The Hindu Business Line : Railways to expedite Coimbatore projects

The lack of maintenance facilities at Coimbatore has been hampering introduction of new trains and with the shifting of excise and Concor offices, infrastructure to attend to maintenance works will be created.

Coimbatore , May 31

The Union Minister of State for Railways, Mr R. Velu, on Wednesday promised to study the request for providing a stop at Coimbatore for the newly introduced super fast express train between Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

The Railways is also considering a proposal to run link coaches from here to Palakkad to be attached to the Palakkad-Thiruvananthapuram-Palakkad Amrita express to provide direct overnight train facility to Thiruvananthapuram from the textile city.

Speaking to presspersons after inspecting the on-going works, at the Coimbatore railway station, the Minister said the Railways would provideabout 1,900 sq ft of land to IRCTC for the construction of a budget hotel close to the station. The cost estimates for the project would worked out by IRCTC.

He said the construction of a coach sick line shed adjacent to the Coimbatore railway station was nearing completion. Being built at a cost of about Rs 3.87 crore, this would help in attending to both electrical and mechanical faults.

He said the lack of maintenance facilities at Coimbatore has been hampering the introduction of new trains and with the shifting of excise and Concor offices from the railway premises, infrastructure to attend to maintenance works will be created.

Facelift for junction

He said the Coimbatore railway junction was also being given a facelift at a cost of about Rs 50 lakh.

Mr Velu said work on the completion of the railway over bridges at Ondipudur and on the Valankulam bye pass had been delayed due to the escalation in material costs.

According to the revised schedule, the works would be completed by October this year. Both works would cost about Rs 13 crore.

About the delay in the completion of the 17.7 km track doubling work between Coimbatore and Irugur stations that has been causing frequent train stoppages for want of signal, the Minister said the main reason for the delay was differences over who should bear the cost of four-laning of the railway over bridge on Coimbatore-Sathyamangalam road in Ganapathy area within the city. The issues relating to other rail over bridge on Coimbatore-Avanashi road has been sorted out and work on it would commence soon.

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