Cherlapally rail hub works to begin soon

 Hyderabad: After several attempts to acquire land at Cherlapally to develop a satellite terminal falling flat, the South Central Railway (SCR) has finally decided to go ahead with its project on its own land of 50 acres. The SCR general manager announced the decision at a press conference here on Tuesday after the pink book (railway budget) was tabled in Parliament.

In this year’s budget Rs 5 crore was sanctioned for the project. It may be noted that even last year a sum of Rs 5 crore was sanctioned for the Cherlapally terminal project. The Railways needs 250 acres to develop the terminal. 

The former general manager Ravindra Gupta as well as the present GM Vinod Kumar Yadav met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to seek government support for new terminals at Cherlapally and Nagulapally. The SCR had sent a detailed proposal to Railway Board for Hindustan Cables Limited (HCL) land which officials say is ideal as it is the closet land parcel.  

SCR eyed the 327 acres of Hindustan Cables Limited (HCL) but the proposal did not come through. The SCR had plans to develop 10 platforms at Cherlapally but now as it has now decided to develop the terminal without acquiring more land, officials said and pointed out that they would have to take a fresh look at the project and make the most of the land available to include as many platforms as possible.

Presently, the Secunderabad Railway station has reached saturation point and every day several trains are halted at the outer signal. The Secunderabad terminal handles more than 200 trains and over 1.6 lakh passengers a day.  There are two platforms at Cherlapally and four lines to Ghatkesar are being added under MMTS Phase II project. Plans to develop Cherlapally as a Greenfield terminal to decongest Secunderabad railway station have been under consideration for over three years now. 

Keeping the traffic volume in consideration, at least 7-10 platforms would be needed, and the project cost could be anywhere between Rs 100 to Rs 200 crore.  Vinod Kuamr Yadav said that the general managers are now given more powers and as work progresses, more funds would be allotted.