Kazipet To Chennai In 3 Hours: High-Speed Train To Be Introduced With German Support

Hyderabad: After laying foundation for the works on the country's first bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai recently, the 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 trains to 200kmph.

At present, the travel time between Chennai and Kazipet in Telengana, a distance of around 643kms, is around 11 hours. If the semi-high speed corridor is developed, the distance will be covered in 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 in 50:50 ratio by the Ministry of Railways and the German government.

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 (135km in Southern Railway and 508km in South Central Railway) and the entire corridor is electrified.

• Divisions Involved – Chennai (135km), Vijayawada (311km) and Secunderabad (197km).
• The maximum sectional speed on the corridor is 110kmph in Southern Railway and 120kmph for South Central Railway.
• There are 216 (Southern Railway-68 and South Central Railway-148) level crossings on the corridor and all are manned.
• There are 1979 (Southern Railway-514 and South Central Railway-1465) number of bridges on this corridor.
• There is only one direct train from Kazipet to Chennai - Train No. 12760/Charminar SF Express taking 11 hours 20 minutes with 13 stoppages at an average speed of 57kmph.
• Majority of the trains are from Warangal to Chennai (638km) and the fastest train is Train no. 12433/12434 Rajdhani Express taking 8 hours 29 minutes with average speed of 75.3kmph with one stoppage at Vijayawada.
• Details of coaching trains on the route: Gareeb Rath-1, Janshatabdi-1, Superfast-40, MailExpress-21 and Holiday Special-8, Total-71.
• Total number of enroute stations – 108 (Southern Railway-28 and South Central Railway-80).
• Total number of stations where platform is on the mainline – 29 (Southern Railway-23 and South Central Railway-06).
• Southern Railway – Automatic/Absolute signalling, South Central Railway – Mainly absolute and MACLS.