Mangalore–Hassan–Mysore line is a railway route of both Southern and

South Western Railway zone The South Western Railway (SWR) is one of the 19 Indian Railways, railway zones of Indian Railways, headquartered at Hubballi in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Karnataka. SWR was created from carving out the routes ...

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

. This route plays an important role in rail transportation of

Mysore division Mysore division, officially Mysuru division, is an administrative division in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is one of four administrative divisions in Karnataka, the others being Bangalore division, Belagavi division, and Kalabura ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

state. The corridor passes through the Western Ghats and the Mysore Plateau, connecting the mainland to the coastal areas of Karnataka with a stretch of 309 km with one reversal direction at . It is divided into two sections: — and — .

History

The main railway line from Hassan to Mangalore section was originally built as a metre-gauge line and was opened in small sections between 1976 and 1977, inaugurated finally on 20 May 1979 for passenger transportation. 17 years later it was closed for gauge conversion, on 20 September 1996. The ghat sub-section between

Sakleshpur Sakleshpur, also known as Sakleshpura or Sakaleshapura, is a hill station town and headquarters of Sakleshpur taluk and one of the two Sub-divisional headquarters in Hassan district in the Indian state of Karnataka. Geography Sakleshpur is loc ...

and was considered a challenging section. The gauge conversion of this section was handed over to a

Special Purpose Vehicle A special-purpose entity (SPE), also called a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) or a financial vehicle corporation (FVC), is a legal entity (usually a limited company of some type or, sometimes, a limited partnership) created to fulfill narrow, speci ...

(SPV), formed for the task – the Hassan Mangalore Rail Development Company Limited (HMRDC). The company has the

Government of Karnataka The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as GoK or GoKA, formerly known as Government of Mysore (1956–1974), is a democratically elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka ...

and the Railway Ministry as majority stakeholders, while

Mangalore port New Mangalore Port or New Mangalore Port Trust(NMPT) is an all-weather port at Panambur, Mangalore in Karnataka state in India. The total land area of the port is approximately . The New Mangalore Port is the deepest inner harbour on the wes ...

trust and several other agencies as minority stakeholders. The gauge conversion took a very long time and is marked in red-letters in the Indian Railways' history. Although the first section after the conversion was opened in January 1998, the rest of the works were done at very slow pace. The first sub-section to be opened was –

, a distance of about 42 km. The next stretch to be inaugurated was between and

Kabaka Puttur Kabaka is a village in the Puttur Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, in Karnataka, India. It is near to town of Puttur. Historical Hill NinniKallu is situated near Kabaka but the hill belongs to Bantwala Taluk. Also, the Kabaka-Puttur is a r ...

, a distance of about 44 km, opened in December 2003. Another section of the line from to , 42 km, was opened in July 2005. The remaining final stretch (Sakleshpur–Subrahmanya), a ghat section with 1 in 55 grades all along, was opened in May 2006 for freight services and in December 2007 for passenger operations.Since 2020, the number of passenger train movement capacity in this route has been enhanced by HMRDC. As per the Railway Budget 1995–96, the Hassan–Mysore section was also proposed to gauge conversion to 5ft 6in

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

. Before that, the Hassan–Mysore section was also opened on 3 January 1918 as a metre-gauge line.

Railway stations

Mangalore Central, Mangalore Junction, Bantawala, Kaniyooru railway station, , , Shiribagilu, Yedakumeri, Kadgaravalli, Donigal and Sakleshpura.

Projects

There is a proposal for doubling the Mangalore–Hassan–Mysore line with electrification for reduction of time travelling between the coastal and plateau regions of Karnataka which will be a boon for the economy on this route.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mangalore-Hassan-Mysore line 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in India Rail transport in Karnataka Transport in Mangalore Transport in Hassan district Transport in Mysore