Bharat Rakshak

If viaduct is the way why can't we use the Golden quadrilateral of expressways, it can save time and cost of Land acquisition.

If we can then except D-C route we have already land for rest of routes.

Some of the alignment can use the highway corridor land. It can even be at grade or on an embankment there in places to cut the cost of building a continuous long viaduct. But if it is not a viaduct, the HSR MUST have fenced out track. It is out of the question to permit any man or animal to get on those tracks .

In Pics: Guwahati railway station is the first in North-East to run completely on solar power

The total cost of the project, as per Indian Railways estimates, is approximately Rs 6.7 crore. The agency which has provided fund for the green project is CONCOR. The solar plant has been installed by Sahibabad's Central Electronics Ltd.

According to Indian Railways, the total saving of electricity cost on account of the solar plant is Rs 67 lakh.

The total generation of the solar power plant between April 12, 2017 to May 10, 2018 was 7,96,669 KWH. The average generation per day is 2048 KWh.

As many as 2352 solar modules have been installed at the roof-top solar power plant. From April 12, 2017 to May 10, 2018 the carbon dioxide benefit from the solar power plant stands at 6.3 lakh kg!

http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/Railwa ... tation.pdf

INDIAN RAILWAYS
JANUARY 2017
2017-2019
VISION & PLAN

Sharing from IRFCA:

Canted turnouts with speed potential of 55 kmph being used for the first time on railways in India on Bhaupur - khurja section of DFC projects. The thick Web switches are used against the conventional thinner switch rails to prolong life.

https://twitter.com/dfccil_india/status ... 1137952768

OHE equipment installation on EDFC, near Tundla-Shikohabad (Delhi-Kanpur) using cherry pickers etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQSgW7u ... e=youtu.be

Notice the freight that passes the crew with ballast rakes. This is to also tamp down the newly laid DFC line.

OHE maintenance as traditionally done on IR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct_KT25qPbA

Huge amounts of new track, doubling, third and fourth line to take place by next year.

Northern Railway New-Delhi-Tilak Bridge 5th and 6th line Aug 2018, mosque had delayed progress. Tuglakabad-Palwal 4th line, also Palwal-Mathura 4th line.

SWR: Tumkur-Gubbi(Bangalore-Hubli) doubling, Arsikere-Karadi, Penukonda-Makali ghat and Bangalore-Gauribidanur.

SCR-Kazipet-Vijayawada third line, Kazipet-Balharshah third line and Wardha-Balharshah third line.

Central railway: Wardha-Nagpur 3rd and 4th lines. Jalgaon-Bhusawal third line, etc etc

Another project that has dragged for 15 years 306km Surat-Jalgaon doubling to be commissioned this month.

There are tons and tons of videos which shows fantastic speed of project implementation.
You can see the targets for each zone in the link below. I do not want to comment on the enormity of the progress of projects that have languished for 10 years or more, now actually seeing completion.

http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwa ... 04,366,556

For example this is the letter sent out to GM SWR with commissioning targets for his zone for 2018-2019

http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwa ... evised.pdf

This year a separate letter has been drafted for each zonal head.

EDFC progress in Punjab, between Ambala and Rajpura.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOk0r-HgQPA April 2018(Lot of progress as compared to earlier video)
Western DFC Ateli-Phulera to be commissioned Aug 15, 2018. 190 rkm(route kilometers)

Video of WDFC Bhestan(Surat)-Navsari(Gujarat): March 25, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QRLCPCNtmo&t=9s

Next section after Ateli-Phulera, Phulera-Ajmer WDFC (80km)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b29dQLZZeno

