Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. (KRCL) on Monday conducted a trial run of an electric loco on the Thokur-Udupi stretch that has electrified heralding a new era of energising locomotives from the conventional diesel locomotives.
Starting from Thokur, the electric locomotive was trailed by a diesel locomotive to face any emergency. Though KRCL’s Thokur-Bijur (105 km) section is completely electrified, the trial run was conducted only between Thokur near Mangaluru and Udupi, said an engineer of KRCL.
This was because KRCL is yet to get its power substations at Mulki, Barkur and Senapura energised by Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. For Monday’s trial run, KRCL drew power from Southern Railway grid that was 50 km away from Thokur and the maximum distance it could be utilised was 100 km. Hence, the run was confined till Udupi, the engineer said.
The trial commenced at Thokur at 4 p.m. and the locomotive reached Udupi at 6 p.m. by allowing all passing trains without any hitch. The diesel loco was attached as per the standard operating procedure. The return trial run was completed in an hour with the loco reaching Thokur successfully at around 8 p.m., the engineer said. Electrification work between Bijur and Kumta (75 km) too is fast progressing and is expected to be completed soon. Work to lay power traction till Bali in Goa under KRCL’s Karwar region is expected to be completed by November this year.
KRCL Managing Director Sanjay Gupta told The Hindu that with the electrification work completed between Thokur and Bijur, KRCL may get the statutory inspection done by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) in about a month. Trial runs would continue and the CRS would be requested to conduct the inspection to certify the track worthy for electric locomotives to haul trains, he said.
Electrification work between Roha and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra too is on; but it is going on at a slower pace since patch doubling of the track is also on in that section, Mr. Gupta said.
Konkan Railway has been given the December 2020 deadline by the Ministry of Railways to complete the electrification of its entire 740-km network.
Southern Railway has already electrified its network till Jokatte where the Mumbai line of KRCL branches out.
