17 Road over/under bridges to be completed this year: SCR GM

Hyderabad, Jan 2 : South Central Railway General Manager PK Srivastava held a top level review meeting with the Chief Engineers of the construction department of SCR at Rail Nirman Nilayam, Secunderabad on Thursday. S.K.Sharma, Chief Administrative Officer, SCR, other Principal Heads of the Departments, all the Chief Engineers and other senior officials were present during the discussions.

Srivastava reviewed the current status of the sanctioned projects/works on South Central Railway, their progress during the current financial year and the action plan for the targetted works. At present, there are 19 new Rail Line projects, 4 doubling/tripling projects and 37 Road over Bridge(RoB)/Road under Bridge(RuB) works and 19 traffic facility works being taken up by the construction wing of SCR. As the present shelf of sanctioned projects require huge amount of resources, the General Manager advised the officials to prioritize the sanctioned projects based on their importance and take up works on these in a focused manner so as to enable their early completion.

During the current fiscal, two new Railway Lines have so far been commissioned. While a 59 kms line between Gadwal and Raichur (at a cost of Rs 300 crs) was opened in October, 2013, another new line of 32 kms (at a cost of Rs 200 crs) was opened between Humnabad and Khanapur in December,2013. During the current financial year, Rs 202 crs have been spent for the new line works; Rs 30 crs for doubling works; Rs 28 crs for traffic facility works and Rs 40 crs for RoB/RuB works, so far. It is targetted to complete 17 RoBs/RuBs in the current fiscal year. While works on 4 RoB/RuBs have already been completed, works at 13 other locations are under active progress.

Infrastructural works which help in easing out the traffic congestion on the saturated trunk routes and create new capacities on the Railway system should be given top priority so that their benefits can be reaped at the earliest, he stressed. It would enable smooth running of additional passenger/freight services to meet the traffic demands.

Noting that there are 10 projects in which the State Governments concerned – of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have agreed to share the cost, the GM emphasised that works on cost sharing projects shall also be accorded due priority and be speeded up to utilise the released funds fully. He advised the officials to expedite the progress on the prioritized works and commission as many as possible in the current fiscal in close co-ordination with the State Governments on issues like land acquisition and clearances etc., INN