Title - Southern Railway GM comes calling to check ongoing works at station

Southern Railway General Manager Rakesh Misra on Friday visited the Puducherry Railway station along with Divisional Railway Manager Manjula Rangarajan and other officials.

Misra reviewed construction of the fourth platform and the two road overbridges planned on the National Highway- 43 on 100-feet-road and at Arumparthapuram, besides other amenities.

While ruling out the construction of a new railway station for Puducherry, Misra said that with the decrease in funding from the allocated Rs 1,003 crore to Rs 550 crore, the works were moving at a slow pace. New trains from Puducherry to Kanyakumari, extension of Mangalore-Tiruchy Express to Puducherry and  a new train from Puducherry to Tirupati that was announced earlier would be introduced shortly, he said.

Manjula Rangarajan held discussions with the Chief Secretary and other officials of the Puducherry government regarding the projects.The tenders for constructing a road over bridge on100-feet-road have been floated.

However, the Puducherry government will have to contribute its share for the approach roads. A proposal for this has been moved to the Ministry of Urban Development for availing funds to the tune of Rs 40 crore under JNNURM, official sources said. 

For the road overbridge at Arumparthapuram, a similar proposal has been sent to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for a funding of Rs 24 crore for construction of approach roads.