The Railways has started construction of a new zonal headquarters for South Coast Railway (SCoR) at Mudasarlova and it is likely to be completed by February 2027. Meanwhile, two floors of the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Agency (VMRDA) deck building are being prepared for the commencement of zonal activities.
This sets the stage for the bifurcation of the South Central Railway (SCR) and all that remains is the Ministry’s notification. According to top railway sources, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was informed about this last month during a recent meeting with top officials of SCR and ScoR. The Chief Minister reviewed the status of ongoing projects and suggested new works where it was also decided that some of them would be allowed to use available government land immediately, even as steps were taken to expedite land acquisition.
Sources said the CCLA has been asked to instruct district collectors to hand over ownership of government lands coming up for project alignment. About 37 projects spanning 2,259 km at an estimated cost of ₹33,630 crore have been approved, which Mr. Naidu wanted to complete over the next three years.
He also called for prioritizing multi-track projects including the third and fourth lines of the Chargapur-Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam section. Railway officials informed that the final location survey and preparation of DPR (detailed project report) is underway for the proposed High Speed Rail Corridor (HSRC) connecting Hyderabad-Bengaluru (via Kurnol, Dhone, Ananthapur, Hindupur) and Hyderabad-Chennai (via Amaravati, Guntur, Ongole, Nellore, Turupathi). These are likely to be submitted to the Railway Board (RB) by March 2026.
The Chief Minister wanted the Hyderabad-Chennai HSRC corridor to be connected to the upcoming Amaravati International Airport. Similarly, the proposed Chennai-Bengaluru HSRC (DPR already submitted to RB) can be linked with Tirupati. The AP government will send a special request to the railways to enable this connectivity.
SCR/ScoR officials explained plans to set up two new mega rail bus terminals at Gannavaram (on the Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam line) and another is planned near the capital Amaravati. The existing measures in Vijayawada and Guntur will also be expanded along with them.
Five major stations – Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupathi, Nellore and Rajahmundry are among the 73 stations earmarked for development as the ‘Amrit Stations’ scheme at an approximate total cost of ₹3,414 crore. The new line projects that started being discussed were: Nadikude – Srikalhasthi, Kotipalli – Narsapur, Rayadurga – Tumumkur, Kadapa – Bengaluru, Sattuaplli Kovvur, Errupalem – Nambur and so on.
Published – 13 Nov 2025 23:35 IST
