Cabinet Committee Clears Vizianagaram-Titlagarh Rail Project

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave its approval for taking up Vizianagaram and Titlagarh 3rd line project at an estimated cost of Rs.2,335.68 crore.

While the length of the railway line will be 264.6 km, the completion period of the project will be five years.

The 3rd line is an alternative route to the over-burdened existing line. This link also opens an alternative route to oversaturated Kharagpur – Jharsuguda section Howrah-Mumbai Grand Trunk Route and Howrah-Chennai section main line.

Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of Odisha and Vizianagaram and Babbili districts of Andhra Pradesh would be benefitted through this project.

Notably, Vizianagaram and Titlagarh is a double line non-electrified section of Jharsuguda-Vizianagaram line. The section is oversaturated with a present capacity utilisation of 106%, and there is a huge detention to rolling stock.

An average number of trains handled per day is 47 trains each way which includes 27 pairs of passenger trains and 20 pairs of Goods train.

After industrialisation between Jharsuguda-Rengali, and Talcher-Angul-Dhenkanal, the 3rd line between Vizianagaram and Titlagarh is necessary to overcome the goods traffic in near future.