![Konkan Landscape](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Konkan_Landscape.jpg)
The Konkan Railway (abbreviated KR) is one of the 19 railway zones in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
with its headquarters at
CBD Belapur
The Central Business District of Belapur (C.B.D Belapur) is a node of Navi Mumbai. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation is headquartered in Belapur. The Reserve Bank of India maintains a branch office at CBD Belapur. This area is one of the ...
in
Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai (), is a planned city situated on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent, located in the Konkan division of Maharashtra state, on the mainland of India.
Navi Mumbai is part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The city i ...
,
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
, India. The first passenger train ran on Konkan railway tracks on 20 March 1993, between
Udupi
Udupi (alternate spelling Udipi; also known as Odipu) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. Udupi is situated about north of the educational, commercial and industrial hub of Mangalore and about west of state capital Bangalore by road.
...
and
Mangalore
Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ke ...
. During its initial years of operation in the mountainous
Konkan
The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland ...
region, a number of accidents prompted Konkan Railway to implement new technology. Anti-collision devices, the Sky Bus and
roll-on/roll-off
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
are several of the railway's innovations.
The long railway line connects the states of
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
,
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
and
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
. The first train on the completed track was sent off on 26 January 1998.
History
Background
![Konkan Railway 504](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Konkan_Railway_504.JPG)
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 Mr.
George Fernandes
George Mathew Fernandes (3 June 1930 – 29 January 2019) was an Indian trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the 22nd Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. He was a member of Lok Sabha for over 30 years, starting f ...
who was the Railway minister in V.P.Singh's government, backed by then Finance minister
Madhu Dandavate
Madhu Dandavate (21 January 1924 – 12 November 2005) was an Indian physicist and socialist politician, who served as Minister of Railways in the Morarji Desai ministry, and as Minister of Finance in the V P Singh ministry.
Born in Ahmednagar ...
and Vice Chairman of Planning Commission
Ramakrishna Hegde
Ramakrishna Mahabaleshwar Hegde (29 August 1926 – 12 January 2004) was an Indian politician who served as the tenth Chief Minister of Karnataka for three terms between 1983 and 1988. He was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1 ...
. 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 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 , 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.
Challenges
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 (KRCL) began asking people to surrender property which had belonged to them for generations, many (convinced of the project's importance) did so voluntarily. This enabled the process to be completed in one year. The longest bridge is on the River Sharavathi, spanning and the longest Tunnel is in Karbude near Ratnagiri, stretching .
Terrain and the elements were challenging; flash floods, loose soil,
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
s 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
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
,
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
and
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
), 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
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
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
Larsen & Toubro Ltd, commonly known as L&T, is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, with business interests in engineering, construction, manufacturing, technology, information technology and financial services, headquartered in Mumba ...
who were given a major part of the project,
Gammon India
Gammon India Limited is one of the largest civil engineering construction companies in India. Headquartered in Mumbai, it was founded in 1922 by John C. Gammon.
Notable projects
Gammon India has executed some notable civil engineering project ...
and
Afcons. To speed up construction,
pier
image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.
A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...
s for major bridges were cast on riverbanks itself and launched with
pontoon-mounted cranes.
This was India's first use of
incremental launch
Incremental launch is a method in civil engineering of building a complete bridge deck from one abutment of the bridge only, manufacturing the superstructure of the bridge by sections to the other side. In current applications, the method is hig ...
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
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and high
water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
T ...
. 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,
and a total of seventy-four people died during the railway's construction.
Controversy
In
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
, which makes up of the route, concerns were raised about the environmental and economic impact of the railway. According to opponents of the project, the coastal railway would destroy habitat, damage historical sites, and disrupt lives in the densely-populated state. In 1991, the Konkan Railway Re-Alignment Committee (KRRAC) organised protests against the proposed railway line. The KRRAC's main points were that the proposal would flood coastal regions, destroy fertile land, harm the monuments of
Old Goa
Old Goa ( Konkani: ; pt, Velha Goa, translation='Old Goa') is a historical site and city situated on the southern banks of the River Mandovi, within the Tiswadi ''taluka'' (''Ilhas'') of North Goa district, in the Indian state of Goa.
Th ...
, irreparably damage the marshes and
mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...
swamps along the coast and the estuaries of the
Mandovi
The Mahadayi/Mandovi River (''Mandovi'', pronounced ), also known as Mahadayi or Mhadei river, is described as the lifeline of the Indian state of Goa. The Mandovi and the Zuari are the two primary rivers in the state of Goa. Mandovi joins w ...
and
Zuari
The Zuari River ''Zuvari,'' pronounced )
is the largest river in the state of Goa, India. It is a tidal river which originates at Hemad-Barshem in the Western Ghats. The Zuari is also referred to as the Aghanashani in the interior regions. It ...
