3,300 km of new track for freight transport: a megaproject
Produced at Plasser India, three SVM 1000 I track laying trains are working on the largest infrastructure project in India. The impressive construction projects include a dedicated freight corridor with two tracks totalling around 3,300 km.
10,000 km for more freight traffic capacity
As there is a lack of capacity for the transport of raw materials and industrial goods, India has been investing heavily in the expansion of the rail network for many years. "Dedicated Freight Corridors" are created which, as the name says, are dedicated specifically to freight transport.
In the final phase, a network of dedicated freight corridors will cover India, connecting the country’s four largest metropolises: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Together with the two diagonals – North-South Corridor (Delhi-Chennai) and the East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai) – the Golden Quadrilateral Freight Corridor (GQFC) will be created. In future, it will transport 55% of the freight traffic of Indian Railways on a total length of about 10,000 km.
The Golden Quadrilateral Freight Corridor (GQFC)
The completed network will comprise six freight-only lines in 1,676 mm broad gauge. Two are being built, financing for the other four was approved in January 2018.
Under construction:
- Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, 1,483 km, from Jawaharlal Nehru port in Mumbai (Maharashtra) to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh (Greater Delhi)
- Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, 1,760 km, from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal (Greater Kolkata)
Already approved:
- East-West Dedicated Freight Corridor, 2,000 km from Kolkata to Mumbai
- North-South Dedicated Freight Corridor, 2,173 km from Delhi to Chennai
- East Coast Dedicated Freight Corridor, 1,100 km from Kharagpur (near Kolkata) to Vijayawada
- South-West Dedicated Freight Corridor, 890 km from Chennai to Goa
Increase in transport efficiency
The project aims at modernizing transport technology, increasing productivity, and reducing transport costs per unit. International experience and technologies for heavy traffic lines will be used. The aim is to increase load-carrying capacity by optimally constructing the track and thus enabling higher loads at higher speeds .
The West Corridor is designed as a heavy-haul line for axle loads of up to 25 t (32.5 t for bridges and embankments). Double-stack container trains (for transporting two containers on top of each other) will travel on a fully electrified line with speeds of up to 100 km/h.
In the West Corridor alone, the project consists of laying about 1,400 km of track, installing numerous turnouts, building more than 1,300 bridges and 20 stations as well as supplying the required equipment. Such construction projects require the latest technologies and state-of-the-art methods of international railway construction.
India’s leading contractors are working with Plasser & Theurer machines
The construction tasks are awarded in lot numbers to all the major players in India's construction industry. GMR Group has recently joined the track construction business and is involved in the construction of the Eastern Corridor. The company uses two continuous-action SVM 1000 I track laying machines which were purchased in the last few years..
In addition, GMR uses two Duomatic 08-32 C plain-line tamping machines, one Unimat 08-275 3S universal tamping machine, two PBR 400 ballast profiling machines with integrated turntable, and one DGS 62 N Dynamic Track Stabilizer for the associated construction tasks.
L&T Larsen & Toubro, India's largest construction company, is fulfilling its first major construction contract on heavy rail on the Western Corridor, using one SVM 1000 I track laying machine and track maintenance machines (Unimat 08-275 3S, Duomatic 08-32 C, PBR 400, DGS 62 N).
Assembly-line track laying using the SVM 1000 I
The SVM 1000 I has been designed specifically for laying new track. The machine is not only compact in design and easy to operate, but also places the sleepers with high precision and working output. Experience has shown that – if continuously supplied with new sleepers and rails – an output of 300 km per year can be expected.
The SVM 1000 I, consisting of one laying unit and two gantry cranes, is built by Plasser India. The machines are equipped with clip units. They are suitable for transporting and laying sleepers and rails. The gantry cranes are height adjustable, allowing compliance with the gauge during transfer travel. For this, the crane runway is lowered into the parking position.
The track renewal train is complemented with flat wagons, in the case of GMR Group 45 of them. These have been adapted for transporting sleepers and rails needed for track laying. One layer of UIC 60 rails (12 lines of rails 250 m in length) sits beneath four layers of concrete sleepers manufactured in India. Most of the time, 24 such wagons are coupled to the laying machine. They supply enough material for 1.5 km of track, which corresponds to the output of a 6-hour shift.
Die Madar-Iqbalgarh CTP 2-Sektion im westlichen Frachtkorridor verlegte im Juni 2018 eine Strecke von 41,25 km und erreichte damit die höchste bisher erzielte Monatsleistung. Die Teams CTP 1 und CTP 2 verlegten gemeinsam 54,1 km Gleise und übertrafen damit den bisherigen Rekord.
Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) meldet hohe erzielte Leistungen (Twitter, 3. 7. 2018, 12:11 PM)
Track laying with integrated new rail pre-positioning
Gantry cranes equipped with special gripper arms pull the rails to the front of the machine. Hydraulically adjustable rollers ensure correct guidance. At the front, the rails are taken over by a construction site vehicle with rail grippers and pulled onto the ballast bed via auxiliary rollers. This is how the rails are pre-positioned at defined lengths for the worksite.
While working, the laying machine is supported on the front transport wagon. The crawler running gear is used as the drive for the complete train, including the sleeper and rail transport wagon. The gantry cranes transport each layer of sleepers to the laying unit. A proven feed system takes them to the laying unit, which lays them at a precise spacing. The laying output achieved during use in India is ten to twelve sleepers per minute.
The pre-positioned rails are lifted again, taken past the machine frame, placed on the newly laid sleepers, and fixed using the integrated clip units. The complete material logistics therefore takes place on the track under construction.
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