DPR submitted for Secunderabad–Nagpur Semi-High Speed Rail corridor

Hyderabad, India (Urban Transport News): The South Central Railway (SCR) has prepared the detailed project report (DPR) of the proposed Secunderabad–Nagpur High-Speed Rail corridor and the same has been submitted to Railway Board for review and further approval. Further, Railway Board has sent the DPR to Research Designs and Standardisation Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow for scrutiny. Based on the recommendation received from RDSO the board will take further decisions on the project. In the report, the SCR has suggested redevelopment of the 577-km long Secunderabad–Nagpur corridor in three phases which would help increase the speed of trains. The speed of the train on this line will be increased from 120 kmph to 200 kmph to reduce the present journey time from 9 hours to 5 hours. Commenting on the proposed report, a senior railway official said:

With the increased speed and reduced running time, railways have a chance to introduce and operate more number of trains. In addition, the speed of freight trains also increases proportionately. This will help in running a greater number of freight trains as the section between Kazipet – Balharshah is a hub for freight traffic as this line is surrounded by coal mines, cement factories and NTPC.

“We have sent the report to the higher authorities who will work on budget estimation, required infrastructure, machinery and manpower. Once the project takes off, it would take around two to three years to complete it,” said a Railway official. In the year 2016, a delegation team consisting of 12 members held preliminary discussions with senior officers of the South Central Railway (SCR) led by AK Gupta, Additional General Manager on the feasibility and implementation of the Semi-High Speed Rail services between Secunderabad and Nagpur.

Subsequently, a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) was signed between the Ministry of Railways and Russian Railways on the sidelines of the India-Russia Summit on 5th October 2018 in New Delhi. The both parties had carried out a joint technical and execution study for upgrading the speed of passenger trains on the proposed semi-high speed rail corridor up to 200 kmph. A detailed analysis was carried out on the Secunderabad–Ballarshah section to know the technicalities of the section in terms of its engineering, geography, traffic forecast and existing infrastructure.