Seamless travel to southern India is now possible. The Konkan Railway has completed electrification on its entire 740 km route which passes through beautiful terrains of coastal Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. Now, there is no need for the railways to replace diesel locomotives with electric locomotives at Ratnagiri and Kumta railway stations which takes at least 30 minutes for the process.
Confirming the development senior officials said, "Konkan Railway being one of the biggest railway routes on the Indian Railway network, the train operations with electric traction will be implemented on the newly electrified Konkan Railway route in a phased manner."
The foundation stone for the Electrification of the entire 741 kms route work of Konkan Railway was laid in November 2015. The total cost of the project is Rs 1287 crore. The CRS inspection of the entire Konkan Railway route has been successfully conducted in six phases starting from March 2020.
CRS inspection of the last section between Ratnagiri and Thivim was carried out on March 24th, 2022 and authorisation was obtained on March 28th, 2022," said a senior officer of Konkan Railway.
Currently on average daily 16 pairs of mail express trains and 10 pairs of goods trains running on the Konkan Route.
Electrification of railway lines will reduce the cost of energy as well as local pollution, and do away with diesel locomotives. It will save cost of fuel and make operations easier, leading to savings of RS.150 crore per year.
The electrification project has been challenging due to the difficult terrain of Konkan Railway and non-conducive atmosphere due to the Covid - 19 Pandemic. Moreover, due to the extreme monsoon in the Konkan region, special arrangements had to be made at many locations to keep the electrification mission going non-stop.
Konkan railway has about 91 tunnels and 1,880 bridges with the longest tunnel of 6.5 km at Karbude near Ratnagiri, and the tallest 64-metre bridge over Panvel river at Ratnagiri.
"Indian Railways is on a mission mode to electrify its entire Broad Gauge network to provide environment friendly, green and clean mode of transport to its people under the ‘Mission 100% Electrification - Moving towards net Zero Carbon Emission plan," said an officer of Konkan Railway adding that in view of the above, making an important step towards green transportation, one of the India's biggest stretches of Railway Electrification, Konkan Railway has been accomplished under the able leadership of Prime Minister and the guidance of the Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw.
