Railway tracks get renovated

KOCHI: In a major initiative to ensure safety of goods and container trains, railway tracks at the Cochin Yard will be replaced within a month. The yard, which is the major centre for transporting goods in and out of the Kochi Port, has been in a dilapidated state for many years. “The Railway authorities have already started replacing the old tracks with new ones. The Rs 4.5-crore renovation work has already begun and is progressing at a fast pace. It will finish in a month,” said Vijay Sigh, senior divisional engineer, Thiruvananthapuram Division.The renovation was part of the Railways routine maintenance aiming at the safety of the trains, he said. Old tracks do not have the capacity to carry the trains and it is important to renovate the tracks periodically, he said and added that the major part of the work is focused on replacing the 90R rails with 52 kg rails. “The present tracks have become outdated which made it mandatory for us to renovate the tracks as would otherwise raise safety concerns,” he said. Such a measure would assist the increased goods transport of Kochi Port as well as the increasing food imports, Vijay Sigh said.