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Brief on Railway Electrification

Brief on Railway Electrification

1. Historical Background of Railway Electrification

Railway Electrification made a modest beginning with the inauguration of first electric train between Bombay VT and Kurla Harbour on 3rd February 1925 on then existing GIP Railway system at 1500 V DC. Heavy gradients on the Western Ghats necessitated introduction of electric traction on Central Railway upto Igatpuri on North East line and Pune on South East line. 1500 Volt DC traction was introduced on suburban section of Western Railway between Colaba and Borivili on 05.01.1928 and Madras Beach and Tambram of Southern Railway on 11.05.1931. This was primarily to meet the growing traffic in these metros. Thus, before the dawn of Independence, India had 388 KM of electrification on DC traction.

In the post Independence era, electrification of Howrah-Burdwan section of Eastern Railway was taken up on 3000 Volt DC during the First Five Year Plan period and completed in 1958. The first EMU services were inaugurated in Howrah-Sheoraphulli section by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India on 14.12.1957.

25 kV AC system of traction emerged as an economical system of electrification as a result of extensive research and trials in Europe, particularly on French Railways (SNCF). Indian Railways decided in 1957 to adopt 25 kV AC system of electrification as a standard, with SNCF as their consultant in the initial stages.



In the wake of industrial development, in the Eastern region, due to the setting up of steel plants, large scale movement of Iron and Coal, substantial growth in freight traffic, which could not be managed by steam traction, electrification and dieselisation had to be introduced in early sixties to cope up with the growing traffic.

The first section electrified on 25 kV AC system was Raj Kharswan-Dongoaposi of South Eastern Railway in the year 1960. With a view to provide continuity of traction system, Howrah-Burdwan section of Eastern Railway and Madras Beach Tambaram section of Southern Railway were converted to 25 kV AC system by 1968.

The manufacture of Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) required for Kolkata suburban services was taken up indigenously at Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai and first EMU rolled out during September 1962.

Considering the various limitations in existing 1500 V DC traction systems in Central Railway and Western Railway, a decision was taken to convert to 25 kV AC traction during 1996-97. Conversion from DC traction to AC traction is under progress.

2. Organisation and setup of Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE)

Railway Electrification (RE) office was initially set up in Calcutta as PORE (Project office for Railway Electrification) during the First Five Year Plan period, when Electrification of Howrah-Burdwan section of Eastern Railway was taken up.

A General Manager was posted for the Railway Electrification Organisation set up at Calcutta in 1959. In 1961, Northern Railway Electrification office was set up at Allahabad for electrification of Mughalsarai-New Delhi section. This office was headed by an Engineer -in- Chief.

On recommendation of J. Raj Committee report in 1978, a number of Electrification works were included in the Pink Book (book containing works approved by the Parliament for execution). For proper controlling, monitoring and execution of Railway Electrification works in different Zonal Railways, the concept of Railway Electrification headquarter came into being.

Since most of the sanctioned electrification works were falling in the Central and Southern regions of the country, the headquarter of Railway Electrification was set up at Nagpur and functioned under the charge of an Additional General Manager from 1982 to 1984. Railway Electrification office was shifted to Allahabad under Additional General Manager with effect from January 1985.  A regular General Manager was posted at Central Organisation For Railway Electrification, Allahabad from July 1987 on wards which is continuing till date.

The headquarters office of Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE) is headed by General Manager and assisted by Electrical, S&T, Civil, Store, Personnel, Vigilance and associate Finance departments. Presently, nine RE project offices are functioning viz. Ambala, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Lucknow, Jaipur, Secunderabad, Gorakhpur, Danapur, New Jalpaigudi and Jabalpur each headed by a Chief Project Manager.

3. Progress of Railway Electrification

In the wake of industrial development, in the Eastern region, due to the setting up of steel plants, large scale movement of Iron and Coal, substantial growth in freight traffic, which could not be managed by steam traction, electrification and dieselisation had to be introduced in early sixties to cope up with the growing traffic. After the completion of Second Five Year Plan, Indian Railways had electrified 216 RKM on 25 kV AC. During the Third Plan, along with considerable indigenisation, electrification was extended over another 1678 RKM. The pace of electrification, however, slowed down until the oil crisis of seventies. The second oil crisis in particular brought to the fore the need for evolving a long term policy for electrification to reduce the dependence of Railways on petroleum based energy.

