Trichy–Dindigul doubling to be completed by December 15

Train travel between Chennai - Madurai will go down by a considerable one hour once track doubling work on the stretch is completed by the end of 2016, Southern Railway general manager Ashok Kumar Agarwal said on Tuesday. 

Agarwal, who was on a visit to the Trichy railway division, said that at present work on the Trichy - Dindigul stretch is taking place, which would be completed by the end of this year. "We can save 30 minutes of running time once doubling of the 94 km stretch between Dindigul and Trichy is completed," he said. Agarwal further added that doubling work between Vriddhachalam and Thiruvennainallur is in the last stages of completion and is awaiting safety audit. 

Doubling work on the 62km Madurai - Dindigul section was completed in 2009 and since then traffic has been smooth on this stretch. However, lack of doubling beyond the stretch slowed down train movement on the Madurai - Trichy section. The doubling work between Dindigul and Manaparai would be completed in July and the rest by year-end, he said. 

Additional divisional railway manager of Madurai division, R V B Babu said on Tuesday that without doubling, trains had to be operated on a single line using crossings and precedence (priority to trains) causing delay. "Once the doubling is in place, precedence will be only for criteria of train operation and the issue of crossings that delay trains will be eliminated," he explained. 

Zonal Rail User Consultative Committee Member (ZRUCC) and president of Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, N Jegadeesan said that doubling work should have been completed by March this year itself. "The railways is carrying out doubling works at various places on the section intending to link everything by the end of next fiscal. We are confident that Madurai - Chennai doubling will become a reality and Dindigul - Trichy is going to be the beginning of it," he said. 

"Once doubling is in place, travel time between Madurai and Chennai will come down to seven hours and more trains could be operated," he said. 

Recently, Madurai divisional railway manager, Sunil Kumar Garg too had expressed optimism about the completion of doubling work on this stretch by the end of this year or early next year.