The Hindu Business Line : Chennai MRTS service extension likely by June

IT is `possible' to start the Thirumailai-Velachery MRTS (mass rapid transport system) service with basic facilities at stations by June 2003, Southern Railway sources said.

Reacting to the Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar's announcement today that Thirumailai to Velachery link in the Chennai Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) is likely to be completed by June 2003, sources said that work in the stretch was going on in full swing. "Though it would not be possible to start operations in full swing before June, we can start limited operations with basic infrastructure," sources said.

Further, with `ballast-less tracks' (normal tracks have ballast on either side while in the MRTS the track is laid in between concrete structure) there would not be much time delay, he said.

Incidentally, the Southern Railway General Manager, Mr V. Anand, in June 2002 told newspersons that with the then pace of work, the service in the link would commence by December last year. However, there was no sign of this happening even as testing of the track in some section was going on, sources added.

The phase II of MRTS has been taken up to Velachery at a cost of Rs 689.01 crore for a total length of 11.165 km (23.318 km on surface and 7.848 km are elevated structures).

When completed, the project would offer viable commuter solution to residents of Chennai. The Tamil Nadu Government in association with Railways have carried out detailed survey for the next phase of MRTS from Velachery to St. Thomas Mount costing Rs 378 crore and the same was under scrutiny.

The Minister also announced a slew of initiatives for the Southern Railway zone including a direct link between Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore. This link would benefit commuters as well as long distance passengers and would relieve them of the need to find alternate modes of transport between the two stations, the Minister announced.

Further, the gauge conversion of Chennai Beach to Egmore was commissioned recently, and work in the Tambaram-Chingleput section is likely to completed by March 2004. During the year, the gauge conversion of Vadalur-Vriddhachalam would also be taken up.

The Minister said that as against 791 km of gauge conversion set for the current year, nearly 900 km of gauge conversion is likely to be achieved. This includes the Katpadi-Pakala-Tirupati section.

During 2003-04 a target of 775 km for gauge conversion has been fixed across the country. Of this, the Southern Railway will have a substantial portion including 38 km Villupuram-Pondicherry at a cost of about Rs 45 crore; Rajapalayam-Tenkasi Rs 577.61 crore; Kollam-Tiruchendur and Virudunagar-Tenkasi project.

Further, there would be progress in the Vadalur-Cuddalore section of the Rs 198.68 crore Salem-Cuddalore project, and also the Thanjavur-Kumbakonam of the Rs 223 crore Thanjavur-Villupuram gauge conversion project.

Out of the 200 km doubling of lines likely to be completed this year, the Ambaturai-Kodaikanal and Chennai Beach-Korukkupet projects would be in the Southern Railway.

Among the additional express trains proposed in the South include a daily service between Chennai Egmore and Erode via Tiruchi, a daily service between Salem and Bangalore via Yeshwantpur, a weekly between Chennai and Dehra Dun and Chandigarh, via New Delhi and Saharanpur, a weekly between Chennai and Vasco via Hubli, and a weekly Chennai-Bangalore, a tri-weekly service between Bangalore and Nizamuddin via Secunderabad.

The Minister also announced the extension of the Hyderabad-Ernakulam Sabari Express to Thiruvananthapuram on three days a week, Ernakulam-Kozhikode Express to Kannur, and Alleppey-Bokaro Express to Dhanbad. The Chennai Egmore-Villupuram passenger would be extended to Pondicherry after gauge conversion.

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