Budget 2020 and Railway Plans for Tamil Nadu

The Budget 2020 that was tabled by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week had in store a lot of important railway projects that will be beneficial to the people of Tamil Nadu. Here is a look at some of them:

Maniyachi Thoothukudi Kanyakumari Dual Railway Project.

The most important railway project in Tamil Nadu is the Madurai Maniyachi Thoothukudi and Maniyachi Kumari Dual Railway Project. The 260-kilometer-long corridor has been completed for nearly 24 km near Maniyachi today. The project, which was approved by the Modi government in 2015, was earmarked Rs 800 crore annually for the last two years. Rs. 712 crore has been allocated this year for it to get completed by 2022. When this project gets completed, there will be no railway crossing in the line between Kanyakumari to Jammu.

Resolving a crucial bottleneck

If one wants to travel from Tambaram to Bengaluru, he/she would have to board the train 30 km away at Chennai Central. Even though there is a track from Chennai Egmore to Perambur via Royapuram, it is a one way track as the two other tracks in the route are for suburban electric trains. Because of this, there are very less trains that run through the stations in the southern part of the city and go outside Tamil Nadu via Arakkonam. Similarly, trains coming from north India going to southern districts of Tamil Nadu are also less. To resolve this, 57 crores has been allotted for laying a fourth rail line between Chennai Egmore and Beach (4.3 kms).

Last Meter Gauge Track

Trains stopped plying the last meter gauge of Tamil Nadu between Madurai and Bodi in the year 2008. The erstwhile DMK-Congress government abandoned the project of conversion of this line into a broad gauge line. After the coming of Modi government in 2014, the project picked up pace and in January 2020 a trial run was conducted between Madurai and Usilampatti. To complete the remaining work between Usilampatti and Bodi, 175 crores has been allotted in this year's budget.