Amid zero traffic, Ferozepur Division of Rlys upgrades scissors crossover

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, September 30

The Ferozepur Division of the Railways has turned the crisis into opportunity by completing a safety upgrade during the rail blockade by farmers.

Taking benefit of the zero rail traffic, members of the Civil and Signal Engineers wing, in collaboration with the officials of the workshop of the Ferozepur Division, upgraded a scissors crossover (a diamond crossing track assembly on wooden sleepers layout) to pre-stressed concrete (PSC) sleepers layout with complete renewal at the Amritsar railway station, said Rajesh Aggarwal, Divisional Railway Manager.

Aggarwal said a highly engineered and high-precision task made the elimination of a safety bottleneck possible, the work which had been pending for years. The quintessential upgrade was planned to provide the PSC with a special tailor-made twin set sleepers from the Railways’ own sleeper manufacturing plant at Khalispur in Varanasi.

Being a daunting task, the renewal required long preparations and traffic closure for five days. As the trains were cancelled due to the ongoing farmers’ rail blockade, works was completed in four blocks of five hours each for four days, from September 25 to September 28.

A team of engineers machined the special kind of steel structure for the diamond-shape portion. It was followed by a precision drilling of holes and installation over a prototype near its site, then matching assembly and fitting work was completed in a few days. “The scissor crossover works like a king point of yard to help in most train movements of the Amritsar yard,” Aggarwal said.

The upgrade was unthinkable of amid usual train traffic. Only unfavourable traffic conditions would have afforded an opportunity to complete it without affecting travel of passengers.

The Divisional Railway Manager congratulated the team of engineers for accomplishing the long-pending safety upgrade on time. The new tracks of the layouts would make train movements in the Amritsar yard smoother and safer and were like a feather in cap of the Ferozepur Division, said Aggarwal. The General Manager of the Northern Railway also appreciated the Division and over the achievement.