The old railway overbridge (ROB) at Nagampadam, which survived two back-to-back demolition attempts, will be dismantled on Saturday.
To enable the process, rail traffic along the Kottayam route will remain suspended for 24 hours starting Friday midnight.
While the long-haul services will be diverted through Alappuzha, 42 passenger and MEMU services will be cancelled during the period.
Besides the cancellations, trains including the Alappuzha-Kannur Express, Nilambur-Kochuveli Express, and Guruvayur-Punalur Passenger will be subjected to partial cancellation.
Nagercoil-Kottayam Passenger will be short-terminated at the Chingavanam railway station.
Train diversion
As many as 24 trains including the Thiruvanathapuram-Nizamuddin and Thrivananthapuram-Hyderbad Express will be diverted though Alappuzha.
According to officials, the diverted trains will be provided a five-minute stoppage at Ernakulam South, besides two minutes at Alappuzha and one minute at Cherthala and Haripad each.
New plan
The latest plan to take down the 60-year-old ROB was formulated in consultations with an expert team, which visited the location earlier this month.
As per it, the structure will be strengthened by fixing steel pipes underneath and cut into pieces using concrete cutters.
The back-to-back attempts by the authorities to implode the bridge on April 26 invited much public attention for its failure to bring down the structure.
A review by the railway authority later attributed the failure to circuitry issues.
New structure
The old ROB was replaced by a new structure last year as part of track-doubling work between Ettumanur and Chingavanam and the second phase expansion of Main Central Road.
After taking down the ROB, the authorities will also take apart the approach roads leading to it to enable the track-doubling works