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Talking about Railway Pics, I was at Gandhinagar Railway Station last December to receive someone arriving from Indore and clicked a few images that depict the work in progress status of the modernization of Gandhinagar Capital Railway station. The modernization and redevelopment program plans to add a 5 Star Hotel on tracks.

Here is a comparison between the illustrative image that appeared in this media report and the actual construction pics:





A fully functional ramp already in place:

Gandhi Nagar has very few trains originating from there and as far as I know this is a terminal station so no passing trains as well. With so less rail traffic and ADI having the major stake I seriously doubt the meaning of developing this station. Better to develop ADI considering the traffic. I may be wrong and happy to stand corrected.

Sir, Ahmedabad Junction railway station may be bigger in terms of trains going in and out, and passengers using it, but due to it being in the old city, there is not much space for expansion left.

Gandhinagar is on the soon to be doubled and electrified Delh Ahmedabad mainline, which will soon see increased traffic. Also Gandhinagar is being envisaged as a station to decongest Ahmedabad Junction. Also Gandhinagar is expanding too and with the upcoming Gandhinagar International Finance City, it will definitely need a new station.

This is a theme recurring in every city. Many satellite stations are being developed for larger operations to de-congest the traffic and expansion inability to the main city stations.

Could someone explain what this article is stating?

https://www.financialexpress.com/inf...rains/1872939/

What is the new technology being spoken about?

Maddy

Not exactly a new technology, but IR started utilizing it late.

On the LHB rakes or the earlier ICF Shatabdi and Rajdhani rakes, there used to be a generator car on either ends of the rake. This used generate power for the full rake for the purpose of lighting and other electricals. Although just one generator was used at a time depending on the direction of the train. With the 3 Phase locos, this power can be taken from the overhead wires via the loco and passed to the rake, thereby saving on diesel for the generator. That's the gist of it.

This is called HOG or Head-On-Generation. In this, the electric supply to the coaches is taken from the overhead 25000KV supply and converted to 750V in the engine (Hotel Load). This helps in lesser usage of the power cars (EOG or End on Generators, on board generator sets) thereby decreasing pollution as well as saving in fuel costs. This has also led to designing of SLR coaches with smaller underslung generators to be used during emergency thereby liberating more space for passengers.

I've attached a pdf by RDSO on HOG. Please read for a much better understanding.

I have been hearing that decongest/load sharing storyline back since late 2000s when I used to work in Ahmedabad and haven't seen much movement on the railway aspect till date.

For that aspect, Baroda (or Vadodara) is a much bigger junction with a large % of trains (towards Delhi/etc) taking the Ratlam route; so I doubt what would the % of important trains that eventually pass through Gandhinagar to justify the investment in this infrastructure.


+1

Maninagar could have been expanded; plus there are a good set of satellite stations around Ahmedabad (Sabarmati, Naroda, etc) that can be improved to take part of the load.

On a side note, Ahmedabad station isn't in that bad a shape though. It's the access on both sides that is a constraint.

All trains from Saurashtra and Kathiawad except for the weekly Vaishnodevi group take the Ahmedabad-Ajmer or the Samkhayali-Palanpur route to go to North India and Rajasthan. The Vadodra Ratlam route is too saturated to have any new daily trains till the DFC comes into play. And already Baroda has Chhayapuri station being developed as a satellite to decongest it. Ahmedabad Junction already has 12 platforms and space for it to expand is limited as you mentioned above.
Sabarmati Station won't have much space in the future as it will play host to the bullet train terminus.

Maninagar is just 3Km south of Ahmedabad Junction, and hence ideally should not be developed as a satellite since its too close to the city's main railway station. Hence I am batting for Gandhinagar station to be developed as it will serve the future needs of not only Gandhinagar, but also those of the developing northern peripheral regions of Ahmedabad. And it the redevelopment of the station is as successful as that of Seawoods-Darawe station is, then, it will be a cherry on top of the pudding.

