Work on the railway pit line meant for servicing and maintenance of coaches at Khanapur in Bhalki taluk is likely to be delayed by nine more months.
Railway officials told MP Bhagwant Khuba on Thursday that the work had fallen behind schedule as other priority works such as laying a railway line between Bidar and Kalaburagi had taken precedence over it. Mr. Khuba was inspecting the work at Khanapur and other places along the Bidar-Kalaburagi railway line.
T.P. Narayan Rao, chief engineer, South Central Railway, expressed confidence that the work would be completed by February, 2017. Most of the civil work on the ground is done. Five railway lines from the junction have been laid. An automated switching centre will be put in place to direct the damaged rakes from the live line. A watering unit, a shed over the major repair line and an office complex are yet to be constructed.
As much as Rs 9.75 crore of the Rs. 11 crore estimated cost has been spent till now. Another Rs. 2 crore may be needed to complete all works, officials said. Sandip Jain, deputy chief engineer, and other officials were present. Apart from keeping coaches in shape, the pit line would help the authorities start new trains originating from the Khanapur junction that is around 15 km from Bidar.
Earlier delays
The pit line railway coach maintenance centre, servicing rakes after every trip, was conceived when M. Mallikarjun Kharge was the Railway Minister. After flagging off a local DEMU train in Humnabad, in December 2013, he said the pit line would be completed by April 2014, after work started in February of the same year. Later, it was rescheduled to December 2014, and December 2015. Now, there is a further delay.
The pit line project involves facilities for repair and maintenance of 24 coaches at a time. It has a catwalk platform that allows workers to stand below the engines and rakes. It has five lines laid on the ground separating out of a live line and an extra line in the Khanapur junction. It has a stabling line to keep rakes before and after the maintenance, a sick line for replacement of coaches, and a covered shed for taking up major repairs that take a long time.
