Longest electrified tunnel built by Indian Railways: Important Facts

The Indian Railways engineers has added new feature and built longest tunnel. It is situated between Cherllopalli and Rapuru stations in Andhra Pradesh which fall under the South Central Railways zone of Indian Railways. No doubt that the construction of the tunnel paved the way to operate freight trains in Obulavaripalli- Venkatachalam- Krishnapatnam Port new railway line for a distance of 113 kms. From now on wards this section is now notified for commercial freight operations as well. Interesting facts of the tunnel are as follows:

Interesting facts about Longest Tunnel

1. The total length of the tunnel is 6.6 kms in straight alignment and will help in reducing the travel time by 5 hours. At present, the average travel time taken by goods train from Krishnapatnam Port to Obulavaripalli is 10 hrs.
2. It will help in providing viable rail connectivity between Krishnapatnam Port and its hinterland for goods train services.
3. Do you know that this important railway line has reduced the distance between Krishnapatnam Port and hinterland areas by 60 kms.
4. Let us tell you that the tunnel has been completed in a record time of 43 months. The tunnel is constructed in the shape of ‘Horse shoe’.
5. The method that is used to construct the Railway tunnel is New Australian Tunneling Method (NATM) and cost incurred is about Rs. 460 crores.
6. The rail level of roof that is the height of tunnel is 6.5 meters and the minimum height of contact wire is maintained at 5.2 meters.
7. The full length lining is provided with 300 mm thickness. Also, Ballast Less Track is constructed with Bi-block sleepers and Vaslo fittings.
8. Inside the tunnel at 10 m of interval, LED lighting is provided. Not only this, OHE maintenance depot is provided at Rapuru along with tower-car shed.
9. Near Cherlopalli and near Adurupalli, two numbers of traction power supply substations are provided with necessary switching stations in between them.
10.  Instead of conventional type Auto Tensioning Device (ATD), spring type of ATD of South Korean make is adopted for maintaining necessary tension in OHE wires. This is first time done in South Central Railway.
11. One more thing that is with a maximum span of 36 m and maximum tension length of 1206 m, conventional OHE has been provided. For supporting OHE, brackets have been fixed on wall mounted type plate fittings, which further are fixed to the tunnel lining concrete.
12. For the safety of personnel working in the tunnel, fail safe earthing arrangements are provided.
13. This new line facilitates direct and viable connectivity between South Coast and West Coast.

So, now you may have come to know about the longest tunnel and it salient features.

What are Broad Gauge, Metre Gauge and Narrow Gauge in Indian Railway?

What is the difference between Terminal, Junction and Central Station in Indian Railways?