South Western Railway zone

Encyclopedia

The South Western Railway (SWR) is one of the 18 railway zones in India, headquartered at Hubballi in Karnataka State. SWR was created from carving out the routes from Southern Railways and South Central Railways in 2003.

History

The South Western Railway zone came into existence on 1 April 2003 by bifurcating Mysuru and Bengaluru divisions from Southern Railway along with Hubballi division from South Central Railway. It is headquartered at Hubballi and comprises three divisions namely Hubballi, Mysuru, and Bengaluru. The fourth division at Kalaburagi was slated to be the fourth division which was supposed to be carved out from Hubli, Secunderabad, Guntakal and Solapur divisions. Currently the divisional office at Kalaburagi is on hold due to operational constraints.

Jurisdiction

Map of South Western Railway zone (in Cyan)

South Western Railway covers most of the railway lines in the state of Karnataka (other than the Konkan Railway), many parts of Goa (that are not under Konkan Railway), small parts of Southern Andhra Pradesh, Western parts of Dharmapuri district, hosur taluk and patchur, somanayakanpatti of Tirupattur district of Tamil Nadu.

Divisions

  • Bangalore railway division
  • Mysore railway division
  • Hubli railway division

Development

Rail Soudha, headquarters of the South Western Railway zone located at Hubbali, Karnataka.

As of 1 April 2020, Out of 3,566 kilometres (2,216 mi) of broad gauge route, a total of 731 kilometres (454 mi) is electrified in the zone. This makes South Western Railways having the lowest electrified routes in Indian Railways.

The section between Bangalore-Mysore(136 kilometres (85 mi)) is doubled and electrified. The Bangalore-Hubli line is being doubled in isolated patches. While Bangalore-Tumkur was doubled and opened to traffic in 2007, progress on other sections has been painfully slow. The doubling of the Kadur-Chikjajur section of the same line was completed in 2015 while the doubling of Tumakuru-Kadur and Huballi-Chikjajur sections are in progress. The doubling of Yelahanka-Penukonda section has been completed from Makalidurga to Devarapalli, but the remaining section is still pending due to the onset of COVID-19 and lack of labour thereafter. Bellary-Hubballi line is completely doubled and opened for traffic, Gadag-Hotgi and Londa – Miraj – Pune line doubling is in progress. In the 2016 Railway Budget, the electrification of Bangalore-Omalur (via:Hosur, Dharmapuri) was also announced. In February 2017, the Bangalore – Hassan railway line via Shravanabelagola was completed.

Modernisation

The Mysuru Division of South Western Railways will be designated as “Digital Division” after fully adopting its current technology harnessing programme. The government of India had asked Railways divisions to cut red tape and reduce paperwork in offices. All the officials will adopt technologies like WhatsApp and Google Drive to share reports and other documents. This will save a lot of papers being used for circulating reports as done currently. Two web-based helplines have been launched so that digitised information can be shared among different officials. The inspection reports regarding maintenance, passenger amenities, cleanliness, electronics, and communication, etc. will be managed by a new software which is under construction now. These measures will cut down redundant works, reduce number of registers and reports maintained by officials, reduce paper consumption and improve the efficiency and celerity of operations.

Project Unigauge

Since 2007, the SWR is entirely Indian gauge. SWR has many WDG4, WAP-7, WAG-9HC and WDP-4 locomotives currently based at diesel loco sheds Hubli and Krishnarajapuram.

Routes

Express routes

  • Yesvantpur–Kacheguda Express, between Yesvantpur Junction and Kacheguda
  • Yesvantpur–Latur Express, between Yesvantpur Junction and Latur
  • Rani Chennamma Express, between Bangalore City railway station and Miraj
  • Yesvantpur–Shivamogga Town Express, between Yesvantpur Junction and Shivamogga Town
  • Yesvantpur-Pandharpur Express, between Yesvantpur Junction and Pandharpur railway station

Loco sheds

  • Diesel & Electric Loco Shed, Krishnarajapuram
  • Diesel Loco Shed, Hubli