Southern Railway has got a better deal in the Railway Budget, bagging 17 new express trains and a few major projects for new lines and line surveys.
But railwaymen are upset at the lack of emphasis on upgrading zonal-level train care and maintenance facilities that are key to safety.
The budget, which seeks to partially offset the hands-off approach to passenger fares through marginal increases on an array of ticketing surcharges, has also listed only a few major doubling works — Tirupati-Katpadi, Chennai Central-Basin Bridge doubling of the fifth and sixth lines and Shoranur-Mangalore third line — even as the doubling of the Chengalpattu-Tiruchi section has been dragging on for over three years owing to bottlenecks in land acquisition. Gauge conversion of the Pollachi-Podanur and Madurai-Bodi sections has also been tardy for the same reasons.
In the current budget, gauge conversion has been proposed for the Pollachi-Kinattukkadavu stretch of the Pollachi-Podanur section; the Sengottai-Bhagavathipuram section and the Edamann-Punalur section.
The new lines are Thanjavur-Pattukottai, Karaikal-Peralam, Cumbum-Prodattur and Sriperumbudur-Guduvanchery with spur to Irungattukotti-Avadi. New line surveys are for sections including Aloor-Nagarcoil-Chettikulam, Karaikkudi-Dindigul, Thanjavur-Ariyalur, Morappur-Dharmapuri and Kanniyur-Pottikulam.
However, barely a handful of new passenger trains — Palani-Tiruchendur, Punalur-Kollam, Shoranur-Kozhikode and Thrissur-Guruvayur — have been introduced, while no new DEMU has been allotted. The sole new MEMU sanctioned is the Chennai-Tirupati service.
There has been extension of 10 trains and an increase in the frequency of six services. The extensions involve the Chennai-Madurai portion of the Chennai-Guruvayur Express to Tuticorin; the Chennai-Tiruchchirappalli Express to Karaikudi; the Mangalore-Tiruchchirappalli Express to Puducherry; the Bangalore-Nagore Passenger to Karaikal; the Karaikudi-Manamadurai DEMU to Virudhanagar and the Madurai-Dindigul Passenger to Palani.
Keywords: Southern Railway, Railway budget 2013-14, passenger fares, Pawan Kuman Bansal, railway budget, railway budget reactions
It has been found that generally the mainline of the southern railway is getting a step-motherly treatment compared to chord line. I hope this will be corrected.
What happened to Pondicherry-Tindivanam-Gingee-T.V.Malai-Chengam-Jolarpettai new line? We the people of this belt being ignored in every budget, since we do not have strong powerful leaders to represent us.
Dear Sir :- I do not understand your headlines. The matter of the fact is that Tamilians living in Mumbai still have to depend on three trains to Chennai which are running for years covering the distance by 24 hours, 28 hours and 36 hours respectively. The distance can be easily covered in 18 hours and no express trains have never been introduced in this section and is ignored for obvious reasons. The Railway budget all these years has been pro North Indians oriented,even when we had south indian as Railway Minister. Can any one please heed this request and introduce this profitable routes which is patronised by lakhs of people travelling to Tirumala and willing to visit Tamil Nadu in a shorter time. The Railway board may be please look into this.... and do a ommen service so far deprived people of Tamilian living in Mumbai..
Govt has not cared for doubling the rly line of chennai -nagercoil.There is no mention regards the activity of shencottah -punalur line convertions which is very benefitial for tamilnadu.
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