Visakhapatnam: 36% of 460 km railway line doubled under ₹7,200 crore project of Waltair Railway Division so far, says official

A total of 164.72 km (36%) of the 460.56 km-long single railway lines on two separate routes Kothavalasa-Kirandul (KK) and Koraput-Rayagada (KR) under Visakhapatnam-based Waltair Railway Division (WRD) have been doubled so far.

A total of 164.72 km (36%) of the 460.56 km-long single railway lines on two separate routes Kothavalasa-Kirandul (KK) and Koraput-Rayagada (KR) under Visakhapatnam based Waltair Railway Division (WRD) have been doubled so far.

This ₹7,200 crore mega railway project was sanctioned in 2015-16 and the works started from 2017-18, but almost 50% of the completed works (164.72 km), which means doubling the length of 75.2 km has been done in FY 2022-23 itself.

However, the reason for slow pace of work between 2017-18 and 2021-22, are many including COVID-19-induced lockdown in 2020-21.

“We have completed doubling of 75.2 km on both KK and KR lines in the year 2022-23 alone, which was only 17 km in the previous year. We have set a target of doubling 115.45 km in 2023-24. There will be some tunnels on the routes, so we have to put extra care on the works,” the Divisional Railway Manager Anup Satpathy told The Hindu.

Explaining the progress of the works in detail, the railway officials said that the KK and KR lines have been divided into three parts.

KK Line is bifurcated into Kothavalasa-Koraput doubling, 190 km long. About 67.54 km of works have been completed between Kothavalasa-S.Kota (25.96 km), Padua-Machkund Road (21.43 km) and Machkund-Suku (20 km). About 72 km have been targeted this year.

Similarly, KK line has another sub-section. Jagdalpur-Koraput doubling of 106 km. About 78.28 km works have been completed so far. Jagdalpur-Chattariput (71.48 km), Koraput-Manabar (6.83 km). About 6.95 km of work has been targeted this year.