South Central Railway (SCR) has achieved a landmark achievement by drastically enhancing the maximum speed to 130 kmph for 1,280 km length out of 1,612 km in Golden Quadrilateral-Golden Diagonal (GQ-GD) route, except the Vijayawada-Duvvada section, where signalling upgrade work is in progress.
Enhanced speed limits could be achieved due to strengthening of track and its infrastructure by removing bottlenecks in these sections like laying of 260-metre long welded rail panels, improvement of curves and gradients. The works were done during the lockdown phase last year and the Lucknow-based Railway Designs & Standard Organisation conducted oscillation trials through Confirmatory Oscillograph Car Run consisting of instrumented coaches of all classes at 130 kmph speed during July and October 2019.
During this check, in addition to track parameters, other signalling, traction distribution equipment, locomotive and coach fitness were checked and recorded based on which permission to run trains at increased speeds was given in the following routes: Golden Diagonal (Grand Trunk) route of 744 km - Ballarshah to Kazipet of 234 km, Kazipet-Vijayawada-Gudur - 510 km. Golden Quadrilateral (Chennai-Mumbai) of 536 km - Renigunta to Gooty - 281 km and Gooty to Wadi - 255 km.
Maximum speed limits in the High-Density Network between Secunderabad-Kazipet (132 km) were enhanced to 130 kmph.
For up and down lines in these sections, 2,824 km has now been made fit to run at a speed of 130 kmph, said SCR general manager Gajanan Mallya.
