Question

Width of two tracks of broad gauge is:
A.0.610 Mts
B.0.762 Mts
C.1.000 Mts
D.1.676 Mts

Answer 1

Hint: The gauge of a railway track is defined as the clear minimum vertical distance between the inner sides of the two rails that is the distance between the two tracks on any railway route. There are four different types of railway gauges used in India—broad gauge, standard gauge, narrow gauge and meter gauge. The distance between two tracks in a standard gauge is 1.435 Mts. It is widely used for metros, monorail and trams in India. Till 2010, standard gauge was only in use in the Kolkata tram system but by 2016, the Delhi Metro, the Rapid Metro in Gurgaon, the Bangalore Metro and Mumbai Metro all use standard gauge.

Complete answer: Option A: is incorrect.
Option B: is incorrect. 0.762 Mts is the distance between two tracks for a narrow-gauge in India. About 2% of the total Indian Railways system (or roughly 1500 km) uses narrow gauge. Narrow gauge is beneficial for lighter locomotives and in mountainous terrain because construction of broad gauges is difficult there. In India, the Darjeeling Mountain Railway and the Kalka Shimla Railway use narrow gauge.
Option C: is incorrect. The track distance of 1 Mts is called a metre gauge in India. Today, the Nilgiri mountain railway is the only line that uses metre gauge. Rest all other metre gauges have been converted into broad gauges.
Option D: is correct. 1.676 Mts is the distance between two tracks for broad gauge which is also known as the Indian gauge outside the subcontinent. It is called so because it is wider than the standard gauge and the widest gauge in regular passenger use in the world. More than 1,20,000 km of Indian Railways use broad gauge. It is beneficial for transportation of heavy cargo and as passenger locomotives.

Hence, The correct answer is Option D.

Note: The first passenger railway line in India laid down between Mumbai (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) and Thane used broad gauge and it is the most predominantly used gauge in India.