In the context of shift from petroleum based energy in transport sector, the Secretaries Committee on energy headed by Cabinet Secretary decided in July 1980 that Indian Railways should speed up electrification at a pace of 1000 Route Kms/year. Accordingly, the pace of electrification was considerably speeded up and Indian Railways achieved progress of 2812 RKM during the Seventh Plan, 2708 RKM during Eighth Plan and 2484 RKM during Ninth Plan, 1810 RKM during Tenth Plan, 4556 RKM during Eleventh Plan. During the first year of Twelth Plan 1317 RKM has been electrified.

Six major trunk routes of Golden Quadrilateral and diagonals viz Delhi - Delhi - Mumbai via Central and Western Railways, Delhi - Chennai, Mumbai - Calcutta and Howrah - Chennai have already been fully electrified. Electrification of remaining Mumbai - Chennai Route (Guntakal - Pune) is in progress.

A total of 23541 RKM has been electrified up to 31.03.2013 on Indian Railways, mostly on heavy density routes. This constitutes about 36.4% of total Indian Railway network. At present, approximately 50.4% of passenger traffic and 66.6% freight traffic is operated on electric traction. The XIth Plan target for electrification was set at 6500 RKM and realized is 4556 RKM.

4. Important landmarks of Railway Electrification:

S.No.

Date & Year

Railway

RKMs

Landmarks

1.

03.02.1925

Central

16

First electric train on 1500 Volt DC from Bombay VT to Kurla.

2.

Up to 1947

Central, Eastern & South Eastern

388

RKM electrified on Indian Railways at the time of Independance.

3.

1954-58

Eastern

142

3000 V DC electrification on HWH-Burdwan and Sheoraphulli- Tarakeshwar sections.

4.

14.12.1957

Eastern

142

Inauguration of EMU services on Howrah-Sheoraphulli section by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, first P.M. of India.

5.

1957

-

-

Adoption of 25 kV AC single phase electrification on Indian Railways.

6.

11.08.1960

South Eastern

75

First section electrified on 25 kV AC Raj Kharswan- Dongoaposi.

7.

14.10.1961

-

-

Inauguration of first 1500 V DC electric locomotive (Lokmanya) for Bombay area by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,  first P.M. of India.

8.

September 1962

-

-

Introduction of first indigenous Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) for services.

9.

1966 - 1968

Eastern & South Eastern

-

3 kV DC converted in to 25 kV AC.

10.

07.01.1977

Eastern & Northern

1445

Commissioning of electrified trunk route of Delhi - Howrah.

11.

31.03.1987

Northern, Central & Western

1388

Commissioning of electrified trunk route of Delhi - Bombay via Western Railway.

12.

31.01.1991

Eastern, South Eastern & Central

1976

Commissioning of electrified trunk route of Howrah - Bombay.

13.

31.03.1991

Northern, Central, South Central & Southern

2190

Commissioning of electrified trunk route of Delhi - Chennai.

14.

31.01.1992

Northern & Central

1542

Commissioning of electrified trunk route of Delhi - Bombay via Central Railway.

15.

1994-95

Central & South Eastern

770

Commissioning of 2x25 KV OHE system of Bina-Katni and Katni - Anuppur - Bishrampur - Chirimiri.

16.

03.02.2002

Eastern & East Central

534

Inauguration of electrified Howrah - Delhi route via Patna by then Prime Minister Shri A.B. Bajpayee.

17.

30.05.2003

East Central

92

Inauguration of Patna - Gaya section by Hon’ble President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

18.

29.08.2003

Central & Western

306

Inauguration of Udhna - Jalgaon section.

19.

26.01.2004

Northern

137

Inauguration of Ludhiana - Amritsar section.

20.

29.11.2005

South Eastern, East Coast & South Central

1117

Commissioning of electrified trunk route of Howrah - Chennai (Missing link Kharagpur - Waltair).

21.

06.08.2006

Southern

37

Inauguration of Villupuram - Pondicherry section by Chief Minister of Puducherry, Shri N. Rangasamy.

22.

30.12.2006

Southern

320

Commissioning of electrified route of Ernakulam - Trivandrum by Minister for Railways Shri Lalu Prasad.

23.
24.11.2007
Eastern
127
Commissioning of electrified route of Krishnanagar - Lalgola by Minister for Railways Shri Lalu Prasad.
24.
08.12.2007
South Central
103
Commissioning of electrified route of Tirupati - Pakala - Katpadi by Minister for Railways Shri Lalu Prasad.

