SCR plans upgradation of route between Secunderabad and Nagpur

By | Published: 12:22 am

Hyderabad: The plans for up-gradation of Secunderabad–Nagpur corridor for semi-high speed rail services, which would help increase the speed of trains, have gained momentum with South Central Railway (SCR) sending a report on the project to Railway Board.

The report in three phases has been prepared and sent to Railway Board. Further, the Board has sent the report to Research Designs and Standardisation Organisation, Lucknow for scrutiny.

According to SCR, the distance between Secunderabad and Nagpur is 577 km and travel time now is around nine hours. At present, the maximum permissible speed in this section is 120 kmph and by upgrading the section to semi-high speed corridor, the trains can run at a speed of 200 kmph with the running time reduced to just five hours.

“With the increased speed and reduced running time, railways have chance to introduce and operate more number of trains. In addition, the speed of freight trains also increases proportionately. This will help in running a greater number of freight trains as the section between Kazipet – Balharshah is hub for freight traffic as this line is surrounded by coal mines, cement factories and NTPC,” said a senior railway official.

In the year 2016, a delegation from Russian Railways held a meeting with officials of SCR to discuss on up-gradation of Secunderabad – Nagpur corridor for semi-high speed rail services. Subsequently, a protocol has been signed between Ministry of Railways and Russian Railways on co-operation in semi-high speed corridor.

Accordingly, both the parties carried out a joint technical and execution study for upgrading the speed of passenger trains on the proposed corridor up to 200 kmph.

During their visit, analysis have been carried out on the Secunderabad – Ballarshah section, wherein the Russian delegation sought to know the technicalities of the section in terms of its engineering, geography, traffic forecast and existing infrastructure.

The railway officials briefed them on the salient aspects of the railway line and highlighted the average traffic flow of passenger carrying and goods trains in the section.

Issues concerning various components of rail infra such as civil engineering involving bridges, tracks and maintenance technology, signalling, rolling stock pertaining to locomotives and coaches and power supply were addressed during the extensive dialogue.

Later, the 12 member Russian Railways delegation along with officials of Secunderabad division carried out inspection of the Secunderabad – Ballarshah section to make a field study on the feasibility and implementation of the semi-high-speed rail corridor between Secunderabad and Nagpur.

“We have sent the report to the higher authorities who will work on budget estimation, required infrastructure, machinery and manpower. Once the project takes off, it would take around two to three years to complete it,” said an official.

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