₹13,724-crore railway works under way in Guntur district, including eight road-over-bridges: Pemmasani

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Union Minister of State for Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar. File | Photo Credit: RAJU V

Railway infrastructure projects taken up in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district involve a cumulative estimated expenditure of ₹13,724.70 crore.

Union Minister of State for Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar told The Hindu that all these infrastructure works were essential for better movement of trains and vehicles in the capital city of Amaravati and Guntur district.

The works include eight road-over-bridges (ROBs), railway-line doubling projects, new railway lines and other infrastructure improvements.

The eight ROB projects account for ₹745.62 crore. The latest among them is the Gaddipadu LC-03 ROB, for which the foundation stone was laid last week. The four-lane ROB, coming up on the Guntur-Krishna Canal railway section between Guntur and Namburu stations, has a detailed estimate of ₹147.36 crore, a sanctioned cost of ₹107.79 crore, a land acquisition estimate of ₹38.62 crore and a tender cost of ₹69.52 crore.

The 668-metre Gaddipadu ROB will have 352 metres on the Guntur side and 316 metres on the Gorantla side, including an 82-metre railway portion, a 418-metre viaduct and a 168-metre reinforced earth wall. The level crossing handles an average of 78 trains a day and 15,99,935 train vehicle units (TVUs); the project is intended to eliminate the level-crossing obstruction, separate road and rail traffic and reduce waiting at the railway gate.

The ROB is particularly significant for the Guntur Inner Ring Road, which carries not only city traffic but also vehicles from Narasaraopet, Sattenapalli, Nagarjuna Sagar and Hyderabad towards Amaravati, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam through Guntur. It also facilitates connectivity between the Amaravati-Anantapur Highway network and the city.

The other ROBs are Sankar Vilas (₹98 crore), Pedapalakaluru (₹49.95 crore), Mangalagiri (₹142 crore), Nandivelugu (₹36.91 crore), Syamala Nagar (₹78.46 crore), Sanjeevaiah Nagar (₹80.94 crore) and E-13 Yerrabalem-AIIMS (₹112 crore).

Major railway works include Guntur-Guntakal doubling (₹4,306 crore), Guntur-Bibinagar doubling (₹2,853 crore), Guntur-Tenali doubling (₹205 crore), the Errupalem-Amaravati-Namburu new line (₹2,047 crore) and the Nadikudi-Srikalahasti new line (₹3,407 crore). Other works include the Savalyapuram-Guntur traction upgrade, estimated at ₹142 crore, the Mondi Gate Bridge 6A box culvert work, costing ₹6.23 crore, and the Budampadu-Vejendla track culvert expansion, estimated at ₹9.17 crore.

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