Kishan thanks Modi for green signal to new railway line

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Coal and Minies G Kishan Reddy thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sanctioning the long-awaited Bhadrachalam-Malkan Giri railway line in the union cabinet on Friday. Kishan Reddy said that the 173 km line is preliminarily estimated to cost Rs 4,190 crore. The

“Bhadrachalam (Pandurangapuram) – Malkangiri (Junaghad) new railway line project will connect Bhadrachalam town with the main rail network.” The first proposed Bhadrachalam - Malkangiri railway line was only 147.5 km. Later, this project was extended to another 26.1 km. It was increased and extended from Bhadrachalam to Pandurangapuram.

While the new railway line between Jaipur - Malkangiri is already under construction, now the newly proposed Bhadrachalam - Malkangiri new railway line will pave the way for the development of a new corridor between South Central Railway (Pandurangapuram) - East Coast Railway (Junaghad).

Due to this project, new railway facilities will be made available to many areas where there is no railway facility till now and these areas will achieve social and economic development. The new railway project will increase the movement of people between the states of Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. It will also help the respective areas to achieve growth in various sectors like agriculture, commerce, education, tourism and healthcare.

Also, the new project will not only serve as an alternative route to develop trade links with the regions of South Odisha, Chhattisgarh and other parts of South India. It will enable transporting products from mines, aluminium and steel factories in Odisha and Chhattisgarh state to the ports in the Andhra Pradesh coastal region by reducing the distance by 140 Km.

This new railway line will not only reduce the distance and travel time for people to reach Hyderabad and Vijayawada from Chhattisgarh but also provide direct connectivity to Hyderabad and Vijayawada cities from South Odisha and Central Odisha.

Besides, there is also a possibility of developing multi-modal transport by connecting this new railway project with National Waterway No: 5, which is currently under construction connecting Paradeep Port. Along with this, there is also the possibility of connecting with the railway network to attract large volumes of freight through National Highway 326 for faster and more efficient handling.

The multi-modal transport potential of the new railway project opens up the possibility, of efficiently managing cargo transportation from Krishnapatnam, Machilipatnam and the newly constructed Ramayapatnam ports in the Andhra Pradesh coastal region.

With the new line, a total of Rs 32,942 crore worth of 20 railway projects at various stages in Telangana as of April 1st this year, Kishan Reddy said. Of them 7 new railway line projects of 997 Km alone are estimated at Rs 16,355, he said.