Since I made a comment that tons of projects have been completed that have languished for 10 years, let me at least give one example and you can see the happiness of people in the video. This is the gauge conversion of Sengottai(Tamil Nadu) to Punalur(Kerala) over the western ghats. The line was built by the Travancore maharaja in 1903 and the tunnels over the line had the conch shell emblem on the portals, this being the symbol of the erstwhile Travancore state. In 2008 the service stopped ending the Quilon mail( Egmore to Kollam, formerly it was the Trivandrum mail). For 10 years the line lay silent with nothing happening no funds nothing. Modi has given a sharp push. The famous 13 arch bridge was strengthened by jacketing it and it will be beautified to bring the exterior of the jacketing to its original colors. A new train Tambaram to Kollam also started last month. It is plain like having a nellikai on the palm of your hand that this Govt. means business and will dabao enough titua to get the work completed. If you are not Tamil you will not understand nelikai and if you have not lived in Gangetic Uttar Pradesh you aint know titua, sorry. Anyhow the day the gauge conversion was complete and the first train with a banker, the Tambaram special went down the line, people at Kottarakara received it waving Zambian flags and nadaswaram and mridangam, watch (mind you this is Kerala and people don't wave Zambian flags there)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZqQM1A4ZIc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BnLL6-_LaE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYJ7KQlx99U

Ruling grade on this line is 1:70. New viaducts had to be built to remove some tight turns from the older MG alignment.

Time to go on this line, winter time, can eat நுங்கு with the juice dripping down my elbows. No HSR for me.

Successive useless governments could not build the Hassan-Nellamangala(Bangalore) new line via Chennarayapatna. This was completed by this Government. Isolated parts
near Bangalore saw a train for the first time and obtained connectivity to the capital. I had posted a video of this a while back of joyous crowds. But people do not understand elementary things.

arshyam wrote:Sharing from IRFCA:

Canted turnouts with speed potential of 55 kmph being used for the first time on railways in India on Bhaupur - khurja section of DFC projects. The thick Web switches are used against the conventional thinner switch rails to prolong life.

https://twitter.com/dfccil_india/status ... 1137952768

Moreover the slide chairs that you can see in the photo are made of Nickel-Chromium steel to stop rust and you can see blue pi-rollers for ease of operation that allows the tongue rails to move smoothly. Notice the tongue rails have not yet been connected to servomotors and a switch, so there is some time before points/switches are integrated and systems work completed. Also note the absence of OHE in this section. Not even poles. You can see some sort of foundation on the right ( on top of the two long ties/sleepers) for the switches to be installed.

^^^^^^^^^

these are posts that are worth waiting for

Thank you very much Vsunder !

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/n ... cky_footer

Now, Railways to tell you if your ticket stands a chance of being confirmed

The new IRCTC website will let passengers know the probability of confirmation of waitlisted tickets, based on a new algorithm

The algorithm will take into account last 13 years’ data to arrive at a “robust, workable model”, the officials said.

Ministry of Railways
Deccan Queen completes 88 years of service today
Posted On: 01 JUN 2018 1:06PM by PIB Delhi
The introduction of ‘’Deccan Queen’’ between the two premier cities of Maharashtra on 1st June 1930 was a major landmark in the history of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the forerunner of the Indian Railways. This was the first deluxe train introduced on the railway to serve two important cities of the region and was aptly named after Pune, which is also known as ‘’Queen of Deccan’’ (‘’Dakkhan ki Rani’’).

http://pib.nic.in/PressReleaseIframePag ... ID=1534069

---------------------------------------------------------

The word "dakkhan" is actually word दक्षिण
I believe moguls use to call entire south India as dakkhan which was renamed as deccan by goras as in Deccan Plateau ..

Dakkhan is Urdu for Dakshin in Hindi.

Dakshin = South
Uttar = North
Purav = East
Pashchim = West

No Pakis/Urdu speaking people call the Deccan area as Dachkan.

Translation for directions in Urdu is:

North – Shamal
South – Janoob
East – Mashriq
West – Maghreb

I have heard Pakistanis call our Hydrabad, Hydrabad Dakkhan, to distinguish from their own Paki Hydrabad.
Gautam

^
As a youth in Madras many decades ago, I heard my grandfather refer to Hyderabad Deccan and Hyderabad Sind.

