Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

Egmore-Beach gauge conversion before Jan. 31

By S. Vydhianathan

CHENNAI DEC. 5. With heavy mobilisation of men and materials for the ongoing gauge conversion between Chennai Egmore and Beach, the Southern Railway administration is confident of completing the work without any hitch before January 31, the General Manager, V. Anand, said.

Expressing his regret to the commuters for the inconvenience, he assured them that it was only a temporary phenomenon, which had become necessary to improve the EMU services on the section. Once the work was over, there would be more number of services, he told presspersons here today.

Mr. Anand said that after December 31 itself, after the completion of work up to Park, the number of BG EMU services between Tambaram and Park would be increased, as there would be three BG lines then. Cut services from St.Thomas Mount, which were suspended now, would be revived. The remaining stretch would be completed by January 31.

In the second phase, one of the two MG lines between Tambaram and Chengalpattu would be taken up for conversion, which would be completed by March 2004, the General Manager said.

Simultaneously, preliminary work for gauge conversion between Tambaram and Egmore would be carried out. As a last resort, traffic between Tambaram and Egmore would be suspended for replacing the track. Meanwhile, all levelcrossings on the section would be replaced either by a road overbridge or an under-bridge.

Mr. Anand said the entire suburban gauge conversion was planned to be completed by March 2005. After that, there would be two BG lines from Chengalpattu to Tambaram, four lines from there to Egmore and three between Egmore and Beach. The lone MG line from Tambaram would be retained to operate metre gauge main line services.

He said the entire suburban traffic would undergo a spectacular change after the completion of the project, as there would be dedicated tracks for suburban services without any levelcrossing in between.

The total cost of the project is Rs. 520 crores with the State Government providing 50 per cent of the cost. It included addition of one more BG line from Tambaram to Egmore (already commissioned), conversion of one MG line from Tambaram to Chengalpattu and two suburban lines (MG) from Tambaram to Egmore, provision of an EMU car shed at Tambaram and replacement of 12 levelcrossings with RoB/ RuBs on the section.

About Rs. 70 crores has been set apart from the project fund for the purchase of additional rolling stock.

Trains cancelled

Meanwhile, the Railway in a release said due to gauge conversion work, the following BG EMU services are cancelled till January 30/31:

S - 75 Beach - Tambaram local leaving Beach at 11.35 p.m and S-76 Tambaram - Beach local leaving Beach at 11.20 p.m.

Ticket-checking drive

A team of railway officials conducted a ticket-checking drive from December 3 to 5 when EMU and all mail/express trains passing through Villivakkam, Guduvancheri and Gummudipundi to Sulurpetta were checked. A total of 1,622 cases were detected and a fine of about Rs. 1.16 lakhs was realised, according to an official release.

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