Hyderabad, (Asian independent) The South Central Railway (SCR) said on Tuesday that it has doubled the maximum permissible speed to 100 kmph on the important Godavari bridge located between the Manchiryal and Peddampet section.
This is also the first time in SCR limits that a train is permitted to operate at 100 kmph on the ballasted deck bridge of over 1 km length.
The stretch between Manchiryal and Peddampet covering a distance of 9 km is located on the Golden Diagonal (Grand Trunk) route of Kazipet-Balharshahsection, which is a gateway to the southern region, particularly from the northern region of the country.
Seven minor bridges are located within this critical stretch along with one important bridge of 1.2 km length across the Godavari river.
This section is surrounded by several coal, cement and thermal plants with separate line for their sidings/industries, leading to heavy congestion of the section.
In order to ease the congestion and also considering its importance, a third line was successfully completed in 2018, SCR said.
Since then, the maximum permissible speed in the block section between Manchiryal and Peddampet was 80 kmph, while the maximum speed over the Godavari bridge was 50 kmph.
To double the speed on this major bridge, the South Central Railways undertook major work involving welding all the long weld rails along the bridge, providing switch expansion joint (SEJ) on both sides of the bridge, strengthening the track formation by unloading 120 wagons of ballast and tamping, among others.
Accordingly, Track Recording Cars (TRC) and Oscillation Monitoring System (OMS) tests were successfully conducted over the bridge to ensure no defects.
Simultaneously, the temporary speed restrictions along the third line between Manchiryal and Peddampet were also attended to following which the speed has been enhanced to 100 kmph over this section.
This will help in improved train operations in the Kazipet-Balharshah section, which is a busy and saturated section with passenger and freight trains being operated at full capacity.
