Kerala   

Rs.1,000 crore to upgrade central railway station

KASARAGOD: The Ministry of Railways has approved a Rs.1,000-crore project to upgrade Thiruvananthapuram central railway station into a terminal of international standards.

This was announced by Southern Railway general manager Rakesh Chopra at the Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee meeting held in Chennai on Friday in reply to a question raised by P. Karunakaran, MP. Mr. Karunakaran told The Hindu that the Railways planned to implement the project on public-private participation basis. Apart from Thiruvanamthapuram, Chennai is the other station in South India selected by the railways to be developed as a terminal of international standards.

Mr. Karunakaran said Mr. Chopra had informed him that the preliminary work for the project had been completed and the Railways was working out the facilities to be introduced at the terminal as a part of the project.

He said the project was expected to be completed within 6-7 years in a phased manner. The consultancy for the project would be finalised soon.

Mr. Karunakaran said a modern building complex with state-of-the-art facilities and fully computerised would be built at Thiruvanamthapuram Central as part of the project. He said the Railways had selected nine stations in Thiruvanamthapuram railway division and six stations in Palakkad division to be developed as model railway stations.

Mr. Karunakaran said Railway officials had assured the committee that the electrification of the 328-km. Mangalore-Shornur railway line would be completed in 2008-09. The project was estimated to cost Rs.323 crore. The construction of a bridge on the route across the Netravathi river was expected to be completed in May 2009, he said.

Mr. Karunakaran said Mr. Chopra had informed him that the survey of Thalassery-Mysore-Nilambur-Nanjankode railway line had been completed and the final report had been submitted to the Railway Board. The survey work of Kanhangad-Panathoor-Kaniyoor rail line would be completed by March 2009, he added.

Mr. Karunakaran said Mr. Chopra had told him that the Railways would consider running a tourist train from Kanyakumari to Goa once the recommendation of Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation was received.

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