by Elton Gomes
The Indian Railways is going to introduce new railway lines across the country that are presently at various stages of execution. Relevant information about the new railway lines in each state was given by Minister if State for railways Rajen Gohain. Gohain stated the information in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Completion of railway projects requires clearances from several departments of the State government and central ministries, such as acquisition of land, statutory clearances like forestry and wildlife, shifting of utilities, among other requirements. The decision for coming up with new routes is made only in the Railway Budget, which is a yearly exercise.
The highest number of new line projects are going on at Bihar, with plans to establish 34 new lines. Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have work going on in 18 new line projects. Assam and the north eastern region has 15 new line projects going on currently, and so does Uttar Pradesh. Delhi has only one new line project, whereas Maharashtra has 12 new line projects that are under construction. The complete list of new line constructions can be read here.
On Wednesday, the government stated that the Railways had developed 21 green corridors in 2017-18 under the Swachh Bharat Mission. As part of the mission, Indian Railways plans to increase the number of bio-toilets on its coaching stock to ensure that no human waste is discharged from coaches on to the tracks.
Meanwhile, overhead equipment cables, which are known to power trains, have become a cause of concern for the Central and Western Railway in Mumbai. As a part of multiple inspections of road-over-bridges (ROBs), engineers from the Indian Railways noticed that the cables are attached to bridges, and this could be risky. Some engineers also belonged to the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. The engineers were assigned the task of inspecting 445 bridges across Mumbai and its metropolitan region.
“We found that in some bridges, cables are attached to the cantilever, above which footpath exists. We will be shifting the cables onto the main girder in the coming days,” a railway official who did not wish to be named said, as reported by DNA. These cantilever bridges do not form a direct part of the main bridge, and are prone to collapse. The OHE cables and other related equipment weigh at least 500 kgs or more. In case it snaps, it would add more weight on the bridge below which it hangs.
Elton Gomes is a staff writer at Qrius