Western Railway has completed the electrification works of Dhrangadhra-Surendranagar – Botad-Dhola section (155 RKM). The Commissioner of Railway Safety inspected the section on February17 and 18, 2020.
With this, WR has successfully completed the electrification of total 535 RKM during current financial year to date.
The sections completed this year include Indore-Ratlam and Ratlam-Nimach in Madhya Pradesh; Ahmedabad-Palanpur, Ahmedabad-Viramgam, Viramgam-Mehsana, Surendranagar–Botad-Dhola and Surendranagar-Dhrangadhra in Gujarat, four times as compared to last year.
Further, about 300 RKM more is planned for CRS inspection in March 2020, which will take the FY20 total to 850 RKM by WR.
Also, efforts are being made to electrify the route up to Pipavav port by March 2020 so as to enable to carry double stack containers from Pipavav port to Delhi via Palanpur by April 2020. Western Railway is the first zone to successfully run double stack containers in electrified territory, for which high raise OHE having contact wire height of 7.57 metres are required.
Cost Savings
Western Railway is expected to save about Rs.200 crores per annum on fuel expenses. To carry 1000 GTKM on electric traction, 4.5 units of electric energy is consumed, which costs about Rs.25 as against 2 litres of high speed diesel costing about Rs.150 to carry same load by diesel traction.