Amaravati, Nov 24 (PTI): The Vijayawada-Chennai grand trunk railway line, the vital link connecting south India to the north and East, has been fully restored to normalcy after hundreds of workmen repaired the track, damaged in heavy floods last week between Nellore and Padugupadu, in a record time of 40 hours, an official said.

Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir Police Neutralise Three Terrorists in Srinagar.

About 1.8-km length of railway track was damaged near Padugupadu as irrigation tanks at Kovuru breached and inundated the grand trunk line.

Also Read | Mozilla To Reportedly End Support for Firefox Lockwise Password Manager Next Month.

Of this, 600 meters of railway track was severely damaged, with washout of ballast and embankment to a depth of 2.5 metres, leaving the track in a hanging position.

Following this, train traffic on this vital link was suspended and hundreds of trains were cancelled and diverted.

"Nine monsoon reserve stock rakes with thousands of cubic metres of boulders, sand, quarry dust, steel cribs and girders were moved from various stations across South Central Railway for use in the affected stretches," SCR Vijayawada Division Manager Shivendra Mohan said in a release here.

About 300 workmen, 25 officers and 50 supervisors had been engaged to work round the clock to repair and restore the affected stretch. Five track machines were also deployed to ensure track parameters, Mohan said.

"With this, train traffic on the all important Vijayawada-Chennai section -- connecting South India to the north and East -- has been restored to normal in a record time of 40 hours ," he said.

While the 'down' line (Chennai-Vijayawada) was restored around midnight on Sunday-Monday, the 'up' line (Vijayawada-Chennai) was restored late on Monday night, the DRM said.

"Restoration of these lines and resumption of services in Vijayawada Division has provided much-needed relief in the Railways network, particularly when operations were held up and badly disrupted in adjoining Guntakal Division and Southern Railway," Mohan pointed out.

He complimented the engineers, officials and workmen who accomplished the task in a record time.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)