RAILWAY ROUTE ALIGNMENT USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS

TECHNIQUES

Name of the Presenter : Mrs.N.Thilagavathi

Author (s) Affiliation : Mrs.N.Thilagavathi, Ms.S.Amutha, and Ms.R.Priya
Paper Reference No. : PN- 57
Mailing Address : Mrs.N.Thilagavathi,
Department of Civil Engineering,
Sona College of Technology,
Salem, Tamilnadu,
India-636005
Email Address : thilagavathi_raja@yahoo.co.in, amuthasekar20@yahoo.com,

priyacvl@gmail.com.

Telephone number (s) : +919443724508, +919790187383, +919940999735

Fax number (s) : +91427 40 99 888

INTRODUCTION

Railways are the part of the infrastructure that makes up the spinal cord of modern
society. The best alignment should allow the passenger travel through the shortest path, the land
use pattern should be least affected, in that the waste land and government land should be
utilized against agricultural and built up area, Weak zones like Weak soils, erosion-prone zone
and flood prone areas should be avoided and also should cater the needs of maximum number of
user.
Aligning the best rail route through an area is one of the main spatial problems. Manual
aligning is a tedious process, and it will consume more time with less accuracy. This problem has
recently been solved effectively using Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing
technologies.
During the last decade, a few attempts have been made to automate the route-planning
process using Geographic Information System. In this context, physical, environmental, political,
social, economical and legal processes was considered and implemented for railway routing
determination.
Multiple factors were considered while using GIS techniques for railway route alignment.
The present study was initiated to demonstrate the use of various data from different sources,
GIS analysis all these spatial data for developing a least cost railway route.

OBJECTIVES

In order to construct any new road, the first pre-requisite is to select an alignment. It is
advisable to select an optimum low cost alignment. The objectives of this research are:

To study the existing land use pattern and rail routes using remote sensing
technique.

To establish modern GIS facility capable of supporting the development.

To create the data base using GIS package.

To Identify New Rail corridor.

To formulate high quality digital model of new rail corridor.

To facilitate the effective collaboration between local and federal government

agencies as well as private enterprises and other end users.
 To share the data with other GIS user
NEED FOR STUDY

Public transport facilities provided by buses are grossly inadequate to meet the
increased travel demand.

In such situations, planning of higher order mass transit system is essential( i.e Rail
based system).

Using Geographical Information System (GIS) aligning of rail route will be easier.

Namakkal district is noted for truck and lorry external body building,
which are exported through roadways.

Namakkal is a large producer of egg and agricultural goods such as Paddy, Cholam
and Ragi.

Railway is one of the faster mode of transport which helps in the exporting of goods.

Proposal of new rail corridor in Namakkal helps to transport the goods with less
consumption of time.
GIS FOR IDENTIFING NEW RAIL CORRIDOR:
This paper discusses a model for identifying demand-oriented urban rail transit corridor
on a city road network, using geographical information system (GIS) tools. The model is part of
a study to develop a demand-oriented attractive and integrated urban rail transit system for a city
which has a potential demand for a new rail-based mass transit system besides the street transit
system and existing rail-based system (if any).
The objective of the study is to identify the new rail corridor, which is optimum from
both users' and operator's point of view. The rail corridor is to be aligned to allow the user to
travel through shortest path, with the level-of-service comparable to private vehicle. It is also
aligned on high demand corridors to give maximum revenues to the operator. The significant
benefit of GIS technology is its ability to visualize the spatial data and to interpret the
information visually.
STUDY AREA:
Our study area is from Salem to Namakkal district. Salem is well linked by road and rail
with other important centers of the state. Rapid urbanization of Namakkal district has brought the
need to form a rail road between Salem to Namakkal. Salem Junction is a six railway routes
merging junctions, so it plays an important transit point in South India. Following are the railway
stations for the Salem urban area:

Salem Railway Junction,

Salem Market Station,
Salem Town Station,
 Neykarapatti,
Ayodhyapattinam,
Karuppur,
Veerapandi,
Vazhapadi.
The district is also well known for its poultry and dairy industries, accounting for a bulk
of supply of poultry products to neighboring industries.
The three important National Highway passing through the study area are:

NH7 (North-South)
NH47(Leading to West)

VECTOR DATA

Sl.No District Latitude Longitude Altitude

1 Salem 11° 39´ 78° 12´ 278 m

2 Namakkal 11° 13´ 78° 1 3´ 300 m

STATION POINTS LATITUDE & LONGITUDE

SI.NO LOCATION LATITUDE(E) LONGITUDE(N)

