Kothavalasa–Kirandul line belongs to Waltair railway division of East Coast Railway zone from 2003 till Feb 2019 . It was under

South Eastern Railway zone The South Eastern Railway (abbreviated SER) is one of the 19 railway zones in India and Part of Eastern Railways. It is headquartered at Garden Reach, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It comprises Adra railway division, Chakradharpur railway div ...

until 2003. Now some Part of KK line till Araku railway Station will be coming under

South Coast Railway zone South Coast Railway Zone (SCoR) has been announced as the newest railway zone of the Indian Railways and is headquartered at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The formal notification for operationalization of this Zone is yet to be issued. Jur ...

and East Coast Railway after Gorapur Station. It passes through three states –

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

and Chhattisgarh.

History

In 1960, Indian Railway took up three projects: the Kothavalasa–Araku–Koraput–Jeypore–Jagdalpur–Dantewara–Kirandaul line, the Jharsuguda–Sambalpur–Bargarh–Balangir–Titlagarh project and the Biramitrapur–Rourkela–Bimlagarh–Kiriburu project. All the three projects taken together were popularly known as the DBK Project or the Dandakaranya–Bolangir–Kiriburu project. The Kothavalasa–Kirandaul line was opened in 1966–67 under S E Railway with financial aid of Japan for transporting iron ore.

Geography

This line passes hill sections of

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

through

Araku Valley Araku Valley is a hill station in Alluri Sitharama Raju district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, lying 111 km west of Visakhapatnam city. This place is often referred to as ''Ooty of Andhra''. It is a valley in the Eastern Ghats inh ...

. The line has a total of 58 tunnels and 84 major bridges and each tunnel is as long as 520 metres.

Electrification

Electrification of the line was completed in four phases. Kirandul–Jagdalpur section was completed in 1980. Jagdalpur–Koraput section was completed in 1981. Koraput–Araku–Waltair section was completed in 1982. The Kothavalasa–Kirandul route was completely electrified by 1982.

Jurisdiction

The line has a length of ,out of which lies in

up to Gorapur which will be joining South Coast Railway, rest of the line will remain in the Rayagada division of

East Coast Railway The East Coast Railway (abbreviated ECoR) is one of the 19 railway zones of Indian Railways. It came into existence on 1 April 2003. The headquarters of the zone are at Bhubaneswar, Odisha History Consequent upon the parliament's approval, Ea ...

lies in

up to Khadapa, lies in Chhattisgarh up to Kirandul. The maximum route km being in Chhattisgarh and

with

taking 3rd position. The Kothavalasa–Kirandul section is classified as a Group E-special class line in which speed should be below 100 km/h.

Performance

This line is mainly used for freight purposes which is a huge profit benefitting Waltair Division. Nearly of profit comes through this line. Iron ore fro
Bailadila
are transported to Visakhapatnam through this line.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kothavalasa-Kirandul line Rail transport in Andhra Pradesh 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in India Railway lines opened in 1966 * Rail transport in Odisha Rail transport in Chhattisgarh 1966 establishments in India