Problem is capacity creation in our rlys lag very much behind the demand. BSP-Raipur-Durg double line has saturated long back and trebling which is about to be completed now, took over 20 years . By the time trebling is over to ease saturated double line, traffic is demanding fourth track which is rightly being taken up, thanks to the policy of capacity creation being followed by honorable RM PrabhuJi.
How there can be proper maintenance of super saturated predominantly freight (High Earning) line when Rlys is facing financial crunch! Such long mega blocks are unwanted compulsion if speed worthiness (mps) of the track is to be improved.
In...
more... fact I was surprised when Bilaspur – Nagpur (a section under SECR Railway) was selected amongst the 9 routes for operation of semi high speed trains. This is a neglected section as far as speed is concerned. In spite of being trunk line with Durontos and Rajdhani running on it, MPS was till recently 105kmph only (due to heavy freight traffic), whereas on most of trunk lines mps is 130kmph. Even in many “B” sections Mps is 110kmph. Running trains at 160 kmph (up to 200kmph in future) shall demand many improvements due to heavy freight traffic and especially in hilly Dongargarh region due to curves. It is learnt that the third track shall be used for operating the proposed Semi High Speed train to the extent possible.
Co-existence of (Semi) High Speed Train and a lots of goods trains on same track is a difficult proposition. Tracks bearing the brunt of heavy freight trains are ill prepared to take the run of High Speed Express trains which demand strict track tolerances. Most of the trunk lines (Golden Quadrilateral+ diagonals) are having moderately high to very high freight traffic (esp in eastern region), We eagerly are waiting for completion of Dedicated Freight Corridors before Safe (Semi) High Speed trains proliferate on our tracks.