Rly conducts trials to increase train speed in Shimla
SHIMLA : Northern railways on demand of Himachal Pradesh government to speed up trains on Shimla - Kalka tracks commenced trials from Shoghi to Shimla on Sunday. The trials will further continue for three days between Shoghi and Shimla.Shimla railways manager Prince Sethi said, "On day one we have conducted a trial on a speed of 27km per hour. The speed will be tested up to 35km per hour. The trial is being conducted on diesel engine 706."
The 706 engine departed from Shimla at 9:36am for the first trial and arrived Shoghi at 10:28am with a speed of 25km per hour. For the second trial at a speed of 27km per hour, the engine departed from Shoghi at 10:59am and arrived in Shimla at 11:43am said, Sethi.
Sethi said a team of 'Research Designs and Standards Organisation' from Lucknow is conducting the trials.
The team of 12 members comprising director, testing, Vibas Nag and the deputy chief mechanical engineer will take trials of 706 engine for three days, he said.
He said, "At present, the trains are running with a speed of 22.5km to 25km per hour on a stretch of 96km of the Kalka Shimla route. If the speed would be increased to 30km per hour, it will take only three hours to cover a journey between KalkaShimla terminals.
"At present, it takes around five hours to complete the oneway journey between the two terminals,” Sethi added.
Chief minister (CM) Jai Ram Thakur had raised the issue related to the expansion of the rail network and speed up the trains plying on the Shimla Kalka and Pathankot-Jogindernagar tracks in a meeting with Union railway minister Piyush Goyal at his residence at Oak Over on December 01.
The CM had urged the Union minister to make the railway coaches plying on these track attractive so that more and more tourists could be allured to travel through railway. The CM had also urged to speed up the work on Bhanupalli-BilaspurBeri railway line. The Union railway minister Piyush Goyal had assured the CM that speed of the trains on these tracks would be soon increased from 25km to 35km per hour.