East Central Railways (ECR) has been lifeline for the people in its expanse and played a pivotal role in rapid development of the area. The development of infrastructure has been the major thrust area to bring about a rapid growth rate in the region and prosperity to the people. To list a few example shall be good and fast connectivity with all parts of the country through introduction of trains, construction of new lines, doubling, gauge conversion, construction of new bridges, construction of road-over bridges, new workshop projects etc. Other than this qualitative and perceptible improvement in safety, cleanliness, catering, passenger amenities have been achieved to a large extent. ECR is unique in the sense that both Goods loading and Passenger traffic assume great importance in view of the huge coal loading in the coal bearing of Dhanbad division of Jharkhand state and densely populated area of Bihar. The rapid growth in both the sectors has necessitated strengthening of infrastructure of Railways.
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| East Central Railways |
Passenger Business
With the objective of providing safe and efficient passenger and freight transportation solutions to the people, East Central Railway plays a pivotal role in fulfilling the transportation needs of its customers. This Railway has carried 2296.86 lakh passengers in the current year upto January, 2014. With the running of regular express trains and passenger trains per day, besides special trains during the period April, 2013 to January, 2014, better traffic facilities has provided to passengers. With the increase of 11.43%, East Central Railway has registered a significant increase under gross earnings by 9240.64 crore as compared to the corresponding month of last year i.e. 8292.82 crore.
Freight Loading and Earnings
After attaining the 100 MT loading and Rs 10000 Crores of earning in the year 2012-13, the path of progress in the year 2013-14 has been equally challenging if not more for the zone. ECR loaded 87.65 MT of goods traffic upto January 2014 with aggregate goods earning of Rs 7414.90 Crores, an increase of 5.23% and 8.97% respectively. The loading in wagons upto Jan 14 was 23290 as compared to 22052 upto Jan 13 an increase of 5.6% and an increase in throughput has been from 14253 in 8-wheelers upto Jan 13 to 14630 upto Jan 14.
Freight Loading: Reaching New Heights
After attaining the 100 MT loading and Rs 10000 Crores of earning in the year 2012-13, the path of progress in the year 2013-14 has been equally challenging if not more for the zone.
ECR loaded 87.65 MT of goods traffic upto January 2014 with aggregate goods earning of Rs 7414.90 Crores, an increase of 5.23% and 8.97% respectively. The loading in wagons upto Jan/2014 was 23290 as compared to 22052 upto Jan/2013 an increase of 5.6% and and increase in throughput has been from 14253 in 8-wheeelrs upto Jan/2013 to 14630 upto Jan/2014.
Freight Earning in ECR
There is a significant increase in goods earning due to longer lead of loading. Last year (2012-13) up to January, goods earning was 6804.80 crores, which has been increased by 8.97% to 7414.90 crores in financial year 2013-14. It is expected that East Central Railway would be able to contain the Operating Ratio to 92.19% for the year 2012-13 based on its robust earnings performance.
MEGA RAIL BRIDGES : Integrating the people of Bihar
River Ganges bisects State of Bihar into Northern and Southern parts. The northern Bihar is a gangetic plain flanked by the mighty Himalayas in Nepal in North and river Ganga in south. Similarly the ‘Mithilanchal area of North Bihar gets further divided into Eastern and Western parts by River Kosi. On the entire length of river Ganga falling in the State of Bihar, there are three bridges one at Naugachhia, one at Mokama and the third being ‘Mahatma Gandhi Setu’ at Patna. ‘Rajendrapul’ at Mokama is a Rail-cum-Road Bridge. The inadequate number of bridges has become one of the reasons for hindering the development of one of the most populous state of India. Not only with the construction of bridges on these rivers geographical integration of unification Bihar will be completed but also it will lead to social, economical and industrial development of the area.
Rail cum Road Bridge, Patna : Connecting North Bihar with Capital Patna
At present there is no rail link to connect North and South Bihar near Patna. In the entire east to west stretch of of about 445Kms of river Ganga in Bihar, there is a rail-cum road bridge at Varanasi and then the downstream if we go the nearest Rail link across river Ganga is available at Mokama (Rajendra Bridge), which is 318 km away from Varanasi. The Mokama rail link is already saturated and has become a major bottleneck for increasing the number of trains between North and South Bihar. This has been a great hindrance in the industrialization of North Bihar and Nepal, which have become the important trade centre for consumable goods. Construction of Rail-cum-Road Bridge will remove the bottle-neck and both parts of Bihar will be connected by more number of trains. Trade centers of North Bihar will also be connected with the rest part of Bihar. Power houses at Barauni and Kanti who are under going expansion in North Bihar shall also be benefitted due to lessened congestion. Hence this Rail cum Road bridge shall act as a lifeline for Bihar.
