The South Western Railway (SWR), despite a ban on iron ore exports from Karnataka, has been able to ferry 25.583 million tonnes for the domestic market and has also carried 1,289 million passengers up to December 31, 2010.

According to Mr Kuldeep Chaturvedi, General Manager, South Western Railway, “Thrust has been given to improve infrastructure and line capacity of SWR to bring in additional revenue and efficiency.”

SWR plans to increase number of Jana Sadharan Ticket Booking Sewaks in Bangalore city. These sewaks will be appointed to issue unreserved tickets to passengers. Further to this, issue of tickets through mobile vans has also been planned in Bangalore city.

In order to carry the ever-increasing passenger traffic, three express trains and three passenger trains have already been introduced on SWR during the current year. “One express and two passenger trains will be introduced shortly, besides, frequency of three trains has been increased, two trains have been extended and two pairs of trains are delinked to run as separate trains,” Mr Chaturvedi said.

To clear extra rush of passengers, SWR has run 4,468 special trains and attached 4,125 extra coaches to various trains during April 2010 to December 2010.

Mr Chaturvedi said that SWR has maintained a good record in the area of safety in train operations. There has been no accident on account of collision or fire since inception of railway in 2003.

Track Doubling

He further stated that thrust was being given to improve infrastructure and line capacity on this railway. During this year, 44 km of track between Bangalore-Mysore and Arsikere-Devanur section has already been doubled.

Further, 16 km of new line between Kadur-Sakrayapatna section, 28 km of doubling between Mugad-Kambarganvi and Devanur-Birur section, and 40 km of Gauge Conversion between Anandapuram-Talaguppa section will also be completed in the current financial year.

Mr Chaturvedi said more emphasis is being given for improving safety at level crossings. Road over Bridges (ROBs) in lieu of Level Crossing gates have already been constructed at eight locations and two more ROBs are targeted to be completed during the current year.

Integrated Security System

A special emphasis is being laid to bring perceptible improvement in rail travel by improving security: CCTV systems have been installed at 11 important stations on this railway. “In addition, an “Integrated Security System” is being provided at Bangalore City, Yesvantpur and Mysore stations,” said Mr Chaturvedi.

He further said for the convenience of Passengers, Unreserved Ticketing Systems (UTS) at 228 stations, UTS-cum-Passenger Reservation System (PRS) at 63 stations, exclusive PRS centres at 40 locations, India Post PRS Centres at 19 locations, PRS Centres in Defence area at two locations are provided.

Station renovation

Renovated station buildings have been commissioned at Hindupur, Bangalore Cantonment, Arsikere, Hassan, Penukonda, Tumkur, Dharmapuri, Bangarpet, Davangere, Tiptur, Kengeri and Haveri.

Work on the new station building at Hubli has commenced and “Multifunctional Complexes” at Hubli and Mysore have also been planned and execution has already been started. Londa and Chamarajanagar stations have also been developed as “Adarsh Stations” and ten more stations on SWR will be developed during the financial year, Mr Chaturvedi said.

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