Rs.1,600 cr. sought for Railway projects

CHENNAI: Southern Railway has sought Rs.1,600 crore for the current year for early completion of various ongoing projects in the State. In the interim budget presented in Parliament in February this year, the Ministry had sanctioned Rs.700 crore. In the last financial year, the State spent about Rs.1,200 crore on various projects.

A senior Southern Railway official told The Hindu that the zone had demanded another Rs.900 crore if sufficient progress was to be achieved in the current year.

In the last financial year, the zone had converted 485 km length of metre gauge line into broad gauge, laid additional broad gauge lines for 175 km, including 10 km of new lines.

The major pending projects in Tamil Nadu are, laying of new lines between Karur and Salem, Tindivanam and Tiruvannamalai, Erode and Palani, and Attipattu and Puttur; gauge conversion from Tirunelveli to Tenkasi, Manamadurai to Virudhunagar, Dindigul to Podanur via Pollachi, Madurai to Bodinayakanur, and Punalur to Senkottai; Ennore-Attipattu, Chennai Beach – Attipattu (4th line), Tiruvallur-Arakkonam (4th line), and Chengalpattu –Villupuram (doubling).

The official said in the current financial year, it was planned to complete the Salem-Namakkal portion (50 km) of the Salem-Karur new line project (85 km). For this the zone required Rs.150 crore for purchase of track materials. But, the amount sanctioned in the interim budget was meagre. The zone had written to the Ministry to sanction additional funds.

Though the Ministry had sanctioned a double line between Tambaram and Chengalpattu, the Zone had asked it to declare the section as an extension of the Chennai Beach –Tambaram suburban section so as to have dedicated lines for EMU operation.

Similarly, it wanted to extend the Chennai Central–Athipet suburban section up to Gummidipundi in view of the increasing number of suburban commuters to Chennai from Gummidipundi. The official said that the Madurai-Dindigul doubling project had been completed.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety would inspect the second line from Kodaikanal Road to Madurai on July 6 and 7. The Kodai Road–Dindigul portion of the project was over and the section had been thrown open for traffic. The completion of the project would ease congestion on the section. The current utilisation was more than 160 per cent, he added.