The passenger train between Virudhunagar and Karaikudi was flagged off by local MP Manicka Tagore (Congress) here on Saturday.
The service had been suspended between Manamadurai and Virudhunagar in view of gauge conversion work.
The service began in this section seven weeks after the dedication of the new BG line. It took five years for the railway authorities to connect the missing BG link between Manamadurai and Virudhunagar after spending a whopping Rs.178 crore. Though the BG track was laid on the fourth platform in Virudhunagar Junction, the passenger train is being operated in the first platform now in the absence of a foot overbridge. The foot overbridge is available only up to the third platform.
When this was brought to the attention of Commissioner of Railway Safety Sathish Kumar Mittal when he came here on June 21 to give final clearance for fitness of the track, top officials accompanying him asserted that the foot overbridge would be constructed within a couple of months. But no work started in this regard.
