The Konkan Railway is one of the 19 railway zones in India with its headquarters at CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. The first passenger train ran on Konkan railway tracks on 20 March 1993, between Udupi and Mangalore. During its initial years of operation in the mountainous Konkan region, a number of accidents prompted Konkan Railway to implement new technology. Anti-collision devices, the Sky Bus and roll-on/roll-off are several of the railway's innovations.The 756.25 km long railway line connects the states of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. The first train on the completed track was sent off on 26 January 1998.
For most of the modern era, the Konkan coast of India did not have a railway link connecting its coastal cities, towns and villages. Even the British who ruled India until 1947 did not build a railway along this route. The first proposal was surveyed in 1920. In 1957 an aerial survey was conducted of the area between Dasgaon, Raigad District in Maharashtra and Mangalore with the object of studying the possibilities of railway development in this region.
The long-pending demand of this region was fulfilled by George Fernandes who was the Railway minister in V.P. Singh's government, backed by then Finance minister Madhu Dandavate and Vice Chairman of Planning Commission Ramakrishna Hegde.They set up Konkan Railway Corporation Limited headed by E.Sreedharan for executing Konkan railway line to tide over funds crunch of Indian Railways.
The first phase of the Konkan Railway was the 60.75-kilometre section from Apta to Roha. It was cleared by the Planning Commission, and the project was included in the 1978-79 budget at an estimated cost of ₹11.19 billion. The length of the railway from Apta to Mangalore was estimated at 771.25 kilometres, and its cost was estimated at ₹2.39 billion in 1976.The engineering and traffic survey for the West Coast Railway Line from Apta to Mangalore was conducted from 1970 to 1972. The final survey for the Apta-Roha-Dasgaon section was made in 1974-75.
The project involved over 2,116 bridges (of which the Panvalnadi bridge was the highest viaduct in India till 2010, Now Jhajjhar Khad is the highest viaduct in India)and 92 tunnels and was the largest railway project of the century in Asia. A major challenge was land acquisition from about 43,000 landowners. When the Konkan Railway Corporation began asking people to surrender property which had belonged to them for generations, many did so voluntarily. This enabled the process to be completed in one year. The longest bridge is on the River Sharavathi, spanning 2.06 km and the longest Tunnel is in Karbude near Ratnagiri, stretching 6.561 km .
Terrain and the elements were challenging; flash floods, loose soil, landslides and tunnel collapses affected work at many places on the project. Thickly-forested construction sites were often visited by wild animals.
The route crosses three states (Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka), each of which agreed to provide financing. The authorised share capital was increased in 1996-1997 from ₹6 billion to ₹8 billion, with the government of India taking a 51-percent share; the rest went to Maharashtra (22 percent), Karnataka (15 percent), Kerala (6 percent) and Goa (6 percent).
Contracts for the project were given to construction firms which included Larsen & Toubro who were given a major part of the project, Gammon India and Afcons. To speed up construction, piers for major bridges were cast on riverbanks itself and launched with pontoon-mounted cranes.This was India's first use of incremental launch bridge-building. The greatest challenge was presented by the nine tunnels bored through soft soil, which required a slow, manual process. Excavation was difficult due to saturated clay and high water table. Tunnels collapsed immediately several times, requiring the work to be redone. Nineteen lives and four years were lost in the construction of the soft-soil tunnels alone,[13] and a total of seventy-four people died during the railway's construction. The compensation is being paid to the persons displaced due to Konkan Railway Project. The amount paid up till now is approx. Rs. 103 crores to about 39000 persons.
Негізгі бет Journey through Konkan region in Mansoon , awesome experience! / Video shoot by GoPro 11📸
Пікірлер: 1