The Central Railways (CR) has witnessed a drastic decline in rail and weld fractures in the Mumbai Division owing to regular cleaning of the ballast beneath the sleepers, an improved drainage system, and a shift to the use of 260-meter-long rails from the conventional 130 metres. The development has lessened disruptions in train operations and improved punctuality.
Over 60 per cent reduction in rail fractures was reported in the last financial year as compared to the pre-Covid times. In 2019-2020, a total of 59 rail and weld fractures were reported in CRs Mumbai division, which came down to 34 in 2020-2021 and reduced to just 20 in 2021-2022.
Speaking about the development, a senior officer of CR's Mumbai Division said, “We replaced old rails (girders) of over 266-km-long tracks of the Mumbai Division including 128 km in 2020-2021 and 138 km in 2021-2022. Apart from that, the sleepers of around 140 km track lengths were also changed in the same period.” He added that deep screening of around 200 km track length and shallow screening of around 290 km track length was also completed during the last two financial years.
In addition, extra ballast was used to increase the cushion level of the track. In 2021-2022, over 2.75 lakh cubic metres of ballast was used in the Mumbai Division, which is almost 80,000 cubic metres more than used in 2019-2020. “Hence, the cushion level of the track has increased, which has also played a vital role in minimising track fractures,” the official said.
“Ballast provides good drainage for the track structure, apart from holding sleepers in the correct position by preventing movements caused by the lateral load. This reduces the chances of track failures and also the jerks felt in the train are reduced,” the official said, adding that one rail fracture in Mumbai affects at least 10 trains.
Rail fractures in CRs Mumbai Division
2019-2020
59
2020-2021
34
2021-2022
20
