Bengaluru-Hubballi train travel to take 1 hour less by 2023

Travel time between Bengaluru and Hubballi will come down by 1 hour from next year as the South Western Railway (SWR) has set the target of completing the doubling and electrification of the entire line by March 2023.

A major trunk route, the Bengaluru-Hubballi section sees operation of 24 trains, including nine daily trains.

However, even the fastest train between the two cities – Jan Shatabdi Express – still takes a minimum of 7 hours, against the specified travel time of 6 hours 30 minutes, to complete the 469-km journey.

Officials said the works on two key sections of the route, which were held up due to delay in land acquisition on a 45-km stretch, have been speeded up.

As a result, doubling and electrification of the Hubballi south station-Saunshi (20 km) and Devaragudda-Haveri (25 km) sections are set to be completed by the end of the year.

Chief public relations officer Aneesh Hegde said the land acquisition problems have been resolved.

“The electrification target was 342.9 route km. The Chikjajur-Hubballi (190 route km) and Nittur-Hosadurga (152.9 route km) will be completed soon. Our priority is to reduce the travel time by 45 minutes to 1 hour at the earliest,” he said.

Asked about the possibility of installing the inter-block signalling system (IBS), he said all the signalling will be solid state electronic interlocking systems, which are state of the art and come with built-in fail-safe mechanisms.

“IBS is needed only when the section gets saturated and if we want to divide a block section into two, to increase section capacity. By doubling, the capacity of the route will increase by approx 40%. The current progress of work has already helped in speeding up of several trains, notably Rani Chennamma Express. We will work to speed up other trains,” he said.

Karnataka Railway Vedike’s Krishna Prasad said the Railways had the capacity to reduce the travel time between the two cities to 5 hours 30 minutes.

“It is a trunk route that will benefit the north Karnataka region. The Railways should complete the doubling and electrification work on the entire line between Bengaluru and Miraj soon. Major work is pending on Miraj-Londa and Londa-Hubli sections. In the coming years, the travel demand on the route will go up and officials should plan accordingly,” he said.

Watch latest videos by DH here: