Lok Sabha Question No. 3393 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-09
Subject: Electrification of Railway Lines
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Guman Singh Damor

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3393 TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.08.2023

## ELECTRIFICATION OF RAILWAY LINES

†3393. SHRI GUMAN SINGH DAMOR:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the benefits of electrification of railway lines along with the total length of Broad Gauge rail line that has been electrified out of the total length of the rail route;
- (b) the target of electrification of all the railway lines of the country;
- (c) the efforts being made to increase the speed of the trains;
- (d) the various types of signalling systems for train operation and the steps being taken to make the systems automatic;
- (e)  the  role  of  PSU,  RailTel  of  the Railways, in the control, operation and safety of Indian Railways; and
- (f)  the  number of stations in the country where Wi-Fi internet facility has been provided?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to (f) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

*****

STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (f)  OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3393 BY SHRI GUMAN SINGH DAMOR TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 09.08.2023 REGARDING ELECTRIFICATION OF RAILWAY LINES

- (a) and (b) Electrification offers benefits like:
- (i)
- Reduced operating cost.
- Haulage of heavier freight trains and longer passenger trains due  to  higher  haulage  capacity  of  Electric  Locomotives;
- (ii) leading to increased throughput.
- (iii) Increased  sectional  capacity  by  eliminating  detention  on account of traction change.
- (iv)
- Environment friendly mode of transport.
- (v) Reduced  dependence  on  imported  crude  oil  thereby  saving precious foreign currency.

As on 01.08.2023, total 59,524 km length of Broad Gauge (BG) rail line has been electrified.

The completion of Electrification project(s) depends on various factors like  forest  clearances  by  officials  of  forest  department,  shifting  of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law & order situation in the area of project(s) site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions etc. All these factors affect  the  completion  time  of  the  project(s).  As  such  the  confirmed time frame for completion of project(s) cannot be ascertained at this stage.

- (c)  Speeding  up  of  trains  is  a  constant  endeavour  and  a  continuous process on Indian Railways (IR). One of the objectives of rationalization of time table, undertaken by IR in a scientific manner

with  the  assistance  of  IIT-Bombay,  has  been  speeding  up  trains services  by  converting  passenger  trains  to  Express  services  and Express services to Superfast services. Conversion of trains operating with  conventional  coaches  with  MEMUs  is  also  aimed  at  providing faster services to the passengers.  Further, Indian  Railways  are introducing  Vande  Bharat  trains,  which  have  higher  speed  potential. Till 3 rd   August, 2023, 50 Vande Bharat services have been introduced on the IR network.

- Steps taken to increase the speed of the trains are: (i) Sectional speed have been raised to 130 kmph over 10,400 route km covering the Golden Quadrilateral &  diagonal routes and other important B routes of IR network. (ii) Works for raising of sectional speed to 160 kmph on existing New Delhi-Mumbai (incl. Vadodara-Ahmedabad) and New Delhi-Howrah (incl Kanpur-Lucknow) routes have been sanctioned costing ` 6806 Cr. and ` 6685 Cr. respectively. (d)  Indian  Railways  continuously  intends  to  modernize  the  existing signalling system as under: (i) Provision of Electrical/Electronic Interlocking System with centralized operation of points and signals in place of old mechanical signalling. These systems have been provided at 6443 stations as on 30.06.2023. (ii)  Complete  Track  Circuiting  of  stations  to  enhance  safety  for verification of track occupancy by electrical means has been provided
- at 6381 stations upto 30.06.23.

(iii)  Interlocking  of  Level  Crossing  Gates  (LC)  has  been  provided  at 11102 Level Crossing Gates upto 30.06.2023 for enhancing safety at LC Gate. (iv)  Axle  counters  for  automatic  clearance  of  Block  Section,  BPAC (Block Proving Axle Counter) are provided to ensure complete arrival of  train  without  manual  intervention  before  granting  line  clear  to receive next train and to reduce human element. These systems have been provided on 6412 Block Sections up to 30.06.2023. (v) Automatic Block Signalling (ABS) has been provided at 3946 Route Km upto 30.06.2023. (vi) Indigenously developed automatic train protection system 'KAVACH' has been adopted as an aid to driver in train running within specified speed limits and also help the train running during inclement weather . Kavach  has  so  far  been  deployed  on  1465  Route  km  and  121 locomotives (including Electric Multiple Unit rakes) on South Central Railway. (e)  RailTel  maintains  OFC,  which  provides  backbone  network  for  the control communication circuits (for control) and various other requirements such as FOIS etc. for Indian Railways. (f) Wi-Fi facility has been provided at 6108 stations.

*****