South Central Railway (SCR) is planning to run at least a dozen trains from the upcoming Cherlapalli terminal, which is expected to be ready within a year with the main administrative block construction about to begin soon.
“The station will have nine platforms as we are building five new ones and there will be four rail lines for washing alone. In fact, it will have more rail lines than the Secunderabad station, which we expect to decongest once this gets ready,” said Divisional Railway Manager of Secunderabad division Abhay Kumar Gupta on Friday.
The signalling work is also expected to begin and with the State government giving way for building a 100-feet approach road, the terminal station is touted to be a marque one with an ‘airport’ kind of facade. “The main building will have two floors with waiting halls, eating joints and other shops. It is being built on an elevated ground. There will be escalators connecting all the platforms,” he explained.
The Moula Ali-Ghatkesar section can also be eased up once this terminal begins operations with the plan to run the modern ‘Vande Bharat’ trains from here to Pune, Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam. “The demand is very high towards the north and east so we can run more trains through Kacheguda towards Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam too,” he said.
Secunderabad station modernisation
Mr. Gupta also reminded that the ₹650 crore Secunderabad station modernisation work is expected to commence shortly with tenders to be finalised by October with the idea to finish it within three years. With regard to the increasing speeds of express trains in the zone, he said that the current 120 kmph between Balarshah-Vijayawada via Kazipet and Kazipet-Secunderabad will soon be increased to 130 kmph with the Railway Board according permission for the same.
“We cannot increase speed more than this as these routes have lot of curves,” he disclosed. The zonal railways has already replaced 900 of the 1,600 coaches with modern German design LHB coaches and rest will be replaced within four years, he added.