Norfolk and Southern freight in Chesapeake, Virginia carrying 10 GE diesels on their way to India a few days ago. This is part of the 100 that will be either in kit form or assembled. Must be on their way to Baltimore port for shipment to India.

https://youtu.be/BrLhuW8k5TE

Archival footage of the arrival of the first WDM-1 ALCO's in India at Mumbai docks (1958). Movie made by Arthur Mitchell Sr. who was deputed by GoI to go to the US and receive the locos. Movie has been put on youtube courtesy his son:

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

History repeats. The countryside that one can see in the video with that finger shaped rock resembling Monument Valley is none other than Ankai-Tankai killa near Manmad, MH. It is unmistakable.

Deccan Queen is the only train in India that has a dining car.

When the Modi administration came to power, it instituted a number of projects, third line, doubling etc to decongest a system that was badly overloaded and in danger of imminent collapse. The fruits of this are slowly bearing fruit. The important trunk line connecting Delhi with Mumbai(via Bhopal) which it partly shares with the Delhi-Chennai line is being third lined in major stretches. Bina-Bhopal is now fully third lined and Jhansi-Bina some sections the third line will be commissioned by this year end. Bhopal-Itarsi third line was sanctioned as soon as the Govt. took over. This is a difficult stretch and involves the famous "bulb curve" and a dense forest in the ghat section near Barkhera. More importantly there is a bridge to be built across the Narmada at Hoshangabad to carry the third line. All traffic from Delhi to Chennai and Delhi to Mumbai travels over these bridges. Now this video shows slow but steady progress on this third Narmada rail bridge. 8 spans are erected, 6 more to go. Most importantly the two piers in the central water channel are above foundation stage and three other piers that are left to construct are in near completion stage. It took them a long time to construct the 2 piers in the main water channel. But this project was sanctioned soon after the new Govt. took over and tenders were called quite soon after that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wWa51JX23U

There is a great danger that a new dispensation will resort to populist measures and not lay the foundations for a robust network that will serve the nation with enhanced capacity for years to come.
Towards the end it seems track linking is also done from Budni to the Narmada bridge.

PS: Avik thanks for your kind comments.

As usual thank you very much vsunder for your summary and updates.

I have a naive question here.

What are the main reasons for opting for a third line instead of doubling on the key trunk routes? While I understand there are likely to be land acquisition issues, will the trunk lines be enough to mitigate the excessive load on the key trunk lines? Wouldn't a bidirectional alternative help smoothen both up and down traffic?

Kashi wrote:As usual thank you very much vsunder for your summary and updates.

I have a naive question here.

What are the main reasons for opting for a third line instead of doubling on the key trunk routes? While I understand there are likely to be land acquisition issues, will the trunk lines be enough to mitigate the excessive load on the key trunk lines? Wouldn't a bidirectional alternative help smoothen both up and down traffic?

Kashi thanks. I am not sure I understood your first question well. Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Chennai were doubled ages ago for example. But with the introduction of a large number of trains, line capacity is running at over 100%, 150% on the Delhi-Howrah route. So an additional set of tracks are needed esp. in sectors where there is no DFC in sight, like Delhi-Mumbai via Bhopal which includes a sizeable chunk of Delhi-Chennai. As such freight on these lines crawls with average speeds of 25-30kmph. The third set of tracks will increase capacity and also provide down time for track renewal and maintenance. Currently if they shut down one line for track renewal, imagine single line traffic on a busy route.
As far as your second question, indeed the third line is bi-directional. The first two set of tracks has an up and down line, the third one they use in both directions. As far as that Narmada bridge goes, one of them dates back from the 1880's is a masonry bridge opened by the Begum of Bhopal. The third bridge will not only provide a third set of tracks, but allow some time to jacket and strengthen the oldest bridge. According to one report about 30,000 bridges across IR need some serious repair due to age. For their time and with the equipment they had, the bridges and viaducts are marvels of construction. For example the Ehegaon viaduct on the Thull ghat built in 1865 and which still carries mainline traffic out of Mumbai towards Bhusawal and onwards to Howrah and Delhi today is quite a marvel. A story is told that in the old days, people swooned crossing it. There are some amusing connections between these old time civil engineers, for example Robert Maitland Brereton, built the line from Bhusawal to Jabalpur all 666 km of it in 3 years, under budget and earlier by a year. The bridge he built across the Tawa river and tunnel before the bridge still carries mainline traffic to Howrah, 150 years after the bridge and line opened in 1870. After this he went to California and designed the irrigation system of the San Joaquin valley that makes Fresno and the area around it the food basket it is today. He refused to be appointed a commissioner of this irrigation system when the US Congress broached it. This is the IR legacy, it is quite an impressive one and people like Sreedharan are the inheritors of this and have carried this forward. Here is the Ehegaon viaduct whose lines are still worthy of admiration, knowing that this was made using very little steam driven machinery and possibly blocks had to be manhandled into place. The viaduct is at 1:28(imagine it was built in 1865)

