Member Engineering (ME), Railway Board Shri
V.K.Gupta informed that Indian Railways has commissioned around 4800
kilometer of Broad Gauge track in last two financial years including about 1200
Km New Lines, 1900 Km Gauge Conversion and 1700 Km Doubling. As compared to
this, Railways have been commissioning at an average of about 1530 Km in the
previous five years.
M.E. was giving information to media in a
press conference here today. Following are the other details informed by M.E.
:
·
In
current financial year, Indian Railways is set to commission over 2800 Km Broad
Gauge track at the rate of over 7.7 Km per day.
·
In
the North East, Indian Railways commissioned about 900 km of Broad Gauge in
last two years, leaving only about 50 Km MG lines to be converted in 2016-17.
In addition, a 132 Km part of 3rd alternative connectivity route to
Northeast (i.e. New Maynaguri – Jogighopa) was also commissioned.
·
Important
railway lines commissioned during this period include:
o Udhampur-Katra
(25 km) New Line in Jammu & Kashmir – providing direct connectivity for
millions of pilgrims coming to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi from various parts of the
country.
o With
commissioning of Rangapara-Murkongselek & Balipara-Bhalukpong (362 km)
section, the entire North Bank of Brahmaputra brought on Broad Gauge Network.
This has also provided second rail connectivity to the State of Arunachal
Pradesh.
o Lumding
– Silchar Gauge Conversion (210 Km) bringing Barak Valley of Assam on Broad
Gauge.
o Mega
– Block of Badarpur - Kumarghat – Agartala (227 Km) Meter Gauge line was taken
on 01-10-2015 for six months. Passenger services have been introduced between
Silchar and Agartala, thereby bringing, the Capital of Tripura on Broad Gauge.
o Dudhnoi-Mendipathar
(20 km) New line – bringing Meghalaya on Indian Railway BG Network.
o With
the commissioning of Kathakal-Bhairabi and Arunachal-Jiribam sections, the
States of Mizoram and Manipur have come on Broad Gauge map of the country.
o New
Mal – Changrabandha (62 Km) gauge Conversion and Changrabandha – New Coochbehar
(70 Km) New line in the flood prone North Bengal commissioned, thereby
providing an alternative route to the NE Region.
o Two
Mega Rail-cum-Road bridges over River Ganga at Patna and Munger in Bihar were
commissioned for railway traffic, integrating North and South Bihar.
o Opening
of Daniawan – Bihar Sharief (38 Km) for passenger traffic, thereby bringing
backward areas of Bihar on Broad Gauge.
o Chhapra-Thawe
(107 Km) Gauge conversion has been commissioned for goods traffic, thereby
completing long pending Kaptanganj-Tawe-Chhapra Gauge Conversion Project.
o Opening
of Nawadih – Kawar (53 Km) for passenger traffic, thereby bringing backward
areas of Jharkhand on Broad Gauge.
o Koderma-Hazaribagh
(80 km) New Line – bringing Naxal affected district of Hazaribagh on railway
map.
o Bhind-Etawah
(36 km) New line – providing direct connectivity from Etawah to Guna, Gwalior
and Bhind benefiting people of backward areas of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya
Pradesh.
o Gauge
Conversion of Barhni-Gonda loop (108 km) – providing much needed Broad Gauge
connectivity to the backward areas of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
o Agra-Etawah
(110 km) New Line – providing rail connectivity to Bateshwar, the ancestral
village of Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee. (Since ages Bateshwar remained a renowned religious centre
both for Hindu and Jain communities. In the epic Mahabharat Bateshwar is
supposed to be referred as Shouripur a city of king Suresaine. It is known for
101 Shiv Temples built by Raja Badan Singh Bhadauria on a dam on the banks of
Yamuna. Shaouripur, near Bateshwar, which is the birthplace of the 22nd
Tirthankar of Jain faith, Lord Neminath.)
o Kasganj-Bareilly
(106 Km) section of Kanpur-Kasganj-Mathura & Kasganj-Bareilly- Lalkuan gauge
conversion commissioned – providing direct rail connectivity to the valleys of Kumaon in Uttarakhand
with the rest of the country.
o Etawah-Mainpuri
(58 Km) New Line has been commissioned for goods traffic, thereby completing a
long pending project of ravines of Chambal.
o Jind
– Sonepat New Line (81 Km) – connecting backward areas of Haryana.
o Sikar
– Loharu Broad Gauge (122 Km) – bringing Sikar and Jhunjhunu Districts of
Shekhawati region of Rajasthan nearer to the National Capital.
o Suratpura-Hanumangarh
(174 Km) broad gauge line has provided vital missing link to backward region of
North Rajasthan.
o Bangurgram-Ras
(28 km) New line in Rajasthan.
o Khurda
Road-Begunia-Rajsunakhala (42 km) New line – benefiting people of backward
areas of Odisha.
o Palani
– Pollachi – Palakkad (117 Km) Gauge Conversion commissioned thereby completing
conversion of Dindigul – Palakkad route in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
o Completion
and commissioning of Mawaikhas – Khajuraho (100 Km) section of
Lalitpur-Singrauli New Line for goods traffic. This section will be opened to
passenger traffic shortly. This will provide much needed rail connectivity to
the backward districts of Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh.
o Opening
of Yerraguntla-Nossam (47 km) New Line for passenger traffic and Nossam –
Banganapalli (45 Km) for goods traffic– providing rail connectivity to backward
regions of Andhra Pradesh.
o Jagtial-Morthad
(51 km) New line (part of Peddapally-Karimanagar-Nizamabad) in Telangana
commissioned.
·
Road Over and Road Under Bridges:
2132 ROBs/RUBs were completed in last two years, at an average of 1066 per
year, as compared to an average of 763 per year in previous five years.
·
Elimination of Unmanned Level Crossings:
2433 unmanned level crossings were eliminated in last two years, at an average
of 1217 per year, as compared to 1139 per year in previous five years.
Elimination of Level Crossings is becoming more and more difficult with time,
as those identified for easy elimination have already been eliminated.
·
Technological Advancements and Innovations in Projects:
o Many
innovations were done in Design of bridges, ROBs/RUBs, formation etc. resulting
into an immediate saving of about Rs 700 crores on Northern Railway. In fact,
these innovations would result in perpetual savings of thousands of crores
every year on Indian Railways.
o e-enabled
Project Monitoring Information System (PMIS) has been launched in April, 2016.
Drone video-graphy has been introduced for ongoing projects. This will enable
close monitoring of various projects on Indian Railways.
Remarks
:
·
Commissioning
of a Railway line is quite different from a road as:
o Road
can be commissioned as soon as it is laid even in small patches whereas Railway
line can be commissioned when it has been completed end to end.
o Road
does not involve interference with the existing system, whereas commissioning
of a railway line involves Non-Interlocking of existing stations and
integration of newly laid track with the running system. This is a very
cumbersome process as train running is affected during commissioning process.
o A railway
line is certified to be traffic worthy by General Manager (Special Secretary
level officer) and inspected by Commissioner of Railway Safety before
authorizing running of trains on it. No such certification is required in case
of a road.
AKS/MKV/AK/DK
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