The project to build a fourth railway line between Chennai Beach and Egmore stations is in jeopardy as the Southern Railway is facing difficulties in acquiring the necessary land. This line is crucial to increase the frequency of long-distance and freight trains.
At present, there are three lines between Chennai Beach and Chennai Egmore. Of these, two are dedicated to suburban trains serving lakhs of commuters. The third track is utilised to run long-distance mail/express trains and freight trains and it functions as a single line. With the announcement of a third coaching terminal at Tambaram to meet the growing demand of passenger traffic, having a fourth line between Chennai Beach and Chennai Egmore becomes critical to improve train operations and to introduce more trains that are likely to originate from Tambaram terminal. There are already four lines between Egmore and Tambaram.
The Railway Board had sanctioned ₹279.8 crore after Southern Railway had highlighted the importance of this critical stretch and had fixed a deadline for completing the project by the end of this financial year. It had taken up an alignment study for the fourth line involving minimal acquisition of land. Of the total land identified, 250 square metres of land belongs to the RBI land and 2,875 square metres of land along the Cooum belongs to the State government.
Railway sources said land acquisition is getting delayed despite railway officials holding several rounds of discussions with the authorities concerned of the State government and the RBI. With the RBI refusing to part with 250 sq. metres of land, Southern Railway may be forced to keep single line on this short stretch to operate MRTS trains. With regard to the 2,875 sq. m. of land along the Cooum, the State government had agreed in principle to accept one-time payment instead of annual rent for the land but is yet to notify the revised Government Order (G.O.) altering the conditions laid down for land allotment.
Meanwhile, the Southern Railway, which is in the process of making the caution deposit for the land, took up construction of retaining wall along the Cooum to complete it ahead of northeast monsoon. But the officials of the Water Resources department stopped the work stating that the revised G.O. was yet to be issued. A senior official of the department said that they had only withheld permission for the work and not cancelled it. Once the conditions are fulfilled, permission would be granted for the work.
With the project encountering hurdles, residents and regular commuters of the city remain sanguine that an early solution to the problem may help in completion of the project as planned and make the train journey more convenient in the days to come.
(With inputs from K. Lakshmi)
