Changanassery-Thiruvalla double track to be opened today

Kochi: The commissioning of the much-awaited Changanassery-Thiruvalla double line will be done on Tuesday, enabling trains to save upto 10 minutes in running time. “With this, doubling will be completed in 97 of the total 115-km long Ernakulam-Kottayam-Kayamkulam section. Now the main hurdle will be 8-km long Kuruppanthara-Ettumanur section where we are still facing land acquisition issues. Now the target date for completion of work in Kuruppanthara-Ettumanur is by March, 2018 while another 11-km section Chingavanam-Changanasseri will be ready in three months,” a senior railway administrative officer said. For the last two years, no daily trains were added in the division due to saturation of line capacity.

Regulation of rail traffic will be effected on Tuesday in connection with the commissioning of the double track section, expected to take place at 3 pm. Bangalore-Kanyakumari Express (T No 16526), Kannur-Thiruvananthapuram Janshatabdi (T No 12081), Thiruvananthapuram-Hyderabad Sabari (T No 17229), Kanyakumari-Mumbai (T No 16382) and New Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram Kerala (T No 12626& T No 12625) will be diverted through Alappuzha. Kollam-Kottayam passenger (T No 56394/ 56393), Kollam-Kottayam-Ernakulam MEMU services (T No 66307/ 66308& T No 66300/66301), Kollam-Ernakulam MEMU via Alapuzha (T No 66302/66303) and Ernakulam-Alapuzha-Kayamkulam passenger (T No 56381/56382) will be cancelled.