The South Central Railway (SCR) zone received a staggering amount of Rs 7,222 crore in the 2021 – 22 Union budget to allocate funds for infrastructural works such as doubling, new lines, electrification works, traffic facilities, third line, bypass line works, and others.
“Towards important infrastructure works, SCR has been sanctioned a staggering amount of Rs 7,222 crore for the year 2021 – 22 compared to Rs 7,024 crore for the year 2020 – 21,” said an official.
Major allocations include Rs 4,238 crore for doubling, third line and bypass line works, including Rs 2,195 crore for new lines capital, deposit, extra-budgetary resources, and others.
For electrification works, the total budgetary grant amounts to Rs 617 crore and Rs 173 crore for traffic facilities.
Among others, Rs 1,144 crore has been earmarked for the Nadikudi- Srikalahasti new line project, Rs 325 crore for the Manoharabad – Kothapalli new line project and Rs 267 crore to the Bhadrachalam – Sattupalli new line project.
Likewise, for road safety works such as level crossings, bridges, and others, Rs 672 crore, Rs 862 crore for track renewal works, and Rs 60 for implementation of train collision avoidance system (TCAS) on the Bidar – Parli Vaijnath – Parbhani and Manmad – Nanded – Secunderabad – Dhone – Guntakal sections.
As the railway zone extends in both the Telugu states, total budget allocation to Andhra Pradesh amounted to Rs 5,812 crore, which is 105 percent more than the average allocation between 2014 to 2020.
Rs 187 crore has been allotted to Kotipalli – Narasapuram’s new line project, which involves building bridges over the rivers of Gowthami, Vyntheya, and Vashista.
“The project was sanctioned in the year 2000 – 01 for a distance of 57 km with a sanctioned cost of Rs 2,120 crore. 25 percent of the project cost would be shared by the government of AP,” said the official.
