Guntur railway division

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Guntur Railway Division
Shortened form of South Central Railway Zone of Indian Railways.jpg
Rail Vikas Bhavan, Guntur.jpg
Rail Vikas Bhavan (Divisional Railway Manager Office) at Pattabhipuram of Guntur
Reporting mark GNT
Locale Andhra Pradesh, India
Dates of operation 1 April 2003–
Predecessor Southern Railways
Track gauge Broad
Previous gauge Metre
Length 629.75 km (391.31 mi)
Headquarters Guntur
Website official website

Guntur Railway Division is one of the six divisions of the South Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. It was created in 1997 for better administration in the respective railway zone and became fully functional on 1 April 2003 with P.N Shukla as its first divisional manager.[1][2][3] The headquarters of the Guntur Division are located at Rail Vikas Bhavan, Pattabhipuram, Guntur. The current Divisional Railway Manager is Vijay Sharma, an officer of the IRSE cadre.[4]

History

Chelama Tunnel, Guntur Division
The remains of the old Dorabavi Viaduct, Bogada Guntur Division

The Krishna Canal-Nandyal (KCC-NDL) stretch was a part of the important East-West coast link that connected Margao in Goa to Masulipatnam in the erstwhile Madras Province of British India. It was originally built to Metre Gauge by the Southern Mahratta Railway (later the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway-MSMR) during 1889–90.[5] The track passed through the Nallamala Hills and as a result quite a few major engineering works were undertaken in the course of the railroad construction, the most impressive of them being the massive Dorabavi Viaduct[6] and the Bogada Tunnel, both of them about 30 km from Nandyal. This section was converted to Broad Gauge during 1993–95 under Indian Railways' Project Unigauge. The gauge conversion was a difficult task owing to the difficult terrain. The old alignment between Gazulapalli and Diguvametta was abandoned and a new Bogada tunnel, about 1.6 km in length and a new Dorabavi Viaduct located at a much lower altitude were constructed at a huge expense. The railway passes through the historic Cumbum Tank starting from Cumbum railway station for a distance of about 7 km. It is one of the most picturesque valleys in Guntur-Nandyal section of South Central Railway.[7]

The Guntur-Macherla (GNT-MCLA) section was opened in 1930 by the MSMR to serve the backward inner Telangana region. It too was originally metre gauge and was converted to Indian gauge in 1992–93.[8] This section was used for the transport of limestone, quartz &cement, primarily from Piduguralla, popularly known as the Lime City.[9]

The section from Guntur to the coastal town of Repalle was built to the broad gauge by the Madras and Southern Railway in 1916. This line connected to the East Coast main line at Tenali. The section from Tenali to Repalle was owned by Guntur District Board until 1964.

The foundation stone for the 152 km long Bibinagar-Nadikudi rail project that opened an alternative route to Secunderabad from Vijayawada and connected the interior of Telangana to Hyderabad was laid by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi on 7 April 1974. The project was finally finished in 1989 and the line commissioned a year later.[10] Two major bridges to span the Krishna River and Musi are located in this section. It is used by many south/east bound trains in a bid to decongest the heavily used Warangal-Vijayawada line.

Jurisdiction

The division is spread over the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and covers the districts of Nalgonda, Guntur, Kurnool and Prakasam.[3] Consisting entirely of Broad Gauge track, it was formed by merging the most far-flung and least productive stretches of Vijayawada, Secunderabad and Guntakal divisions of the South Central Railway. It has 72 major and minor stations spread over a total route length of 629 km.[11]

Sections and branch lines

Jurisdictional route map of Guntur Railway Division
Tenali-Repalle branch line at Tenali and the signboard displaying the start of Vijayawada and the end of Guntur division

The sections and branch lines route map breakup is as follows:

Section Distance
(in km)		 Double/Single line Traction
Guntur–Krishna Canal
(excluding Krishna Canal)		 25.36 Double Electric
Guntur – Nallapadu 5.00 Double Electric
Guntur–Tenali
(excluding Tenali)		 25.28 Single Electric
Nallapadu–Pagidipalli
(excluding Pagidipalli)		 238.86 Single Diesel
Nallapadu–Nandyal section 256.91 Single Diesel
Tenali–Repalle
(excluding Tenali)		 32.06 Single Diesel
Nadikudi–Macherla 35.01 Single Diesel
Vishnupuram – Janpahad 11.27 Single Diesel
Total 629.75 30.36 km of double line 55.64 km of electrified track

Source:[3]

Categorization of stations

Guntur_Junction_railway_station_in_2007
Nandyal Railway Station
Mangalagiri Railway Station

The list includes the stations under the jurisdiction of Guntur railway division and classified based on their respective category.

Category No. of stations Names of stations
A1 Category 0 —
A Category 1 Guntur Junction
B Category 2 Nandyal and Nalgonda
C Category 0 —
D Category
13
 Cumbum, Donakonda, Giddalur, Macherla, Markapur Road, Mangalagiri, Mirylaguda, Nadikudi, Narasaraopet, Piduguralla, Repalle, Sattenapalle, Vinukonda
E Category
42
F Category
13
 Angalakuduru, Gudimetta, Gudipudi, GURZ (station code), Krishnamsettypalle, Lingamguntla, Mamdapur, Mandapadu, Pedakakani Halt, Penumarru, Rentachintala, Vellalcheruvu Halt, Zampini
Non-operational
4
 Bommaipalle, JNPD (station code), Kondrapole Halt, Nandipalli
Total 75 —

Source:[3]

Performance and earnings

There are total 200 express, passenger and freight trains are operated everyday.[12] In 2003, the Freight earnings were ₹930 million (US$14 million).[13] A steady increase saw the figure reach Rs. 2.72 billion in 2007-08 before the ongoing worldwide recession brought it down to Rs. 2.37 billion in 2008-09.[14] There was a marginal increase in the number of passengers carried as well as the earnings therefrom. This has now risen substantially to Rs. 4.52 billion in 2013–14. The division's total expenditure in 2012–13 was to the tune of Rs. 2.2 billion, primarily owing to its track renewal and passenger amenities works. Its Performance Efficiency Index was therefore pegged at 49.56%.

Revenue
(in million rupees)		 2006-07 2007–08[14] 2009-10 2012–13 2013–14
Passenger 535.3 592.5 623.6 821.8 1027.5
Freight 1981.6 2049.1 2293.9 3724.2 3331.6
Sundry 70.3 125.6 131.5 163.9
Gross 2587.2 2725.1 3043.0 4677.6 4523.0
  • Gross includes passenger, freight, sundry and other coaching revenues
Services 2006-07 2007–08[14] 2009-10 2012–13 2013–14
No. of passengers
(millions)		 17.9 20.54 21.9 25.9 26.8
Volume of freight
(million tonnes)		 2.6 2.5 3.1 2.8

The division was awarded the Signal and Telecommunications Shield of Excellence at the 54th Railway Week Celebrations of the South Central Railway in April, 2009. The primary commodity transported by the division is cement besides quartz, coal and fertilizer. Other commodities include cotton, chillies, food grains, limestone, paddy, tobacco and timber waste.[12][14]

See also

References

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  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Ibid
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Rail Vani: April 2005, p.25
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

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External links

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