Hyderabad : Speed enhanced on Godavari railway bridge to 100 kmph

Hyderabad : The South Central Railway (SCR) has been continuously strengthening and modernising its rail infrastructure to enhance the speeds over its rail network and provide better transport services to its passengers.

In this direction, another important step has been taken by doubling the maximum permissible speed on the important Godavari bridge located between Mancherial– Peddampet section to 100 kmph. This is also the first time on SCR that a ballasted deck bridge of over 1 km length has been permitted to operate at 100 kmph.

The stretch between Mancherial–Peddampet covering a distance of 9 km is located in the Golden Diagonal (Grand Trunk) route of Kazipet– Balharshah section, which is a gateway of Southern region particularly from the northern region of the country.

Seven minor bridges are located within this critical stretch along with one important bridge of 1.2 km length across River Godavari.

This section is surrounded by several coal, cement and thermal plants with separate line for their sidings/industries leading to heavy congestion of the section. In order to ease the congestion and also considering its importance, third line had been successfully completed in the year 2018.

Since then, the maximum permissible speed in the block section between Mancherial-Peddampet was 80 kmph, while the maximum speed over the Godavari Bridge has been 50 kmph.

To double the speed on this major bridge, SCR undertook major work, involving welding all the long weld rails along the bridge, providing Switch Expansion Joint (SEJ) on the both sides of the bridge approaches, strengthening the track formation by unloading of another 120 wagons of ballast and tamping among others.

Accordingly, Track Recording Cars (TRC) & Oscillation Monitoring System (OMS) tests were successfully conducted over the bridge to ensure no defects.

Simultaneously, the temporary speed restrictions along the third line between Mancherial to Peddampet were also attended and speed has been enhanced to 100 kmph over this section. This is one of the crucial works carried out by the zone on the path of developing rail infrastructure and using of modern techniques in its system working.

This will help in improved train operations in Kazipet–Balharshah section, which is a busy and saturated section with passenger and freight trains being operated at full capacity. SCR General Manager Gajanan Mallya has appreciated the engineering team who have put their strenuous efforts in completing this important work.

He opined that the enhancement of speed on such lengthy and important bridge will ease the congestion in train operations, besides being helpful for the rail passengers in having a comfortable travel.