The Central Railway seemed to have focused on infrastructure upgrade in the financial year 2021-22 as they laid more than 177 kms of rail lines, eliminated 90 plus manned level crossing gates and electrified 339 kms of route covering parts of Maharashtra. All these works were completed until March this year that were important for augmenting the efficiency of train running.
According to CR authorities they constructed new rail lines, carried out doubling and quadrupling at sections --- all totalling to 177.11 kms --- in order to ensure that space is available for running more trains. Some of these routes included Thane-Diva 5th and 6th line (18 kms), Solapurwadi-Ashti (31 kms) new line that is part of Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli Vaijnath section, doubling of Takari-Kirloskarwadi (8.46 kms), Ambale-Rajawadi (4.72 kms), Lonand-Salpa-Adarki (17 kms) and Kirloskarwadi-Amnapur-Bhilwadi (13.66 kms) which is part of Pune-Miraj doubling project.
They also electrified 339 kms of route resulting in completion of Pune-Miraj-Kolhapur single line and Daund-Solapur-Wadi section. This has resulted in 100 percent electrification of golden quadrilateral routes. “We also notched up our best ever performance in the elimination of 90 manned level crossings in 2021-22. Instead we provided Road over bridges/Road under bridges and Subways,” said Shivaji Sutar, Chief PRO, Central Railway.
Out of the 90 LC gates, there were 6 on Mumbai Division, 33 on Bhusaval Division, 20 each on Nagpur and Pune Division and 11 on Solapur Division that have been eliminated. The previous best performance of elimination of level crossings of 78 that was achieved in 2020-21. The Western Railway authorities have eliminated 158 LC gates which comprises 113 on Broad Gauge and remaining on Narrow Gauge.
Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager, Central Railway said that the capacity augmentation will help Central Railway to overcome constraints in train operations. “Electrification is environment friendly and Central Railway in all likelihood will achieve 100% electrification of its routes in 2022-23. The level crossings lead to congestion in traffic and elimination of these manned level crossings will lead to improvement in safety for road users and avoid detention to trains”.
