The proposed five-track expansion projects in the Chennai Division of Southern Railway will pave the way for decongesting the suburban corridor in north Chennai and creating dedicated freight lines from Chengalpattu to Arakkonam and Jolarpet.
The Indian Railways recently announced the start of the final location survey for seven track expansion projects. In a circular issued on October 12, the Railways sanctioned ₹7.60 crore for the seven lines, including the doubling of the Arakkonam-Chengalpattu stretch (68 km), with a bypass between Palur and Paranur, and the commissioning of the third and fourth lines, up and down, from Arakkonam to Jolarpet (290 km), from Gummidipoondi to Sullurpetta (70 km), up and down from Sullurpetta to Gudur (110 km) and Korukkupet to Basin Bridge (five km).
Lack of tracks
Unlike the Chennai Beach-Tambaram-Chengalpattu and Moore Market Complex-Avadi, Tiruvallur and Arakkonam sections, the Beach-Gummidipoondi-Sullurpetta section suffers from inadequate suburban trains. This is because of the absence of multi-tracks for running dedicated suburban and freight services, officials say.
Moreover, as the Chengalpattu-Arakkonam and Beach-Gummidipoondi sections are freight corridors, the track expansion will boost the commercial freight traffic, the officials point out.
The Chengalpattu-Arakkonam expansion gains importance from the presence of the auto industrial belts of Oragadam, Sriperumbudur, and Thirumazhisai, and the huge residential and trading population in Kancheepuram, for creating economically viable suburban services to Chennai as well as Vellore.
B. Guganesan, Chief Public Relations Officer, Southern Railway, says the proposed expansion would mainly help the important projects of the Gummidipoondi-Sullurpetta-Gudur and Chengalpattu-Arakkonam sections.
The Gummidipoondi-Sullurpetta-Gudur route is part of the north-east lines from Chennai to Gudur and falls under the Delhi-Chennai and Howrah-Chennai Golden Quadrilateral of the high-density passenger and freight corridors.
With only two lines in operation, the section has to deal with suburban, mail/express and also freight traffic. In particular, the route between Tada and Gummidipoondi is dotted with several industries, private rail sidings and two major seaports, carrying around 10 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) of freight.
Freight traffic to go up
As freight traffic is likely to increase in view of the proposals for setting up three new sidings, which together are projected to add 5 MTPA to the traffic, the quadrupling of the section would help to segregate freight and passenger traffic, paving the way for increasing suburban services, officials said.
The Chengalpattu-Arakkonam line doubling will help to operate freight trains, thanks to the presence of the automobile hub at Walajabad and the goods shed at Kancheepuram, and to run suburban services from Chengalpattu to Thirumalpur through Kancheepuram, besides mail/express trains. Southern Railway has projected its line capacity utilisation to increase to 119% in 2025 from the present 105%.
Southern Railway hopes the doubling of this single-line corridor will help to expand the auto-loading terminal at Walajabad; create connectivity towards Jolarpet; operate freight trains towards the west coast and Bengaluru; introduce mail and express trains from the third terminal at Tambaram, bypassing the congested Beach; and increase the number of suburban services.
The Chennai Division could also operate frequent train services from both the Moore Market Complex and Beach stations with the quadrupling of the Korukkupet-Basin Bridge stretch. It is proposed to have this stretch as an elevated section, officials say.
J. Ranganathan, an office-bearer of the Chennai-Kanchi Rail Users Association, says a large number of office-goers depend on the cheap suburban train services to the city, but the services from Kancheepuram to Chennai Beach are inadequate.
Normally, a few services which are operated to Chengalpattu are extended to Thirumalpur through Kancheepuram on the single track.
The commuters in Kancheepuram have been demanding the track doubling and the project would help thousands of commuters, especially workers as far away as Tiruvallur, Arakkonam, and Tiruttani, to access direct services to Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu, he says.
Citing the heavy demand for suburban trains from Chengalpattu to Thirumalpur through Kancheepuram and the freight movement towards Arakkonam from Wallajabad, activist Pandiaraja says the single line has resulted in a lot of sufferings to the commuters residing on the outskirts of the city.
‘RVNL should execute the work’
Welcoming the proposal for the expansion, albeit after much delay, he wants the project to be handed over to Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), and not to the construction wing of Southern Railway, for speedy execution. He points out that the Madurai-Vanchimaniyachi-Thoothukudi doubling was executed by RVNL in a few years and the 90-km Villupuram-Chengalpattu gauge conversion took more than nine years, though it did not involve land acquisition.
T. Purushoth, a resident of Gummidipoondi, says the train services are inadequate in the direction of north Chennai. Despite being home to the largest number of poor people and an industrial area, the northern parts have been suffering for long from undependable suburban train and bus services, he says.
