PALAKKAD: The Kollengode-Thrissur Railway line action committee has urged Railway authorities to begin the survey of the Kollengode-Thrissur line as Rs.1.35 crores was allotted for it in the last Railway budget.

Action committee co-ordinator T.K. Divakaran, in a memorandum to the Railway Minister, said the proposed survey was a resurvey conducted 60 years ago between 1942-47 by the then South Indian Railway Company. The survey stone marked SIR was still in existence, the memorandum said.

Pilgrim centres

The distance of the proposed line is 74 kilometres. The new line will be a boon to passengers as well as goods movement between Madurai and Kochi. It will give a boost to the movement of farm products from places like Anamalai, Nelliampathy, Vaniampara etc.

Goods from these places are now transported by paying exorbitant freight charges. The Cochin Port could also be connected by the proposed rail link.

It will provide easy access to pilgrim centres of Kerala and Tamil Nadu like Madurai, Pazhani, and Guruvayur. The memorandum said the existing metre gauge line between Pollachi and Palakkad was being converted into board gauge and it would be easy to take up the construction of the Kollengode-Thrissur railway line straight away as broad gauge.

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