1 Salem 78° 6.830´ 11° 40.207´

2 Mallur 78°8.075 ´ 11° 33.265´

3 Rasipuram 78°10.761 ´ 11° 27.205´

4 Puduchatram 78°11.162 ´ 11° 23.04´

5 Kalangani 78° 10.543´ 11°19.450 ´

6 Namakkal 78° 10.838´ 11°13.234 ´

Above details were collected with the help of GPS from study area.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN RAILWAY ENGINEERING:

In the transportation industry geographic analysis is the key to making better decisions.
Whether monitoring rail systems and road conditions, finding the best way to deliver goods and
services, tracking fleet vehicles, or maintaining transportation networks, understanding these
issues from a geographic perspective is crucial to deploying or spending resources wisely.

Railways around the world find great utility in using geographical information systems
(GIS) to manage key information for rail operations, maintenance, asset management, and
decision support systems.

The list below identifies the major functions or disciplines in which GIS has been
successfully deployed in railway organizations,

Real estate management

Facility management
Track
Power
Communication and signaling
Asset tracking
Commodity flow analysis
Emergency response management
Environmental and construction management
Intermodal management
Passenger information
Capacity planning
Marketing
Supply chain management
Site selection
Risk management
METHODOLOGY

The methodology which is involved in the project is explained in a flow chart below:

Toposheets (SOI) Satellite data

Base Map Preparation Digital Image Processing

Drainage and River Systems Map Geomorphology Map

Slope and Contour map Land use / Land cover Map

GIS Integration / Site Suitability Analysis

Favorable Route Selection

LIST OF MAPS CREATED

1. Topography map

Topographic and geologic data of the proposed rail network area were prepared in a GIS
ready format and used as input to the GIS database. The locations of roads, railways, wetland,
forests and drainage features were derived from the topographic map layer. The map that
produced by SOI is the base for national topographic database and has a number of features for
instance location of roads, railways ,wetland ,forests , drainage features, elevation points .In this
proposed project, digital elevation model (DEM) was prepared from the elevation data. It was
used as input to the least cost and shortest pathway analysis.

2. Geomorphology map
Different landforms present in the area are depicted .This geomorphic unit were
extracted from the satellite image by digital data interpretation and incorporated into the GIS
database. These geomorphic units were classified into Plateau, Scarp face, Debris slope, bazada,
residual hill and pediments (deep, shallow & moderate).

3. Drainage Pattern

Salem and Namakkal district is drained by Cauvery river basin. The Cauvery River forms
the western and south-western boundary of the district. The domestic and industrial usage of
water is being satisfied by Cauvery river water. As far as the drainage fabrication of the study
area is concerned, it is covered by third order and fifth order streams in the North and Northeast
part of hills and hillocks in the both dis. These streams are seasonal and become dry during
summer season and the main stream which is passing through this area of interest is
Thirumanimuttar .
4. Location of Bridges

It is advisable that to construct necessary bridges in the study area where there is
crossing of streams that are higher order.
5. Land use / Land cover

The land use map was prepared from Digital LANDSAT 2007 satellite data and the
features were classified as per Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (NRSA,1995)
classification system and following land use pattern were identified as agricultural land, forests,
mining area, water body, plantations, barren rock area and urban areas. Most of the area is being
occupied by fallow land. Hills/barren rocky area is located in the northern part of the study area.
Besides these two major categories, the crop land is also sporadically distributed in the study
area.
6. Land Features

Our proposed road is laid on the gentle slope. In this gentle slope a moderate soil
condition is present, because of moderate soil condition the construction of bridge will be easy
since the load bearing capacity of the soil is high. In the legends we have shown the different
slope conditions Darker tones indicate very steep slopes. The slope map was prepared using the
Toposheet.
ROUGH COST ESTIMATION :

LAND VALUES

Sl.No Station Points Market Value Government Value

(in Rs/ Acre) (in Rs/ Acre)

1 Salem to Mallur 15,00,000 1,60,000

2 Mallur to Rasipuram 17,00,000 1,20,000

3 Rasipuram to 5,00,000 80,000

Puduchatram

4 Puduchatram to 4,00,000 60,000

Kalangani
5 Kalangani to Namakkal 8,00,000 1,00,000

Salem to Mallur :

