BENGALURU: In order to detect rail fractures that cause accidents, a trial run is being undertaken by North Central Railway along 25km of railway track after some distance from a railway station, said Sanjiv Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager, Bangalore Railway Division.
Briefing newspersons after a Humsafar train (fully 3-tier AC) was flagged off by Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation D V Sadananda Gowda from Platform 6 of the Yeshwantpur railway station on Thursday, Agarwal said that the rails running for a short distance from all railway stations in the country have an inbuilt capacity to detect rail fractures.
“When any problem occurrs on the rails, it sends an alert message to the panel of the railway station master not to permit running of trains,” he said.
However, this detection stops at the end of the station when the last signal from the station is covered.
“A trial run is presently being undertaken in North Central Railway for 25km from the last signal point to assess if rail fractures can be detected. If the tests succeed, it could be a game changer in minimising accidents caused by such fractures,” he said. It could be emulated across the country, the DRM added.
Asked if any specific safety measures were being adopted by the Bangalore Railway Division in the light of frequent train derailments, Lakshman Singh, Senior Divisional Engineer (Co-ordination), said that the Division constantly undertakes patrolling along railway tracks.
Sadananda Gowda flagged off the Humsafar train from Platform 6 of Yeshwantpur station at 9.55am. The Yeshwantpur-Howrah Express (Train no. 22888) will depart at 9.55am on Thursdays and reach Howrah at 6.30pm on Fridays.
The Howrah-Yeshwantpur Express (Train no. 22887) will at 12.40pm on Tuesdays and arrive at Yeshwantpur at 9.35pm on Wednesdays.
The cost of a ticket will be `1,945. The train with a seating capacity of 1,152 will have a hot buffet car. Following the inauguration, the Yeshwantpur-Howrah Superfast Special operating presently stands cancelled.