Insights on Infrastructure enhancement of South Central Railway in 2021

A total of 227.5 Track Kms have been constructed for strengthening the Rail Network of SCR during 2021. Further, to provide seamless train movement facility, 657 Kms of railway lines have been electrified over the Zone.

  • New lines: 25 Kms completed:
    • Bhadrachalam – Chandurugonda – 25 Kms
  • Double Lines: 120.5 Kms completed. Sections include:
    • Pendekallu – Edduladoddi – 8.5 Kms
    • Falaknuma – Umdanagar – Shadnagar – 44 Kms
    • Gajjalakonda – Kurichedu – 25 Kms
    • Vijayawada  – Uppaluru – 17 Kms
    • Gooty – Kalluru – 26 Kms
  • Third line: 82 Kms completed. Sections include:
    • Kolanur – Potkapalli- 8 Kms
    • Ulavapadu – Kavali- 30 Kms
    • Wirur- Manikgar – 19 Kms
    • Talamanchi – Srivenkateshwarapalem- 25 Kms
  • Electrification: 657 Kms:
    • This includes 506 Route Kms and 151 Track Kms of railway lines.

Major Capacity  Enhancement Works:

With a view to decongest the major junctions and also to provide safe, comfortable rail journey without enroute detentions, the Zone has taken various capacity building works by using latest technological advancement, which will help in enhancing the throughput of Railways, by reducing the running time of Rolling stock. The details of various capacity building works carried out by the zone in brief are:

  • Major Yard Modifications -Two (02):
    • Rajahmundry yard along with construction of 2 PF lines and  EI system having 260 + routes
    • Tirupati Yard along with one PF line and EI system having 213 routes
  • By pass Line – One (01):
    • 2.1 Kms critical Bypass line at Motumari constructed along with Cabin and OHE alignment
  • Longer Loops – One (01):
    • Longer Loop line with 1500 meters i.e., double the  normal length commissioned at Navabpalem station taking it to two stations over the SCR.
    • Works is in progress at Elamanchili, Nidubrolu, Ammanabrolu and Bitragunta
  • Enhancing Sectional Speed to 130 Kmph along GQ-GD & HDN:
    • Golden Quadrilateral route of 536 Kms between Renigunta – Wadi
    • Golden Diagonal Route of 744 Kms between Balharshah – Kazipet – Vijayawada – Gudur
    • High Density Network of  132 Kms between Secunderabad – Kazipet

Major Safety Works:

  • Train collision Avoidance system (TCAS) has been extended further to 948 Kms covering 92 locations over the Zone.
  • Manned Level Crossings: 107 MLCs have been eliminated in a phased manner during the year 2021.
  • Track Maintenance: South Central Railway has constantly been at the forefront in execution of track maintenance works, positioning itself at the top amongst all the Zones over Indian Railways: (performance during 2021):
    • Plain Packing – 14,468 Kms (1st position over IR)
    • Turnout packing – 5,161 points (2nd position over IR)
    • BCM works – 660 Kms (2nd position over IR)
    • PQRS works – 163 Kms (2nd position over IR)
    • T-28 works – 432 points(1st position over IR)

Parcel & Freight Initiatives:

  • Doodh Duronto: An exclusive milk special, which was started by the Zone during the lockdown period from Renigunta in Andhra Pradesh  for catering the milk supply in the National capital. During the year 2021, nearly 7.77 Crore liters of milk transported from Renigunta to Hazrat Nizamuddin taking the total milk transportation to more than 13 Crore liters from its introduction.
  • Kisan Rail: To assist the farmers and also to boost the income of farming community, Government of India introduced Kisan Rail concept for transportation of agricultural produce to national markets at concessional tariff (50% of the regular tariff) for getting better price appreciation. Accordingly, the Zone has given special thrust for running the Kisan Rails. In the last calendar year, a total of 1.77 lakh tons of agricultural produce has been transported through 546 Kisan rails from different stations of the Zone.
    • SCR operates Kisan Rails from three States over its Jurisdiction – Telangana, AP and Maharashtra
    • A single station from SCR – Nagarsol – transports more than 1,00,000 tonnes of Agricultural commodity.

Parcel traffic Highlights:

  • During 2021, SCR had achieved parcel revenue earnings of Rs. 207.9 Crs, which is highest ever parcel revenue in a calendar year and it is almost 2.5 times more than the parcel earnings of previous calendar year (2020), which is  Rs 84.19 Crores.

Freight Highlights:

  • The wagon Turnaround has improved from 3 days in 2019 to 2.9 days in 2021.
  • The average number of trains handled in a day at interchange has improved from 204 trains in 2019 to 258 trains in 2021.
  • For the first time, Reefer Container Loading has been started from Tadipatri railway station to Mumbai carrying bananas.
  • For the first time, Door-to-Door containerized train movement of Freight trains has commenced over SCR. The first rake was loaded from Jagayyapet Station.
  • There has been a steady diversification in freight basket with the gradual improvement in Non-Coal Commodities in Total loading rising to 52% in 2021 from 44% in 2019.

Rolling Stock – Major Achievements:

  • Quick watering facility: Installed at Secunderabad taking it to 3 stations over theZone.
  • Automatic Coach washing plants: Commissioned at Secunderabad and Hyderabad stations.
  • LHB Coaches/Trains: A total of 288 LHB coaches have replaced conventional coaches during the year 2021, taking the total LHB coaches to 1295, which have been inducted into 35 Trains / 51 Rakes.

Green Initiatives:

To improve green environ and to reduce carbon emission, various steps have been implemented by tapping the natural resources during the year 2021:

  • Solar Plants: SCR has installed 685 kWp capacity Solar panels during the last year (2021) taking the total capacity to 7800 kWp.
  • Water Conservation Plants: To conserve water on large scale, SCR has set-up Sewage Treatment Plant at Kazipet with recycling capacity 50 Kilo litres per day and Effluent Treatment Plants at Tirupati Workshop with the capacity of 30 Kilo liters per day during the year 2021. In addition to the existing Water Recycling Plants at 5 locations recycling of 1200 Kilo litres per day, Sewage Treatment Plants at 2 locations recycling 480 Kilo litres per day, 2 Effluent Treatment Plants at Tirupati recycling 400 Kilo litres per day.
  • 2 nos of Waste to Compost plants of 50 kg capacity each has been commissioned at Vijayawada station, with this a total of six waste to compost machines are available at 5 stations over the Zone.
  • All the 63 stations identified by the NGT, have achieved ISO 14001 Certification.
  • During the last year (2021), Green Co Platinum Certification has been achieved for Hyderabad Station and OPD block of Divisional Hospital, Vijayawada.
  • 5 Nos of Plastic Bottle Crushing Machines were installed at Kacheguda station totaling to 114 machines covering 75 stations.

Tackling Covid-19:

  • Strengthening Healthcare:
  •  5 Railway hospitals (CH/LGD, RH/BZA, RH/GTL, SDH/TPTY, PC/KZJ) recognized for Covid treatment with total capacity of 660 beds.
    • 250 Covid isolation beds made available
    • 1017 quarantine beds made ready at different locations of the Zone.
    • Important COVID Equipment (like HFNCs – 35, Ventilators – 29, etc) were provided in Railway Hospitals.
    • Oxygen generation plants have been commissioned at Lallaguda, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Tirupati, Kazipet, Nanded and Mettuguda (Health Unit).
    • 60 Additional doctors and 211 additional paramedical staff have been engaged.
  • A total of 41,386 Railway employees (incl Healthcare Workers) have been given Second dose vaccine, while 69,183 workers have been administered First dose of COVID Vaccine.

Source: PIB- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): SCR

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