The South Central Railway, especially Andhra Pradesh, received a rather sizeable number of projects in the Railway Budget 2013-14 presented by Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in Parliament on Tuesday.
The major announcements that will benefit the South Central Railways include:
- The setting up of a Coach Mid-Life Rehabilitation (MLR) Workshop at Kurnool in collaboration with the state government
- The setting up of an exclusive centralized institute for the Finance officers at Secunderabad - Indian Railways Institute of Financial Management (IRIFM)
- The setting up of a "Rail Neer" bottling plant at Vijayawada
- Imparting skills to youth in railway-related trades, at Kazipet, under the National Skill Development program
The new-line projects, to be taken up on a socio-economic consideration, after obtaining necessary approvals/clearances, include:
- Cumbum-Proddatur
- Kondapalli-Kothagudem
- Manuguru-Ramagundam and
- Srinivasapuram-Madanpalli
The new lines to be completed in 2012-13 are Devarakadra-Krishna (part), Gulbarga-Sultanpur, Marikel-Makhtal and Raichur-Pandurangaswamy (part).
The new lines to be completed in 2013-14 are Kadapa-Pendlamarri and Mortad-Armoor-Nizamabad.
The new line surveys to be taken up during 2013-14 are Dornakal-Miryalguda, Mancherail-Adilabad via Utnoor, Siddipet-Akkanapet and Washim-Mahur-Adilabad. The doubling surveys to be taken up during 2013-14 are Dharmavaram-Pakala, Mahbubnagar-Gooty, Parbhani-Manmad, Secunderabad-Mudkhed-Adilabad and Tirupati-Katpadi.
According to the SCR, the doubling works to be completed in 2012-13 are Esivi-Kupgal, Kosgi-Mantralayam, Manchiriyal-Mandamari and Venkatachalam-Nidiguntapalem. The doubling works to be completed in 2013-14 are Nidiguntapalem-Krishnapatna and Raghavapuram-Peddampet.
Kondapuram-Vemulpadu and Gooty-Taticherala are the sections to be electrified in 2012-13.
As many as eight new trains services will be introduced. The originating express trains are:
- Chennai - Nagarsol (for Sai Nagar Shirdi) Express (weekly) via Renigunta, Dhone, Kacheguda
- Kakinada - Mumbai Express (Bi-weekly)
- Kurnool Town - Secunderabad Express (daily)
- Mangalore - Kacheguda Express (weekly) via Dhone, Gooty, Renigunta, Coimbatore
- Nizamabad - Lokmanya Tilak (T) Express (weekly)
- Tirupati - Puducherry Express (weekly)
- Tirupati - Bhubaneswar Express (weekly) via Visakhapatnam
- Una / Nangaldam- Hazoor Saheb Nanded Express (weekly) via Anandpur Saheb, Morinda, Chandigarh, Ambala
Further, there will three originating passenger trains from Nandyal:
- Kurnool Town Passenger (daily)
- Purna-Parli Vaijnath Passenger (daily)
- Chennai-Tirupati MEMU Service
The SCR division also got eight pass-through mail/express trains:
- Ajni (Nagpur) - Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express (weekly) via Hingoli
- Bikaner - Chennai AC Express (weekly) via Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Nagda, Bhopal, Nagpur
- Gandhidham - Visakhapatnam Express (weekly) via Ahmedabad, Wardha, Ballarshah, Vijaywada
- Howrah - Chennai AC Express (bi-weekly) via Bhadrak, Duvvada, Gudur
- Kamakhya (Guwahati) - Bangalore AC Express (weekly)
- Jabalpur - Yesvantpur Express (weekly) via Nagpur, Dharmavaram
- Patliputra (Patna) - Bangalore Express (weekly) via Chheoki
- Visakhapatnam - Kollam Express (weekly)
As many as six orginating trains have been extended:
- 17005/17006 Hyderabad-Darbhanga Express to Raxaul after gauge conversion
- 17011/17012 Hyderabad- Belampalli Express to Sirpur Kaghaznagar
- 22107/22108 Mumbai CST-Latur Express to Hazoor Saheb Nanded
- 57502/57503 Bodhan-Kamareddi Passenger to Mirzapalli
- 67277/67278 Falaknuma-Bhongir MEMU to Jangaon
- 77676/77677 Miryalguda-Nadikudi DEMU to Piduguralla
Two pass-through trains - 12577/12578 Darbhanga-Bangalore Express to Mysore and 12507/12508 Guwahati-Ernakulam Express to Thiruvananthapuram - have received extensions.
The frequency of five originating trains has also been increased:
- 22615/22616 Coimbatore-Tirupati Express (3 to 4 days)
- 17213/17214 Narsapur - Nagarsol (Near Sainagar Shirdi) Express (2 to 7 days)
- 18509/18510 Visakhapatnam - Hazoor Saheb Nanded Express (2 to 3 days)
- 18309/18310 Sambalpur - Hazoor Saheb Nanded Express (2 to 3 days)
- 12751/12752 Secunderabad - Manuguru Express (3 to 7 days)
The frequency of two pass-through trains has also been increased. They are 12687/12688 Madurai - Dehradun/Chandigarh Express (1 to 2 days) and 22819/22820 Visakhapatnam - Lokmanya Tilak (T) Express (2 to 7 days).
Besides these measures, the Railway Minister has allocated Rs. 124 crore towards passenger amenities, as against the revised grant of Rs. 100 crore, for 2012-13. Rs. 281 crore has been allotted towards the construction of new lines, which is at the same level of allotment in last year. (INN)