Title - Madurai Railway Junction sees major revamp

The last few years have brought a windfall for Madurai railway junction in terms of development.Besides a major makeover of the façade of the railway junction, additional concourse building, wider Platform one, better passenger facilities like the new waiting rooms have also come up. The shifting of parcel room to the northern end has provided more parking area for vehicles.Now, the railway authorities have taken up the long-pending work of yard-remodelling. The work underway will bring more than one advantage to the rail users and the authorities.

No more bottlenecks

First and foremost would be of easing out the bottleneck in railway tracks.A second track is being laid between the Madurai junction and the bridge over Vaigai making a seamless double track from Madurai to Dindigul, providing dedicated lines for up and down trains. Trains passing through Madurai junction can run through without any obstacle on Platforms one and two.

Besides, the defunct metre gauge lines would be replaced with broad gauge lines thus paving way for similar dedicated lines for the movement of goods trains. On completion of the work, no train would be stopped in the junction or at the home signal for want of path.

On many occasions the passengers frowned on seeing goods trains being operated on Platform one that delayed the arrival of their express trains.

“The punctuality is going to improve a lot as we will have far greater flexibility in handling trains in the junction. The trains, by not waiting for signal, can maintain higher speed,” Divisional Railway Manager A. K. Rastogi said. Besides, the yard remodelling work will pave way for taking up the electrification work in this small stretch. The work has been going on in a faster pace on the Madurai-Tirunelveli section. “Once the section is electrified, we can avoid the delay of trains due to change of traction. The trains now lose at least 20 minutes for changing engines, (diesel locomotives to electric engine and vice-versa) at Dindigul or Tiruchi railway stations,” he added.

Deputy Chief Engineer (Constructions) S. Manoharan, who is supervising the work, said that the entire yard would be improved for better and easier switchover of trains from one track to another.

This means Platform eight now being underutilised could be used in future for the trains that originates from Madurai towards the north (Dindigul) direction.

At present, it takes close to an hour for shunting the incoming Pandian Express from Platform one on the eastern side of the junction to the pit line on the western side. “This also has a cascading effect on operation of other passenger of goods trains. Same is the case with shunting of Vaigai Express to the pit line for maintenance,” an official said.

The additional cross-overs to be provided will allow the trains to easily move from one track to other among the 10 tracks without taking much time or effort. “From Platform eight, the trains can easily be moved into the pit line within five to 10 minutes,” he added.

The project will also help the railway authorities in setting out their breakdown vehicle during emergencies at the earliest. Now, the breakdown vehicle has been parked in a dead end, where it can be operated only on the Dindigul direction and not on the Virudhunagar direction. The 140-tonne crane and the medical relief vehicle are stabled elsewhere. Hence, the shunting of these three takes almost an hour.

However, a dedicated line would now be provided for the breakdown vehicle and medical relief vehicle, which will also allow them to move in both directions within 20 minutes.

Over and above, the length of the platforms would be extended further to accommodate additional coaches in trains, which means passengers would get additional accommodation in trains.

The DRM said that a separate line would be provided for tourist trains along with other required facilities such as bathrooms and toilets for tourists.