main arm of the EDFC, double lined).
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

If I were a OK Tata Bye Bye engineer, what would give me sleepless nights is the Kopar rail over rail flyover. Kopar is a station on the Vaitarna to Panvel Central Railway route. The WDFC on its end run from Vaitarna to JNPT 135km travels along this section. At Kopar the WDFC is supposed to jump over 6 Central Railway lines, that carries all traffic of Central Railway between Thane and Kalyan. Mind you this means all the traffic from Bumbay to every single metro in India, Delhi, Howrah, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad goes on those 6 lines and that also means all the local services of Mumbai beyond Thane and all freight leaving Bumbay from the Thane industrial zone. They have to launch two massive open web girder spans across these 6 tracks and each span will be 80m + if not longer. The OWG spans have to be sturdy to support heavily loaded DFC freight and also tall to accommodate double stacked containers from JNPT port and sturdy enough that one span can bridge 80+m. They will have to take a power and line block, cannot have cranes and machinery pulling and winching spans across with 25kV flowing, will make shish kebab there. So line and power block and that means shutting down essentially the Bumbay Central Railway out of CSMT, possibly at night. It will be the first and only time a rail flyover was launched over 6 "active" tracks for the DFC and possibly in India. It will call for careful project management and coordination with Indian Railways esp. Central Railway, Tata Bye Bye Construction, local authorities, pulis etc Possibly the work will be done at night in mega blocks and over a period of several mega blocks. It will be very interesting to see how Tata does this. Their project management skills will be severely tested. A few years ago desultory piling work was going on for this flyover. Now the twin spans are being erected in situ with some welding etc going on. The idea is to winch them across/ drag them literally using rollers and a very long launching nose for balance and lessen the load on the winches and cranes. If these spans are not launched soon then that March 2024 end of project date announced for Vaitarna to JNPT is out of the window, and we are seeing end of 2024 for completion for WDFC. Oh Tata Bye Bye and Uddhav Thackeray what a big cock up. You can see the spans being assembled and parts of the launching nose the rust colored part in place. It will taper some more Feb 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqJ3xTYgE8g

One of the two spans is being erected at the Kopar end and the other one is being erected across the tracks at the JNPT end.

Piling work 1 year ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udPhURrtFq4

2 months ago Bhiwandi to Kopar, no trace of any earthworks for WDFC except a few places. Now you understand why Tata Bye Bye was kicked out and used pressure to get re-instated. If fresh tenders were called 2026 to complete WDFC all for a 135km section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBAdCvTnBXY
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Bangalore to Hubli Doubling and Electrification.

Next Thursday, March 16th, the Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS) Southern Zone Shri Madhukar Choudhary who took over from Shri Abhay Kumar Rai on March 1st, will perform a safety inspection for doubling the last remaining 20km section between Saunshi and Hubli South. If the inspection is successful, the newly constructed double line is scheduled to be thrown open for traffic on March 21st, fulfilling a long standing demand of the people of Karnataka and North Karnataka in particular to connect Hubli and Bangalore with a doubled track where trains can run at speeds higher than 110 kmph and even upto 130 kmph. Hubli is the HQ for the Southwestern Railway zone and an important center for trade. Daily small business people commute to Bangalore from Hubli taking slow trains that take 8-9 hours to travel 470km between the two cities. The speeds were abysmal and capped at 80kmph to 90 kmph due to sharp curves and poor track conditions and a single line that forces trains to stop to cross each other at wayside stations. All of this is history from March 21st.

Doubling was sanctioned in 2009 but in name only. In 2015 the doubling project was given funds. So it has taken 8 years to double the track and the project will be complete on March 21st. Sharp curves have been straightened and tracks replaced to upgrade speeds with Southwestern Railway now focused on raising the speed to 130 kmph and introducing a Vande Bharat between the two cities. This has also been announced by CM Karnataka Shri Bommai. In fact doubling is complete now all the way to Belagavi/Belgaum. A Vande Bharat will complete the journey from Hubli to Bangalore in 5 hours 30 mins and if VB is extended to Belgaum as is being demanded, the Belgaum to Bangalore travel time will be about 8 hours a significant improvement from the 11-12 hours currently. Belagavi to Bangalore is 611 km.

Regarding electrification between Bangalore to Hubli, it is also proceeding rapidly with only 100km left to be electrified. Work on the remaining 100 km is progressing rapidly and seems certain to be completed in 2 months with a fully electrified double line connecting Bangalore---Hubli and on to Belgaum/Belagavi and followed by the introduction of Vande Bharat by July. Belagavi to Hubli is doubled recently and electrification in the last stages with about 30km left to be completed by late April.

The stations at Belagavi, Hubli, Haveri and Dharwad on this route have been refurbished, modernized and dedicated to the nation by PM Modi a few weeks ago.

The Commissioners of Railway Safety

They are an autonomous body headed by a Chief Commissioner who is at the rank of Secretary of the GoI. The body of Commissioners come under the Ministry of Civil Aviation and thus are not beholden to the Railways or Railway board. Of late they have been relieved of inspecting the electrifcation aspect on newly electrified lines due to the rapid electrification taking place on the Railways. Inspecting electrification work on newly electrified railway lines is now the function of the Chief electrical engineer of the zonal railway in which the track lies. However, new track, doubled track, modifications to existing lines (other than modifying loop lines) is still inspected by the office of the zonal Commissioner of Railway Safety. The Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety has his office in Lucknow so that he/she can easily consult if need be with the RDSO(Railways Design and Standards Organization) which is also based in Lucknow.