The work of Ganga Rail Bridge at Patna was included in 1997-98 when the proposal was only for the Rail bridge but in 2006-07 the scope was increased to Rail cum Road Bridge. It is the longest Rail cum Road bridge.
The dilapidated condition of the only road bridge connecting North and South Bihar in Patna (Mahatma Gandhi Setu), warrants for immediate arrangement of alternate road bridge. Understanding the problem, in the year 2005, in September, 2006 scope of the project was enlarged and Rail bridge was converted into Rail cum Road bridge. The bridge will be longest Rail-cum-Road Bridge in India with total length of 4556m. The bridge consists of 38 spans. The proposed Road of the bridge is connecting NH-31 of North Bihar to NH-80 of South Bihar.
Rail-cum-Road Bridge, Munger
No road bridge across River Ganges is available between Mokama and Bhagalpur for a distance of about 206 Kms. The only rail link available across river Ganga in Bihar is Rajendra Bridge at Mokama. Similar is the situation for Road Bridge also. Rail-cum-Road Bridge at Munger has a revised cost of Rs. 2363 crore, in which Rs. 1116 crore share with State Government and Rs. 1247 crore share with Railway. Rail link of the bridge is connecting Jamalpur station of Sahebganj loop (Maldah Division) of Eastern Railway to Sahebpurkamal station (Barauni-Katihar section) of East Central Railway. The bridge is 3190 m long with 27 spans.
Kosi Bridge
In the year 1887, a meter gauge rail link between Nirmali and Bhaptiahi (Saraigarh) was provided by the Bengal North West Railway. Due to severe Ino-Nepal earthquake in 1934 this rail link washed away in heavy flood owing to meandering nature of river Kosi, no attempt was made to restore this link for a long period.
The Kosi Rail Bridge project included in the budget in the year 2003-04 at an estimated cost of Rs. 323 Crore. After the construction of Kosi Rail Bridge, the distance between Nirmali and Saraigarh will get reduced to 20.5 KM from present 299 KM. It will provide an alternative BG route of length 610 km between Gorakhpur and Katihar against the existing route of505 KMvia Chapra and Barauni, which at present is a highly saturated corridor.This project gained exceptional significance as the East West Corridor from Muzaffarpur to Purnia (NH 57) of NHAI shares the same location for crossing River. The bridge is 1780m long with 39 spans.
New Sone Railway Bridge
This bridge was constructed during the year 1898. Due to introduction of clause of MBG-1987 loading, the existing bridge became the major constraint and necessitated the construction of new alternate bridge.Besides above, the density of the traffic on this route has gone up considerably with the next third line between Dehri-On-Sone and Mughalsarai came into effect. Even after construction of 3rd line between Dehri-On-Sone & Mughalsarai, fully capacity of line could not have been utilized due to the constraint of the above bridge.
New Factories and Workshops
Greenfield Electric Locomotive Factory, Madhepura
GELF, Madhepura is poised to be set up under PPP (Public-Private Partnership) arrangement with the estimated cost of 1293 Crore. It shall be a Joint Venture between Ministry of Railways with equity share of 26% and a leading international Electric Locomotive manufacturer, who will also bring in state-of-the-art technology. The Electric locomotive availability and Energy Efficiency standards will also be comparable to world’s standard. This GELF, Madhepura is expected to turn out 800 number of 12000HP, 8 Axle, Bo-Bo Electric Locomotive, based on IGBT technology , in span of 10 years to cater the need for hauling Goods traffic on dedicated Freight Corridor, rail link exclusively for goods trains.
