Doubling work comes on track

Putting an end to the decade-long apathy of the Railways to its passengers in the Ernakulam-Kottayam stretch, the officials have decided to undertake the doubling between the Ernakulam Town Station and the Marshalling Yard by January.

According to the Railways, all paper works and plans have almost been finalised and the doubling work will be set in motion by January.

Dani Thomas, Chief Administrative Officer of  Railways, Ernakulam, said the work would be completed within a month after its inception. “Hopefully by February, the work will be completed. With the final sanction from  the Railway safety officer, the track will be commissioned,” he said.

This project which was proposed nearly 10 years ago, never saw the light of the day because of the technical and alignment issues related to the setting up of the tracks in the one-and-a-half kilometre stretch.

“Since this area is very sensitive, it involves connectivity between the Ernakulam Junction Station, the Ernakulam Town Station and the Marshalling yard Cabin C. We needed to construct a definite plan so that once the laying of the railway tracks starts, it would cause minimal disruption in the rail traffic in the adjoining stations,” Dani Thomas said.

Meanwhile, in the initial days when the sketch of the plan was made, a slight mistake had cropped up. Dani Thomas admitted that once the work starts, the public would have to face slight difficulties for nearly a month. “But we are doing our best to bring the nuisance to the minimum,” he said.

The doubling, which is part of the Ernakulam-Mulanthuruthy stretch, will ease the woes of passengers who use passenger trains to shuttle between Kottayam and Ernakulam. “Usually, the passenger trains arriving from Kottayam have to be detained for nearly 15-20 minutes to clear the traffic at Ernakulam Town station. Now, the delay won’t be there and smooth flow of traffic will be possible,” said K Jayakumar, construction engineer Ernakulam.

Currently, at least 50 trains commute between Kottayam and Ernakulam on a daily basis.