HYDERABAD: Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated on Saturday that the new Pandurangapuram (Visakhapatnam)-Bhadrachalam (Telangana)-Malkangiri (Odisha) railway line project will act as an alternative rail route between Asansol and Warangal.
In a virtual interaction from New Delhi with SCR officials and media persons at Rail Nilayam in Hyderabad, the minister remarked that the new line will be taken up as a high priority project to provide a new rail route through the tribal belt, adding that Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will immensely benefit from this project.
At a total cost of Rs 7,383 crore, the project between Junagarh-Nabarangpur (Maharashtra) and Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam-Pandurangapuram will cover a length of 290 route km. Of this, the latter will be at a distance of 174 route km. It is part of the eight nationwide projects amounting to Rs 24,657 crore approved in the Union Cabinet meeting on Friday. It is expected to generate employment of one crore man days.
The new line is expected to provide an additional rail corridor to northern and eastern India, which will help thermal power plants in southern states, especially Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), to obtain coal faster. This is because it will provide shorter connectivity to power plants situated in central and south India from Mahanadi coal field areas. The aluminium and iron ore industries are also likely to benefit from better connectivity, the minister said.
Viewed as a disaster management backup route, the project will also enable connectivity to several districts in Odisha even during cyclones if the connectivity of the existing routes gets affected on the Howrah-Vijayawada coastal route. This will further result in the easy accessibility of food grains, fertilisers, agricultural products and cement to this region.
