MP Ramesh Jigajinagi. Parliamentarian Ramesh Jigajinagi said that during the last 9 years, a total of 1322 crores have been spent on expansion of railway network and railway flyover and various development works have been undertaken in Vijayapur district. When speaking at a press conference in the city on Saturday, he said that the Vijayapura rail sector had been deprived of development for the past several years. During the last 9 years, several works have been undertaken to provide railway facilities. Doubling with electrification has been completed between Sollapur and Vandala stations. Work between Vandala and Gadag stations is in full swing and is expected to be completed by March-2024. Once this is completed, all trains between Vijayapur and Bengaluru and other trains will be able to run on electric trains. He expressed hope that due to the completion of this work, time saving and environment friendly traffic will be possible. Electric trains are already plying between Vijaypur-Hyderabad (Train No. 17029/17030) and Rajaipur-Raichur (Train No. 07663/07654). Goods trains carrying coal to Kudgi thermal plant are running with electric locos. He said that the flyover work on the railway has been completed at Vajra Hanuman nagar on Bagalkote Road and Ibrahimpura on Bagewadi Road.

The work of the flyover is also in full swing and tender process is being carried out for the construction of ROB near Kirana Market on Indi Road. He said that the construction of a well-equipped and state-of-the-art goods shed near Aliabad at a cost of 20 crores is in progress to handle all the loading and unloading of trains carrying cement, fertilizers, food grains and other goods. Mysore-Sollapur Golagumbaj Express train will soon be extended to Sukshetra Phandarpur. mp Ramesh Jigajinagi said that it will be easy to go to Phandarpur and have darshan of Pandurang Vitthal.

Providing railway facility to Phandarpur was a long time demand of the people. Now the demand of the devotees will be fulfilled and it will be easy to get darshan of Pandurang Vitthal. Mainly between Vijayapur and Solapur, the travel time of this train will be just an hour instead of the current 3 hours. This train will leave Vijayapur at 8.30 am and reach Solapur at 10.15 instead of 12.10 and reach Phandarpur at 12.25 pm. He explained that again the same train left at 1 pm and left for Sollapur at 13.30 and Vijayapur at 5.45 pm towards Bangalore as usual.

Vijayapur-Mangalore Express daily train (Train No. 07377/07378) is the first train connecting North karnataka to Coastal karnataka and efforts are underway to convert this train into a regular train. This train helps the passengers of Vijayapur region to travel to mangalore, Dharmasthala, Kukke Subramanya and other religious places around. He said that since mangalore is a rank and commercial center, it is useful for people to reach this place with comfortable train travel.

Vijayapur-Huballi Intercity Express train (Train No. 0732/07330) via Hospet Kottur and Vijayapur-Yeshavantpur Express Daily train (Train No. 05515/06546) are also being tried to convert this train into a regular train, he said.

Hubli varanasi Weekly Express train (Train No. 17323/17324) via Vijayapura Sollapur will provide convenience to have darshan of world famous Kashi Vishwanath or take holy bath in Prayag raja Triveni Sangam, he said. bjp media chief Vijay Joshi, Rakesh Kulkarni and others were present at the press conference. The Mumbai-Gadag daily super-fast train (Train No. 11139/11140) will soon be extended to Hospet via Vijayapur. This train service extension will help connect Vijayapur with the world heritage cities. This train will leave Vijayapura at 5.30 am and reach Gadag at 10.40 am. From there it leaves at 10.45 and reaches Hospet at Madhya 12.45. The same train leaves again at 2.00 PM and reaches Gadag at 3.25 PM. It arrives at Vijayapura at approximately 6.30 PM and then reaches mumbai Chhatrapati shivaji Terminus at 5.10 AM via Solapur. This will reduce the travel time between Vijayapura and Mumbai. He said that the Sollapur-Gadag Express train (Train No. 11305/11306) would soon be extended to Hospet.