Hyderabad: As part of its project to build a High Speed Rail Corridor between Visakhapatnam and Shamshabad, the South Central Railway works is carrying out a preliminary engineering-cum-traffic (PET) survey and the survey has reached its final stage.

According to Arun Kumar Jain, General Manager, SCR, the survey will be completed by March. He said based on the findings of the survey report, a consultancy will be set up to carry out a Detailed Project Report (DPR) survey. The DPR survey team will take 6 to 8 months to submit its report.

The high-speed 220 kmph rail corridor will be developed with an estimated cost of Rs 20,000 crore. The construction costs will likely further go up in future as the construction work has not begun yet. The rail corridor will connect Shamshabad and Visakhapatnam via Vijayawada.

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During the PET survey, the officials have studied the selected routes and also felt the need for constructing new bridges and other structures for the rail network. Once the works on the high-speed rail corridor are completed, the travel time between Shamshabad and Visakhapatnam will be reduced from 12 hours to four and a half hours.

With the introduction of Vande Bharat train, the travel time between these two places has been brought down to 9 hours. Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam is a busy route as over 25,000 people commute daily while the number of passengers increases to 30,000 on weekends. The South Central Railway (SCR) is also working on a high speed rail corridor between Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada-Kurnool route.

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