Central Organization for Railway Electrification

केन्द्रीय रेल विद्युतीकरण संगठन,
Central Organization for Railway Electrification

Type	Government Owned
Industry	Railways and Locomotives
Founded	February 1925, nationalized in 1951
Headquarters	Allahabad, India
Area served	India
Key people	Union Railway Minister: Mamata Banerjee, Chairman Railway Board: Vivek Sahai, General Manager CORE: C.P.Verma.
Products	Railway Electrification
Parent	Ministry of Railways (India)
Website	www.core.indianrailways.gov.in

The Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE), (Hindi: केन्द्रीय रेल विद्युतीकरण संगठन) has its headquarters at Allahabad, India. It is in overall charge of railway electrification over the entire network of Indian Railways. However of late, some electrification works have been entrusted to Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways under the Government of India. Additionally small electrification works are being done by zonal railways. The organisation has been functioning since 1961 and is headed by a General Manager. Projects units operate from Ambala, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Bangalore, Secunderabad, Lucknow, Kota, Kolkata Gorakhpur and New Jalpaiguri.

History

Railway electrification began with the inauguration of the first electric train between Bombay Victoria Terminus and Kurla Harbour on 3 February 1925 on the then existing GIP Railway system at 1500 V DC. Heavy gradients on the Western Ghats necessitated the introduction of electric traction on the Central Railway up to Igatpuri on the North East line and to Pune on the South East line.1500 volt DC traction was introduced on the suburban section of the Western Railway between Colaba and Borivili on 5 January 1928 and between Madras Beach and Tambram of the Southern Railway on 11 May 1931. This was primarily to meet the growing traffic in these metros. Thus, before the dawn of Independence, India had 388 KM of electrification on DC traction.

In the post independence era, electrification of the Howrah-Burdwan section of the Eastern Railway was done at 3000 volt DC during the First Five Year Plan period and completed in 1958. The EMU services were inaugurated in Howrah-Sheoraphulli section by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India on 14 December 1957.

The 25 KV AC system of traction emerged as an economical system of electrification as a result of research and trials in Europe, particularly on French Railways (SNCF). Indian Railways decided in 1957 to adopt the 25 KV AC system of electrification as a standard, with SNCF as their consultant in the initial stages.

In the wake of industrial development in the Eastern region (due to the setting up of steel plants, large scale movement of iron and coal, and growth in freight traffic which could not be managed by steam traction) electrification and dieselisation had to be introduced in early 1960s to cope up with the growing traffic.

The first section electrified on the 25 KV AC system was Raj Kharswan—Dongoaposi on the South Eastern Railway in 1960. With a view to provide continuity of traction system, the Howrah—Burdwan section of the Eastern Railway and Madras Beach Tambaram section of the Southern Railway were converted to the 25 KV AC system by 1968.

The manufacture of Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) required for Kolkata suburban services was taken up at Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai and the first EMU rolled out during September 1962.

Considering the limitations in the existing 1500 volt DC traction system in the Central Railway and Western Railway, a decision was taken to convert to 25 KV AC traction during 1996-97. Conversion from DC traction to AC traction is under progress.

Central Organization

The electrification office was set up in Calcutta as PORE (Project office for Railway Electrification) during the First Five Year Plan period, when electrification of the Howrah—Burdwan section of Eastern Railway was taken up.

A General Manager headed the Railway Electrification Organisation set up at Calcutta in 1959. In 1961, the Northern Railway Electrification office was set up at Allahabad for the electrification of Mughalsarai-New Delhi section. This office was headed by an Engineer-in-Chief.

On the recommendation of the J. Raj Committee report in 1978, a number of electrification works were included in the Pink Book, and a Railway Electrification headquarters came into being. Since most of the sanctioned electrification works were falling in the Central and Southern regions of the country, the headquarters of electrification was set up at Nagpur and functioned under the charge of Additional General Manager from 1982 to 1984. The Railway Electrification office was shifted to Allahabad under Additional General Manager from January 1985. A regular General Manager was posted at the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification, Allahabad from July 1987 onwards which continues today.

The Headquarters office of Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE) is headed by a General Manager and assisted by Electrical, S&T, Civil, Store, Personnel, vigilance and finance departments. Presently eight RE project offices are functioning viz. Ambala, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Lucknow, Kota and Secunderabad, Gorakhpur, Hajipur and New Jalpaiguri headed by Chief Project Managers.

Planwise progress of electrification on IR

In the wake of industrial development in the Eastern region, electrification and dieselisation had to be introduced in early sixties to cope up with the growing traffic. After the completion of 2nd Five Year Plan, Indian Railways had electrified 216 RKM on 25 KV AC. During the Third Plan, along with considerable indigenisation, electrification was extended over another 1678 RKM. The pace of electrification, however, slowed down until the oil crisis of seventies. The second oil crisis in particular brought to the fore the need for evolving a long term policy for electrification to reduce the dependence of Railways on petroleum based energy.

In the context of shift from petroleum based energy in transport sector, the Secretaries Committee on energy headed by Cabinet Secretary decided in July 1980 that the Railways should speed up electrification at a pace of 1000 Route km/year. Accordingly, the pace of electrification was considerably speeded up and Indian Railways achieved progress of 2812 RKM during the 7th Plan, 2708 RKM during 8th Plan and 2484 RKM during 9th Plan making it a total of 16001 R-km. In the recently concluded 10th Plan, electrification of 1810 R-km has been achieved which is more than the target of 1800 RKM.

