Vijayawada: The new railway line between Errupalem and Namburu will connect capital Amaravati with other cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata, said Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav on Thursday, while adding that a multi-modal cargo terminal will also be built at Paritala.
Addressing a virtual press conference along with chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan, Union civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu, and MPs D Purandeswari, Lavu Krishna Devarayalu, and Uday Srinivas, Vaishnav said the cargo terminal at Paritala will become a logistics hub as it has NH-65 connectivity and will also be useful in connecting Machilipatnam port.
“The Amaravati line is being developed as a semi-high speed track with a 160-kmph capacity. Hyderabad-Vijayawada and Vijayawada-Chennai tracks are also being upgraded to 160-kmph capacity. The new railway line between Errupalem and Namburu will be a single line for now, but all bridges on Krishna river and land acquisition are being planned for two lanes. Doubling works will be taken up as and when necessary, but for now a single line will serve the purpose of providing rail connectivity to capital Amaravati,” Vaishnav said.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and railway minister Vaishnav for taking steps to approve the project within 10 days, Naidu said works should also be done with the same speed. Naidu had discussed the Amaravati railway line project with Modi and Vaishnav during his recent Delhi tour. “Once this project is completed, Amaravati will have better connectivity with all other major capital cities in south India,” the chief minister said.
Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan also lauded the railway ministry for planning and designing the Amaravati railway line project in an environmentally friendly manner. “The new railway line will not disturb the Kondapalli reserve forests and will save 6 crore kg equivalent of CO2 emissions, which is equivalent to planting 25 lakh trees,” he said, and again thanked Vaishnav and PM Modi for saving the forests “which are very close to my heart”.
Civil aviation minister Rammohan Naidu said the new Amaravati line will also decongest Vijayawada railway station. “This project shows that the NDA govt at the Centre will stand by the people of AP,” he said.
