South Central Railway has given special emphasis for the ongoing Guntur-Guntakal Doubling project and has commissioned more than 281 kms of different stretches including Malkapuram-Dhone for a distance of 11.2 Km recently.
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South Central Railway has given special emphasis for the ongoing Guntur – Guntakal Doubling project and has commissioned more than 60 kms of different stretches in the current financial year.
Continuing the same tempo, doubling of one more section between Malkapuram – Dhone for a distance of 11.2 Kms has been completed and commissioned along with electrification.
This section falls in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh and with the completion of doubling of this section, now, there will be continuous double line facility along with electrification for 105 Kms between Guntakal – Betamcherla.
Guntur-Guntakal Section:
- Guntur – Guntakal Section is a vital rail link connecting Guntur city of Andhra Pradesh State with Rayalaseema region and beyond South. This line passes through Guntur, Prakasham, Palnadu, Nandyal and Kurnool Districts connecting the hinterland areas.
- In order to provide seamless transportation and ease the congestion on this section, Guntur – Guntakal Doubling & Electrification project was sanctioned in the year 2016-17, for a distance of 401 Kms with an estimated cost of Rs 3887 Crores.
- So far, doubling & electrification between Nallapadu – Jaggambotla Krihsnapuram (174 Km), Betamcherla – Malkapuram (25 Kms) and Dhone – Guntakal (71 Kms) has already been completed and commissioned. With this, a total of 270 Kms of this project was completed and commissioned.
- Now, with the completion of another 11 Kms between Malkapuram– Dhone, a total of around 281 Kms stretch of doubling works with electrification has been completed on the different stretches of Guntur – Guntakal.
Significance of the Project:
- Importantly, Doubling between Malkapuram -Dhone passes through North Dhone Reserve Forest and Ghat section with sharp curves, 8 major bridges and 16 minor bridges.
- The Zone had to face special challenges towards Resettlement & Rehabilitation of 86 private Houses and 20 Shops to accommodate Doubling.
- All these were overcome and this section between Malkapuram – Dhone has been completed in a record time of 2 months from commencement of work.
- With this, the crucial doubling link and the continuous stretch between Betamcherla -Guntakal for 106 Km in Guntakal Division is fully doubled, thus giving good mobility in Guntur – Guntakal section.
- The works in the balance sections of the project are in fast progress with the target to bring some more sections under double line. Completion of doubling and electrification in these sections will not only decongest the section but also helps in increasing the average speed of the trains.
Shri Arun Kumar Jain, General Manager, SCR has complimented the Officials and staff of Construction Organisation & Guntakal Division for completing the work which was involved with several challenges. He stated that once the entire project is completed the train operations towards eastern parts of the country like Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Howrah and beyond from Rayalaseema region Zone can be dealt more effectively.
Source: South Central Railway- Press Release | Images Credit: South Central Railway
