The Hindu Business Line : Trial run of double-stack container trains on electric traction soon

The Research Design & Standards Orgnisation (RDSO), the R&D wing of the Indian Railways, will conduct a 15-day trial run in Orissa on the 25-km stretch between Tomca and Jakhapura section under the East Coast Railway (ECoR), it is learnt.

Not electrified

However, the identified section is not electrified.

To facilitate the trial run, ECoR, therefore, is installing temporarily overhead electric equipment complete with wiring.

The electric wires are likely to be put up at an overhead height of 7.5 metres, it is learnt.

The exercise is believed to be part of the plan to run double stack container trains on the proposed dedicated freight corridor.

Initially the plan was that the western sector of the proposed corridor, i.e. between Ludhiana and the Jawaharlal Nehru port, will not be electrified.

This was because the stretch would be used mainly for running container trains, mostly double stack container trains, and these trains, if run on electrified route, would interfere with the overhead electric traction.

In the US and several other countries also, the double stack container trains are hauled by high-powered diesel locos on non-electrified routes.

However, it is learnt that the foreign funding agency, which is to part fund the massive dedicated freight corridor project, is insisting on electrification of the proposed western freight corridor.

Hence, the present experiment. If the experiment succeeds, the Indian Railways will be required not only to increase the height of the overhead traction on the electrified freight corridor but also to acquire new technology for manufacturing special rakes to be suitable for running double stack container trains on those electrified routes.

The initial plan was to electrify only the eastern sector of the proposed freight corridor, i.e. between Ludhiana and Kolkata as this sector, it was felt, would be used mainly for transporting bulk commodities, specially minerals.

There is now a change in thinking. If the proposed trial run in Orissa succeeds, it should be possible to run also the double stack container trains on the eastern sector, it is now felt.