Sagarmala Dev invests Rs 125 cr in Krishnapatnam Railway Co for rail corridor

Krishnapatnam Railway Company Ltd (KRCL) said Tuesday it has received an investment of Rs 125 crore from Sagarmala Development Company for the development of a rail corridor connecting Obulavaripalli and Krishnapatnam Port.

KRCL is a special purpose vehicle joint venture by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited for connecting 114 kms Obulavaripalli (Kadapa district) and Krishnapatnam (Nellore) in Andhra Pradesh at a total estimated project cost of Rs 1,850 crore.

"The initiative will connect Krishnapatnam Port on the east coast with the network of Indian Railways at Venkatachalam at one point and Obulavaripalli on the other," KRCL said in a statement.

A 21 km Section of the project line from Krishnapatnam to Venkatachalam is fully operation since July, 2009 in single line and was converted to double line since March 2014.

 

Commenting on the development Anil Yendluri, Managing Director, KRCL said, "This is an extremely exciting project for KRCL. The new rail corridor connecting Kadapa city with Krishnapatnam Port will help optimise costs, accelerate growth whilst enhancing the city's EXIM competitiveness. This would result in huge savings both in freight costs and time to help develop Kadapa into a discrete trading cluster through multi-modal logistics solutions"

The 114 km long rail corridor is expected to revolutionise the EXIM trade dynamics for the hinterland district of Kadapa the statement said. It is well poised to reduce transit time drastically by offering a direct entry into the port.

The shareholding pattern is KRCL is RVNL 30 per cent, Krishnapatnam Port Co Ltd, 30 per cent, NMDC Ltd 15 per cent, Government of Andhra Pradesh 13 per cent and BIL 12 per cent.

Under phase II from Obulavaripalle to Venkatachalam (94 Km) the progress of rail construction work is in in full swing, the statement said adding, track linking of the entire length has already been completed.

Sagarmala is an ambitious initiative by Government aimed at bringing about a stepping change in India's logistics sector performance, by unlocking the full potential of India's coastline and waterways.

The vision of Sagarmala is to reduce logistics cost for both domestic and EXIM cargo with optimised infrastructure investment. Sagarmala aspires to reduce logistics costs for EXIM and domestic cargo leading to overall cost savings of Rs 35,000 to 40,000 crore per annum.