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

Brereton had to contend with Bhils who killed construction crew, abducted engineers and so on. Not much has changed, engineers who are currently building the third line on SECR between Howrah and Mumbai are regularly abducted, construction machinery torched and so on by Naxals in the Chattisgarh belt near Rourkela, esp. near Manoharpur-Poisitia, the more things change, the more they remain the same. In fact there is a shrine for Bhil baba inside the Bagra Tawa tunnel.

Thanks for the explanation vsunder.

I think I should have made it clearer that I meant quadrupling vs Third line. As you said, the trunk lines are doubled for while, but they are running overcapacity so a third line is being added.

My question was why not add a fourth line as well, so that there will be two new lines, one exclusively for up traffic and the other for down traffic, which would then augment the existing double lines.

What are the reasons for adding a bidirectional third line but not a fourth line?

Kashi wrote:Thanks for the explanation vsunder.

I think I should have made it clearer that I meant quadrupling vs Third line. As you said, the trunk lines are doubled for while, but they are running overcapacity so a third line is being added.

My question was why not add a fourth line as well, so that there will be two new lines, one exclusively for up traffic and the other for down traffic, which would then augment the existing double lines.

What are the reasons for adding a bidirectional third line but not a fourth line?

The reasons of not quadrupling are the very ones you outlined, land acquisition problems, resources crunch and the simple mindset, just do enough that will tide the problem over and kick the can down the road. For example, Delhi-Mathura is third lined and now by running EMU's etc demand has exceeded capacity so 4th line work is going on and will be done by next year. Capacity is added not in advance but when things get critical. On another note, ETCS-II, will be installed on the Delhi-Mughalsarai route. This will allow trains to be separated by about 1km and not by a block section and do away with manual logging in. With the DFC on this route it will go a long way to cut down on trains running late. Piyush Goyal wanted to install ETCS-II all over but a cautious Modi over ruled it and instead wanted it to be tested first in Indian conditions that have their own peculiarities and then decide to implement it system wide after the kinks are resolved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_ ... rol_System

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/in ... 324589.cms

As usual thanks for the updates vsunder.

I wonder if they are doing anything about the Kanpur-Mughalsarai section. It it were an IPO it would be classified as heavily subscribed. As per some (informal and hearsay) estimates it is presently operating at 300%!!!, yes a mind-boggling 300% of its actual capacity. If there's a section that needs quadrupling this is the one.

Are you aware of anything happening on this sector? I recall you posted some updates on the DFCC section along this stretch, but cannot recall any recent news on the up gradation of the trunk line.

Another one of note is the Varanasi-Allahabad section. There are two main lines directly connecting Varanasi with Allahabad. Line 1 passes via Bhadohi and Phulpur (there's a branch to Pratapgarh along this route as well). Line 2 passes through Madho Singh and Gyanpur road on the other side of NH-2. A from this line spur leads to the famous Diesel Locomotive Works on the outskirts of Varanasi city. The clamour for doubling these sections has been there for very long. As far back as 1980s, there were requests from MPs and local people to double these sections, but the Railway ministry took little note.

