Newly Electrified section of Chunar- Chopan in Uttar Pradesh under North Central Railway Inaugurated

An important step towards eco-friendly train operations On 08.02.2020 newly electrified section of Chunar-Chopan in Sonanchal area of Uttar Pradesh following under jurisdiction of Allahabad Division, North Central Railway was inaugurated by Minister of State for Railways Suresh C. Angadi through video conference from Bangaluru. Chunar-Chopan is an important railway line in Allahabad Division which connects Northern Coal Fields to Northern part of the country and provide connectivity to Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh to Uttar Pradesh through a shorter rail route by 200 km as compare to Delhi-Howarh main line. Keeping importance of this rail link and with a view to increase through put of passenger and goods train in this section electrification of this 100 km. rail section was sanctioned by Ministry of Railway and electrification of this 100 km. single line section was completed on 04.12.2019. This work is executed by Railway Electrification Unit Danapur and cost of the project is 85.76 crores. With electrification of this section, trains can now seamlessly operate on electric traction from Jharkhand and Eastern part of the country to North & North Western area without detention for want of traction change from electric to diesel. This will reduce detention in goods train by four to six hours which will help in timely availability of coal from Northern Coal Fields to Power houses in Northern and North Western part of the country. Besides increasing throughput, electrification of this section will also pave the way for operation of main line electrical multiple unit (MEMU) in place of conventional passenger trains. Running of more passenger and goods train through this electrified section will also help in overcoming capacity constraint in super saturated Chunar-Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay main line section.

This newly electrified rail section of Chunar-Chopan was inaugurated byi Suresh C. Angadi MoSR by flagging of first electric locomotive hauled passenger train through video conference from DRM office Bangaluru. Inaugural function was also organized at Chunar station which was attended by MP Lok Sabha Anupriya Patel, MP Rajya Sabha Ram Shakal,. DRM Allahabad Amitabha and officers from North Central Railway, Allahabad Division were also available in the function which was attended by a large gathering. This electrified section of 100 RKM. covers six stations between Chunar and Chopan including district Head quarter station Sonebhadra. At Sonebhadra similar inaugural function was organized where first electric locomotive hauled passenger train was flagged off by MP Lok Sabha Pakodi Lal Kol. Flagging off function organized at Sonebhadra station was also attended by Railway officials, public representatives and large crowd from Sonebhadra area.

While inaugurating Chunar-Chopan newly electrified section through video link from Bangaluru, Minister of state Shri Suresh C. Angadi said that electrification of Chunar-Chopan section will help in faster transportation of goods and passengers from Eastern & East Central part of the country to North India and it will help in overall development of Sonanchal area of Uttar Pradesh.

Angadi mentioned that operation through electric traction is not only faster and economical but it is also environment friendly. Of total broad gauge network of 64298 RKMs on Indian Railways, 37942 RKM is already electrified and Ministry of Railways has an ambitious target of electrifying balance 28810 RKMs by the year 2023-24. Working in mission mode Indian Railways is electrifying more than 5000 RKMs of broad gauge route per year to achieve 100% electrification goal.
GM North Central Railway & Northern Railway Rajiv Chaudhry and Additional Member (Electricial) Railway Board Manju Gupta also attended this inaugural function through video link from Northern Railway Head quarters, Baroda House, New Delhi. Addressing media personnel on this occasion Shri Chaudhry said that besides electrification NCR has taken many other environment friendly initiatives like installing solar plants of more than 10MWs capacity, plantation of more than 10lakh sapling per year, energy regeneration in 3phase electric locomotive, use of LED, running of LHB trains on HOG etc.