Railway have completed the electrification of the 65.12-km line between Shoranur and Nilambur. The inspection run along the section was carried out successfully on Saturday.
Railway officials said the project using 25 kv, 50 hz AC single-phase power was one of the major development achievements of the Palakkad Railway Division.
Southern Railway’s Principal Chief Electrical Engineer A. K. Siddhartha, Chief Project Director of Railway Electrification Sameer Dighe, Additional Divisional Railway Manager S. Jayakrishanan, Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer Sandeep Joseph, and several other senior officers were among the team that conducted the trial run.
Division officials said the Palakkad division achieved 100% electrification with the completion of the Nilambur sector. The project was implemented at a cost of ₹70 crore.
The project consists of a new traction substation at Melattur along with new three subsectioning and parallelling posts. Officials said the electrified section would satisfy sustainable development objectives by lowering emissions and having a smaller environmental effect than diesel traction.
This would pave the way for the further introduction of new trains and MEMU rakes to the section and reduce the time taken for the traction change at Shoranur for various trains to the Nilambur section.