Rivers, and displace neighbourhoods along the coast. The committee proposed an alternative
hinterland
Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...
alignment passing through relatively-unpopulated regions, which would extend the line by about but reduce environmental damage.
But the hinterland alignment was rejected by the Konkan Railway Corporation because it would substantially lengthen & divert the line, deny rail access to Goa's population centers, and delay and increase the costs of construction. The KRRAC, which had become a political movement, filed
public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). ''Public interest litigation'' (PIL) refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and de ...
in the
Bombay High Court in March 1992 seeking an
injunction
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
on construction work and diversion of the line through the hinterland alignment. The high court dismissed the petition the following month, ruling that The Konkan Railway Re-Alignment Committee (KRRAC) now under new name Save Konkan Ecology Forum (SKEF) is strictly & violently opposing Doubling & Electrification Works of Konkan Railway Line, planned by Indian Railways in 2014/2015, citing concerns about the environmental and economic impact, destruction habitat, damage historical sites, and disrupt lives in the densely-populated state. Maharashtra, Karnataka & Kerala Governments had given Green signal for doubling & electrification of Konkan Railway Line in 2015/2016.
Completion
In March 1993, the southern between
Thokur
Thokur (Thokuru or Thokooru in Tulu) is a locality of Mangalore city in Karnataka State in India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most ...
, from
Mangalore
Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ke ...
, (now
Mangaluru
Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...
) and
Udupi
Udupi (alternate spelling Udipi; also known as Odipu) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. Udupi is situated about north of the educational, commercial and industrial hub of Mangalore and about west of state capital Bangalore by road.
...
in
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
entered service, followed by the northern section between Roha and Veer in
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
in June of that year. The first passenger train on the route ran between Mangalore and Udupi on 20 March 1993. The service was extended by from Veer to Khed in March 1995, and by a further from Khed to
Sawantwadi
Sawantwadi an aesthetic land of artists, is an integral part of the Konkan region which is in the mid-western coast of India.
The western coast of India since 1510 A.D. has assumed great importance in Indian history and history of internationa ...
Road in December 1996. The Southern service was extended by from Udupi to
Kundapur
Kundapur, also called Kundapura, is a coastal town situated in the Udupi district of the state of Karnataka, India. This town was known as Coondapoor while it was part of the erstwhile South Canara district (1862–1947) of the Madras Pre ...
in January 1995, and by a further to Pernem in
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
in August 1997.
Through services between Mumbai and Mangalore remained on hold due to a problematic tunnel at Pernem, which experienced repeated cave-ins and flooding. The tunnel was finally completed in January 1998, six years after its construction began. Through services on the line began after the inauguration of the full stretch from Roha to Mangalore on 26 January 1998. Passenger service on the full route, between Mumbai and Mangalore, began in May 1998.
Improvements
Track doubling
According to a study by the railway, track doubling is possible on about which runs on the plains. Several stretches on the line can be converted to double track, such as the line from Roha to Veer, which is now doubled. The stretch between Udupi and Mangalore is another candidate. The track from Madure to Vaibhavwadi Road is entirely flat terrain and can easily be converted into Double Track. The track from Panvel Junction to Roha has been doubled.
On 3 November 2015, Konkan Railway senior official Bhanu P. Tayal announced to the press that track-doubling and electrification would begin on 8 November in Kolad.
Life Insurance Corporation offered a favourable 2.5 billion loan, and other funding would be available. The project, expected to cost 100 billion, was scheduled for completion by 2020.
In October 2018, the railway announced that the stretch between Roha and Veer would have two tracks by December 2019.
Matsyagandha Express
The 12619/20 Matsyagandha Superfast Express is a daily Superfast Express train running between Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Mumbai) and Mangaluru Central. The train was introduced on 1 May 1998 as Mangalore-Kurla Express. The Matsyagandha Express ...
( Train number 02619 run as special) travelling from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Mumbai (LTT) to Mangaluru Central (MAQ) became first train to take Roha-Veer double line on Konkan railway route on 30 August 2021 at 7.30p.m.
Electrification
The foundation stone laying for electrification of the Konkan railway line was done in November 2015. The entire 741 kilometer route stretching from Roha, Maharashtra to Thokur, Karnataka has been electrified in March 2022. Inspection of the entire stretch was completed in six phases starting in March 2020. The last stretch between Ratnagiri and Thivim was inspected on March 24 and authorisation was obtained on March 28.