Length = 13.256 km

Breadth = 23 m

Area = 13256 * 23

= 304888 m2

Cost of land per m2 = Rs 39.60

Total Land Cost = Rs.1, 20, 73,600

Mallur to Rasipuram :

Length = 12.619 km

Breadth = 23

Area = 12619 * 23

= 290237 m2

Cost of land per m2 = Rs 30

Total Land Cost = Rs.87, 07,200

Rasipuram to Puduchatram :

Length = 7.625 km

Breadth = 23 m

Area = 7625 * 23

= 175375 m2

Cost of land per m2 = Rs 20

Total Land Cost = Rs.35, 07,500

Puduchatram to Kalangani:

Length = 6.1 km

Breadth = 23 m

Area = 6100 * 23

= 140300 m2

Cost of land per m2 = Rs 15

Total Land Cost = Rs.21, 04,500

Kalangani to Namakkal:

Length = 11.8 km

Breadth = 23 m

Area = 11800 * 23

= 271400 m2

Cost of land per m2 = Rs 25

Total Land Cost = Rs.67, 85,000

Total cost of land acquisition = Rs.3, 31, 77,800

MAJOR BRIDGES

Sl.No. Major Bridges Span(In m) Type

1 MJ 1 3 x 12.20. PSC Girder

2 MJ 2 6 x 6.10 PSC

3 MJ 3 6 x 6.10 PSC

4 MJ 4 3 x 6.10 PSC
 5 MJ 5 7 x 6.10 PSC

MJ – Major Bridge

PSC – Pre-Stressed Concrete

BRIDGES CONSTRUCTION COST

Material Cost, Workmanship, Excavation, Leveling= 4.5 lakhs/m2

Cost for Major Bridge 1 = 3*12.2*4, 50,000

= Rs 16,4,70,000

Cost for Major Bridge 2 = 6*6.1*4, 50,000

= Rs 16,4,70,000

Cost for Major Bridge 3 = 6*6.1*4, 50,000

= Rs 16,4,70,000

Cost for Major Bridge 4 = 3*12.2*4, 50,000

= Rs 82, 35,000

Cost for Major Bridge 5 = 3*1299999.2*4, 50,000

= Rs 1, 92, 15,000

Total cost for Bridges Construction = Rs 6, 03, 90,000

Total Cost for Alignment of the Railway track = Rs 9,35,67,800

Including bridges (from Salem to Namakkal)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The purpose of this study was to develop a tool to locate a suitable less route between
two points. The GIS approach using ground parameters and spatial analysis provided to achieve
this goal. Raster based map analysis provide a wealth of capabilities for incorporating terrain
information surrounding linear infrastructure. Costs resulting from terrain, geomorphology, land
use, drainage and elevation resulting low cost estimation for implementing the shortest routes for
the study area. The existing road path was 51.4km long from the existing Salem junction to
Namakkal (proposed junction) (via Mallur,Rasipuram,Puduchatram,Kalangani) by Southern
Railway.
Our study analysis the least cost pathway was 45.5km long (via Mallur, Rasipuram,
Puduchatram,Kalangani) this has been done by preparing geomorphology, landuse / landcover
and drainage maps from the Survey of India toposheet and LSS images , with the help of GIS
software. Results indicate that the route which was designed applying GIS method is more
environmentally effective and economical.
This proposed shortest route provides traffic free, pollution free, risk free, operating for
movement of vehicle passing from Salem to Namakkal. Time and consumption of fuel will also
be reduced considerably.
This has shown a potential savings which can be obtained by automating the route
selection process. GIS method can also be used for route determination for irrigation, drainage
channels, power lines and railways.
CONCLUSION

Railway route alignment from Salem to Namakkal have been developed using remote
sensing and GIS tools. The cost in terms of budget and time for implementing remote sensing
and GIS methods indicate its high benefits compared to the conventional method. In fact various
studies point towards almost guaranteed savings cost of 11.5 percent. The cost is computed as
weighted sum of land acquisition cost, material cost, excavation, construction cost & workman
ship. The route obtained by remote sensing and GIS method source 5.9km saving (11.47 %)
over the original 51.4km alignment obtained by existing survey method.

GIS based spatial information developed in the project be up to date and an acceptable level of
resolution. The proposed route is useful to find the feasible path where the user can select the
best route.
FUTURE WORK RECOMMENDATION

This is also recommended for further extension of Rail Route till Karur.
It is suggested in future when the need becomes higher a parallel rail route will be laid
based on proposed route.
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