Big step for faster Indian Railways services! Maximum permissible speed on Godavari bridge doubled to 100 kmph

This is the first time on the South Central Railway network that a ballasted deck bridge of more than 1 Km length has been permitted to operate at 100 km per hour.

Indian Railways has been continuously modernizing its infrastructure to enhance train speeds. In this direction, the South Central Railways zone has taken a major step by doubling the maximum permissible speed to 100 km per hour on the crucial Godavari Bridge situated between the Manchiryal-Peddampet section. Interestingly, this is the first time on the South Central Railway network that a ballasted deck bridge of more than 1 Km length has been permitted to operate at 100 km per hour. The 9 km long Manchiryal-Peddampet stretch is located in the Golden Diagonal route of the Kazipet-Balharshah section, which is a gateway of the Southern region of the country, particularly from north India.

#Godavari Bridge becomes SCR’ first concrete bridge of over 1km length with maximum permissible speed of 100 Kmph

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•The Max permissible speed on the Bridge doubled from 50 Kmph
•It falls btwn Manchiryal & Peddampet stns along the crucial Golden Diagonal route #infrastructure pic.twitter.com/a8XHEGZLny

— South Central Railway (@SCRailwayIndia) July 27, 2021

According to South Central Railways, within this critical stretch, as many as seven minor bridges are located along with one 1.2 km long crucial bridge across the Godavari river. Several cement, coal and thermal plants are surrounding this stretch with a separate line for their sidings/industries leading to the section’s heavy congestion. To ease the congestion, third line had been completed in 2018. Since then, the maximum permissible speed was 80 km per hour between Manchiryal-Peddampet, while over the Godavari Bridge, the maximum speed has been 50 km per hour.

To double the speed on this bridge, major work was undertaken by the zonal railway, which involved welding all the long weld rails along the bridge, providing Switch Expansion Joint on bridge approaches’ both sides, track formation strengthening by unloading of another 120 number of wagons of Ballast as well as tamping among others. To ensure no defects, TRC and OMS tests were conducted over the bridge accordingly.

Simultaneously, according to South Central Railways, the temporary speed restrictions along the third line between Manchiryal-Peddampet were attended as well and speed over this section has been enhanced to 100 km per hour. The zone further stated that this will help in better train operations in the Kazipet-Balharshah railway section, which is a busy and saturated section with both, freight and passenger trains being operated at full capacity.