Thrissur: "Southern Railway is considering the electrification of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari railway line," Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu has said.

Estimated at Rs. 38 crore

Addressing a meeting to commission coach guidance and security surveillance systems and lay the foundation for an additional entrance at the Thrissur railway station on Thursday, Mr. Velu said the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari electrification project was estimated to cost Rs. 38 crore.

"Once the project is completed, we will have an electrified route from Kanyakumari to New Delhi," Mr. Velu said. He refuted the allegation that Kerala was given a raw deal in the railway budget.

"There are three new trains for Kerala - a new daily train from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram, a tri-weekly train from Chennai to Mangalore and a weekend special train from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram. The Ernakulam-Bangalore Superfast Express will be a tri-weekly service,'' he said. The annual grant for Kerala has increased this year from Rs. 243 crore to Rs. 291 crore. "The allocation for doubling railway lines has increased from Rs. 48 crore to Rs. 61 crore. The doubling of Ernakulam-Mulanthuruthy and Kayamkulam-Mavelikara railway lines will be completed this year. The doubling of the 22-km Kozhikode-Mangalore stretch is nearly over. Work on 218 km has been completed. Work on the doubling of Cheppad-Kayamkulam, Mavelikara-Chengannur and Cheppad-Haripad railway lines has begun. A sum of Rs. 5 crore has been sanctioned for the doubling of the Chengannur-Chingavanam railway line. Surveys will be done for Idappally-Guruvayur and Sabarimala-Chengannur railway lines. Work on electrifying the Ernakulam-Thiruvananthapuram railway line will be completed by October. This will reduce journey time and increase the freight capacity of the services,'' he said.

He said the persistent demand of MPs was to have most of the long-distance trains stop at most stations in Kerala. "This makes it difficult to introduce more super-fast trains for the benefit of Kerala.'' The Minister said Southern Railway was incurring losses because of less revenue from freight transport.

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