Slower Shatabdis from today
By Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

DHIRPUR ( Kurukshetra district), Dec 10 — As the much talked-about operation to repair the "cracks" on the damaged Delhi-Ambala rail track ends tonight, several questions remain unanswered.

A few trains, including the prestigious Shatabdis will be back on the section from tomorrow and will run at a speed below 60 kmph, leading to delays and an alteration in their time tables. Several other trains are still diverted and will continue to be so for another week.

A visit to this minuscule railway station between Kurukshetra and Ambala revealed that a small team of workers with primitive tools in hand and an engineer to oversee them, were out to repair several cracks. This area is a part of the last leg of the massive week-long repair work. Teams of the Railways are either using fish plates to bind together the two portions of a track to minimise the hairline cracks or weld the cracks that are a bit wider.

Almost all cracks — a total of 105 were identified by an ultrasound fault detection machine — that appeared on the Delhi-Ambala section had been at the joints that had been welded earlier. The track is supplied in varying lengths and then its gaps are filled by a very sophisticated welding system.

The welding work had been carried out less than two years ago while the tracks are not more than eight years old. The life of the tracks supplied by Steel Authority of India Ltd should be 20 years, said a source.

Sources in the Railways said the ultrasound machine had reportedly showed up flaws even when the test was carried out immediately after the welding work was finished by the contractor then. The source added, that on December 3 after a faulty engine passed over the track, cracks had appeared at some places. However, the sheer number of cracks detected by the machine is too high.

Why were these cracks not taken care of earlier when the ultrasound machine had showed that some problem existed, asked a railway man.

Even now when an intensive repair job that has delayed several lakh passengers and led to unaccountable business losses, the ultrasound test has not been carried out on the adjacent track.

The action of the Railways to divert or cancel a large number of trains due to small and or almost negligible cracks seems to be a step in retrospective rationalism following the Khanna tragedy. Such minor cracks are there on all rail lines and the wider ones are filled immediately. The cold weather also causes routine cracks.

Notably a preliminary enquiry into the Khanna tragedy had said that a crack in the tracks might have caused Frontier Mail to jump of its tracks, leading to the accident that claimed more than 200 lives.

The damaged track on the Delhi-Ambala section is called the long- welded rail (LWR). This type of track does not have fish plates as a matter of routine or any gaps. High-speed locomotives are run on such tracks only.

* Small and negligible cracks are there on almost all tracks across the country.

* A majority of the cracks on the Delhi-Ambala section are at welded joints.

* Cold weather in which iron contracts also leads to minor cracks that were detected by the ultrasound machine.

* Ultrasound test not carried out on adjacent track.

* Trains will not run at full speed for another week.

Shatabdi timetable changed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 10 — Despite the repair of the damaged track between Delhi and Ambala trains on the section will not run at speed in excess of 60 kmph while several major trains still stand diverted and three other trains will continue to be terminated elsewhere. The arrangement will continue for a week.

Due to slow speed the time tables of the Shatabdis between Delhi- Amritsar and Delhi-Chandigarh, and other major trains have been changed for the week. The Shatabdi leaving Delhi for Chandigarh in the morning will depart at its usual time and reach here at 12.10 pm that is almost one and half hour behind schedule.

On its return leg the train will leave Chandigarh at 12.35 pm. The Shatabdi that comes from Delhi here in the evening will depart from Delhi at its routine time and arrive here at 9.55 pm that is almost one hour and 40 minutes behind schedule.

The Swaran Shatabdi from Delhi to Amritsar will leave Delhi at 6.20 am reach Ambala at 10.30 am and arrive at Amritsar at 1.35 pm, almost one hour off its schedule. The Shatabdi between Delhi and Amritsar will leave Delhi at 4.30 pm, arrive at Ludhiana at 9.37 pm, arrive at Jalandhar at 10.20 pm and reach Amritsar at 11.25 pm.

The Kalka Mail arriving from Howrah will leave Delhi at 10.45 pm and arrive at Chandigarh 4.45 am the next day en route to Kalka where it shall reach at 5.50 am. Besides this all trains that have been put on the Delhi-Ambala section will be delayed by two and three hours due to the slow speed. Besides this several trains leaving Delhi for northern cities will remain diverted either east from Rohtak-Jind-Narwana-Jakhal-Dhuri or west from Shamli-Saharanpur.