New tech helps South Central Railway eliminate ULCs

Secunderabad: The South Central Railway (SCR) used pre-cast box segments during construction to eliminate unmanned level crossings. To hasten the work, they were inserted into the track near LC locations by deploying high capacity road cranes of 200 tonne capacity.

To reduce the block time required for insertion of pre-cast boxes, temporary steel girders were inserted beforehand with improved methodology so as to take up earth work excavation for placing the box segments in position.

During 2017-18 and 2018-19, a total of 84 LHS and 96 RUBs were constructed. Balance Unmanned LCs were eliminated by other modes like manning, direct closure and diversion of traffic to nearest LCs. On account of these efforts, all unmanned LCs on South Central Railway were eliminated by October which include 151 LCs in year 2018-19 alone.

There were 288 Unmanned Level Crossings (UMLCs) as on April 1, 2017. The railway took up the work of providing Limited Height Subway (LHS) or Road Under Bridge (RUB) at 180 LC locations.

Record electrification

South Central Railway has also taken to electrification of its network on a priority basis. The zone has lent a big push to electrification projects, targeting completion and commissioning of various projects during the last two years. A total length of 432 route Kilometers has been electrified during the financial year of 2018-19.

The sections electrified during 2018-19 on South Central Railway are, the Obulavaripalli–Venkatachalam (87 route km), Guntakal–Kalluru (38 RKM), Bellary–Guntakal (45 RKM), Siripuram–Pondugula (83 RKM), Kukkadam–Pagidipalli (102 RKM), Vishnupuram–Janpahad (8 RKM), Peddapalli–Gangadhara (55 RKM), Telapur–Ramachandrapuram (6 RKM).