Rathwa inaugurates new interlocking system at Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad, Nov 7 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Railways Naranbhai Rathwa today inaugurated a new automatic interlocking system here.

With this new system, the railway officials can divert any train to any of the 12 platforms that may be vacant with ease.

This means that there would not be a need to wait for the train to reach a scheduled platform to fall vacant. Effectively, all the incoming trains from Maninagar will now take only five minutes to reach Ahmedabad railway station as compared to 30 minutes earlier.

An estimated amount of Rs 10 crore out of a total allocation of Rs 30 crores has gone into the project, the railway minister said.

Mr Rathwa also inaugurated two other programmes 'Clean Train System' and an airconditioned upper class waiting room commissioned at a cost of Rs 9.8 lakh on Platform No 1.

The clean train system in a tie-up with Eureka Forbes company would cost Rs 5.81 crore over a period of 5 years. The coaches of the trains arriving on platform 1 to 6 of Ahmedabad railway station would be cleaned using high pressure jet and disinfectants during its 20 minutes halt at the station.

Besides, deodorants and anti-mosquito repellants would be sprayed in the toilet flush, toilet pan and washbasins.

The minister also announced an award of Rs 1 lakh for the Ahmedabad division DRM for successfully completing the projects in time.

Mr Rathwa also said that Ahmedabad, which has shown rapid growth in the past decade, would need a metro rail that caters to a 30 kms to 40 kms of the surrounding areas of the Ahmedabad city.

An estimated sum of Rs 145 crores would be needed to achieve this task.

The state government and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has come forward to make this proposal feasible in the future.

The urban development ministry can contribute 50 per cent of the cost, Mr Rathwa said.

Mr Rathwa said the 1,370 km-long Western Train Corrider with on outlay of Rs 1,100 crore would take seven years to complete. Once WTC is completed, trains on Mumbai-Delhi route can hit a speed of 150 km per hour. At present, this corridor faces heavy congestion and therefore no train can achieve a speed of 150 km per hr, he said, adding the western corridor is a double track corridor and its second aim is to enhance port connectivity in Gujarat.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had done 'shilanyas' in Mumbai sometime back and the work could take anywhere from five to seven years to accomplish.

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