The Hindu : Fastest train to link Madgaon, Mumbai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 14, 2002

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Other States - Maharashtra

Fastest train to link Madgaon, Mumbai

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI Oct. 13. If all goes well, and Konkan Railway Corporation is optimistic, the country's first 150 kmph train linking Madgaon in Goa and Mumbai will become operational by the end of March 2003.

It will cover 442 kms in a mere three-and-half hours, making it the fastest train on the Indian Railways network.

The current fast trains had attained speeds of around 120 kmph, the Konkan Railway Corporation managing director, B. Rajaram, said today. Actually, between 120 or 130 kmph and 150 kmph, the difference was not very big. ``It is a mindset. We intend to change that.''

The new rolling stock with improved braking efficiencies, being built by the Railway Coach Factory with German know-how, was already available. By end of this year, the Konkan Railway Corporation hopes to conduct trials and establish techno-feasibility. ``Then, it is for the Railway Ministry to decide.''

The Konkan Railway, running along the Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka coasts, built in quick time with financial participation of the three States and Kerala, has several firsts to its credit.

The latest, on its 12th anniversary, will be a `self-stabilisation track' technology, which will make tracks safer. It is to be launched as a ``product'' on October 15.

The other firsts are Suraksha Kavach (anti-collision system) and computerised automatic and intelligent lighting at all stations on its network.

It has also evolved a `sky-bus concept' for metros where buses would move suspended on overhead tracks.

According to Mr. Rajaram, it was a simple method. ``We just reduce the frequencies at which the tracks respond to the traversing wheel and keep its geometry (alignment) unchanged.''

Speeding trains, he said, vibrated the track and the sleeper and ballast underneath. This was dampened by using a predetermined quantum of ballast, which was pre-compacted and firmly confined, adding to its mass and inertia. An elastic medium, such as reinforced rubber or a thick polyethylene layer, was inserted between the sleeper bottom and the top of the confined ballast. This reduced the overall frequency and amplitude of vibrations and the ballast was not disturbed.

The cost of the technology, Mr. Rajaram said, was about the same as the amount saved by reducing the ballast content by two cubic metres per meter of track. There would be no need to break mountains for the ballast, which was even-sized stones.

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