New Delhi: An ambitious electrification plan of the Indian railways will now connect all major cities of the country with Guwahati. The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has completed the electrification of traction from Katihar to Guwahati making it possible to run passenger trains with higher speed & heavier goods trains.
Additional Rajdhani express trains can now be introduced for NE states like Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim. Due to seamless train operation, traction change at New Jalpaiguri, New Coochbehar will now be done away with, enhancing mobility of the trains. Also, running time between Guwahati to Katihar / Malda Town is likely to reduce by up to 2 hours as trains can now move at higher speed. This is yet another effort by NFR for capital connectivity by Green Transportation.
The Railways is trying to complete Broad Gauge network by 2023-24 which would result reduced fuel expenditure but also savings in precious foreign exchange. In this series, NFR has successfully completed the Electrification work of total 649 Route Kilometre (RKM)/ 1294 Tonne Kilometre (TKM) of (HDN) from Katihar to Guwahati.
The final leg of High-Density Network (HDN) on NF Railway of 107 RKM/273 TKM was successfully inspected by Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) NF circle from 7th Oct to 9th Oct 2021.
The railway electrification up to Guwahati shall lead to likely saving of foreign exchange spent on HSD Oil of about Rs300 Cr per annum as consumption will reduce by about 3400 KL per month. Line capacity enhancement of up to 10-15% shall lead to reducing level of saturation on many of the sections on the NF Railway allowing more coaching trains to run.
With Electrification heavier goods trains can be run at higher speed. NF Railway has difficult terrain with a large number of graded sections, curves, bridges. Electric traction shall eliminate need for multi diesel locos as higher HP electric engines can maintain higher speed in gradient section. Additional Rajdhani express trains can now be introduced for NE states like Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim.
Electrification of this section shall improve operational efficiency and shall lead to large saving on fuel for power cars (about Rs10 Cr on the electrified route itself). 15 pairs of existing trains originating/terminating at KYQ/GHY can run with an additional passenger coach by eliminating one power car, thus improving passenger throughput. Electrification will lead to better maintenance as faster trains shall lead to more time for maintenance blocks.
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