RailEnquiry

Irked over the inordinate delay in the execution of Palani-Erode (via Dharapuram and Kangayam in Tirupur district) new railway line project, the members of Erode-Dharapuram-Palani Railway Extension Citizens Committee have resolved to field candidates in the coming Lok Sabha elections.The decision was taken following a series of meetings held by the forum over the past few days.“It is a collective decision of the people in the sector, who will be the beneficiaries of the said rail project, to field candidates in the Lok Sabha seats in Tirupur, Erode and Dindigul districts in order to express our dissatisfaction over the apathy shown by the Railways to the project since allocating first instalment of financial allocation for the project in 2005,” Lingam Chinnasamy, general secretary of Erode-Dharapuram Railway Extension Citizens Committee, told The Hindu.The forum members had made various representations to the Railways in the last five years to expedite the execution.Mr. Chinnasamy pointed out that the plan for laying railway tracks through the sector was initially conceptualised way back in 1915 under a project aimed at providing railway connectivity between Palani and Samraj Nagar in Karnataka.“Due to some reasons, the project did not take off and the plans were then drawn in 1952 to lay new railway line between either Palani and Erode (via Dharapuram and Kangayam) or Palani and Tirupur.