South Central Railway’s (SCR) two key railway projects at a cost of about ₹7,540 crore to ease the highly-congested Bengaluru-Chennai routes towards South and routes towards the central and western parts of the country were cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.
General Manager Arun Kumar Jain told a press conference at Rail Nilayam that the doubling and electrification of the Mudkhed-Dhone (417.88 km at ₹4,686.09 crore) in Telangana and Guntur-Bibinagar doubling project (239 km for ₹2,853.23 crore) in Andhra Pradesh will facilitate introduction of new trains and additional freight transportation to benefit both the Telugu States.
While the first section is expected to take six years, the second section may be completed in six years. Both the projects will increase the existing line capacity of the section by smoothening train operations and improving the punctuality, he said.
Mudkhed-Dhone section will ease the traffic congestion between Balharshah-Kazipet-Secunderabad and Kazipet-Vijayawada, as traffic bound to North-South can be re-routed. It will reduce the distance between Hyderabad and Bengaluru by 90 km, Secunderabad and Guntakal via Mahabubnagar-Dhone by 50 km and Hyderabad-Chennai by 27 km.
These sections, once operational, will give a big boost to the freight carrying capacity of coal from Ramagundam, Mancherial, and Mandamari, among other places, serving thermal stations in Parli, Raichur and Yermaras in Karnataka, and APGENCO at Muddanur in Andhra Pradesh.
About 40 major bridges, 653 minor bridges, 117 level crossings and extension of 32 road-under-bridges are some of the features of the work to be taken up under the project.
The Guntur-Bibinagar section, once done, will be the shortest route from Secunderabad to Guntur or Vijayawada. It will serve as an alternate route between Secunderabad and Vijayawada avoiding highly congested and stressed route via Kazipet, Warangal and Khammam, and will reduce the distance from Secunderabad to Chennai by 76 km and Secunderabad to Vijayawada by 28 km, said Mr. Jain.
It will also help in freight movement for iron and steel at Chityal and Narkatpally, and cement plants at Vishnupuram, Nadikudi, Tummalacheruvu, Janpahad, Mellacheruvu, Muttampalli, Jaggayyapeta, and Ramapuram, thermal power plant coming up near Vishnupuram, foodgrain movement at Nagireddipalli, Nalgonda, and Miryalaguda.
