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The Railway Budget 2011-12 presented in the Lok Sabha on Friday has put two of the State's long-pending rail infrastructure projects back in the limelight.
The Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, stated in her Budget speech that ‘whatever problems' seemingly holding back the proposed Palakkad coach factory would be sorted out. The Railways is also interested in partnering with two State Government undertakings, Autocast and Steel Industrials Kerala, to set up a wagon unit at Cherthala.
BUSINESS PLAN
A business plan is being revised to bring it in line with the current needs of the Railways. The Minister also proposed to put up one more wagon unit under joint venture/public-private partnership model in the State.
Extension of Rail Yatri Sevaks with modern trolleys is proposed at six more stations, including Thiruvananthapuram.
The Capital City also been included in a scheme of partnership between the Railways and with the Ministry of Tourism under which costs will be shared for improving the ‘look' of 20 railway stations and its approaches. Proposals for laundries at Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram are under consideration as are two new coaching terminals at Nemam and Kottayam.
NEW TRAINS
As for new trains, a new bi-weekly a/c Duronto service will be introduced between Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.
To mark the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, four new trains called ‘Vivek Express' are being introduced.
One such weekly express train will run in the Dibrugarh-Thiruvananthapuram-Kanniyakumari route via Kokrajhar.
Among a new set of Rajya Rani Trains that will connect State Capitals with important cities/towns in those States is the daily Nilambur Road–Thiruvananthapuram Link Express. Special tourist trains called ‘Janam Bhoomi Gaurav' will be introduced to connect important historical and educational places, the Minister announced.
A number of other express trains have been announced. These are the weekly Bhavnagar-Kochuveli Express (weekly) via Panvel and Madgaon; the weekly Porbander-Kochuveli Express via Panvel and Madgaon; the weekly Bilaspur-Ernakulam Superfast; the weekly Ernakulam-Bangalore Express; and the daily Mangalore–Palakkad Intercity Express.
MEMU SERVICE
MEMU (mainline electrical multiple unit) services have been announced in the Ernakulam-Kollam (via Alappuzha) and Kollam-Nagercoil routes. Apart from these, the Nagercoil-Thiruvananthapuram Passenger (56318/56317) has been extended to Kochuveli.
The frequency of the Shoranur-Ernakulam Passenger ((56607/56608) has been increased from six days to daily.
LINE SURVEYS
New line surveys have been announced for Kannur–Mattannur; Tiruvalla-Ranny-Pampa; Kozhikode-Beypore; and Nanjangode-Nilambur Road stretches. Doubling surveys have been announced in the Podanur-Palakkad (third line) and Ernakulam-Shoranur (fourth line).
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