Railways will complete the ongoing doubling of railway line via Kottayam by December 2021, via Alappuzha and from Thiruvananthapuram Central to Kanyakumari via Nagercoil by March 2024.
The revised targets were announced by John Thomas, General Manager, Southern Railway, at a virtual press meet from Chennai on Friday to brief the allocations made in the 2021-2022 Union Budget for the railway network of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Kerala has got ₹871-crore Budget grant, an increase by 134%, in 2021-2022. In 2020-2021, the State got ₹688 crore and ₹667 crore in 2019-2020. Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, got ₹2,972 crore, an increase by 238% in the 2021-2022 Budget.
The double railway line from Kayamkulam via Kottayam to Ernakulam will be commissioned with the opening of Kurrupanthura-Chingavanam corridor by December 2021, using the ₹170 crore provided in the Budget. The Ambalappuzha-Haripad double line will be opened for traffic in March 2021 with the ₹15 crore provided.
Steps will be taken soon to ‘defreeze’ the Ernakulam-Kumbalam, Kumbalam-Thuravur, and Thuravur-Ambalappuzha corridors, for which ₹10 crore each has been provided in the Budget, as the doubling works will be executed by Railways to enable commissioning of the doubling via Alappuzha by March 2024.
Funds promised
“Railway Board will provide funds for the doubling via Alappuzha and re-appropriation will be undertaken if it does not work out. Funds for doubling of lines to Kanyakumari will also be made available as the ₹275 crore allocated is not in the capital. Money will not be a problem as Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said funds would be provided from ₹44,000 crore available outside the Budget for need-based projects,” he said.
To a query, the General Manager said the Detailed Project Report (DPR) and the revised estimate of the proposed coaching terminal at Nemom was yet to be cleared by the Railway Board. It would come subsequently as the 86.56-km corridor from the State capital to Kanyakumari was being doubled.
With the allocation of ₹19.22 crore in the Budget, the electrification of the Kollam-Punalur line will be completed by March 2022 along with Dindigul-Palakkad (₹86.93-crore allocation) and Shoranur-Mangaluru-Panambur (₹4.12 crore).
Non-interlocked gates in the Thiruvananthapuram division will be eliminated by September 2021. Kerala will also get the Vistadome coaches after scenic locations are identified. Train Collision and Avoidance System that will bring to halt running trains automatically will be a big boost to safety. The ₹224.57-crore grant for passenger amenities such as soft upgrade of stations, foor overbridges, and raising of platforms was the highest ever allocation.