Line 1 was doubled or at least the doubling had started a while back I think, not sure about the status of electrification. Line 2 doubling and electrification was approved by PM Modi last year. If these two sections are doubled, electrified and commissioned, it will certainly help not only speed up train journeys between Varanasi and New Delhi via Allahabad, but also relieve some of the load on the Mughalsarai-Kanpur main line by routing some of the traffic via Varanasi (especially Manduahdih).

Kashi wrote:As usual thanks for the updates vsunder.

I wonder if they are doing anything about the Kanpur-Mughalsarai section. It it were an IPO it would be classified as heavily subscribed. As per some (informal and hearsay) estimates it is presently operating at 300%!!!, yes a mind-boggling 300% of its actual capacity. If there's a section that needs quadrupling this is the one.

Are you aware of anything happening on this sector? I recall you posted some updates on the DFCC section along this stretch, but cannot recall any recent news on the up gradation of the trunk line.

Another one of note is the Varanasi-Allahabad section. There are two main lines directly connecting Varanasi with Allahabad. Line 1 passes via Bhadohi and Phulpur (there's a branch to Pratapgarh along this route as well). Line 2 passes through Madho Singh and Gyanpur road on the other side of NH-2. A from this line spur leads to the famous Diesel Locomotive Works on the outskirts of Varanasi city. The clamour for doubling these sections has been there for very long. As far back as 1980s, there were requests from MPs and local people to double these sections, but the Railway ministry took little note.

Line 1 was doubled or at least the doubling had started a while back I think, not sure about the status of electrification. Line 2 doubling and electrification was approved by PM Modi last year. If these two sections are doubled, electrified and commissioned, it will certainly help not only speed up train journeys between Varanasi and New Delhi via Allahabad, but also relieve some of the load on the Mughalsarai-Kanpur main line by routing some of the traffic via Varanasi (especially Manduahdih).

What you call Line 1 is single line in pieces/electrified, Line 2 is not electrified and not doubled. Here you can see the targets for doubling for Line 1 for 2018-2019 , Janghai-Bhadohi and Phaphamau-Allahabad.

http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwa ... NR_CRB.pdf

So Line 1 is not yet entirely doubled. Line 2, I am not sure what the progress is on that. Having the intermodal logistics terminal in Ramnagar will see a lot more freight traffic. Google Earth shows a lot of activity with the intermodal terminal, new berths and jetties have come up. They plan to have two fixed jetties and a floating one for passenger traffic on the Ganga.

Northeast frontier railway
mission
Capital of 8 states are to be connected by 2020
( Assam, arunachal pradesh,tripura,manupur,mizoram,
Meghalaya,Nagaland & Sikkim.)

http://www.aiib-am2018.gov.in/regional_ ... _YADAV.pdf

We have discussed this things few days back seems like soon we can see some concrete plan on this.

http://www.zeebiz.com/india/news-in-a-f ... sway-49577

Bullet train booster: Indian Railways to do a first along Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway; massive gains in offing

Massive Bullet train boost in offing in the region. Indian Railways has joined hands with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to twin a rail line along the proposed expressway between Mumbai and Nagpur -- a first such coordinated move to execute a transportation project
.
.
"Spanish consultant Ineco has conducted a feasibility study on constructing a high-speed rail line along the proposed Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway and the reports are positive," a senior Railway Ministry official told IANS
.
.
"It`s a new way of executing the project faster, as the combined efforts to acquire land will ease a major burden for both ministries and pave the way for speedy execution," the oficial said.

If this is successful then it can be the good template to replicate the same thing on Golden Quadrilateral and other expressways.

Late Trains To Get Costly For Railway Officials; Promotions To Be Delayed Proportionately

by Swarajya Staff - Jun 03 2018,

Late Trains To Get Costly For Railway Officials; Promotions To Be Delayed Proportionately

The perennial train delay problem faced by Indian Railways commuters might be up for a resolution as the train delays are set to cost officials their promotions, as reported by Economic Times.

