Utilising the lockdown time, East Coast Railway is planning and executing long pending maintenance and infrastructure works without affecting the rail services. Speed restrictions of 15 Kmph on Down main line at Bhubaneswar and Up main line at Cuttack have been removed by laying the ballast track with the help of heavy machinery.
These restrictions were existing due to damaged washable apron and required laying of ballast track after dismantling washable apron. But this was long pending as traffic block in busy Howarah-Chennai trunk route was very difficult due to large number of trains.
In the initial stages of lockdown, the passenger trains were completely suspended and later, only special trains like Shramik Special, Inter State and Intra State trains are running.
East Coast Railway has now completed both the works at Cuttack & Bhubaneswar Railway Station by laying of ballast track after dismantling earlier washable apron. These works would have taken suspension of train movements for a number of days in Howrah-Chennai busy route where a number of trains were plying daily in normal time.Speed Restriction at both the Stations have been removed and speed will be raised to sectional speed of 110 Kmph after consolidation of track. This will be highly beneficial to increase the traffic mobility. This is also in tandem with the Ministry’s mission to increase the speed of the trains.
