Commissioner of Railway Safety Satish Kumar Mittal inspected the newly-electrified Dindigul-Virudhunagar broad gauge section on Wednesday.
The trial run that commenced at Dindigul Railway Station at 9.05 a.m. was completed successfully at 6.50 p.m., at the starting point.
Talking to press persons, Mr. Mittal said data collected during the inspection and speed trial would be duly processed before the line was cleared for operating train services.
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The speed trial involved a train with an electric engine covering 110 km in two hours.
The average speed of the train was between 95 and 105 km per hour, said a member of the technical team.
The Madurai Railway Division proposes to run four Express trains – including the Pandiyan, Vaigai and Guruvayur Express trains – and three goods trains with electric locomotives once the CRS clearance is obtained.
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Though electrification has been completed up to Virudhunagar, electric locomotives will run only up to Madurai initially.
At present, only five railway tracks at the Madurai railway junction have been provided with overhead power supply.
The remaining tracks will be electrified pending minor yard re-modelling work, a railway official said.
Electrification up to Tirunelveli and Tuticorin is expected to be commissioned by March 2014.
On the Nagercoil-Tirunelveli section, electrification has been completed for goods train operations and is under way for passenger trains at the Tirunelveli yard.
Electrification will help the Railways save running time as well as fuel costs.
At present, two diesel locomotives haul the 24-coach passenger trains and goods trains.
To save time
“Electric locomotives with better haulage can do away with this practice. Besides, we can save at least 20 minutes of running time as there will be no need to change the locomotives at Tiruchi or Dindigul,” the official noted.