Team Herald
Margao: The Konkan Railway Corporation is proposing to construct a loop connecting its track to the South Western Railway track. This loop will be from its Sarzora station to SWR’s Chandor station and this project is likely to commence in another 10 to 15 years.
The loop between these two stations is proposed to cut the shunting time when a train has to change from one route to another. Presently if a train plying on the Konkan Railway track has to move on to the South Western Railway track the train has to halt at Margao station.
Once it halts, the engine and brake van – which is the last wagon of the train – are detached and their position is reversed and only then the train moves to the South Western Railway track to proceed to Chandor. This whole shunting process takes about two hours and that is what KRC wants to save.
Instead of halting at the Margao station, the train can directly take the loop and get on to the South Western Railway route thus not only saving the time wasted on shunting but also freeing the track at the station that used to be occupied till the shunting process is complete.
In order to set up this loop nearly one lakh square metres of land will be required and it has already been identified. It is learnt that the land acquired will mostly be agricultural land and will be from the villages of San Jose de Areal and Chandor.
KRC is in the process of constructing a new railway station at Davorlim-Dicarpale which is called Sarzora station and the loop will be from this station to Chandor station where under the present double tracking programme of South Western Railway, the position of the station is being changed to the other side and a new platform will be constructed on the side where the station is presently situated.
