Thiruvananthapuram-bound mail and express trains will not have to wait endlessly for signal to enter the central station with the commissioning of the Intermediate Block Section (IBS) at Pettah railway station this month.
The commissioning of the Rs.1-crore signal system will result in an ‘unscheduled halt' at the Pettah railway station initially for some mail, express, and passenger trains coming to Thiruvananthapuram Central, Nagercoil, and beyond.
With the commissioning of the IBS, the railway will be able to avoid stoppages of trains near the Upidamoodu bridge and Overbridge during the peak morning and evening hours.
The work of track circuiting of the Thiruvananthapuram-Pettah section, installing new signals, and other works at Pettah railway station were almost complete and the IBS would be commissioned in July, Divisional Railway Manager Rajeev Dutt Sharma told The Hindu .
With the commissioning of the IBS, the highly saturated Thiruvananthapuram-Kochuveli section will be divided into two block sections-Thiruvananthapuram-Pettah and Pettah-Kochuveli. As the existing block section gets split, the railway will not have to wait for a train to reach Kochuveli to commence another train from Thiruvananthapuram central. Once the train that proceeds from here leaves Pettah station, the railway can operate another train from the central station. The same is the case in the Kochuveli-Thiruvananthapuram section.
The IBS will double the train operations in the Thiruvananthapuram-Kochuveli section through the installation of an automatic signal. The railway will not need a station master for manning the arrangement. Similar facility is functioning at Chalakudy and Karukutti in the division. The congestion being faced now at Thiruvananthapuram central can also be reduced
Mr. Sharma said the division had sought permission to provide stoppages for four to five trains that reached Thiruvananthapuram central from various destinations in the morning and evening at Pettah railway station.
The decision to provide more stoppages to the incoming trains during the morning and evening peak hours will be a relief to commuters, especially office-goers and students, and for those proceeding to the Medical College Hospital, Regional Cancer Centre, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram International airport, and Technopark.
