HYDERABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the construction of third railway line between Balharshah and Kazipet at an estimated cost of Rs 2,063.03 crore and expected completion cost of Rs 2,403.22 crore.
The 201.04 km long Balharshah-Kazipet railway line is expected to be completed in five years.
Besides facilitating passenger travel, power plants, coal and cement traffic will have additional transport capacity to meet their requirement. Warangal, Adilabad and Karimnagar districts of Telangana and Chandrapur district of Maharashtra will be covered in this line.
According to an official release, the Balharshah-Kazipet third line is part of New Delhi-Chennai Grant trunk route and golden quadrangle. The section between Balharshah-Kazipet has reached saturation level with utilisation of section capacity at 127 per cent. The section is extremely important from goods loading point of view with FCI siding at Jammikunta, Kesoram Cement siding at Raghavpuram, thermal power station and SCCL siding at Mancherial, coal loading sidings at Bellampalli, Rechni Road, Asifabad and cement loading siding at Manikgarh, Ghatchandur. Keeping in view the growth in freight and passenger traffic, third line between Balharshah-Kazipet is essential.
Third line between Vijayawada-Gudur: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has also approved construction of third line between Vijayawada and Gudur junction at an estimated cost of Rs 3,246.26 crore and expected completion cost of Rs 3,875.68 crore. The 287.67 km long railway line is expected to be completed in six years.
Besides facilitating passenger travel, foodgrains traffic to southern states and goods traffic for Krishnapatnam and nearby ports will have additional transport capacity to meet their requirement. Krishna, Guntur, Prakasham and Nellore districts of Andhra Pradesh will be covered in this line.
Vijayawada Junction-Gudur Junction line is a part of grand trunk route connecting north and south states. This section serves freight trains catering to demands of various loading points. Foodgrains to southern states are moved through this section. Besides this, goods traffic from Krishnapatnam and nearby ports will increase in the section necessitating for construction of third line of Vijayawada junction and Gudur junction.