Rs. 3,500-crore budget for Southern Railway.

The Ministry of Railways has allotted ₹3,593 crore for the Southern Railway for the financial year 2017-18 to undertake various railway development projects in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Last financial year, the total outlay was ₹2,750.06 crore.

A senior official of Southern Railway said that of the total of ₹3,593 crore, Tamil Nadu's share has increased by 39.79% at ₹2,287 crore (₹1,636 in 2016-17) and Kerala has been allotted ₹1,206 crore against ₹1,014.06 crore in 2016-17.

Projects involving electrification, doubling, construction of road over bridge (ROB) / road under bridge (RUB) / subways and passenger amenities form part of the budget outlay, the officer said.

He said electrification projects would be carried out on three routes including Villupuram to Tiruvarur through Cuddalore Port, Mayiladuthurai and Thanjavur, and Bengaluru to Omalur via Hosur.

The electrification project is to be carried out at a cost of ₹404.16 crore on these routes, the officer added.

An amount of ₹76.43 crore has been allotted for doubling of 11 kilometres from Salem to Omalur via Magnesite Junction and executing of a total of 28 ROBs/ RUBs/subways at a total cost of ₹382.39 crore of which Southern Railway’s share would be ₹205.76 crore.

ROBs and subways have been planned to be constructed on sections including Chennai-Arakkonam, Dindigul-Pollachi, Vridhachalam-Salem, Arakkonam-Jolarpet and Nagercoil-Tirunelveli.

Southern Railway has been allotted ₹38 crore for carrying out passenger amenity works. Last year the amount allocated was ₹33 crore.

THE HINDU