Shree Siddharoodha Swamiji Railway station Hubballi, is an important junction station and Headquarters of South Western Railway. This station has two lines from Davangere / Bengaluru and Gadag in one side and a line towards Londa the other side where Railway line branches towards Goa and Maharashtra. Single line working towards Gadag, Davangere and Londa was the main bottleneck which caused detention to trains in receiving and dispatching.
- The Railway Station is located in the heart of the city having road connectivity from both the sides.
- Lateral expansion of the yard was not possible as the same is land locked and also in the first inspection to Hubballi station after taking over as General Manager, South Western Railway Shri Ajay Kumar Singh, has identified need to remodel Hubballi yard so as to have simultaneous reception and despatch towards all sides smoothly.
- Hubballi Station had 5 platforms and there was a need to increase the same to handle ever increasing traffic.
- As there was no space towards Londa side /station road side of Hubballi, the yard was expanded towards Davangere/Gadag.
- Three new platforms are added longitudinally in continuation of existing platforms, as part of remodelling of yard.
- Out of these, one platform is slated to become the longest platform in World with a length of 1505m.
- This is being provided by extending Platform No.1, which is 681 m long presently. The length of another platform being added now is 1123 m.
- In addition to 2 entries one at main entrance and one at Gadag Road to Shree Siddharoodha Swamiji Hubballi Railway Station one more entry is planned.
- The cost of the wok is being taken up at a cost of Rs.90 Cr. for full yard, signalling, electrical and third entry, building etc.
- The works for the yard remodelling started in Nov 2019.
- To facilitate more number of platforms and easy receipt and dispatch of trains at Shree Siddharoodha Swamiji Hubballi Station, Yard remodelling was successfully commissioned with electronic interlocking in the presence of Shri Ajay Kumar Singh, GM/SWR.
- Shri Vipul Kumar, PCE/SWR, Shri Arvind Malkhede, DRM/UBL, Shri P V Raja Shekar, PCSTE/SWR, Shri Anil Pavithran, PCCM/SWR, Shri Prem Narayan, CE/CN/UBL and Shri Shantiram, CSTE/CN were present on the occasion.
- Shri A K Singh, GM/SWR operated signals for the first Train after commissioning of the new signalling system.
- After commission Shri AK Singh said that the capacity of Hubballi yard has increased tremendously and elaborated the benefits as under.
Benefits:
- Three new platforms have been added to present five numbers of Platforms for dealing more number of trains
- Enables simultaneous movements of trains in Hubballi Yard from three directions, Bangalore, Gadag & Londa ends.
- Presently 3 lines entering into Hubballi yard became 6.
- In Hubballi Yard speed restriction of 15 Kmph has been relaxed and full speed on the main line can be achieved.
- Routing of home signals where trains have to wait for clearance to enter into the platform have been eliminated so that trains arriving to Hubballi can stop directly in the platform/track.
Salient features of Hubballi Junction yard remodelling:
- State of the Art Electronic interlocking having distributed architecture with Dual Visual Display Unit& hot standby to control entire yard operation from centralized station master room (Central cabin) .
- The existing Route Relay Interlocking system is replaced.
- In addition two end cabins are provided where EI subsystems are installed and connected through OFC in redundant path to ensure failure free working.
- Total Number of routes – 556 (502 in Hubballi Jn, second highest in SWR + 54 in Hubballi – South).
- Number of roads – 11.
- Number of Sidings – 16.
- Number of Shunting necks – 2.
- Number of Points – 109 (44 crossover, 16 single end & 5 trap).
- Signals – 130 (31 Main + 27 Calling on + 72 shunts).Track circuits – 130 (including an MSDAC for steel girder bridge point Zone).
- Number of EI huts – 3 (Each at west, east and central).
- DG set 20 KVA each – 2 at each EI huts.
- IPS and data logger at each EI huts.
- Fire detection alarm and suppression system.
Facilities provided:
- 4 nos. of main line movement in the yard (2 from Bengaluru end & 2 from Gadag end).
- Run through UP & DN main line from Bengaluru end to Londa end.
- Longest platform with 1505m (Road 3 & Road 3A).
- Doubling connectivity towards Unkal, Hubballi – South and Kusugal side.
- Existing 15 kmph speed restriction in the yard will be eliminated.
- One engine escape line towards Gadag end.
- Two new stabling lines towards Gadag end.
- One tower wagon siding and one-track machine siding.
- Three new Passenger platform lines (Road 1, 2 & 3A).
- New VIP siding adjacent to Workshop lines.
- New upcoming home signals leading directly to berthing without any intermediate routing home.
- All hand operated points were converted to motor operated points and provision for shunt signals has been given.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Ajay Kumar Singh, congratulated the team of officials of HQ, Construction and Hubbali Divisions for completing the mammoth task of interlocking14 hours before the scheduled time. Hubballi Station is now a step closer to entering into the Guinness Book of records.
Source: South Western Railway-Press Release