New stations
The railway was scheduled to have new crossing stations at Indapur, Goregaon Road, Sape Wamne, Kalambani Budruk, Kadavai, Veravali, Kharepatan Road, Achirne, Mirjan and Innanje by December 2019. Most of these stations are operational now.
[
]
Operations
The railway has a total track length of . Its length through Maharashtra is , through Karnataka , and through Goa.
Passenger
The route is popular with passengers due to its connectivity with regions hitherto inaccessible by rail and the substantial time savings for travellers between western and southern India. Several trains which had taken circuitous routes ran on the Konkan Railway, reducing running time. The first of these was the Mumbai-Mangalore Netravati Express
The Netravati Express (16345/46) is a daily Express train connecting capital cities of Kerala and Maharashtra. It operates between and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus. The train runs on the Konkan Railway.
History
Initially the train the Bombay Kur ...
(later extended to Trivandrum
Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...
), which was diverted to the Konkan Railway on 1 March 1998; this was followed by the Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express
The 12431 / 12432 Hazrat Nizamuddin–Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express is a Rajdhani Express train service in India, connecting in the country capital New Delhi to , the capital of Kerala state. It is the longest-running Rajdhani Express t ...
on 1 April of that year. The Matsyagandha Express
The 12619/20 Matsyagandha Superfast Express is a daily Superfast Express train running between Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Mumbai) and Mangaluru Central. The train was introduced on 1 May 1998 as Mangalore-Kurla Express. The Matsyagandha Express ...
, running from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus
Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (also known by its former name Kurla Terminus, station code: LTT) is a railhead and a major railway terminus in the Kurla suburb of Mumbai, India. LTT is managed by the Central Railway. The and suburban railway station ...
to Mangalore, began service on 1 May 1998. The Hazrat Nizamuddin-Mangalore Mangala Lakshadweep Express
The Mangala Lakshadweep Superfast Express is a Superfast train in India that runs between in Delhi and in Kochi, Kerala via the Konkan Railway route. It is operated by Southern Railway with 12617 / 12618 train numbers. In 1973, the earl ...
was diverted to the route and extended to Ernakulam Junction
Ernakulam Junction railway station (also known as Ernakulam South, code: ERS) is the biggest railway station in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. Controlling 376 train routes at a time, it is the busiest railway junction station in South Indi ...
on 1 August 1998. The Pune
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...
-Ernakulam Junction Express was introduced on 25 February 1999. The Marusagar Express
The Marusagar Express is a weekly express train that runs between Ajmer and Ernakulam, connecting Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka to Kerala. The train runs through four zones of Indian Railways, travelling 2860& ...
, which runs between Jaipur
Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...
and Ernakulam Junction and was extended to Ajmer
Ajmer is one of the major and oldest cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan and the centre of the eponymous Ajmer District. It is located at the centre of Rajasthan. It is also known as heart of Rajasthan. The city was established as "''Aj ...
via the Konkan Railway, began service on 12 October 2001. The Jan Shatabdi Express
The Jan Shatabdi Express is a more affordable and economical version of the Shatabdi Express''.'' The word 'Jan' refers to common people. Being an economical version of the Shatabdi Express, it provides the passenger with Air Conditioned Chair ...
was flagged off between Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
and Madgaon
Margao or Madgaon is the commercial capital of the Indian state of Goa. It stands on banks of the Sal river and is the administrative headquarters of Salcete sub-district and South Goa district. It is Goa's second largest city by population aft ...
(the longest-running Jan Shatabdi) on 16 April 2002 to commemorate Indian Railways' 150th anniversary. On 1 February 2008, a Garib Rath Express
The Garib Rath ("Poor's chariot") is a No frills, no-frills air-conditioned train started by the Indian Railways in 2005 to provide subsidized price air-conditioned long-distance travel to passengers who could not afford standard fares of air-c ...
between the Kochuveli railway station in Thiruvananthapuram and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus
Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (also known by its former name Kurla Terminus, station code: LTT) is a railhead and a major railway terminus in the Kurla suburb of Mumbai, India. LTT is managed by the Central Railway. The and suburban railway station ...
began service.
The Tejas Express
The Tejas Express is a semi-high speed fully air-conditioned train introduced by Indian Railways. It features modern onboard facilities with doors which are operated automatically. Tejas means "sharp", "lustre", or "brilliance" in many India ...
is the first semi-high-speed, fully air-conditioned train fleet introduced by Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...