Rail Wheel Plant, Bela
With the rapid strides that the Indian Economy was taking, freight transportation started leapfrogging. Indian Railways envisaged a 51.5% increase in freight transportation by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan, over the 10th five year plan. The logical corollary of the above was an increase in the requirement of wheel sets for the freight stock. Since RWF, Yelahanka was not in position to fully bridge the gap between demand and supply, Indian Railways decided to set up its second Rail Wheel Plant at Bela, in Saran District of Bihar. The work was sanctioned at a total cost of Rs 1417.2 Cr in the year 2006-07 for a Rail Wheel Plant having an installed capacity of one Lakh Freight Wheels per annum. The Plant has an engineering marvel in itself. It has been constructed on an area of 168 acres. Rail Wheel Plant will manufacture cast steel wheels by scraps (mainly condemned wheel-sets, axles, rails, light melting scrap etc. rejected as unfit for use by the various units of Railway).
The unique feature of the Plant will be management through extensive use of business application of Information Technology. All activities including, Manufacturing, Quality control, Asset management, HR, Finance, Payroll, Inventory management, Employee Self Service, portal based access etc. will be directly supported over IT backbone facilitated by different ERP modules through in house level-III Data-centre. IP telephony and Integrated Video surveillance system is also being implemented first time in a production unit of Indian Railway.
Diesel Locomotive Manufacturing Plant at Marhaura
A new production unit for manufacturing of high horsepower Diesel locomotives is planned to be set up at Marhaura. The unit would produce 150 locos per month. The work has already been sanctioned under works programme 2006-07 at a cost of Rs. 2052 crore through supplementary demands of grant. This will be second diesel locomotive manufacturing unit in addition to already existing Diesel loco works at Varanasi.
‘C’ category unloadable wagon repair workshop, Samastipur
A small workshop for repair of ‘C’ category unloadable wagons is being set up in the premises of Scrap depot, adjacent to Wagon Manufacturing Workshop at Samastipur. The work is near completion. About 50 ‘C’ category unloadable wagons per month would be repaired in this workshop. During the current financial year a total 246 BOXN wagons have been repaired for ‘C’ category unloadable damages.
Innovative work done by Samastipur Workshop
A bulldozer for the accident relief train at Dhanbad was procured at a cost of Rs.1.7 Cr. It could not be used often due to absence of a suitable wagon for quick movement to an accident spot. RDSO permitted use of one MBWT well wagon but that was not found practical. Ultimately one flat wagon of 1942 vintage has been modified by Samastipur Workshop of East Central Railway. Modifications have included:-
·Modified well portion on underframe leaving only load bearing members.
·Obsolete diamond trolleys replaced by Casnub 22 high speed bogies.
·Vacuum brake replaced by air brake system. Due to the well portion constraint for housing conventional rigging, bogie mounted air brakes were adopted.
·ICF coach screw coupling and buffers provided.
DEMU maintenance depot at Sonepur:
One new depot for repair and maintenance of DEMU train rakes is being set up at Sonepur. The depot will have a holding capacity of 20 DEMU rakes of 8 coach length each. The work has been sanctioned under Works Programme 06-07 and its latest sanctioned cost is Rs.21.75 crore. The work has been completed maintenance of DEMU Rakes have started.
Freight Bogie and Coupler Manufacturing Plant for high capacity higher axle load wagons at Dalmiyanagar:
In a first, freight bogie and coupler manufacturing shall be done for the first time on Indian Railways at Dalmianagar. Till now it was being supplied by the outside agencies. In order to become self reliant in vital spares of wagon, a new plant for manufacturing of freight bogies and couplers will be set up at Dalmiyanagar in the premises of erstwhile Rohtas Industries which has been taken over by Indian Railways. The work has already been sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 97 crore under works programme 2007-08.
Carriage Repair Workshop, Harnaut
ECR had no carriage repair workshop and was totally dependent on ER and NER. In order to be self reliant and improve efficiency, workshop for overhauling of 50 coaches per month has been set up at Harnaut on Bakhtiyarpur-Rajgir section of Danapur division of East Central Railway. The workshop is spread over 75 acres of land and there is scope for future expansion also It has so far carried out 139 POH of Non AC ICF Coaches. It’s present outturn is 20 coaches per month and target from April 1st2014 is 30 coaches per month and gradually improving. Most of its infrastructure was completed in 2013 and in future there is plan to repair air-conditioned coaches as well.
East Central Railway, though barely out of infancy, only 11 years old, has a long way to go in its path of progress. There are many new challenges for the future. There are many new lines, doubling of track, Road over bridges, Rail over bridges, new trains, new terminals need to be planned and made in order to fulfill the dream and aspiration of the people of the area to be a developed passenger and freight railways.
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