Mumbai: Central Railway GM inaugurates Integrated Cable Route Plan at CSTM

Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager, Central Railway Tuesday (April 5) inaugurated the Integrated Cable Route Plan at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

The General Manager said the Integrated Cable Route Plan, developed in-house by the Signal and Telecommunication (S&T) department of the Central Railway will eliminate the chances of cable damage due to excavation, thus minimizing train detentions, and revenue loss enhancing line capacity and train movement. It is also a positive step towards better signalling, communications and safe running of trains.

Various types of cables are being laid underground along the railway track for working of signal and telecom equipment at stations, automatic sections and other railway installations.

With modern signal and telecom technologies being adopted, the number and types of cables required to be laid have increased considerably. At the same time, cables are required to be laid all along the track.

With the increased volume of excavation activities for the construction of doubling, tripling, and quadrupling of railway lines, gauge conversation etc, frequent incidents of cable damage takes place from time to time.

Cutting of S&T cables harms train movement as the signal and communication equipment fails. To restore these faults, a lot of time and manpower is wasted. Punctuality of trains and line capacity of a section is also adversely affected.

The Integrated Cable Route Plan combines cables of various installations passing underground through a geographical area shown in different colours and marked throughout, following kilometrage that of railway track. The plan is available for access to all, before starting excavation near railway tracks. This is a major step towards the safe running of trains.