A fresh initiative is on to make the coaching terminal proposed on 12.14 hectares of land owned by Railways adjacent to Nemom railway stationa reality.
Instead of the original plan to have 10 pit lines to take care of the maintenance of 30 trains, 12 stabling lines, sick lines, and quarters for Railways personnel at Nemom, Railways have decided to have five stabling lines in the first phase.
“It will be the first phase of the coaching terminal. The proposal estimated to cost ₹67 crore has been submitted to Southern Railway. It will be forwarded to the Railway Board for inclusion in the Works Programme 2018-19,” Divisional Railway Manager, Thiruvanantha-puram, Prakash Butani told
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The divisional railway authorities’ aim is to link it with the ₹1552.94 crore doubling and electrification of the 86.56-km Thiruvanantha-puram Central-Kanyakumari railway line approved by the Union Cabinet recently.
The focus at Nemom is on stabling lines as they can be used to shift the parked rakes from the Central station at Thampanooor and use them for train operations.
A dedicated line is needed from the Central station to the proposed stabling lines at Nemom and efforts were on to lay it along with the forthcoming doubling works, he said.
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The coaching terminal had been mooted taking into account the lack of platforms to handle the trains at the Central station and the satellite terminal at Kochuveli.
The premier station of the State is handling two-and-a-half times its sanctioned capacity and the Thiruvananthapuram-Kochuveli line has become choked. One of the reasons for Railways going in for the truncated version is the likely hurdles over land acquisition and mobilisation of funds, the DRM said.
As the land available (12.14 ha) with Railways is in the shape of a triangle, another 28.33 ha needs to be acquired for the original coaching terminal project modelled on the lines of the Basin Bridge Coaching Depot in Chennai.