The full commissioning of the Gooty-Dharmavaram section railway line, which will ease the traffic density from the current 110% of line to 60%, will be a reality during the next financial year.
In the Union Budgetary provisions, the ongoing work between Gooty and Dharmavaram has been sanctioned ₹100 crore, which will see the completion of the project in all aspects, Guntakal Additional Divisional Manager Suryanarayana told The Hindu.
The doubling of Bengaluru to the Dharmavaram portion of the railway line is also in progress under the Bengaluru Division of South Western Railway.
In addition to this, the 400-km ongoing doubling work on the Guntakal-Guntur portion has received ₹803 crore, and the small stretch between Guntakal and Kalluru in Anantapur district got ₹18.4 crore, which will also be commissioned in this calendar year. Commissioning of these projects will help speed up passenger trains and introduce new faster ones like Vande Bharat, he said.
Tirupati, Vijayawada, Nellore stations will be improved with an investment of ₹325 crore under the Station Development programme for four stations coming under the South Central Railway. For the bypass railway lines for Gooty, Renigunta, and Wadi, ₹54 crore has been provisioned in addition to ₹3 crore for developing Tirupati 3rd entry and ₹6.49 cr for Tirchanur station development.
The A.P. government has been asked to deposit ₹289 crore as its share for the development of the Kadapa-Bangalore new railway line, and ₹1,351 crore for the Nadikudi-Srikalahasthi new line. These cost-sharing projects will make progress only after the State government deposits the money, he added. For coaches overhauling at Tirupati, ₹11 crore has been given.
All over the South Central Railway, many Rail Under Bridge and Road Over Bridges are in progress and ₹475 cr has been sanctioned for them in addition to ₹83.63 crore for Foot Over Bridges and ₹6.8 cr for lifts. The ongoing soft up-gradation of stations over the SCR received ₹19.75 crore.
