Indian Railways Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) zone has successfully completed the electrification work of a total of 649 Route Kilometer (RKM)/ 1294 Tonne Kilometer (TKM) of High-Density Network (HDN) from Katihar to Guwahati, the Ministry of Railways said.
According to an official release, the electrification work will now connect all major cities of the country with Guwahati on seamless electric traction. This is yet another effort by NFR for capital connectivity by green transportation, the release said.
With the electrification of railway network till Guwahati, Indian Railways has said that it will benefit the common people and overall economy in the following ways:
- Additional Rajdhani express trains can now be introduced for North-East states like Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim.
- NF railway have 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.
- 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 due to better acceleration/ deceleration.
- 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.
- Likely saving of foreign exchange spent on high Speed Diesel oil Oil of about ₹300 crore per annum.
- High Speed Diesel oil consumption will reduce by about 3400 KL per month.
- Electrification will lead to better maintenance as faster trains shall lead to more time for maintenance blocks.
- Improved operational efficiency due to reduced Light engine movement of locos for fuelling purpose.
- Electric locos shall enable replacing presently existing power cars on all Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coach fitted trains with HOG compliant locos. This shall lead to large saving on fuel for power cars (About ₹10 Cr on the electrified route itself!!!!)
Also, Read This: Indian Railways Recorded The Highest 6,015 Kilometer Electrification