Six major trunk routes of Golden Quadrilateral and diagonals viz Delhi - , Delhi - Mumbai via Central and Western Railways, Delhi — Chennai, Mumbai — Calcutta and Howrah—Chennai have already been fully electrified. Electrification of remaining Mumbai-Chennai Route (Nandalur-Pune) is in progress.

A total of 20,059 RKM has been electrified up to 31 March 2010 on Indian Railways, mostly on heavy density routes. This constitutes about 31.65% of total railway network. At present, approximately 49.7% of passenger traffic and 62.8% of freight traffic is operated on electric traction. The XIth Plan target for electrification is set at above 3500 RKM and target to be realized during 2008-09 is 1000 RKM.

Plan	Pre.Indep.	1st	2nd	3rd	Annual Plan	4th	5th	Inter Plan	6th	7th	Inter Plan	8th	9th	10th	11th	11th	11th	11th
Period	1925-51	1951-56	1956-61	1961-66	1966-69	1969-74	1974-78	1978-80	1980-85	1985-90	1990-92	1992-97	1997–2002	2002-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
R.K.M Electrified	388	529	216	1678	814	953	533	195	1522	2812	1557	2708	2484	1810	502	797	1117	956
R.K.M Cumulative	388	529	745	2423	3237	4190	4723	4918	6440	9252	10809	13517	16001	17811	18154	18942	20059	21015

Technology upgradation

Introduction of Railway Electrification has caused major impetus to Technology up-gradation on Indian Railways. Some of these are listed below.

Modernization of Equipment

With a view to bring down the maintenance cost and improve the reliability of power supply system, Railway Electrification has gone in for state-for-the-art technology as prevalent in the international arena viz., dry cast resin transformers, SF-6/Vacuum switch-gear, long creep age solid core insulators and PTFE neutral section. 8 wheeler self-propelled OHE inspection cars have also been introduced to improve maintenance. Action has also been initiated for procurement of OHE recording car for monitoring the performance of overhead equipment.

Signalling and telecommunication systems are also upgraded by adopting state-of-the-art technology. Semaphore signalling system is being replaced by color light signalling system. Use of color light signals results in better visibility of signaling aspects to the drivers of the running trains and this makes trains running safer and operationally efficient. The inter-locking system is also being changed to panel or route relay interlocking. Besides speeder movement of traffic, these up-gradation measures contribute towards increase in safely.

Underground cables are provided along with electrification, which results in more reliable and better quality of communication.

Supervisory Remote Control & Data Acquisition System (SCADA)

220 / 132 / 25 KV Power supply network for electrification extending along the track over a zone of about 200/300 km. is centrally controlled from the division control center through remote control arrangements to ensure un-interrupted power supply to the track overhead equipment. In the present day electrification projects, state-of-the-art microprocessor base supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) is being provided as against the earlier electro-mechanical strowger system of remote control equipment. The SCADA system has facilities for tele-metering of voltage, current, maximum demand and power factor on a real time basis which enables control of maximum demand and thereby the charges thereof to be paid to the State Electricity Boards. In addition, this system provides for automatic trouble shooting and isolation of faulty section.

2 x 25 KV System

Indian Railways have introduced 2 x 25 KV Auto Transformer Feeding System of power supply on Bina-Katni-Anuppur-Bishrampur/Chirimiri coal route of Central Railway and South-Eastern Railway as distinct from the present conventional 25 KV AC system. With this system the advantage of high voltage transmission, i.e. 50 KV is realized permitting at the same time inter-running of standard 25 KV electric locomotives. This is achieved by an additional power conductor on top of the overhead equipment and the mast with 50 KV being obtained between the overhead equipment and the feeder. In addition, use of return conductor and booster transformers is eliminated completely.

This pilot project has been executed with the technical guidance from Japanese Railways Technical Services (JARTS). This 2 x 25 KV traction system is already in vogue on the TGV of France and Shinkasen of Japan

Electric Rolling Stock

As part of the modernization plan, Indian Railways had imported eighteen (18), 6000 Horse Power Thyristor Locomotives, with transfer of technology. They are now going to be produced in CLW, Chittaranjan. Indian Railway have developed chopper technology for DCEMUs in collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) and 20 motor coaches with this technology will be inducted in service in the next one year progressively. The chopper technology, in addition to being less maintenance intensive is expected to save energy up to 30% to 34% in the sub-urban services. XCz

Signalling and telecommunication

Optical Fibre Communication

Indian Railway have gone in for modern communication technology and are using Optical Fibre Cable. This cable is free from copper and is, therefore, not prone to theft. It provides superior quality of communication with built in large number of telephone channels to meet future needs of train operation and safety. 2572 Kilometers of Optical Fibre communication system have been commissioned on the Nagpur-Itarsi, Nagpur-Durg, Itarsi-Bhusawal, Jhajha-Mokama, Tori-Gumia, Ambala-Saharanpur, Adra-Midnapur,VSKP-Golanthra,Shoranur-Ernakulam,Tata-Chakradharpur, Delhi and Bombay area sections as part of Railway Electrification, so far.

Indian Railways has also taken a policy decision that in future along with Railway Electrification, they will lay 24 Fibre Optic cable. They have also started making efforts for the commercial exploitation of their existing communication infra structure and to exploit their "right of way" along the tracks by private parties laying their Optical Fibre Cables.

Train Radio Communication

Optical Fibre technology has come in handy for introducing Mobile Communication from running train and has been successfully introduced along with electrification. With this the driver and guard can talk to each other and with control on moving train. This will be especially useful in emergency like accident, etc.

External links

• Official Website of Center Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE)