Prompt handing over of land by the Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments holds the key to completing the doubling of tracks along the 69-km Ernakulam-Ambalappuzha and 86-km Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari railway corridors, says Rajendra Jingar, chief administrative officer of the Southern Railway.
Though the Railway Board had sanctioned both the projects, only doubling the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari tracks is under way as land was made available in most parts. Handing over of land to the Railways is yet to pick pace in the other corridor.
Having deposited the requisite funds with the State government to double tracks in the Ernakulam-Kumbalam-Thuravur-Ambalappuzha corridor, the Railways’ construction wing has readied all documents and is getting ready to award engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contract for the works. “We hope to get possession of requisite land from October. Tenders will be floated soon after land is handed over,” Mr. Jingar told The Hindu.
Aimed at completing the doubling works fast, the corridor has been divided into three stretches. Track-doubling in the Ernakulam-Kumbalam stretch is estimated to cost around ₹600 crore, while it is estimated at ₹800 crore for Kumbalam-Thuravur and ₹1,300 crore for the Thuravur-Ambalappuzha stretch.
In 2021, the Railways set 2024 as the deadline to double the corridor in order to complete the process of track-doubling in Kerala. At the same time, it insisted that the State government bear half the cost of 23-km Ernakulam-Thuravur doubling works citing high land acquisition cost. The long-overdue project regained hope in 2022 as the Railways decided to bear the entire expense. The 69-km Ernakulam-Ambalappuzha corridor is the sole single-track section in Kerala, barring the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari track-doubling in progress.
The Railways have already handed over the funds needed to compensate people who have surrendered land in the Thiruvananthapuram-Parassala-Kanyakumari corridor. The Kerala government has so far handed over land required for doubling tracks in the Thiruvananthapuram-Nemom stretch (which has been further divided into three reaches), following which one tender has been finalised and two others opened.
Based on this, efforts are under way to make operational the coaching-terminal at Nemom by December 2024 – the internal target fixed by the Railways’ construction wing. It may take a couple of months more if one were to take into account adverse conditions such as heavy monsoon showers. The work to dismantle buildings in the premises is in progress.
All paper works have been readied to float tenders beyond Nemom as soon as land is handed over to the Railways. The development of the halt station at Balaramapuram, which now has a sole track, as a connecting station having four tracks would be a key component of the track-doubling project. The Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. (KRCL) would construct a dedicated track from the station to the upcoming Vizhinjam Port premises the cost of which the port authorities would deposit with the Railways.
The geo-technical investigation and technical-feasibility reports for tunnels in the Nemom-Parassala stretch have been approved, and tenders will be called shortly. Track-doubling works in the Parassala–Kanyakumari stretch are already in an advanced stage, and the Nagercoil-Kanyakumari stretch will be commissioned this year.
