Railways goes easy on track doubling

Kochi: Track doubling works in two crucial sections of the Ernakulam-Kottayam-Kayamkulam stretch would miss the April 30 target by miles with no progress in land acquisition in the past several years.

While the doubling of the 12 km-Kuruppanthura-Piravom section was slated to be completed by March, that of the 27-km long Chingavanom-Thiruvalla was scheduled to be completed this month.

“Nearly 80 percent of the work has been completed in the Kuruppanthura-Piravom section. However, unexpected hurdles like getting permission from agencies like Kerala Water Authority (to shift a pipeline) has come in the way of construction activities in the other section. Now we aim to target to complete the works before the onset of monsoon in June,” said a senior officer.

The plan is to complete quickly the nine-km-long Chengannur-Thiruvalla and sanction the same so that the line capacity could be enhanced. For the last two years, no daily trains have been added in the division due to saturation of the line capacity.

Meanwhile, the major challenge before the new chief administrative officer Sudhakar Rao who had taken charge last week will be to resolve the issues connected with land acquisition.

“We’ve requested the state government to hasten acquisition of remaining 30 acres in the Kuruppanthara-Chingavanam section after Kanakari. The fund is not a problem for the doubling works in the Kottayam line as we‘ve got nearly '173 crore,” the officer said.