Gandhinagar (GNC) is being developed in view of taking some load off Ahmedabad (ADI). I am assuming originating point for a few trains (Surat bound) will be changed from ADI to GNC. This way ADI will not lose out on those connections and at the same time will free up platforms at already saturated ADI.

By the way, a few trains have been given stoppage at Chayapuri railway station to bypass BRC. At the moment this arrangement is being done to a few trains that undergo reversal at BRC i.e. trains between ADI and Ratlam (RTM). There are a number of such cases - Duvvada (Vizag), Hijli (Kharagpur), Perambur (Chennai), Rayanapadu (Vijayawada) being some of them.

Yes; there has been heaps of improvement in almost every area.

Cleanliness stands out. I believe there has been some serious thought put into this, in a way where it can change the mind set of most people. Present a clean environment at all times, which will eventually play with the way we think of our surroundings and how we want to see it. Stations are spick and span today. There are trash bins all over the place.

Cleanliness on trains has some way to go. This has less to do with IR. This requires a sea change in our attitude and we are some way off on that. AC Class travel is good, sleeper is acceptable and down to what train you are on. General is still a mess.

Speed increase is another. Great strides made with our very own train set. We have not ignored freight too, with the upcoming DFC. Rolling stock and locomotive technology are being constantly updated. We are trying to do some of our own and some with borrowed technology (GM and Alstom). Either way, I see that as a win.

Rapid pace of electrification to reduce our carbon footprint. I've never seen this sort of speed when to comes to execution and completion of projects on IR.

Hats off to the effort put in by Piyush Goyal. About the only Railway minister I've seen who is actively involved and keen to see IR progress.

Thank you. This was enlightening.

The pace at which the railways is moving in the infra spend is very welcoming. The focus on electrification will yield dividends in years to come. I for one feel there is a lot of focus on the mumbai-delhi and delhi- calcutta stretch of the network and somehow feel the southern half gets lesser focus.

Blr - mumbai still takes a good 23-24 hours and mysore chennai sector is overloaded and always there is a new committee focusing on the high speed rails. There should be a widespread focus on unburdening the existing rail lines and build for the future.

I feel Mr Piyush Goyal needs to be applauded and also the entire railway officers for being proactive in responding to customer complaints. People have asked many requests of twitter and has had them respond to it.

My friends mom was travelling by train and was unreachable on the phone for a couple of hours. My panicked friend contacted the railways on twitter who actually went to the mothers seat to check and called my friend up as her mom was sleeping. lol: We have definitely come a long way!

Maddy

Totally agree with you. Since Mr. Goyal took over the reigns, there has been remarkable change. He seems to be least interested in favoritism unlike several of his predecessors. Actually Piyush Goyal is following on the path laid by Suresh Prabhu, albeit faster and more aggressively.

A lot of new infrastructure projects have kickstarted since these two took over including the extremely challenging ones like bringing railway connectivity to remote and politically sensitive regions in J&K and North-East. LHB rakes and 3-phase locomotive production has risen up significantly. Heard the IRCTC private train concept is his brainchild. If it clicks, it could rake in good moolah and also improve facilities in trains and punctuality by leaps.

Some old and forever taking projects like doubling and electrification was provided a fillip. If you notice, CRS inspections all over the country are happening every other day.

I guess we need to wait a little longer to see the full potential of Bangalore-Mumbai sector. Both routes (via. Hubli and Guntakal) are single lines for considerable distance. Doubling and electrification work is going on but may yet take a couple of years. Chennai-Mumbai trains are the biggest beneficiary in terms of speeding up most recently. With a reduction of anywhere from 1.5hrs to 5hrs of travel time for the 3 daily trains. Hopefully in near future Bangalore will also see crack superfasts doing the stretch in under 20hrs.

A shot from Yedakumeri railway station.Pic credit to my friend, Arun.

I travel daily in crowded coaches with barely any place to stand, so this was a pleasant surprise for me :)