South Coast Railway marks 100 days with ₹54,479 crore project programme

The South Coast Railway zone has completed 100 days of operations, with officials highlighting infrastructure works, safety upgrades and expanded passenger services across its four divisions. Headquartered in Visakhapatnam, the zone covers the Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntakal and Guntur divisions. It spans nearly 3,532 route kilometres and 6,455 track kilometres, and officials anticipate originating revenue of ₹15,500 crore and annual freight loading above 100m tonnes.

Within its first two months, the zone secured sanctions for projects including the ₹300-crore Visakhapatnam Yard Remodelling Project, the ₹1,205-crore Guntakal-Ballari quadrupling project and ₹20 crore for crowd-management facilities at Tirupati. A permanent headquarters is under construction at Mudasarlova in Visakhapatnam. The ₹183.58-crore building will have two basements and three floors and is expected to be completed in 2027.

Until then, the zone is operating from the VMRDA Deck building in Siripuram. A South Coast Railway official told The Hindu that five new railway-line projects and 24 multi-tracking works worth about ₹54,479 crore were being executed. A further ₹70,865 crore of projects was in the pipeline.

More than 300 road-over-bridges and road-under-bridges are under construction. The zone has also carried out yard remodelling, expanded automatic block signalling and installed the indigenous Kavach safety system on nearly 100 locomotives. The first 100-kilometre Kavach section is scheduled for commissioning by year-end.

Three redeveloped Amrit Bharat stations have opened at Rayanapadu, Mangalagiri and Cumbum, while work is under way at 70 other stations. The zone is also running festival and Jansadharan special trains to manage seasonal demand, examinations and large gatherings.