Metro to seek new tracks

kolkata: metro railway is going to ask the railway board for new rails for track replacement in 2002-03 soon. the estimated cost of the project will be rs eight crores. this has become necessary in view of the increasing cases of rail fracture and dislocation in recent times. metro has witnessed four cases of rail fracture in the esplanade -tollygungee stretch this year - leading to disruption of services.according to metro sources, frequency of such cases might increase unless tracks are replaced, a senior metro official said on friday. this is the stretch which was completed in the first phase of work back in 1984. the northern stretch, which was completed in 1995 is in better shape. according to metro authorities, such fractures are not visible to the naked eye during inspection. ultrasonographic inspection is carried out only once in six months. although there is no safety implication on the tracks, replacement is necessary to bring down cases of dislocation and fracture. according to metro authorities, due to corrosion, the weight of the rail per one metre has become less than 60 kg, which is the standard weight of rail in metro. although track renewal had taken place earlier, it was at a much smaller scale. in the year 2000-01, the railway board had sanctioned rs 1.6 crores for this. it had also sanctioned rs 1.7 crore and rs 1.9 crore for track fittings and turnout replacements. this year, metro only wanted money for track strengthening and not for track renewal. "there is no question of any works programme in an unit which is considered as a construction unit in railway and therefore no fund was granted for track renewal initially," said metro chief operations manager jayanta mitra. mitra said such funds were granted only in the last few years when they convinced the board that metro assets had already started functioning and might require replacements. metro authorities, however clarified that the gross million tonnes of load carried by metro is much less than surface railway. they said metro is capable of carrying higher load than what it does presently, without affecting the tracks.