New Delhi: Indian Railways has signed a joint declaration of intent with German Railways to carry out feasibility study on existing Chennai-Kazipet corridor for increasing the speed of trains to 200 kmph.
At present, the travel time between Chennai and Kazipet in Telengana, a distance of around 643 kms, is around 11 hours. If the semi-high speed corridor is developed, then it will take about 3 hours 15 minutes.
The Project is envisaged to consist of three phases to be carried out over a 22 month period with the objectives to provide :
Phase 1: Definition of three demand-based Upgrade scenarios for the corridor
Phase 2: Selection of the preferred Upgrade scenario for SHS on the corridor, based on analysis of respective operations and economic-financial impact.
Phase 3: For preferred scenario, Reference design and technical Tender document
The cost of the feasibility study will be shared 50.50 percent by the Ministry of Railways and the German government.
Here are the salient features of Chennai-Kazipet corridor
● Route: Chennai-Gudur Jn-Nellore-Tenali Jn-Vijayawada Jn-Warangal-Kazipet Jn Total length of the corridor – 643 km (135 km in Southern Railway and 508 km in South Central Railway) and the entire corridor is electrified.
● Divisions Involved – Chennai (135 km), Vijayawada (311 km) & Secunderabad (197 km).
● The maximum sectional speed on the corridor is 110 kmph in Southern Railway and 120 kmph for South Central Railway.
● There are 216 (Southern Railway-68 & South Central Railway-148) level crossings on the corridor and all are manned.
● There are 1979 (Southern Railway-514 & South Central Railway-1465) number of bridges on this corridor.
● There is only one direct train from Kazipet to Chennai i.e. Train No. 12760/Charminar SF Express taking 11 hours 20 minutes with 13 stoppages at an average speed of 57 kmph.
● Majority of the trains are from Warangal to Chennai (638 km) and the fastest train is Train no. 12433/12434 Rajdhani Express taking 8 hours 29 minutes with average speed of 75.3 kmph with one stoppage at Vijayawada.
● Details of coaching trains on the route: Gareeb Rath-1, Janshatabdi-1, Superfast-40, MailExpress-21 & Holiday Special-8, Total-71.
● Total number of enroute stations – 108 (Southern Railway-28 & South Central Railway-80).
● Total number of stations where platform is on the mainline – 29 (Southern Railway-23 & South Central Railway-06).
● Southern Railway – Automatic/Absolute signalling, South Central Railway – Mainly absolute and MACLS.
