Hubballi-based South Western Railway has achieved the highest mobility improvement among all zones.
South Western Railway has made pioneering efforts to enhance railway connectivity in the jurisdiction it serves, officials said on Tuesday.
In a release, Chief Public Relations Officer Aneesh Hegde said that the Hubballi zone has emerged as the top among all zones in some parameters.
In the financial year 2022-23, South Western Railway has made focused efforts to improve the mobility of trains through various measures to achieve the highest performance among all railway zones in the country.
It has achieved a visible improvement in mobility by 53% with the average speed of goods trains (including stabling and yarding) increased from 13.97 kmph in April 2022 to 21.6 kmph in April 2023. This tremendous improvement has been possible through implementation of various works such as commissioning of the Gadag Bypass in March 2022.
This has saved the time lost in reversal of engines of goods trains coming from Goa/Hubballi towards Vijayapura. This also eliminated the need for goods trains to enter Gadag Jn. The Hubballi Bypass, commissioned in September 2019 has helped avoid detention of goods trains that enter Hubballi Station and improved the punctuality of several Mail/Express trains traversing through Hubballi Jn.
South Western Railway has achieved the highest-ever electrification among all zones. In 2022-23, it achieved the highest ever electrification of 874 RKM. All major routes are being electrified. This has not only saved ₹205 crore on diesel expenditure in 2022-23 but also eliminated the need for traction change en route. As many as 24 trains were converted to electric traction in 2022-23.
Doubling, new lines
In 2022-23, South Western Railway achieved the highest-ever commissioning of doubling and new lines of 228.5 km. A record new line and doubling was achieved in 2022-23 (228 km). Doubling of critical routes such as Yelahanka-Penukonda (120 km) and Hubballi-Bengaluru (469 km) also contributed to the improvement of punctuality.
Sectional speed
Concerted efforts were made to enhance speed by removing curves and also PSRs at 18 locations. On 732 km, the maximum permissible speed was raised to 110 kmph and on 91.6 km, speed was raised to 100 kmph. And, on loop lines, speed was raised from 10 kmph/15 kmph to 30 kmph on 437 km.
As many as 116 trains have been speeded up in 2022-23 saving a cumulative 2,718 minutes. For example, Rani Chennamma Express (16589) between Bengaluru and Hubballi used to take about 7.5 hours earlier, but now it takes just 6.5 hours to complete the journey.
In 2021-22, Rani Chennamma was speeded up by 39 minutes (end to end) and in 2022-23 by 45 minutes.
South Western Railway has been running the highest end to end supply trains. The goods trains that were run as Cracks, meaning trains running end to end without any stoppages, have achieved a higher average speed and effectively reduced transit times.
“In 2021-22, we ran 2,503 Crack trains and in 2022-23, we operated 6,077 Crack trains transporting greater amount of cargo over longer distances in lesser time,” he said.
This improved throughput and enhanced section capacity has resulted in better turn-round of goods wagons. This enabled South Western Railway to register its highest-ever loading of 46.7 million tonnes, the previous record was in 2007-08, i.e., of 46.24 million tonnes.
General manager Sanjeev Kishore stated that there is now an unprecedented thrust as well as capital investment on augmentation of railway infrastructure in the zone. In the days to come, South Western Railway will emerge as a transporter of choice for the industry as well as the passengers.
