RailEnquiry

The programme for electrification of track is being advanced on the Eastern Railways, it is officially learnt. A few sections, which were originally scheduled to be electrified during the Fourth Plan, are being taken up immediately. This, it is learnt, is being done to augment the carrying capacity of the railways. According to a recent re-appraisal, the railways will be called upon to lift 260 million tons of originating traffic by the end of the Third Plan, as against what was originally laid in the Plan at 245 million tons. Of the entire freight traffic, raw materials for and finished products from the steel plants and coal for the steel industry as well as other consumers would account for nearly 130 million tons.