HYDERABAD: South Central Railway (SCR) has completed the 203-km Kazipet-Balharshah third line project along with electrification, a major infrastructure upgrade aimed at easing congestion and improving passenger and freight movement on one of the country’s busiest rail corridors.
The project was completed with the commissioning of the final 11-km stretch between Asifabad and Sirpur Kaghaznagar, including an important bridge across the Bibra River, on Wednesday. Executed at a cost of around `3,000 crore, the project enables seamless train operations on the Grand Trunk route connecting northern and southern India.
The Kazipet-Balharshah section is a crucial rail link connecting the North and South besides serving several coal and cement sidings. Continuous growth in passenger and freight traffic had led to congestion on the route, officials said. To address this, SCR had first completed the 33-km tripling work between Raghavapuram and Mandamarri in 2016, while the remaining 203-km stretch spanning 159 km in Telangana and 44 km in Maharashtra was sanctioned during 2015–16.
While the third line and electrification have now been completed and commissioned, a small stretch near Balharshah station under the Central Railway jurisdiction is still being connected to the Balharshah yard through the newly laid third line.