Thus the Railway Safety Board which also carries out accident investigation plays the same role as the NTSB(National Transportation Safety Board) does in the US.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Vayutuvan »

vsunder wrote:If I were a OK Tata Bye Bye engineer, what would give me sleepless nights is the Kopar rail over rail flyover. Kopar is a station on the Vaitarna to Panvel Central Railway route.
Vsunder ji, Interesting. I thought Kopar is the same as Koparkhairne in Navi Mumbai. Kopar is closer to Bhiwandi.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by ritesh »

Vayutuvan wrote:
vsunder wrote:If I were a OK Tata Bye Bye engineer, what would give me sleepless nights is the Kopar rail over rail flyover. Kopar is a station on the Vaitarna to Panvel Central Railway route.
Vsunder ji, Interesting. I thought Kopar is the same as Koparkhairne in Navi Mumbai. Kopar is closer to Bhiwandi.
Kopar station lies on CR mainline connecting CSMT to Kalyan on Suburban line. It is also present on Vasai Diva-Panvel line, which is built on stilt just above the station, this line connects Northern and Gujarat bound trains to Konkan line. It is near to Dombivli.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by JTull »

@Mollick.R
Love the passion of the guy in those videos
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

One question that arises often is how is Line capacity calculated? You hear terms like: Line is at 150% over the capacity etc. There is a formula called Scott's formula that is used to calculate this efficiency. Here:

Line capacity means the number of trains that can be run on a section in 24 hours.


Line Capacity is calculated in three different ways:

Maximum Line capacity – This the maximum number of trains that can be plotted in the master chart so that it is impossible to introduce even a single train.

Practical Line capacity – This is number of trains which can be run on a given section in practice. This can be derived from Maximum Line capacity by making allowances for maintenance of Permanent way, time required for operational exigencies/irregularities etc. In general in Railways Line Capacity means Practical Line Capacity.

Economic Line Capacity - Following diagram shows Cost analysis against number of trains on a section. I could not paste the diagram, its a parabola.


Line Capacity


It can be seen that as the number of trains in a section goes up the cost of running trains decreases resulting in higher return upto a certain point. This is due to the better utilization of available resources. But as the number of trains goes higher than this point section get saturated making it increasingly difficult to increase train services without operational delays. Ultimately this leads to an increase in Cost. Optimum number of trains which can be run on the section economically (Point E in the graph) is called Economic Line Capacity.


Calculation of Line Capacity - Following are the commonly used methods for calculating Line capacity

1. Scott’s formula

Line Capacity C = 1440/(T+t) x E

Where T is the running time of the slowest goods train over the critical block section, t is the Block operation time and E is the Efficiency factor.

2. Charting method

Charting method is the most reliable method of calculating Line capacity. The train paths are plotted in a time-distance graph for 24 hours. First paths of all Scheduled Express/ Passenger trains are plotted. Then scheduled goods trains are plotted. And after other paths are plotted as many as possible in the chart.
Line Capacity by charting is more accurate as this method takes into account all the peculiarities of a given section. It should not be less than the Line capacity as per Scott’s formula as it is based on the slowest moving train over critical section.
In Indian Railways Line Capacity is calculated based on Charting method.
A section can be considered saturated when it is running more than 90% of Line capacity arrived by charting.
Terminal facilities should not be taken into account while calculating Line Capacity.


Increasing Line Capacity

From Scott’s formula we can see that Line capacity increases, if we decrease Running time T, Block operation time t and increase the Efficiency Factor E.

Reducing T - Can be achieved by reducing length of Block sections (provision of intermediate block stations etc.) or by increasing speed of trains.

Reducing t - Block operation time can be reduced by provision of tokenless Block instruments, panel interlocking, automatic signaling etc.

Increasing E - Efficiency Factor E can be increased by Time table improvements, improved maintenance practices ,improving staff efficiency, yard and terminal improvements, provisions of simultaneous reception, additional loops etc.


In particular now we can clearly see I hope that making shorter block sections and faster running of trains between blocks say by using better tractive effort elocos say, increases line capacity. This is clear from Scott's formula of course which is empirical and not based on some deep first principles. Of course there is also a limitation, for example I suppose as you make shorter and shorter block sections, naively it is like taking a calculus limit you are approaching a totally doubled track. That is how I think of Scott's formula.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Speed Trial Done at 130 kmph between KSR Bengaluru and Jolarpet. It is unlikely the higher speeds will translate soon to higher speeds for VB and Shatabdi between Chennai and Bangalore due to model code of conduct kicking in for KA elections. Chennai to Jolarpet has already been OKed for 130 kmph speeds. It was Southwestern Railway between Bangalore and Jolarpet that was lagging. Most likely the higher speeds between Chennai and Bangalore will become effective by September when the new schedules come out.

https://twitter.com/sumanth22691/status ... Kh6LItAAAA

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

In the month of February 2023, Indian Railways ran 427 rakes with coal to maintain buffer stocks at thermal power plants. Last year in February 2022, the railways ran 399 coal rakes. This is trying to ensure not being caught flat footed as happened last year when electricity consumption peaked in the summer and thermal power plants were hit with low coal supplies. On the other hand, State electricity boards in Delhi and Punjab are culprits by not paying their share and indulging in "giving away" /massive subsidies of electricity below market rates or freely to garner votes. This will happen in one way or another in poll bound states. If the poll is held in the summer months, the burden will fall on the Railways.
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