South Western Railway, in the last financial year i.e., 2022-23, has made focussed efforts to improve the mobility of trains through various measures. Among all the zones of IR, SWR has achieved a visible improvement in mobility by 53%, 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.
More Details:
- Indian Railways is termed as the lifeline of the nation. It plays a very important role in keeping the supply chain of essential commodities intact, ensuring timely supply of raw materials to industries, power plants as well as enabling timely transport of finished goods, food grains and other products.
- South Western Railway has been making pioneering efforts to enhance railway connectivity in the jurisdiction it serves.
This tremendous improvement has been possible through implementation of various works such as:
Commissioning of Gadag Byepass in March 2022:
- The construction of a byepass at Gadag 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 Bye pass, commissioned since Sept 2019 has avoided detention of goods trains while entering Hubballi Station, improved the punctuality of several Mail/Express trains traversing through Hubballi Jn.
Highest ever Electrification:
- In 2022-23, SWR achieved the highest ever Electrification of 874 RKM. All major routes of SWR are being electrified. This has not only saved Rs.205 Crore of diesel expenditure in 2022-23 but also eliminated the need for traction change enroute. 24 trains were converted to electric traction in 2022-23.
Highest ever commissioning of Doubling and New Line:
- In FY 2022-23, SWR achieved the highest ever commissioning of Doubling and New Line 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.
Upgradation of sectional speed:
- Concerted efforts were made to enhance speed by removing the curves and removing the PSRs at 18 locations. On 732 km, maximum permissible speed was raised to 110 kmph, and on 91.6 km speeds were raised to 100 kmph, and on loop lines, the speeds were raised from 10/15 kmph to 30 kmph on 437 km over SWR territory.
- 116 trains have been speeded up in 2022-23 saving a cumulative 2718 minutes. For eg. Rani Chennamma (16589) between Bengaluru and Hubballi used to take about 7.5 hours earlier, but now it takes just 6.5 hours. In 2021-22 Rani Chennamma was speeded up by 39 minutes (end-to-end) and in 2022-23 by 45 minutes.
Running of Crack trains:
- Further with doubling of tracks of Goods trains were run as ‘Cracks’- meaning the trains would run end-to-end without any stoppages in between – thereby achieving a higher average speed, and effectively reducing the transit time. For eg. in 2021-22 we ran 2503 Crack trains and in 2022-23 we ran 6077 Crack trains transporting greater amounts of cargo over longer distances in lesser time.
- This improved throughput and enhanced section capacity has resulted in better turn-round of goods wagons. This enabled SWR 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.
Shri Sanjeev Kishore, General Manager, SWR stated that there is now an unprecedented thrust as well as capital investment on augmentation of railway infrastructure in SWR jurisdiction. In the days to come-railway will emerge as a ‘transporter of choice’ for the industry as well as the passengers.
Source: South Western Railway- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): MoR