During an internal meeting with the heads of zonal railways, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal warned the officials that their appraisals will be delayed in proportion to train delays. Officials can no longer cite maintenance work as reason for chronic train delays.

In the 2017-18 period, 30 per cent trains were reportedly running late. The Northern Railways fared the worst with just over 49 per cent punctuality performance till 29 May.

"While the minister has taken a lot of flak for the delays, he knew it was a price he had to pay for the large-scale renewal of tracks. However, the punctuality figures are way worse than what we had expected. Clearly, the zones are using maintenance work as an excuse to hide their inefficiency," said a source quoted by Economic Times.

"He has now made it clear that by June 30, if he doesn't see improvement, the respective GMs will not be considered for promotion. He also said that their performance ratings will depend on where they figure on the delay list. The lower they are, the worse for them," the source added.

The Railways Minister had to face the Prime Minister’s questions on train delays at the Pragati meeting earlier.

A nice video by Union Pacific of how they do track renewal. At the end it is said they close a line for 24 hrs over a 9 day period to complete track renewal. The TRT(track renewal train) machine is a Harsco TRT-909 and it is substantially automated with attendant advantages of precise track geometry and speed over manual track laying. At the moment India has TRT-811 Harsco machines to do track renewal. They are from circa 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh3_QcnCamE

In recent days there is a report that a few updated Harsco TRT machines have been bought by India and they have done great work in the Pallakad and Thiruvananthapuram divisions. Later they were taken to Moradabad and again the reviews were rave. An aggressive track renewal program has substantially brought down the accident rate on IR to 73, the lowest in recent years. More of these TRT machines should be incorporated into the IR system.


Here is a video of how track renewal is done on IR. Note the gantry like in the video above, but the way they clean ballast before putting in new track is manual and there is still too much emphasis on manual signalling and estimation by eye to lay track. Also it is important that workers have safety equipment, bare feet, no gloves etc is not the way to do things, steel toed boots, helmets and other safety workplace equipment should be handed out, one slip and someone will lose a few toes and fingers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmM1qgHSeYg

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/indian- ... rt-1857615

About Pallakad:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/koz ... 403898.ece

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 584854.cms

it's great to read this thread, after a long time. Thanks VSunder for the updates and explanations.

http://pib.nic.in/PressReleaseIframePag ... ID=1535029
http://164.100.117.97/WriteReadData/use ... _Hindi.pdf
http://164.100.117.97/WriteReadData/use ... nglish.pdf

Ministry of Railways
Four-Year Achievements & Initiatives of the Ministry of Railways
Posted On: 11 JUN 2018 3:17PM by PIB Delhi

►Best ever safety record in 2017-18. Consequential train accidents reduced to 62% from 118 in 2013-14 to 73 in 2017-18.
►Average annual capital expenditure in last 4 years more than double of average during 2009-14
►59% increase in the average pace of commissioning new lines from 4.1 km (2009-14) to 6.53 Kms per day (2014-18)
►Major upgradation of Bengaluru & Mumbai suburban systems in Budget 2018-19
►Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-speed Rail will revolutionise Indian transport sector with highest standards of speed, safety and service
►Upcoming ‘Make in India’ projects to boost employment and spur economic growth
►With the Dedicated Freight Corridors, Railways is moving towards the target of decongesting and drastically improving passenger and freight services
►Railways is working towards a complete makeover of stations as station redevelopment is planned by installing modern facilities
►Various measures including E- reverse auction policy introduced to boost transparency and accountability
►Railways also empowering and upskilling the 13+ lakh railway family
►India’s First National Rail & Transportation University in Vadodara is set to open in August 2018

►►►►More details in the link

SBS/MKV/ENS

(Release ID: 1535029) Visitor Counter : 29

Third Railway bridge across River Godavari at Mancherial commissioned as part of Balharshah-Kazipet third line (Delhi-Chennai line tripling). The first bridge is a masonry bridge built in 1929.
Here is the 1929 bridge when the line was built connecting Delhi to Chennai for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgn9m6h3xOM

