South East Central Railway (SECR) is taking another shot at laying a third line between Bilaspur to Nagpur in a bid to decongest the route. With projection of growth in freight in time to come, the railways is keen on the expansion and has now came-up with new formula wherein Zone has shortened the project to limit it between Rajnandgaon to Kalumna, a distance of 228 kms, in the first phase. Bilaspur Zone is single largest transporter of coal over Indian Railways, and nearly 90 per cent traffic originates from Bilaspur end and moves towards South and Western India where there is concentration of thermal power plants. The splitting of project it seems stems from earlier lack of response to tenders floated for 412 km turnkey project on multiple occasion.

 

Within the first phase, Zone is going of topographical survey between Dongargarh to BorTalao, a section of 17 km, for assessment about requirement of tunnels and other railway structures that would be needed. The section is chosen as it consists of a ghat section plus a water body, two challenges that would be needed to keep in mind while planning for third track. Now with focused approach the railway officials believe by lowering the project value, contractors might be interested in vying for the contract that in year 2016 only was pegged at Rs. 1908 crores and estimated time for completion was put at five-years. That time the project was at planning stage only but later zone officials decided to go for Nagpur to Bilaspur for a seamless movement of trains since beyond Bilaspur already fourth line is being laid till Jharsugda thereby covering the entire coal belt on Eastern corridor. The proposed line would cover four districts, Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh and three in Maharashtra, namely Gondia, Bhandara and Nagpur.

 

Along with topographic survey, the railway also wants geological mapping and fixing of alignment and preparing detailed drawing. Also the zone wants a estimate and submission of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) before deciding on taking-up the project and its submission for approval to Railway Board. They also want information as to feasibility of electrification along with signal&telecommunication rollout. For tunnel specific the Zone has sought detailed information as to ventilation, communication system within it and evacuation in case of any emergency. The DPR is most crucial element as the same outlines the final location of tracks, tunnels, and stations.

 

During the survey the entire land area is mapped and obstruction, location of water bodies are also laid out on map with need for minor or major bridges, the curves and other technical matters. Now-a-days the land surveys are conducted using hi-tech gadgets and drone is most commonly helping get most accurate description of the landscape. Since the third line would come-up adjacent to existing line, the survey would help railway officials pinpoint the exact portion for laying of new track, either adjacent to UP line or by side of DN line. Similarly, Railways as part of survey also asked for details about the soil strata for which bore holes (upto 75 mm diameter) are dug-up and same are then analysed in labs. The data would be quite helpful in determining the rock strata as it is most crucial while determining the rail embankment. The section is part of high density Howrah-Mumbai route that caters to movement of freight and passenger traffic from Eastern and Southern region to Western and Northern region of country.