On Tuesday 04 August 2009, Pranesh Prakash wrote: > Well, we have multiple gauges in the Indian Railways. Is the gov't > willing to accept that that is a problem?
Nice example this one. Can be substantiated with hardcore figures. One might quote the cost of converting from narrow / meter gauge to the broad gauge standard. Kumarghat-Agartala meter gauge line a distance of 109 Km was converted to broad gauge at a cost exceeding Rs.100 Cr in 2007. Indian railways consist of around 63000 Km of rail lines, (42,000 km of broad gauge (BG) , 17,000 km of metre gauge (MG) and and about 4000km of narrow gauge lines. The project Unigauge to convert to broadgauge was proposed in 1982-83 and received sanctions in the year 1992-93. The process of conversion was ongoing from the year 1992-93 at a proposed rate of 150Km per year. We get a useful nugget of info from http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/deptts/safety/corp-sftypln-chap6.htm " 6.27 Maintenance of Metre Gauge/Narrow Gauge Sections After the launch of Project "Unigauge" in 1992, track renewals on the sections identified for gauge conversion were frozen and no inputs were given to these sections. On a review, certain minimum inputs are now being given by way of sleeper and rail renewal to these MG sections. During the last five years (1997-2002), over 1175 kms. of track have been renewed on MG/NG. Over 4000 kms. of track renewals on MG have been sanctioned and will be completed by March 2007, out of SRSF. Out of approximately 18,000 kms of track on MG/NG, 9,000 kms is identified for conversion to BG and this may take up to the year 2013 or so for completion. Sanctioned track renewal works on the 9,000 kms identified for gauge conversion would be done using mixed gauge PRC sleepers so that at the time of gauge conversion, no part of expenditure becomes infructuous. As regards the track renewals in the remaining 9,000 kms of track, which is not yet identified for gauge conversion, the sanctioned track renewal works would be done either by using "BG/ST sleeper converted to MG/ST if available" or by using MG/PRC sleeper. Some Tie Tamping Machines (TTMs) will also be required for MG track maintenance which will be added in the Master Plan. " So we have 18000Km for conversion at a likely 2007 cost of Rs.91 lacs per Km. We will be spending Rs.16513 Cr. of public money because of the folly of multiple standards. In the case of railways at least some of these lines were built by independent railway companies without a central standard. Only an idiot will commit a folly of proposing and approving multiple standards when there exists an opportunity of avoiding it. -- Rgds JTD _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
