₹749 crore rail line reaches the tender stage

South Central Railway has invited bids for a ₹749.29-crore EPC package covering 31.78 km of the Manoharabad–Kothapalli broad-gauge line in Telangana. The stretch runs between proposed Sircilla, Vemulawada and Kothapalli stations, under the railway’s Hyderabad Division.

Bid submission began on September 8, 2026, and is scheduled to close on November 18. The tender reference is EPC-13-CAO-C-SC-2026. A tender listing gives the proposed construction period as 30 months after award, but that period could not be independently checked against the official notice.

The important small print is that this is still a tender. No contractor, award, construction start, commissioning date or passenger-service plan has been confirmed in the material reviewed. The ₹749 crore line has reached the stage where bids can be submitted, which is progress. It is not yet a railway line.

The wider 151-km project was sanctioned with Telangana responsible for providing land free of cost and sharing one-third of construction costs, according to a Ministry of Railways answer in Parliament. The answer said 76 km had been completed and work had moved to the Siddipet–Kothapalli section. The remaining timetable, like the trains themselves, is still to arrive.