ANOTHER SHOCKING NEWS!!!!!!
The Konkan Railway is a sign that things can actually work if one puts their heart to it even in this country. It is not just a railway line, it is a symbol of hope. In a country where it takes 4 years to complete a 500 m flyover, this was just simply out of the world! (out of the country atleast). But the fact remains that the project was a success because government processes were kept out of it. Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala pooled in money and KRCL was given a free hand to bypass government procedures and use their own heads to build the line. Another reason why the project could be completed in such a...
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short time was timely land acquisition, facilitated by officials who were able to convince landowners of the importance of this project and the benefits it would bring them. Prompt delivery of compensation also helped with cheques being hand-delivered to land owners in many cases. But there were self-important detractors tried to scutte the project for their own self-interest as well, like in Goa, where landowners and “environmental activists” who went to court demanding the line be diverted inland through forests instead of populated areas. If standard IR operating procedures were to be followed, this line wouldn’t have been finished in 50 years.
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The Konkan Railway – Facts and Figures
The Konkan Railway is a 738 km long non-electrified single line Broad Gauge Railway with design speed is for 160 kilometers/hour, though no trains run that fast on this line. The fastest train on the line is the H.Nizamuddin – Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express which touches 110 kmph on some stretches. The main locomotives doing duty on the line are the WDP4, WDG4, WDM3A, WDM3D, WDP3A, the WDM2 and its variants. The line has 59 stations with a depot at Verna and yards at Madgaon. South Western Railway’s Londa – Madgaon – Vasco line runs parallel with the KR line for a short distance at Madgaon. The line has 91 tunnels totaling 83 kilometers with the...
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longest being the Karbude tunnel at 5.6 kilometers long. It has 1998 bridges (179 major bridges and 1819 minor bridges) spanning rivers, streams and other waterbodies including the Mandovi, Zuari and Sharavati rivers. The bridge across the Sharavati is also the Konkan’s longest at 2085.4 m. The Konkan Railway also boasts of the 64 meter tall Panval Nadi Viaduct near Ratnagiri, the second highest bridge in Asia, a visible example of the ingenuity of the line and the dedication of the builders. It connects two hills and has 12 spans and 10 pillars, 6 of which are taller than the Qutub Minar! The train leaves a tunnel, runs straight onto the viaduct which then runs right into the next tunnel! If you want perspective, here is one of the pillars as seen where it meets the ground.
The KR line closely follows the NH-17 and the alignment seems to be chosen to be near the highway at all times. No point of the Konkan Railway line is more than 22 kilometers away from the highway and on an average the line is within two to five kilometers of the highway. It crosses the highway at numerous points but there are no level crossings! The NH-17 is no less a driver’s delight. Watch out for those trucks and Volvos though.
The track passes though a geologically sensitive region with heavy rainfall and frequent landslides, floods etc, so disruptions in service during the monsoons are commonplace even with all the technologically superior safety checks in place. In fact, KR is the only railways in India with a “monsoon timetable” for the monsoon months when trains are run at reduced speed and possibly during the daytime with increased caution due to the volatile nature of the terrain. Sadly, there have been two fatal accidents on the line, once in 2003 when a holiday special derailed after a landslide fell on it killing 51 and once in 2004 when the Matsyagandha Express derailed after hitting boulders which fell on the track killing 14. Every year during monsoons some issue happens on the line and services get suspended with trains getting rerouted.
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