Kochi: Railway commuters will have to bear with late running trains for another year as nearly 210 km of track renewal work remains to be undertaken in the Thiruvananthapuram division.
The railways, on its part, has upped monthly track renewal target to 22 kms which necessitates upto eight hours of line block during night on certain occasions.
“We’re doing our best to finish the works at the earliest and have set ourselves an ambitious target of 22 km a month, the highest across the country. For this we’ve to resort to mega line blocks similar to one done at Ollur last Sunday (eight hours) when track renewal work over a rail bridge was carried out in a single night,” Shirish Kumar Sinha, Divisional Railway Manager, told this newspaper.
Though the division achieved the highest output in the last five years during 2017-18, when 83 kms of tracks were re-laid, it still fell short of the target of 140 kms, as per figures of the Engineering department. During April-May period this financial year, the Through Rail Renewal (TRR) of 28 km was completed.
The officer, however, refused to commit a particular period to complete the entire work. “We can finish the works in two months if we could carry-out the works round the clock. But, that’s not possible. We plan the work in such a way that passenger trains are least affected. Also other factors like late handing over of long-haul trains by other divisions and weather delay the work,” Sinha said.
Currently, major works are progressing in Shornur-Ernakulam section while that in Thiruavanthapuram-Kayamkulam section has finished.
The railways has deployed Track Relaying Train (TRT) along with two Ballast Cleaning Machines (BCM) to expedite rail replacement and maintenance work. Deep screening of ballast has to be done every ten years to ensure proper drainage, stability of track and smooth running. This will prevent rail breakage. As of now more than 200 kms are planned for deep screening.
Southern Railway had targeted to complete rail renewal of 139 km and sleeper renewal of 106 km in Thiruvananthapuram division in 2017-18 at a total investment of Rs 480 crore.