Made out of bricks. Now that you have seen it, next time you go over it you will have the heebeejeebies. This is a trunk route, carrying all Delhi-Chennai traffic.
70 km of Balharshah-Kazipet third line will be commissioned by Feb 2019. This new bridge across the Godavari is the major project on this third line, so good it is completed. Here is a report from last year in Telugu about the new third bridge and the impact of the current dispensation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkp5hiSIrvk

Motorbiking across the complete bridge, Bridge 142 a year ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B3PJ_Aem1g

Even the "newer" middle bridge has a permanent caution of 75kmph.

PS: Gus Thanks.

A Tale of two bridges.

Two bridges are being constructed across the Yamuna, 200km apart. Both are railway bridges. The bridges are both synonymous of what ails projects in India and what can be done if projects are implemented with due dilligence and oversight. The first case is the bridge across the Yamuna at its end when it meets the Ganga, this is the EDFC bridge, Allahabad bypass. DFC had released drone images of its construction of piers a few months ago.

Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIM-uKPnE8o

Now comes the fantastic news that all piers are complete on this bridge and it took 20 months for this. This is what can be done with proper implementation and push at the highest levels at the PMO.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DfYy0HNVAAEPPNm.jpg

There are more pictures at the DFC twitter page:

https://twitter.com/dfccil_india

Now take the other bridge, doubling of Kanpur-Jhansi line and replacement of current bridge. This project has been going on for some time. Kanpur-Jhansi doubling is much needed. Line is totally saturated as Kanpur-Jhansi carries traffic to Chennai and Mumbai from parts of North India. Pukhrayan is on this line where a terrible accident took place, in part because of not replacing old track. Kalpi about 40 miles from Kanpur is where the line crosses the Yamuna over a masonry bridge, commissioned in 1887. The engineer for that bridge was Hugh Lewin Monk a product of the Thompson engineering college(now IIT Roorkee). Here is the obituary for Mr. Monk:

https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/a ... 1916.16017

Jhansi-Kanpur was commissioned in 1888 as part of the Indian Midlands Railway with its center at Jhansi. The company was absorbed into the GIPR(Great Indian Peninsular railway) forerunner of Central railway in 1900. Line finally is run by North central railway when CR was split further in recent times.


Not a single section of the Jhansi-Kanpur doubling has opened, though in late July, Jhansi-Parichha upto the Parichha thermal power plant a distance of 25km will be opened. The total distance Kanpur-Jhansi is 206km. This line will connect to EDFC outside Kanpur at Bhimsen via a spur, EDFC will go over the Kanpur-Jhansi line by a rail over rail flyover. Here is a video of the new Kalpi bridge, notice the bridge is for 2 lines signalling the end of the current bridge and its demise. I have fond memories of throwing coins into the river on traveling over it in the 1950's-70's on vacation to Mumbai and points in the deep south.

From 10 months ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7teDk7EDaQ

Part of the issue here is that suitable bedrock was not found till they had excavated quite deep. So I heard.

Why can't railways throw open seat reservation the way airlines do? They can even charge a premium the way airlines do. I would love to travel with my grandson, daughter and son in law or my wife in AC First Class Chennai to Kamakhya junction on the Yeswantpur Kamakhya super fast express. My grandson who is all of three and a half years old would love the experience. But I am not prepared to take the risk of 'chart not yet prepared system of the railways.

Since I mentioned Balharshah-Kazipet ^^^. On a historical note, the line Nagpur--> Balharshah---> Kazipet connected with the Nizam's Guaranteed State railway(NGSR) at Kazipet which then had its lines from Kazipet to Vijayawada, which then connected to the Southern Indian Railway. The NGSR had laid its lines by 1906. So the missing link was the Nagpur-Kazipet section that was complete in 1929, thus furnishing the shortest path between Delhi and Chennai.

