Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Southern Circle, Bengaluru – Shri Abhai Kumar Rai conducted a preliminary inspection in the newly laid 2.26 km railway line between Padil – Kulashekara.
- The inspection is precursor to the signal disconnection (Pre Non -Interlocked working) and track connection work (Non-interlocked working) to connect the new line with the existing railway lines as part of the doubling work in the section
- Inspection using the motor trolley commenced from the Padil station yard on the course, CRS inspected the curve, minor bridge, Point, Height cutting and Tunnel in the section.
- The inspection concluded at Jokkatte station.
- During the inspection, CRS accompanied by Shri Trilok Kothari, Divisional Railway Manager, Palakkad Division and other higher officials of Southern Railway.
About the new infrastructure:
- Padil – Kulasekhara doubling work for a length of 2.26 Km (including a new tunnel of 780 m on the Up line) is the 4th and final stage of 19 km patch doubling work between Mangaluru Junction and Panambur.
- The new Tunnel (No. 4B ) is the highlight of the project.
- This is the fourth railway tunnel in Palakkad Division jurisdiction. (Other than the existing tunnel in Kulashekara, The other two tunnels are on the up and down line between Kasaragod – Kottikulam)
- The tunnel has 780 metre length and 6.18 metre in breadth.
- The height of the tunnel is 6.8 metre.
- The Conventional drill and blast method was used for the tunneling.
- The tunnel work alone cost approximately Rs.70 Crore.
- Pre Non Interlocked (Pre- NI) working and Non Interlocked (NI) Working
- Southern Railway is planning three days pre NI-working and continuous 11 hrs. NI working to connect the newly laid line with the existing lines.
- Advantages with the doubling in Padil – Kulasekhara section With the doubling in Padil – Kulasekhara section, a bottleneck in train operations existed with the short single line section (2.26 km) will get eliminated.
- At present, the line capacity of the section is only 24 trains in each direction and line capacity utilization of the section is 115%.
- At present coaching trains are frequently held up at Mangaluru Junction and Jokkatte for want of passage, especially when trains are running out of path (running late).
- Freight trains are to be moved in between the coaching trains whenever path is available.
- Hence freight trains are now frequently detained at Panambur and Jokkatte stations.
- With the introduction of doubling, detention to these freight trains can be minimized.
Source: Southern Railway- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): MoR
