The Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave its nod for taking up the Vizianagaram and Titlagarh 3rd line project at an estimated cost of Rs2,335.68 crore.
The 264.6-km railway line would be completed in five years.
The 3rd line is an alternative route to over-burdened existing line. This link also opens an alternative route to the oversaturated Kharagpur-Jharsuguda section of the Howrah-Mumbai Grand Trunk Route and the Howrah-Chennai section main line.
Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of Odisha and Vizianagaram and Bobbili districts of Andhra Pradesh would be benefitted through this project.
After industrialisation of the Jharsuguda-Rengali and Talcher-Angul-Dhenkanal regions, a 3rd line between Vizianagaram and Titlagarh was necessary for goods traffic in near future.
Notably, Vizianagaram-Titlagarh is a double line and non-electrified section of the Jharsuguda-Vizianagaram line. The section is oversaturated with present capacity utilisation of 106 per cent and there is a huge detention of rolling stock.
The average number of trains handled per day is 47 trains each way which includes 27 pairs of passenger trains and 20 pairs of goods trains.