The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Three new express trains announced

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Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Three new express trains announced

Special Correspondent.

Budget allocation to South Central Railway a shade lower than that of last year

Four new trains to pass through the SCR zone
Krishna Express to be extended to Adilabad

HYDERABAD: The South Central Railway received a share of Rs. 1,564 crore in the railway budget for 2008-09 presented by Lalu Prasad in Parliament on Tuesday, a shade lower than Rs. 1,600 crore allocated last year.

At the customary post-budget briefing, SCR General Manager H. K. Padhee, however, explained that the actual expenditure at the end of the next fiscal would be easily Rs. 2,000 crore considering the allocations for the ongoing projects and increased outlay in some sectors.

He said the SCR got three express trains, extension of an existing service and four new trains passing through the zone in the new budget. The new trains, all tri-weekly, are Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Garib Rath, Machilipatnam-Bangalore and Hyderabad–Usmanabad (Maharashtra) express. The run of the existing Tirupati-Nizamabad Krishna express would be extended to Adilabad. The dates are to be announced later.

A major chunk of the plan allocation would go for track renewals (Rs. 400 crore against Rs. 328 crore last year), capital component of leased assets (Rs. 170.74 crore), new lines sanctioned earlier (Rs. 141 crore against Rs. 118 crore), gauge conversion projects underway (Rs. 128 crore against Rs. 338 crore), signalling and telecommunications (Rs. 119.40 crore) and passenger amenities (Rs. 104 crore against Rs. 82.50 crore last year).

Mr. Padhee said special thrust was being given to improving passenger amenities. He pointed out that a component that was not included in the allocation for amenities was the massive development plan being contemplated to turn Secunderabad into a world-class station.

Asked about the estimated cost of the amenities plan for Secunderabad station, he said that for New Delhi, it was an estimated Rs. 4,000 crore. Secunderabad was in the list of only 16 stations across the country, he pointed out, adding that they were likely to use the PPP (public-private partnership) model to develop it. Within two years and with the completion of two gauge conversion projects, SCR would have broad gauge lines all over, he said. The two projects are Pakala-Dharmavaram line (224 km) and Akola-Khandwa line (174 km).

The Vijayawada-Guntur doubling project would be over and commissioned by the end of March, 2008, he said, adding that Rs. 65 crore was allocated for doubling of lines between Samalkot and Kakinada and Rs. 5 crore for Guntur-Krishna Canal section, Mr. Padhee said.

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