BIKKAVOLU

To ease freight operations & to accommodate Longer Haul Goods trains

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 area 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, Nawabpalem & Elamanchili in Vijayawada – Visakhapatnam section and Nidubrolu, Ammanabrolu & Bitragunta in 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 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 Nawabpalem 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.

The benefits of Longer loop are :-

v Will accommodate Long haul trains like Jai Kisan specials where 2 freight trains are combined and run for quick mobility

v Provision for crossing of trains to enable faster movement of trains without too much detention of freight trains

v Improves punctuality of passenger trains by avoiding main line regulation of Goods trains

v Improves overall train operations.

v Enables in handling more number of trains.

Shri Gajanan Mallya, General Manger, SCR complimented the officials of Vijayawada Division o­n completion of First longer loop line over the Zone. He instructed the officials to complete the remaining 5 longer loop lines o­n fast pace for overall improvement in operation of freight trains in busy trunk route section.