There is finally some good news for people commuting regularly on Chennai-Arakkonam rail route.
The 10.6-km long 4th line between Tiruvalangadu and Arakkonam is not far from being opened for traffic.
The Commissioner of Rail Safety, southern circle, Bengaluru, on Friday conducted a high-speed trial on a special train on the newly laid 4th line.
Senior officials of Southern Railway said the inspection was convincing and the CRS was satisfied with Friday’s high-speed trial.
Adding that the CRS had not raised many serious queries during the trial, officials’ exuded confidence and said they were expecting the CRS to formally certify the route fit for passenger traffic shortly.
Even if passenger traffic does not start on the 4th line immediately, at least goods trains would be operated with immediate effect, offering much-needed room for flexibility in handling rail traffic on the route, officials reasoned.
Once the 4th (express) line is opened for regular traffic, Chennai-Arakkonam would have two fast lanes and a like number of EMU lanes.
Despite maintaining that it was premature to comment on the increasing in frequency and number of services following the opening of the 4th line for regular traffic, SR officials said that the traffic scenario on the route would improve further once the 18km stretch Tiruvalangadu-Tiruvallur stretch, for which works are progressing well, of the 4th line is complete.
The on-going works between Tiruvalangadu and Tiruvallur would get over in a year, officials pointed out.