Anyhow the point is, the word Guaranteed in the Nizam's railway, it does not mean reservation guaranteed or 5 course meal guaranteed, it simply means that even then railway companies operated at a loss solely on passenger revenue, as it does today and the Nizam just guaranteed the company against various indemnities.

nandakumar wrote:I would love to travel with my grandson, daughter and son in law or my wife in AC First Class Chennai to Kamakhya junction on the Yeswantpur Kamakhya super fast express. My grandson who is all of three and a half years old would love the experience. But I am not prepared to take the risk of 'chart not yet prepared system of the railways.

The "Chart Not Yet prepared" problem would only arise if you do not have confirmed tickets. Booking in advance is the only way to get confirmed accommodation. IR does try to emulate the Air line style ticketing system via the Tatkal and Premium Tatkal quotas which is for last minute travellers. And AC First Class berths are not booked as rapidly like how SL seats/berths are booked.

Me, SHQ and daughter had one of the memorable journies on 1st AC between New Delhi & Dehradun. The TTE alloted us a coupe (a kind of exclusive room with two berths). I had the made the booking around 2 months prior to the day of travel.

Kazipet - brings back memories being a alumni of nit warangal, whose campus is adjacent to kazipet and about 10km from proper warangal town, with a smaller place called hanamkonda in between. the kazipet-vijaywada electrified double track runs right behind the campus - a place called "fatima village" and all hostels visible except girls hostel.

there used to be a homely "punjab bar" there for parathas, curd and narth food.

day and night vast numbers of trains plied toward the north to MP and another route to Hyd being a junction. east coast express, TN express, GT express....and our favourite the golconda express chair cars for getting to vijaywada and catching one of the perpetually late kochi/triv/blr -> GHY trains.

vijaywada was and perhaps remains the busiest long haul junction in our fair land. its platforms were awe inspiringly CLEAN and WIDE and HUGE even then 91-95. it was the first large govt run setup I saw that was run so well. the tiffin rooms upstairs were good for meals and chicken fry. once when train was really late like 12 hrs we dumped all luggage in a lodge and roamed around ..... saw a french crime film in a AC hall to hide from the heat. the town is super hot and surrounded by rocky hills.

the slow traverse over the old bridge at rajamundry and the wide placid godavari.... the piers seemed to be british era work with just box girders on it.

the farakka bridge in north bengal is another huge one.

da,m it was a lifestyl;e and we were tigers then....

Sachin
What I meant by 'chart not prepared' was that there is uncertainty about berth numbers even though one has a confirmed ticket. The allotment is made on the evening before the date of departure. There is no guarantee that a group of three or four will be given berths in the same cabin. I think the same practice is followed in reservation for AC 2Tier. Again, in the matter of preference for lower berths age is supposed to be a criterion. But when the chart is prepared it is not uncommon to fi d a senior citizen being allotted an upper berth while some one 30 years younger given a lower berth. My point is this. People may not mind paying a premium for certainty in the matter of allotment of berths just as In LCC airlines specific seats can be booked for a small premium.

Talking of nostalgic train jouneys my favourite is the Bombay-MadrasJanata Express. The train would arrive at Sholapur junction (enroute to Madras) around 6.30 pm and would stop for a good 15 to 20 mts. Enough time for us to hop across to the wine shop across the road on the other side of the railway station and come back with half bottle of Hercules rum tucked in the pant pocket. And a good time was had before the dinner halt at Wadi junction.

I book train tix at IRCTC site, and it comes with coach/seat confirmed. Birth preference is adhered to when available, and you can actually choose a checkbox to book only if the birth choice is available.

What they don't have are: a) Facility to select the actual coach/birth/seat. and b) Though the algorithm try to put all members of a party together, it depend upon availability. You can choose a check box to book only if seat/birth is available in the same coach, but not in the same compartment.

So, I don't get the "chart not prepared" problem. OK. I did only 2A, 3A, SL, CC and 2S. Never got a chance to travel 1A

Recently our party of six went to chennai on 3A and we got one nice compartment all for ourselves.