Making good use of the suspension of normal passenger services, the Hubballi Division of the South Western Railway has taken up several major infrastructure development works, including track doubling and station development, Divisional Railway Manager of Hubballi Division Arvind Malkhede has said.
Addressing a press conference, along with Chief Public Relations Officer of South Western Railway E. Vijaya, through a video link on Tuesday, Mr. Malkhede said that track doubling on a 16.39-km stretch between Unkal-Dharwad would be completed by September.
“Similarly, work on track doubling from Gadag to Hole Alur is expected to be completed by January 2021 and track doubling between Chikkodi Road-Kudachi is likely to be completed by December this year,” he said.
Mr. Malkhede said that station buildings at Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Dharwad, Belagavi, Hosapete stations had been reconstructed. New goods sheds were being developed at Khajjidoni, Navanagar in Bagalkot and Aliyabad in Vijayapura. This apart, electrification work between Kariganur-Harlapur had been completed.
He said that remodelling work at Hosapete, a major yard for train operations, had been completed. “Another major work completed by Hubballi Division during COVID-19 lockdown is the Kudgi Canal Crossing work of Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam Ltd. Lachyan-Hotgi (33 km) track doubling, including the 670-m-long Bhima Bridge, and a 28-km new line between Gangavati and Karatagi have also been completed,” he said.
Additional freight
Mr. Malkhede said that the Business Development Unit set up in the division had been able to bring in additional freight by approaching clients directly and through video conference. Now, the division had additional freight in the form of bauxite, metallurgical coke, fly ash, pig iron and rice. Freight customers were also being offered discounts, he added.
To a query on the utilisation of coaches converted into isolation wards, Mr. Malkhede said that they would be provided upon request from the State government and the district administration.
He said that the division had, apart from distributing grocery items to porters, daily wage workers and the needy, had distributed 76,000 meals. The division had manufactured 15,397 face masks and 6,090 litres of hand sanitisers for the use of railway staff. And, the division had handled 188 rakes of fertilizers equal to 47 lakh quintals and 230 rakes of foodgrains equal to 57 lakh quintals during this period, he said.