In an indication that the long-pending East Coast Railway project that links Chennai, Mamallapuram, Puducherry and Cuddalore may be back on track, the government has initiated preliminary measures to freeze land necessary for the railway line.
As a step towards acquiring land, the Registration Department on July 18 issued an order restricting any transaction pertaining to certain localities in around 80 places.
The order issued by the Sub-registrar, Puducherry, stated that in response to the request made by the Transport Commissioner, the department had frozen transaction of properties in certain localities, including, Pillaiyarkuppam, Manapet, Outchimedu, Parikalpet, Kuruvinatham and Sederapet.
“This office refrains from registration and froze the land to be acquired for the project of Railway alignment purpose and for the purpose of laying down the 100 feet road between Puducherry and Cuddalore in the eastern side of the proposed double track line between Puducherry and Cuddalore,” the order said.
Talking to The Hindu , Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said the government had initiated steps to acquire the land at the earliest.
The territorial administration has agreed to the alignment from Marappalam in Tamil Nadu to Sederapet and from there to Puducherry. The station will come up near Olandai lake near 100 Feet Road, the Chief Minister said.
The government had rejected the alignment passing through Muthialpet and Mettupalyam areas as it would amount to displacement of several families. The government was of the view that the alignment should run through less populated areas so as to reduce the level of displacement, he added.
The Railway Board had included the proposed line, conceived almost a decade ago, in the supplementary budget of September 2007, and also sanctioned an initial sum of ₹25 crore to kick-start the project. In its final stage, the project envisages linking the line along the east coast up to Kanniyakumari.
The initial phase is focused on connecting Chennai with Cuddalore via Puducherry at an initially estimated cost of about ₹520 crore, though it could now cost much more.
The project, however, was put on on the backburner until hopes buoyed in 2013 when Southern Railway green-flagged the final location survey to identify land use and cost. The project was also partly stalled due to differences over alignment in the Puducherry-Cuddalore segment. The Puducherry government had favoured an alignment that passed near residential neighbourhoods, while the Railways came to the conclusion that such an alignment would raise the project cost.
The tentative alignment for the railway line between Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) and East Coast Road (ECR) is along Sholinganallur, Kovalam, Tiruporur, Mamallapuram, Kalpakkam, Kuvathur, Cheyyur, Marakanam, Kunimedu, Kuyilappalayam, Jipmer, Bahour, Varakalpattu and Tirupadipuliyur and terminate at the Cuddalore Port junction.
The options under consideration are whether the 180-km line branched off towards Puducherry from Perungudi MRTS station or Chengalpatu, which is on the freight corridor.
The east coast line could open up commute possibilities as the Chennai-Puducherry journey along this line is expected to be only about two hours — and even less for fast trains —as against the five hours it now takes in the Chennai Egmore-Villupuram - Puducherry route.
