RailEnquiry

Southern Railway started trial runs by a loco checking the track condition.The much-awaited Dindigul-Palani broad gauge section will be opened for passenger traffic shortly as the Southern Railway started conducting trail runs on the newly converted broad gauge line here on Sunday.To begin with, a loco engine was driven at a very slow speed from Dindigul to Palani this morning. The technical crew comprising Chief Loco Inspector Thiagarajan, Executive Engineer (construction) Boopathy and Traffic Engineer Nadimuthu, travelled in the loco checking the track condition using various parameters. The loco engine returned from Palani at good speed to check its strength and stability levels.After this slow trial, a special team will conduct another trial with engine and coaches on the same stretch. In the final trial run, engine and coaches will run at 120 km per hour speed to check strength of the track and other parameters including safety of passengers.Led by Railway Deputy Chief Engineer D.K. Singh, a special safety team, mostly track inspection engineers, from Chennai is expected to conduct another trial run using loco engine with minimum number of coaches on October 9 to check the track using sophisticated equipment fitted in one of the compartments.The Southern Railway has constructed 145 small and medium bridges between Palani and Dindgul stations to convert metre gauge into broad gauge . There are around 250 bridges between Pollachi and Dindigul.

Already, Mr Singh had conducted a trial in March 31, 2011 travelling in an electric trolley before the loco engine that moved at 10-km per hour speed. He inspected the track up to Chatrapatti.

The Dindigul-Palghat section was closed for gauge conversion on May 26, 2009. The work was taken up immediately at an estimated cost of Rs. 500 crore.

The Dindigul Palghat section was closed on M