South Western Railway carried out safety inspection of the Kudchi-Ugarkhurd double line in Belagavi district on Tuesday.
Commissioner of Railway Safety Anant Madhukar Chowdhary conducted statutory inspection of doubling of railway track between Kudchi and Ugarkhurd (6.695 km) section on Tuesday.
The doubling of the Kudchi-Ugarkhurd section is a part of the Londa-Miraj doubling project sanctioned in 2015-2016. The project is fully funded by the Ministry of Railways. The stretch from Londa to Ghataprabha was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2023.
Doubling of railway track enhances the capacity of the Railways to run more trains as well as safety. Not only can more number of trains be operated but also the direction of traffic can be fixed (Up line and Down line) and express and passenger trains need not wait for crossing of other trains (passenger or goods).
The newly doubled section between Kudachi and Ugarkhurd consists of one major bridge on the Krishna with 14 spans of 45.7 m open web through girders, one yard remodeling (Kudchi) with one new loop line and passenger platform of 570 m length and one road overbridge of 60 m bow string girder.
A speed trial at a peak speed of 119 kmph on the Down line and 89 kmph on the Up line was conducted between Kudchi and Ugarkhurd.
The Commissioner of Railway Safety has authorised those concerned to run trains at 90 kmph in this section. With doubling of Kudchi-Ugarkhurd section, South Western Railway has so far commissioned 25.1 km track doubling in 2023-24, said a release from Chief Public Relations Officer Aneesh Hegde.
New working timetable
General Manager, SWR, Sanjeev Kishore, released the new working timetable No 20 of South Western Railway at Rail Soudha in Hubballi on Tuesday.
The working timetable is a schedule in a table form, showing details of arrivals and departures at every station of all trains carrying passengers of the zone. The working timetable will act as a guide to the railway staff in arranging crossings and precedence of running trains, receipt and despatch of trains at terminals, provision of motive power, crew, maintenance of tracks and other assets of Railways, a data base for calculating the requirements of rolling stock, locomotives and running staff in train operations and contains a number of safety-related instructions, to be followed by railway staff.
Mr. Kishore said that the working timetable will be a ready reckoner-cum-guide to railway staff and officers in the Control Office as well as on the field in optimal utilisation of assets and enhancement of efficiency in railway operations.
Principal Chief Operations Manager B. Prashanth Kumar, Chief Passenger Transportation Manager H.M. Dinesh, Deputy Chief Operations Manager N. Rajkumar, Deputy General Manager Kuldeep, Secretary to General Manager Sunil G., Assistant Transportation Manager B.L. Shivakumar and Assistant Transportation Manager Manish Kumar were present.
Extension of service
The service of Train Nos 07355/07356 SSS Hubballi-Rameswaram-SSS Hubballi Weekly Express Special will be extended with the existing timings, stoppages and composition.
Train No 07355 SSS Hubballi-Rameswaram Weekly Express Special, running on Saturdays from SSS Hubballi, will continue its service from October 7 to December 30. Earlier, this train was notified to run till September 30.
Train No 07356 Rameswaram-SSS Hubballi Weekly Express Special, running on Sundays from Rameswaram, will continue its service from October 8 to December 31. Earlier, this train was notified to run till October 1.
Temporary stoppage
The one-minute temporary stoppage at Hoodi Halt Station for Train Nos. 16519/16520 KSR Bengaluru-Jolarpettai-KSR Bengaluru MEMU will be continued for a period of six months, from October 1, 2023 to March 30, 2024.
Diversion
Train No 18111 Tatanagar-Yesvantpur Weekly Express, leaving Tatanagar on September 28, will be diverted to run via Nidadavolu, Bhimavaram Town, Gudivada, Vijayawada, skipping stoppage at Eluru, due to rolling corridor block programme in the Vijayawada division.
