The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : More facilities at Kochuveli soon

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Friday, May 02, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

More facilities at Kochuveli soon

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

Rs.29-crore project to handle more trains

Facilities to be created without acquiring land
Work to be completed within a year

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Railways have initiated steps to handle 10 to 15 Mail and Express trains at Kochuveli within a year by setting up facilities at a cost of Rs.29 crore.

Discussions in this regard were held at the divisional headquarters at Thycaud here on Wednesday by Divisional Railway Manager Titus P. Koshy with the Chief Operations Manager, Southern Railway, Abraham Jacob, who arrived here on a day’s visit.

The initiative comes in the wake of the announcement of new trains from Kochuveli to Amritsar and Dehradun in the Railway Budget 2008-2009. Besides, the frequency of the biweekly Garib Rath Super Fast Express to Lokmanya Tilak had been increased.

As Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station is saturated and is handling trains two-and-a-half times more than the sanctioned capacity, Kochuveli is being developed as a satellite terminal. But, delay in acquiring land is hampering Railways from creating facilities for starting more services from Kochuveli.

Minimum facilities

A top railway official told The Hindu that it has been decided to create the minimum facilities at a cost of Rs.29 crore at Kochuveli to receive and despatch 10-15 trains without acquiring land.

As part of the project, Railways will set up an island platform (to receive trains on both sides), two more pit lines and a sick line.

With this, the number of platforms in Kochuveli will go up to three. Already, a pit line and two platforms have been set up in Kochuveli.

According to the official, Railways will be able to handle nine originating trains from Kochuveli once the minimum infrastructure is created.

Platform turn-round facilities of another three to five long distance trains can also be handled at Kochuveli.

“The tender process has commenced and the aim is to complete the work by May next year. We will need another Rs.3 crore for setting up two foot over-bridges at Kochuveli,” he said.

The new trains sanctioned in the budget will have to commence before March next. “In that case, the maintenance of the rakes will have to be taken care of in Amritsar or Dehradun,” he added.

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