TIRUPATI: The renewed demand for a railway line between Tirupati and Chennai via Nagalapuram has turned 50 years old now! And it is official.

This project, once realised, will benefit the eastern half of Chittoor and the northern Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. While a survey was conducted for this project by the British before World War I, there was a long period of lull followed by another survey during the previous NDA regime with the intervention of the former Minister of State for Railways, Bandaru Dattatreya. But there has been no progress in this direction.

In fact, the first representation officially submitted to the Government is believed to be the one given on August 3, 1956, by the villagers of Sivagiri, then in the Uthukottai block of Chingleput district of Tamil Nadu, just across the border. The representation was submitted to Sri Prakasa, then Governor of Madras State, during his visit to the village to inaugurate the second village leadership camp.

Plea

In the representation, a copy of which is available with The Hindu , the villagers had requested the Governor that the formation of a railway line connecting Madras and Tirupati passing through their `firka' was urgent. They had also requested him to get a causeway built across Araniar river near Razanagarampet to provide a means of communication with nearby towns and also help in the marketing of agricultural produce. Senior citizens of Nagalapuram, who had been to Sivagiri then as youngsters, vividly recall their brush with the VVIP and his assurance to realise their dream.

To be laid afresh

According to the preliminary details of the survey, a railway track, falling totally under Southern Railway limits, will have to be laid afresh from Puttur (on Renigunta-Chennai route) via Nagalapuram and Uthukottai to join the trunk route at Gummidipoondi. The proposed line will aid in ferrying the agricultural produce to major destinations.. Even five decades after the plea was made personally to none lesser than the Governor of a State, the report is believed to be still in cold storage and awaiting concrete action by the railway authorities.

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