SCHEDULING FRAMEWORK FOR TRACK LINKING IN RAILWAY PROJECTS

First Review Report
By
Andrew George Cherian
Under the guidance of
Dr. Koshy Varghese
Building Technology and Construction Management
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
October 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 4 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT 4 3. OBJECTIVE 5 4. SCOPE OF WORK 5 5. METHODOLOGY 6 6. LITERATURE REVIEW 7 7. PILOT STUDY 8 7.1 RAIL WELDING 8 7.1.1 FLASH BUTT WELDING MACHINE 8 7.2 PRE-REQUISITES FOR LAYING THE TRACK 9 8. PROBLEM VALIDATION 12 9. ISSUE IDENTIFICATION 13 10. PROJECT TIMELINE 16 11. REFERENCE 16

TABLE OF FIGURES Fig1. Methodology Flowchart 6 Fig 2. Sequence of activities 10 Fig 3. Work Sampling Chart 10 Fig 4. Idle time distribution 11 Fig 5. Snapshot of planning assumptions 12 Fig 6. DPR for welding for a typical month 13 Fig 7. Snapshot of Internal Hire Charges 15 Fig 8. Project Timeline 16

1. INTRODUCTION
Railway track construction started in India in 1859, with first operational line between Mumbai and Thane. It is the most critical transportation system of the country for passengers and goods. Spread of the railway track across any country is a key indicator of infrastructure and economy of a country. As of 2014-2015 India has a spread of more than 65000 route km of railway track (Indian Railways,2015).
A typical railway construction project involves the construction of embankment, bridges, structures, railway tracks, overhead equipment and signaling systems. Generally, the railway construction contracts awarded contain all these activities. The railway track linking activity at any section is taken after completion of earthwork and structures. After it is completed, it also facilitates the construction of overhead equipment and signaling systems. Hence,