Nod for two railway projects worth over Rs 7,500 crore under South Central Railway

VIJAYAWADA/VISAKHAPATNAM: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved two major doubling projects that will be taken up with an estimated cost of more than Rs 7,500 crore under the jurisdiction of the South Central Railway. The doubling works will be taken up at Mudkhed-Medchal and Mahbubnagar-Dhone section (417.88 km) with Rs 4,686.09 crore and at Guntur-Bibinagar section (239 km) with Rs 2,853.23 crore.

The two projects are expected to facilitate the introduction of new trains and additional freight transportation that will benefit both the Telugu States and aid in the socio-economic development of the regions. Additionally, the committee has also approved the construction of a third line between Khurda Road and Vizianagaram, covering a length of 385 kilometres at a cost of Rs 5,618 crore, under the jurisdiction of the East Coast Railway.

SCR zone general manager Arun Kumar said the proposed doubling at Mudkhed-Dhone will increase the existing line capacity of the section, resulting in improved punctuality of trains as well as wagon turnaround time.  

Explaining that the project will ease traffic congestion between Balharshah-Kazipet-Secunderabad and Kazipet-Vijayawada, he added that goods trains bound to North-South can be routed via the new double line section. “It will be an alternative coal and steel route for the Balharshah-Ramagundam-Secunderabad-Wadi-Guntakal section and will enhance traffic between southern and northern regions of India,” he pointed out.

On the doubling works at the Guntur-Bibinagar section, Kumar said the project will ease operations and congestion, providing the much-required infrastructure development in one of the busiest sections of Indian Railways, besides generating direct employment for about 75 lakh mandays during its construction.

Observing that the Guntur-Bibinagar section connects the southern and eastern parts of India with the central and western parts. The project will improve the mobility between Secunderabad and Guntur/Vijayawada, he noted.

Meanwhile, Waltair DRM Saurabh Prasad explained that the third line between Khurda Road and Vizianagaram will cover 201 kilometres in Andhra Pradesh, including Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, and Visakhapatnam districts. “This project will enable seamless transportation of coal from Visakhapatnam and Gangavaram ports to the steel plants in Odisha,” he added.

He mentioned that the section is over-saturated with line capacity utilisation of 137 per cent in some sections, thus becoming a bottleneck for train operations. “Besides easing traffic, it is expected that the additional line will enable additional transportation of 78.79 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) goods consisting of coal, cement, iron ore, steel, fertiliser and oil,” he explained.

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