Remodelling of Hosapete Jn Done, Yard Made Electrification Ready

Work of remodelling of Hosapete Junction, part of doubling of Railway track between Hosapete and Tinaighat has been completed today. The yard has now been modified to suit to Railway Electrification between Hosapete –Tinaighat – Vasco section.

Train Cancellation Avoided by Work Completion in Lockdown

After 5 Days of Pre-non interlocking and 4 Days of interlocking, the work has been commissioned today. The commissioning of the yard is yet another major work undertaken by South Western Railway in lockdown period. Turning adversity of lockdown into an opportunity, remodelling of the Yard was completed.

In the normal course of normal train running, cancellation/regulation of both passenger and express trains would be needed for yard remodelling, causing inconvenience to passengers.

Improved Flexibility in Operations at Hosapete Junction

Simultaneous reception and dispatch of trains from both directions would be possible now after yard remodeling. This gives flexibility in train operations and hence trains need not wait when trains are being dispatched to the other end. Also with remodeling of the Yard, Hosapete Junction is now fit to deal both diesel and electric traction (trains).

This remodeling of Hosapete involved Civil Engineering, Signalling & Telecommunication and Electrical works. The same were completed at a cost of Rs.60 Cr.

Changes made at Hosapete Junction

About 30 (total of officers and staff) worked around the clock for 9 days for completing the work duly taking precautionary measures in wake of COVID. Wearing of masks, frequent sanitization of hands and tools and social distancing were followed strictly.

The remodelling involved removal of yard congestion and provision of double line connectivity towards Gadag end to facilitate Up and Down movements simultaneously. Connectivity to Road 2, 3 and 4 of Ballari UP line and Road 5, 6 and 7 of Ballari Down line has now been provided.

To increase yard flexibility and simultaneous reception /dispatch of trains and shunting operations, two additional goods reception and dispatch lines, two additional shunting necks, 2 additional sidings were added. These additional lines and sidings will go a long way in increasing importance of Hosapete yard further.

New Station Building at Hosapete Constructed, Electronic Interlocking Installed

New Station master building has been constructed under this work. Electronic Interlocking system of distributed architecture and dual VDU (Visual Display Unit) operation to control the entire yard operation were provided. Eliminating the existing electro mechanical working from 4 Cabins (East, West, Centre and Bye pass), all operations are now centralized from Station Master’s panel room.

Electronic Interlocking (EI) System with hot standby facility was commissioned and same controls the whole station with one Central Interlocking Unit and 24 Object Controllers distributed in 3 locations. Station Master will control the complete yard with click of button/mouse.All the sub systems of EI are connected through OFC (Optical Fibre Cable) in redundant path, to ensure failure free working.

14 Reception and Dispatch (R&D) Lines, Bye pass line connecting Gadag and Yeswanthnagar lines, Rail Grinding machine(RGM) siding, Tower wagon siding, sleeper siding, washing cum pit lines, ROH shed lines, short shunting necks, long shunting neck etc.

Reception and dispatch of trains towards Bellary line can now be done and parallely shunting also can be done. All tracks have been completely track circuited improving safety in operation of trains.

Remodelled Hosapete Junction With Highest Routes on SWR, Improved Safety With Technology

Remodeled Hosapete Jn. is the station with highest number of routes so far in South Western Railway. It has 415 routes, followed by Yesvantpur with 262 routes, Bengaluru with 215 routes and Hubballi 220 routes.

This commissioning further enables up and down train movements simultaneously on Gadag and Bellary sides of Hosapete Yard. This reduces the detention of trains while ensuring 100% safety. 96 point machines, 127 track circuits, 48 main signals, 34 calling on signals, 32 shunt signals, 31 post type shunt signals have been provided.

10 LC gates are interlocked with 20 road warning signals. To work the operations in failure of power condition, six 20 KVA DG sets (2 each at 3 Object Controller huts) have been provided.

Data logger at each OC huts and 24 OCs have been installed. 13 locally operated Non interlocked points/key lock points have now been replaced by motor operation and instead of manual shunting being done till now, shunt signals have been provided which will speed up the shunting operations ensuring safety.

South Western Railway Team Behind Remodelling of Hosapete Junction

Teams of various departments worked diligently under the guidance of Shri Vijay Agrawal, PCE, Shri Ajay Kumar, PCSTE, Shri B. G. Mallya, PCEE and Shri Arvind Malkhede, DRM/ Hubballi for completing this major work.

The Civil Engineering and Electrical works were done by Hubballi Division and Signalling work taken up by Construction Projects Organization. Electrification works from Ballari to Hosapete were done by RVNL.

Shri A.K. Singh, General Manager/SWR said that this was a long pending work which has been completed with team work and this will be mile stone in running electric trains from Guntakal to Hosapete now and further to Hubballi.