The First Longer Loop Line of South Central Railway has been commissioned at Bikkavolu Railway Station of Vijayawada Division located on the busy Vijayawada – Visakhapatnam (Waltair) section.
In Railways, loop lines are constructed in station areas to accommodate more number of trains and to ease out the train operations. Normally, these loop lines are constructed with a length of 750 meters which can accommodate a full-length goods train with multiple engines.
- With the increasing need to handle more number of trains with higher average speeds, Indian Railways has been encouraging the construction of Longer Loop lines of around 1500 meters (which is double than the existing loop line lengths).
- Over SCR, the Ministry of Railways has initially sanctioned construction of Longer Loops at six stations of Vijayawada Division viz., Bikkavolu, Navabpalem & Elamanchili in Vijayawada – Visakhapatnam section and Nidubrolu, Ammanabrolu & Bitragunta m Vijayawada – Chennai section.
- Accordingly, the Longer Loop line works at Bikkavolu station has been taken up and completed well before the target date and this longer loop line stands as the first one commissioned across the Zone.
- Further, the works for commissioning of longer loop lines at Nidubrolu, Ammanabrolu and Bitragunta stations are in progress simultaneously along with 3rd Line works being carried out between Vijayawada – Gudur, while the longer loops at Navabpalem and Elamanchili are nearing completion and are targeted for commissioning in 2021.
- The execution of works for construction of Longer Loop at Bikkavolu has been taken up with meticulous planning without any disruption to regular train services.
- The total cost of this project is around Rs. 85 crores.
- The loop line is having two isolations to strengthen the safety and also facilitates stabling two trains at a time
Recent Achievement:
For the 3rd Consecutive month, Freight Loading of South Central Railway has surpassed the freight loading of the corresponding month in the previous year, registering the highest loading for 2020-21 in November 2020.
- The Zone has recorded freight loading of 9.3 MTs during the month of November 2020 compared to the loading of 8.9 MT recorded during November 2019.
- Inspite of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Zone continues to show positive momentum in the freight loading due to the relentless efforts of Team SCR under the guidance and leadership of Shri Gajanan Mallya, General Manager, SCR.
- The diversification of the freight basket also continues with the growth in other commodities loading more than making up marginal reduction in Coal loading.
- The sustained focus on agricultural commodities loading has led to Foodgrains and Fertiliser loading growing by 25% (0.64 MT) and 44% (0.62 MT) respectively in November 2020 over last year.
- With continuous monitoring and follow up by the team SCR,Cement and Containers loading have also seen an upswing.
- Containers Loading registered to the tune of 0.152 Million Tonnes in November 2020 which is 67% higher when compared with corresponding period of the previous year, while Cement Loading registered 2.84 MTs which is 50 % more than the previous year loading in the same month (1.9 MTs).
- Several freight concessions and policy initiatives introduced by Railways especially in terms of both Tariff and Non-Tariff initiatives for commodities across the spectrum have positively contributed towards the improvement in growth of freight loading.
- Simultaneously, the setting-up of Business Development Units at Zonal and Divisional level has helped in making in-roads into stream of traffic as well as new destinations for the existing commodities.
- The movement of freight trains has also been given due importance and regularly monitored at all levels.
- The average speed of freight trains in the month of November was around 50 Kmph, which is an improvement of 85% when compared to 27 Kmph registered in the same month last year.
- Shri Gajanan Mallya, General Manager of South Central Railway has taken special interest and monitored the zonal freight loading and conducted regular review meetings with all the departments to have well coordination to maintain the growth in the freight segment. He expressed his satisfaction on the best loading figures registered by the Zone during the month of November and advised railway officials and staff to maintain the same tempo for the rest of the financial year.
Source: South Central Railway-Press Release
