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In a first for the Indian Railways, track-laying machines – which can lay up to 2.5 km of tracks a day and cost about ₹60-70 crore each – are being used in the dedicated rail freight corridor.
What’s special about these machines – called track linking machines or new track construction machines – is that sleepers and tracks can be automatically laid, leading to faster completion of projects.
The machines being used in India are imported from the $2 billion US-based listed firm, Harsco, and are deployed on the dedicated rail freight corridor by contractors, such as L&T and Tata Projects, which won the bids to implement the project.
Another firm likely to import such machines is GMR Infrastructure, which has also won a bid.
Global vendors Globally, there are a few vendors in this space, including Harsco, Plasser and a Chinese player.
“These train-linking machines help put sleepers on the ballast, carry 250-metre rail panels from the depots and deploy them on the sleepers, and also tie the rails to the sleepers with fasteners. The quality and precision through such track laying will be of huge benefit,” Rajeev Jyoti, Chief Executive (Railway Business), Larsen & Toubro, told BusinessLine .
The machines comprise a key component – power head – provided by Harsco. The battery and flat-bedded wagons can be bought in India. Adesh Sharma, Managing Director of Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL), told BusinessLine that some of the machines that will be used in the corridor for the first time are the new track construction machines.
“Three machines in the Eastern corridor and two in Western corridor are planned.
Three machines have already been mobilised to lay about 1.5 to 2 km of tracks a day, against the manual method that results in construction of 200 metres a day,” he said.
Utility aspect On the utility of such equipment once the projects are complete, officials said these can be used in the Indian Railways’ doubling and tripling projects, and freight corridor expansion plans. With players such as L&T implementing many rail-based projects in West Asia, there is also the option to deploy these machines there.
Though, for such redeployment, the machines have to be tinkered a bit, as the Indian Railways has broad gauge tracks and West Asian projects have standard gauge tracks.
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