Title - Line doubling work to Kottayam picks pace

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An important railway infrastructure project, which has been delayed for the past several decades, has been witnessing a slow but steady progress in the Thiruvananthapuram Division-the doubling of Kayamkulam-Kottayam line.

Over the past one year, railways has completed the track work of the second line up to Chengannur and commissioned soon.

Already sleepers and ballast have been laid along the entire stretch from Kayamkulam to Chengannur.

Talking to TOI a senior official of the constructions department, Thiruvananthapuram said the work is now progressing steadily after the state government set up a special purpose committee to speed up the land acquisition process.

"The last decade saw the work moving a snail's pace and railways blamed the state government's incompetence to hand over the land. However, the monitoring body has succeeded in handing over land steadily and this in turn has advanced the doubling task. This factor helped the completion of Haripad- Kayamkulam line recently. We are hoping that government would take effort to hand over the rest of land from Kayamkulam and Ernakulam," he said.

The official added land must be acquired in Kottayam, Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kottayam to complete the doubling project.

While 34.5 hectares of land has to be acquired and handed over in Kottayam, 1.2 hectares of land is needed in Pathanamthitta.

"Construction department has started work in various stretches undertaking landfilling and construction of bridges. At present, we are using more than 100% of track capacity and to deal with this huge congestion, we need a double line by 2015. Consider the three hour journey from Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram, a passenger has to wait an extra hour due to heavy traffic," the senior official added.