PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MEDIA CENTRE - KARAIKUDI

 

Total guage conversion in TN in three years : Velu

 

                                                                                 Karaikudi, February 5, 2006

 

The entire metre guage railway network in Tamilnadu will be converted to broad guage in three years, said Thiru R.Velu, Union Minister of State for Railways here today. He was addressing the Info Expo Empowerment campaign organised by the Press Information Bureau at Karaikudi.

 

            Thiru Velu said  the Rameswaram island will be linked with the rest of the country on broadguage during 2007-08 by modernising the world famous Pamban bridge across the sea at an estimated cost of Rs. 50 crores. In-principle approval has been obtained from the Planning Commission and the project is expected to be approved by the government shortly. By March next year, broad guage conversion work will be completed upto Karaikudi even as Pudukottai gets converted to broadguage in the next few months.

 

Thiru Velu said that he inspected the Trichi-Pudukottai section which is undergoing guage conversion and instructed the senior officers to expedite the project.

 

            Describing the Dindigul-Madurai line as a very high traffic link, Thiru Velu said the section would have a second track at a cost of  Rs.113 crore to improve the traffic flow.

 

     The  railways under the UPA government has generated a surplus of Rs.8000 crore through aggressive marketing  strategy without hiking  either the passenger or freight rates in the last two years, he said. The Public-Private partnership scheme wherein the private sector is encouraged to have their own railway lines, sidings and wagons has helped improve the  freight traffic during the current year by 17 percent to seven hundred million tones, he added.

 

            Explaining that the long-neglected  Tamilnadu is now getting its rightful due in railways, Thiru Velu said  the remaining 45 percent of the 4000 kilometre length of rail network in the state will be converted to broadguage before the completion of the five year term of the UPA government. Work is underway in about one thousand kilometers presently  he said . In the last twenty months,  twenty new trains have been introduced linking Tamilnadu, which itself is  a record, Thiru Velu pointed out.

 

 Tgn/bkvs/pms  

 

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