 25.
07.07.2008
East Coast
24
Successful Trial of Highest OHE in the world (7.45m high contact wire) in Jakhapura-Tomka section for Double Stack Container Train operation.
5. Electrification works in progress

Electrification works in Progress

CORE Project
Section
RKM
Energised till 31.3.12
Balance RKM As on 1.4.12
Ambala
Delhi-Sarai Rohilla-Rewari 78 0 78
Khurja-Meerutt City-Saharanpur
200
200
0
Ghaziabad-Meerutt
47
47
0
Ghaziabad-Moradabad
140
2
138
Jallandhar-Jammutawi-Udhampur
275
232
43
Udhampur-Katra
25
0
25
Katra-Dharam
72
0
72
Rohrak-Bhatinda-Lehra Mohabbat 252 0 252
 
Bhubaneswar
Vizianagaram-Rayagada-Titlagarh
263
0
263
Titlagarh -Sambhalpur-Jharsuguda incl.IB Bypass line
238
0
238
Pandabeswar-Sainthia-Pakur incl. Khana-Sainthia
205
148
57
Andal-Sitarampur via Jamuria - Ikhra
Singapur Road-Damanjodi
Pakur-Malda Town
Andal-Sitaramur via Jamuria-Ikhra
57
 152
74
57
0
0
0
0 0
57
152
74
57
Lucknow
Varansi-Lohta-Janghai-Phaphamau-Unchahar incl. Phaphamau-Prayag-Allahabad 207 204
3
 
0
Rosa-Sitapur-Burhwal
181
0
181
 

Gorakhpur
Barabanki-Gorakhpur-Chhapra Kachehariincl. Thawe-Siwan
452
403
49
Hajipur
Chhapra Kachehari -Barauni**
305
277
24
Barauni-Katihar
177
151
26
Garwa Road-Chopan-Singrauli
257
0
257
New Jalpaigudi
Katihar-Guwahati incl. Katihar-Barsoi
649
121
528
Kumedpur-Malda Town incl.Old Malda-Singhabad
79
0
79
Chennai
Bangalore suburban area
53
52
1
 
Madurai-Tuticorin-Nagercoil
262
259
3
Vellore Cantt.-Villupuram
150
150
0
Shoranur-Mangalore-Penambur
328
116
212
Coimbatore -Mettupalayam
33
0
33
Secunderabad
Lingampalli-Wadi
162
162
0
Gondia-Ballarshah
250
9
241
Kengeri-Mysore
125
48
77
Nallapadu- Guntakal
426
0
426
Jaipur
Rewari-Palanpur-Ahmedabad incl. Kalol-Gandhinagar-Khodiyar & Alwar-Bandikui-Jaipur-Phulera (excl.Rani-Palanpur) 843 0 843
Kanpur-Jhansi
240
230
10
Mathura-Alwar-Rewari
203
38
165
 


Jabalpur Chheoki-Manikpur-Itarsi incl.Satna-Rewa 653 0 653

TOTAL
8113
2849
5264
RE Works with RVNL
Nandalur-Guntakal
223
223
0
Hospet-Guntakal &  Torangallu – Ranjitpura
138
0
138
Obulavripalle-Krishnapatnam
113
28
85
Bharauch-Samni-Dahej
62
62
0
Haridaspur-Paradeep
82
0
82
Tomka-Jharoli
151
151
0
Angul-Sukinda
99
0
99
Amla - Chhindwara- Kalumna
257
0
257
Pune-Wadi-Guntakal
641
0
641
Daund-Manmad incl. Puntamba-Sirdi
255
255
0
Valupada-Iddapalli
9
9
0
Yelahanka-Dharmavaram-Gooty
306
104
202
Titlagarh-Raipur
202
0
202
Manheru-Hisar
74
0
74
Total
2611
530
2081
RE Works with Zonal Railways
Chandigarh-Ludhiana (NR)
112
43
69
Noli-Shahdara (NR)
10
0
10
Laksar-Haridwar-Raiwala-Dehradun (NR)
79
0
79
Bardhman-Katwa (ER)
52
24
28
Tamluk-Digha (SER)
94
89
5
Shantipur-Krishnanagar-Nabadwip (ER)
27
13
14
Rewari-Manheru (NWR)
69
0
69
Angul-Sambhalpur (ECoR)
156
0
156
Miyagam-Karjan-Dabhoi-Samlaya (WR)
96
0
96
Vijayavada-Gudivada-Bhimavaram- Narsapur-Gudivada-Machilipatnam and Bhimavaram-Narsapur (SCR)
221
0
221
TOTAL
916
169
747
IRCON
Dharam-Baramula
195
0
195

GRAND TOTAL
11677
3523
8154

** Ganga Bridge line (28 RKM) being done by ECR.


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