The newly formed South Coast Railway (SCoR) has advanced Rs 544.79 billion (bn) of new line and multi?tracking projects in its first two months as it establishes a zone focused on safety, capacity augmentation and passenger services. General Manager Sandeep Mathur said at a press conference in Visakhapatnam that the zone, which became operational on June one, has prioritised safety and rapid project mobilisation. He said administrative and operational systems were set up from scratch to manage infrastructure and budgets.

SCoR is executing five new railway line projects and 24 multi?tracking works under the Rs 544.79 bn programme, while projects worth a further Rs 708.65 bn are in the pipeline. The zone has taken up construction of more than 300 road over bridges and road under bridges to improve safety and connectivity. Officials inspected nearly 1,700 route km and 3,000 track km during the initial period to assess needs.

The zone comprises four divisions and oversees seven loco sheds, three workshops, seven coaching depots, four freight depots and four major ports across 3,532 route km and 6,455 track km. Major sanctioned schemes include the Rs three bn Visakhapatnam yard remodelling with six additional lines and six new platforms, the Rs 12.05 bn Guntakal?Ballari quadrupling project and other yard remodelling and signalling upgrades. Rs 200 million (mn) has been allocated for crowd?management at Tirupati.

Passenger services include redevelopment of three Amrit Bharat stations and work at 70 more stations; the zone ran 76 special trains carrying nearly 86,000 passengers and attached 408 additional coaches. SCoR recorded Rs 6,710 mn in originating passenger revenue and handled 29.4 mn originating passengers, with total originating earnings of Rs 24.93 bn and passenger traffic growth of three per cent. The Railway Protection Force detected 28 NDPS cases and seized narcotics worth Rs 23.7 mn, action was taken against 5,152 offenders and senior officials were present for the rollout.