Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager, Central Railway recently inaugurated the Integrated Cable Route Plan at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.
The General Manager said the Integrated Cable Route Plan, developed inhouse by the Signal and Telecommunication(S&T) department of Central Railway will eliminate the chances of cable damage due to excavation, thus minimizing train detentions, revenue loss and enhance line capacity and train movement. It is also a positive step towards better signalling, communications and safe running of trains.
Various types of cables are being laid underground along the railway track for working of Signal and Telecom equipment at stations, automatic sections and other railway installations. With modern signal and telecom technologies being adopted, the number and types of cables required to be laid has increased considerably. At the same time, cables are required to be laid all along the track continuously.
With increased volume of excavation activities for construction of doubling, tripling, and quadrupling of railway lines, gauge conversation etc, frequent incidents of cable damage occur. Cutting of S&T cables has adverse effect on train movement as the signal and communication equipment fail. To restores these faults, lot of time, manpower is wasted. Punctuality of trains and line capacity of a section is also adversely affected.
The Integrated Cable Route Plan combines cables of various installations passing underground through a geographical area shown in different colours and marked throughout, following kilometerage that of railway track. The plan is available for access to all, before starting excavation near railway tracks. This is a major step towards safe running of trains.