Indian Railways another initiative to decongest rail traffic: Longer loop lines

Indian Railways' South Central Railway zone has commissioned the first longer loop line at Bikkavolu Railway Station of Vijayawada Division located o­n the busy Vijayawada – Visakhapatnam (Waltair) section, SCR officials said today.

What are loop lines?

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).

The benefits of longer loop lines are:

• Will accommodate Long haul trains like Jai Kisan specials where 2 freight trains are combined and run for quick mobility
• Provision for the crossing of trains to enable faster movement of trains without too much detention of freight trains
• Improves punctuality of passenger trains by avoiding main line regulation of Goods trains
• Improves overall train operations.
• Enables in handling more number of trains.

Over SCR, the Ministry of Railways has initially sanctioned the 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 have been taken up and completed well before the target date and this longer loop line stands as the 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 the 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 ₹85 crores. The loop line is having two isolations to strengthen safety and also facilitates stabling two trains at a time.

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