Exactly. If not today, tomorrow doubling is a must and having very high National Importance. As the traffic is increasing for an average of 20% per year over the Konkan Railway, there is no other option, but to lay another line with electrification. As the Konkan Railway was open to traffic in 1998 and within just 15 years, it has become one of the busiest routes in India. If only one line is considered, it handles more trains per year than Mumbai-Kota-Delhi route. And also, special thanks for the extreme hard works, patriotism, dedication towards their duties&responsibilities and initiatives taken by almost all the CMDs of KRCL, starting from Shri E. Sreedharan(the next Indian legend who deserves Bharat Ratna) to Shri BP Tayal for their future visions, including their superb team. Mangalore/Thokur-Udupi(42km), Roha-Veer(47km), etc were listed as the patch doubling sections, out of planned...
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patch doubling of 300km long plain lands on KRCL. KRCL is requesting all the 4 concerned states(Kerala, Karnakata, MH & Goa) for investing in all the listed sections to be doubled, as they are on plain lands or having the minimum tunnels, bridges and gradients. As KRCL handles around 80 trains per day and 3.6 crore passengers every year, any blind person can say the existing single line is not at all sufficient to handle ever increasing traffic. Goods traffic is heavier than almost any other sections in India and almost all the express trains on KRCL are having long waiting list, almost all the 365 days/year. If we try to book a ticket on KRCL today for today's or tomorrow's journey for a long distance, 99% sure - we cannot get the ticket. But, on other sections, it is normal to get today's ticket, depending on the season. As the electrification will save approximately Rs. 100 crores for KRCL every year as compared with fuel cost, around Rs. 600 crores are expected to electrify the whole 741km long single line. KRCL had plans to implement the electrification on BOT basis, around 3-4 years back itself. A whopping Rs. 15000 crores are required for the doubling works, for which KRCL has approached Japanese funding agency(JICA) and World Bank, in addition to the respective state governments. It is interesting to know that the total construction cost of Konkan Railway was Rs. 3500 crores. Actually, all these 4 states should jointly pressurize the next Central Government to get these two high priority plans done with 50:50 cost sharing on war-footing, as it is highly expensive construction on such an extremely anti-railway landsliding terrain. If the works start now, it will take a minimum of 10 years to finish, as the terrain is so harsh and anti-railway, even on these planned 300km long patch doubling sections. By that time, the requirement may be to double the whole KRCL route, irrespective of the cost, as the high returns as sure, but more years...