Title - Punalur-Sengottai gauge conversion on track

Railways are making efforts to complete gauge conversion of the 49.2-km Punalur-Sengottai section by 2014-end, said H. Anantharaman, Deputy Chief Engineer (Projects), Madurai division.He told The Hindu that 80 per cent of the broad gauge work would be completed by March 2014. Formations on the seven-km Sengottai- Bhagawatheepuram and the nine- km Punalur-Edaman reaches had been completed and these sections would be commissioned in April and June this year.“The remaining 33.2 km has to be laid through a difficult ghat terrain comprising arch-bridges and tunnels constructed more than 110 years ago. The gradient is such that for a horizontal distance of 50 metres, the track to be laid gets vertically raised by one metre. Though the projects wing has not given any deadline to the Railway Board for completing the Bhagawatheepuram-Kazhuthurutty and the Kazhuthurutty- Edaman reaches, the works are progressing and will be completed by the end of next year,” Mr. Anantharaman said.The Punalur-Sengottai section is part of the 325-km Kollam- Sengottai-Tenkasi- Tirunelveli- Thiruchendur gauge conversion project and part of the Tenkasi- Virudhunagar trunk route to Chennai. The gauge conversion of the Sengottai- Thiruchendur section has been completed and is open to traffic.Between the Bhagawatheepuram and Aryankavu stations, there are five tunnels through granite which have to be widened to accommodate broad gauge traffic.

This work is expected to be completed by September this year. One of the tunnels is 900-metre-long and widening work on 500 metres has been completed.

The road over-bridge across the tracks at Aryankavu will be demolished and work on a new bridge will begin next month.

It will be completed before this year’s Sabarimla pilgrimage season, Mr. Anantharaman said.

The bridge is on the Kollam-Thirumangalam national highway which is used by Sabarimala pilgrims from Tamil Nadu. There are seven stations, Ottakkal, Thenmala, Kazhuthurutti Halt, Edapalayam, Aryankavu, Bhagawatheepuram and Edaman, between Sengottai and Punalur.

Sources said the gauge conversion project required Rs.75 crore this year to carry forward the work to meet the December 2014 deadline.

There were concerns that the works would be hit as the allocation this year was only Rs.30 crore.

“But the expectation is that allocations will be made in view of the commuter and commercial importance of the route,” the sources said. Already Rs.50 crore had been spent on gauge conversion.

Services on the Punalur-Kollam metre gauge section were withdrawn on May 1, 2007, to facilitate the gauge conversion work.

Broad gauge services on the section were inaugurated on May 12, 2010, by the then Union Minister of State for Railways E. Ahamed.

To facilitate the gauge conversion work on the Punalur-Sengottai section, train services on the section were withdrawn in September 2010.