From The Hindu, March 4, 1975: S. Railway goes in for concrete sleepers

Madras, March 3: As part of the track modernisation programme on Indian Railways, the Southern Railway will be replacing the Madras-Arkonam and Madras-Gudur rail tracks with concrete sleepers instead of the present wooden and cast iron sleepers. These concrete sleepers are expected to give stability to the track to take heavier loads of trains at speeds ranging from 130 10 160 kmph.

Th Railway Board has procured nearly 41 automatic on-track sleeper tampers and Plasser Quick Relaying System (PQRS), which would be used to replace wooden sleepers. The acute shortage of these sleepers and the inadequacy of the old types of metal sleepers to take the stress and strain of heavier and faster traffic have made the Board embark on a fairly large programme for the manufacture of cement concrete sleepers.

The Railway General Sleeper, Mr. G.S.A. Saldanha, inaugurated this morning at Ambattur the track laying function and watched the “on-line-tamper” which fixed the sleepers to the track with ground rubber pads and rail clips to give smooth and efficient service over a long period.