In the next 12 months, the world’s first electrified rail tunnel fit to run double-stack containers will be operational in the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor.
The tunnel breaking ceremony marks the completion of the tunnel caving work at the WDFC’s one-kilometer long tunnel through the Aravallis near Sohna in Haryana. The last blasting of the tunnel, which is situated on the Rewari-Dadri section, has been done. This work has been completed in less than a year’s time.
Geologically, this tunnel is safe and stable as it is caved through 2,500 to 500 million-year-old Proterozoic Rocks mainly Quartzite, Schists and slates of Alwar/Azabgarh groups of Delhi Supergroup rocks, which have the high bearing capacity. Double stack containers and 25 ton axle load freight trains will run through this tunnel at a speed of 100 kmph.
The tunnel connects the Mewat and Gurugram district of Haryana and negotiates a steep gradient on the uphill and downhill slope of the Aravalli range. The D-shaped tunnel has a cross-sectional area of 150 square meters to accommodate double line with higher OHE (Over Head Equipment) to enable double-stack container movement on WDFC.
Cross-sectional area wise, it is one of the biggest Railway tunnels in India. One end of the tunnel is near Rewari called as Portal-1 or West Portal, while the other end of the tunnel is at Dadri called as Portal-2 or East Portal.The Dimension of the tunnel is 14.5 meters and 10.5 meters height in straight portion and 15 meters wide and 12.5 metre height to provide extra clearance while negotiating the curve.
The work has been done systematically and in a planned manner from both the ends by deploying high-tech machinery and man power. This is the reason that it was completed in less than a year. The high-tech machinery used were: Boomer double arm type with arm reach spanning 7 meters, shotcrete machine robotic arm type with a reach of 12 meters, transit mixer having 6 CUM capacity, Hywa with a load capacity of 20 tons, scissor lift, DG set of 500 KVA capacity, two concrete pumps, grout pumps and ROC.
There are a total of six tunnels in both the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors. In WDFC, there are one km long Sohna Tunnel, 430 metre long Vasai Detour South Tunnel and 320 metre long Vasai Detour North Tunnel. The EDFC also has three number of tunnels measuring 150 metre, 475 metre and 300 metre respectively in the Sonnagar-Gomoh section.
Till date, more than 1,600 trains have been run by the DFCCIL in the Bhadan-Khurja section of EDFC and the Madar-Rewari section of the WDFC. The WDFC and the EDFC (excluding the PPP section) is slated for completion in the month of June 2022.
