Hyderabad, Jan 29 (IANS): The South Central Railway has completed the Vikarabad-Parli Vaijnath electrification project, which covers Telangana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.

The final stretch of the project between Latur Road-Parli Vaijnath, a distance of 63.75 km, has been commissioned, marking the completion of the entire project.

With this, the entire section of 268 km, covering around 90 km in Telangana, 62 km in Karnataka, and 116 km in Maharashtra states now stands electrified.

Vikarabad-Parli Vaijnath electrification project was sanctioned in 2018-19 at an estimated cost of Rs 244 crore.

The stretch between Vikarabad-Kohir Deccan (a distance of 45 km) was commissioned in March 2021 and the stretch between Kohir Deccan-Khanapur (60.5 kms was completed in January 2022. Later, a 98.75 km stretch between Khanapur-Latur Road was electrified in October 2022. Now, the last stretch of the project has been completed.

The SCR said the trains in the entire section can now be operated with electric traction on end to end basis. This is one of the important sections handling trains between southern part of India and towards Aurangabad, Shirdi and Pune among others.

To achieve "Mission Electrification", the electrification of the railway lines is being done on a war footing basis to complete 100 per cent electrification of the SCR network. Electrification of railway lines will pave the way for environment friendly means of transportation by replacing diesel traction with electric traction. It also helps in seamless movement of freight and passenger traffic, besides reducing the enroute detentions. The fuel expenditure will be drastically reduced by reducing diesel consumption.

SCR General Manager Arun Kumar Jain complimented the officials of the electrical wing of both headquarters and Secunderabad Division for completing the entire Vikarabad- Parli electrification project within the stipulated time.