Hubballi Station Ups Train Capacity With New Platforms, Modern Electronic Interlocking

Hubballi railway station in South Western Railway is set to improve operational efficiency and increase train handling capacity significantly.

This has become possible with the commissioning of Electronic Interlocking, Yard Remodelling and the provision of new platforms at Hubballi station.

Work was taken up at a cost of Rs.90 crores for yard remodeling, signalling, electrical and third entry and allied works and began in November 2019.

Shree Siddharoodha Swamiji Railway station Hubballi is a vital junction station and Headquarters of South Western Railway. This station has two lines from Davangere / Bengaluru and Gadag on one side and a line towards Londa on the other side.

Single line working towards Gadag, Davangere and Londa was the main bottleneck which caused detention to trains in receiving and dispatching.

Hubballi Station had five platforms. More platforms were needed to handle the ever increasing traffic. Lateral expansion of the yard was not possible as the same is landlocked. With no space on the Londa side either, the yard was expanded towards Davangere/Gadag.

With remodeling, three new platforms were added longitudinally in continuation of existing platforms. Out of these, one platform is slated to become the world’s longest with a length of 1,505 metres. This extension is being carried out on Platform No.1 currently 681 metres in length. The length of another platform being added now is 1,123 metres.

One more entrance is in the works in addition to the two station entrances, the main entry and one at Gadag Road.

Key Improvements Made

Three new platforms have been added to present five
Simultaneous movements of trains from three directions; Bangalore, Gadag & Londa ends now possible.
Three lines entering Hubballi yard now become six.
In Hubballi Yard, the speed restriction of 15 Kmph has been relaxed. Full speed on the mainline can be achieved.
Signal routing has been streamlined so that trains arriving at Hubballi can stop directly on the platform.

Signalling and Remodelling Changes

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Electronic interlocking with a distributed architecture and hot standby to control entire yard operation from a centralized station master room has been set up.
The existing Route Relay Interlocking system has been replaced. In addition, two end cabins are provided where EI subsystems are installed and connected through OFC via a redundant path to ensure failure-free working.
Total Number of routes: 556 (502 in Hubballi Jn, second highest in SWR + 54 in Hubballi South)
Number of roads – 11
Number of Sidings – 16
Number of Shunting necks – 2
Number of Points – 109 (44 crossovers, 16 single end & 5 trap). Signals – 130 (31 Main + 27 Calling on + 72 shunts).Track circuits – 130 (including an MSDAC for steel girder bridge point Zone).
Number of EI huts – 3 (Each at west, east and central)
DG set 20 KVA each – 2 at each EI huts.
IPS and data logger at each EI huts.
Fire detection alarm and suppression system.

Facilities provided

4 nos. of mainline movement in the yard (2 from Bengaluru end & 2 from Gadag end).
Run through UP & DN mainline from Bengaluru end to Londa end.
Longest platform with 1505m (Road 3 & Road 3A).
Doubling connectivity towards Unkal, Hubballi – South and Kusugal side.
The existing 15 kmph speed restriction in the yard will be eliminated.
One engine escape line towards Gadag end.
Two new stabling lines towards Gadag end.
One tower wagon siding and one-track machine siding.
Three new Passenger platform lines (Road 1, 2 & 3A).
New VIP siding adjacent to Workshop lines.
New upcoming home signals leading directly to berthing without any intermediate routing home.
All hand-operated points were converted to motor-operated points and provision for shunt signals has been given.

The work was successfully commissioned in the presence of Ajay Kumar Singh, General Manager, South Western Railway.

A K Singh, GM/SWR operated signals for first train after commissioning of new signalling system.

Vipul Kumar, PCE/SWR, Arvind Malkhede, DRM/UBL, P V Raja Shekar, PCSTE/SWR, Anil Pavithran, PCCM/SWR, Prem Narayan, CE/CN/UBL and Shantiram, CSTE/CN were present on the occasion.