Southern Railway to focus on safety, track renewals and doubling of lines

CHENNAI: Southern Railway will focus more on safety, track renewals and doubling of lines to run more trains without delays as there is an increase in the funds allocated for these work in the budget 2022-23.
Southern Railway general manager AK Agarwal said Rs 2,400 crore has been allocated for safety-related work which is the highest in the last three years, Rs 1,400cr for track renewal which has been lagging behind and Rs 1,445.85 crore for doubling of which a larger share will be spent for doubling of Madurai-Maniyachi-Tuticorin (Rs 300cr) and Maniyachi-Nagercoil (Rs 425 crore) and Beach-Egmore fourth line (Rs 54.2cr).
The zone will also get Rs 346.80 crore for gauge conversion, which is an increase of 94% compared to last year.
Funds allocated for gauge conversion include Trichy-Nagore-Karaikal with extension of Velankanni-Thiruthuraipoondi (Rs 121.80 crore), Madurai-Bodinayakanur (Rs 125crore), Cuddalore-Salem-Vridhachalam (Rs 15 crore), Mayiladuthurai-Tiruvarur-Karaikudi and Tiruturaipundi-Agasthyamalai (Rs 75 cr) and Kollam-Tirunelveli-Tiruchendur and Tenkasi-Virudhunagar (Rs 10 crore).
The zone will also receive Rs 327.77 crore, an increase by 45.9% than last year, and Rs 244 crore for foot overbridges and replacement of platforms.
He said that the zone got a total allocation of Rs 3865 crore this year as against the 2,972 crore for projects in Tamil Nadu. This includes Rs.303.42 crores for electrification.
Work is going on for 25 new line/gauge conversion projects costing Rs 28,307 crore over 3,077 km in the state.