Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Rs. 278-crore for Katpadi-Villupuram gauge conversion

By Our Staff Reporter

JOLARPET Dec.21. A sum of Rs.278 crores would be allotted for gauge conversion between Katpadi and Villupuram. The survey, taken up in this connection at a cost of Rs. 1 crore, had been completed, A.K. Moorthy, the Minister of State for Railways, today said.

Talking to newspersons here, Mr. Moorthy said as part of the project, conversion of the Katpadi-Vellore section would be taken up first. This would enable operation of direct trains between Vellore and Chennai. This was decided after pre-budget discussions on the schemes to be undertaken in Tamil Nadu.

On the construction of road overbridges across Tamil Nadu, he said the cost had to be borne by the Centre and Tamil Nadu Government on a 50:50 basis. Out of the 141 road overbridges, for which the railways undertook a survey, the State Government has sanctioned funds for 33. The railways had requested the State Government to approve 50 more road overbridges.

Mr. Moorthy said a sum of Rs.70 lakhs had been allotted for modernisation and expansion of the Jolarpet railway station. Out of the 800 computerised passenger reservation centres approved across the country, 119 were to be built by the Southern Railway and 81 would be in Tamil Nadu.

He said steps would be taken to convert the weekly Chennai-Nagercoil Nellai Express via Katpadi into a daily in the next financial year.

N.T. Shanmugam, the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, said a subway could be constructed at Koranthangal and Chitheri stations on the Katpadi-Arakkonam section with the help of funds from the local panchayats, the MLAs constituency development fund and the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.

K.K. Pande, additional general manager, Southern Railway, D. Venugopal, Tirupattur MP, and N. Jayaram, divisional railway manager, Chennai, also spoke.

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