A railway station to come up at Yadadri temple town

SCR is to call a tender for 33km MMTS link between Ghatkesar-Yadadri, Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy announced

When South Central Railway (SCR) calls for a tender for taking up the 33 km MMTS suburban train link between Ghatkesar and temple town of Yadadri, it will be for the second time and with an enhanced cost too since the revised cost more than five years ago was ₹430 crore.

General Manager Arun Kumar Jain has indicated that the tender process could be finalised within three months as the clearance for taking up the project came in few days ago. It was actually, Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast and Secunderabad MP G. Kishan Reddy who had announced the development.

Mr. Reddy had disclosed the project clearance just before he took over as the BJP president here stating that the Centre will be taking up the project on its own without waiting for the State government’s promised financial support of bearing 2/3rd the cost of ₹274.84 crore anymore, though the proposal for the rail link had originally come from the latter seven years ago.

Tenders were cancelled earlier after the government did not release its share of funds and since the project got a renewed lease of life, there is a suggestion from senior railway officials to consider expanding the scope of the project to make it a ‘win-win’ situation.

While the original proposal is to develop the Raigir station which is about four kilometres from Yadadri, the officials want the powers-that-be to consider extending the line up to Yadadri to build the main station there itself as it is just a few kilometres away.

“Raigir is on the main section but if we can extend the line up to Yadadri, pilgrims need not take another means of road transport to reach the temple. We should think of developing the proposed Yadadri station on the lines of Tirupati station with more than one platform and basic other end maintenance facilities as in Lingampally,” they said, pleading anonymity.

Another reason being given is that the Raigir station is on the main line of Kazipet-Vijayawada which is a high density network though it has been quadrupled. By building a new line inside till Yadadri, the congestion can be eased on the network enabling better running of trains towards Chennai, Bengaluru and up north with better connectivity even after the Cherlapally terminal is up and running.