, with modern on-board facilities. Its inaugural run was on 24 May 2017 from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Bombay station code: CSMT ( mainline)/ST (suburban)), is a historic railway terminus and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
The terminus wa ...
to Karmali railway station
Karmali railway station (station code: KRMI) is the third station (after Pernem and Tivim) within Goa, when entering from the north, under the jurisdiction of Konkan Railway. Karmali railway station is closest railway station to the State capital ...
in Goa. It covered 552 km (342 mi) in eight hours and 30 minutes.
Freight
Freight response to the railway was lukewarm, prompting its corporation to consider reducing its rates. With an outstanding debt of 33.75 billion, the KRCL was counting on freight traffic for revenue. To attract freight traffic, the corporation began advertising to industries on the route.
The corporation introduced roll-on/roll-off
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
(RORO) service, a road-rail system, on the section between Kolad
Kolad is a village in Raigad district, Maharashtra State, India. It is 117 km from Mumbai on the National Highway no 66(Mumbai-Goa) its also connected Pune via kolad Pune- kolad state highaway . It lies on the banks of River Kundalika. ...
(Maharashtra) and Verna, Goa
Verna is a village in Salcete, Goa, India, adjacent to the village of Nagoa. It is located approximately 10 km north of the South Goa district headquarters Margão, 18 km south-east of Vasco da Gama and 23 km south-east of the s ...
in 1999; it was extended to the Surathkal railway station
Surathkal railway station is one of the main railway stations of Mangalore city along with Mangalore Central railway station and Mangalore Junction railway station and is located in north Mangaluru. Twenty-two trains stop here. KRCL operates RO- ...
in Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
in 2004. The RORO service, the first of its kind in India, allowed trucks to be transported on flatcars. It has been popular, carrying about 1.6 million trucks and earning over 1.2 billion by 2009.
Safety
The terrain and weather of the Konkan
The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland ...
region have caused problems for the railway. During the 1998 monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
, torrential rains triggered landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
s which washed away tracks and disrupted service. Despite the corporation's efforts to address the problems through engineering (such as protective netting along cuttings to prevent boulders from rolling onto the tracks), the problems recurred each year.
The line's first major accident occurred on the night of 22 June 2003, when a landslide derailed a Karwar
Karwar is a seaside city, ''taluka'', and administrative headquarters of Uttara Kannada district lying at the mouth of the Kali river on the Kanara coast of Karnataka state, India.
Karwar is a popular tourist destination and with a city urba ...
–Mumbai express train at the entrance to a tunnel. Fifty-one people died as a result of the accident, and others were injured. As a result, the corporation was severely criticised for failing to take adequate safety measures in the landslide-prone region. An inquiry reported that the cause of the accident was the failure of a cutting due to the lack of monsoon patrolling. The findings were disputed by the corporation, which said that the lack of monsoon patrolling did not lead to the accident (which was due to forces of nature). Shortly after the accident, however, the corporation announced that it would enhance safety measures on the route.
Barely a year later, the measures were found inadequate when a second major accident occurred on 16 June 2004. A Mangalore–Mumbai Matsyaganda Express derailed and fell off a bridge after striking boulders on the tracks, killing 20 people. Again, the corporation insisted that the accident was due to forces of nature. Questions were then raised about the safety and reliability of the Konkan Railway. An inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety ruled that the accident was caused by the "falling of boulders and earth" on the tracks. After the report was issued, the corporation implemented its recommendations. These included reducing train speeds during the monsoon to from and engineering measures such as boulder netting, shotcreting, rock bolt
A rock bolt is a long anchor bolt, for stabilizing rock excavations, which may be used in tunnels or rock cuts. It transfers load from the unstable exterior to the confined (and much stronger) interior of the rock mass.
Rock bolts were first use ...
ing, micropiling and vetiver
''Chrysopogon zizanioides'', commonly known as vetiver and khus, is a perennial bunchgrass of the family Poaceae.
Vetiver is most closely related to '' Sorghum'' but shares many morphological characteristics with other fragrant grasses, such a ...
plantations along the line to improve safety.
A goods train carrying fertilizers derailed between Diwankhavti and Khed station(83/7Km)at 15.57 Hrs on 10 May 2020. This happened during Covid-19 virus lockdown when regular passenger and goods trains were stopped by Central or Union government of India. There was no injury or casualty. Traffic resumed on the railway on 13 May 2020 at 9.15 Hrs.
See also
* Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...
* Konkan Railway Corporation
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Railway lines opened in 1998
Zones of Indian Railways