South Central Railway (SCR) has been given a record budgetary allocation of ₹14,232 crore, which is ₹446.50 crore more than last year’s ₹13,786.19. While ₹2,905 crore will be spent on doubling/tripling works, ₹1,530 crore will be used for track renewals and ₹1,184 crore for laying new lines, according to General Manager Arun Kumar Jain.
At a press conference here at Rail Nilayam on Friday, Mr. Arun Kumar said that ₹1,144 crore has been allocated for road over and under bridges and about ₹790 crore for passenger amenities as per the ‘pink’ book placed in Parliament on Thursday.
For the Twin Cities, the Cherlapally fourth terminal, likely to be completed by March, has been allocated ₹46 crore; Kazipet wagon repair workshop ₹150 crore; MMTS phase II ₹50 crore; and its extension up to Yadadri ₹10 crore.
Telangana’s coveted 148-km railway line from Manoharabad to Kothapalli, connecting Gajwel, Sircilla and Vemulawada, has received ₹350 crore whereas the 309-km Nadikudi-Srikalahasti line in Andhra Pradesh has received ₹450 crore. The 57-km Kotipally-Narsapur line got ₹300 crore.
Tripling and doubling works got a boost with ₹310 crore allocated for 219-km Kazipet-Vijayawada line, ₹500 crore for the 287-km Vijaywada-Gudur line and ₹300 crore for the 201-km Kazipet-Balharshah line. The long-pending 248-km Guntur-Bibinagar doubling work has received ₹200 crore, and this will provide an alternative route to the saturated Kazipet-Khammam line connecting Nalgonda, Miryalguda and Vishnupuram.
About ₹535 crore has been allocated for workshops and production units; ₹302 crore for signal and telecom (up from ₹174 last year); and ₹32 crore for road safety works. The implementation of ‘Kavach’ — the indigenously designed train collision prevention device — has received 41.94 crore.
Two new doubling projects and bypass lines for different stations have been sanctioned — the 54.65-km Bhadrachalam Road-Dornakal line (estimated to cost ₹770.12 crore); the 98.25-km Aurangabad-Ankai (estimated to cost ₹960.64 crore); and a bypass at Latur Road (estimated to cost ₹46.95). A sum of ₹224.59 crore has been allotted to electrify the remaining sections.
Other significant allotments are: ₹220 crore for the 612-km Akola-Dhone doubling project via Mudkhed and Secunderabad (excluding Purna – Mudkhed and Bolarum – Mahabubnagar); ₹214 crore for the 98.25-km Aurangabad – Ankai doubling project; ₹150 crore for the 29.22-km Gooty–Pendekallu doubling work; and ₹100 crore for Parbhani–Parli Vaijnath routes.
A sum of ₹425 crore has been allocated for major upgrades of stations; ₹407 crore for the construction of road over/under bridges on the Golden Quadrilateral routes; ₹197 crore for foot over bridges and high level platforms at stations; and ₹172 crore for traffic facility works.
Projects kept alive
A few railway projects under the SCR received meagre resources to keep them ‘alive’ rather than being considered shelved. These include ₹1,000 each to the 177.49-km Peddapalli-Karimnagar-Nizamabad line; the 335-km Duvvada-Vijayawada line, the 92-km proposed new line between Macherla and Nalgonda; the 21-km Kakinada-Pitapuram line; and the 106-km Vijaywada-Guntur line via Amaravati.
