Chennai Beach - Egmore fourth line to be thrown open to public use by March end!!
The traffic congestion on the existing lines and freeing up of space at the Chennai Central railway station would soon become reality.
The news that has come out is that the newly constructed Chennai Beach- Egmore fourth line would be thrown open to public use by the March end or by the first week of April.
It is now said that the Chennais express train network on the Chennai Beach - Gudur section is just a step away from decongestion and augmentation of frequency of express and suburban train services.
On Sunday, 9th March, the newly laid fourth line between Chennai Beach and Egmore stations was put to trial. It is known that the Chennai Beach to Egmore has been the bottleneck on the Chennai. The Chennai Central railway station has been heavily congested due to the express train and freight movements etc.
The statutory inspection of the newly laid broad gauge electrified line between Chennai Beach and Egmore was carried out by Mr. AM. Chowdhary, Commissioner of Railway Safety or CRS, Southern Circle, Bengaluru. In the morning the CRS officials inspected the railway tracts and signalling systems etc using a trolley and high speed trial at 90kmph using an electric locomotive in the afternoon. This was brought out by some officials belonging to the Southern Railways or SR.
Point is that once the inspection was completed, then rectification would be carried out if necessary as per the recommendations from the CRS and final clearance would be issued.
According to an official it was confirmed that unless the safety commissioner identifies any critical findings (as happened in the case of the newly constructed Pamban bridge), the Chennai Beach- Egmore fourth line will be opened for the public by the end of March or in the first week of April.
Dedicated line for freight and mail express trains on the section:
It is now mentioned that once commissioned then the fourth line would provide a dedicated line for freight as well as mail/express trains on the section. By this, the traffic congestion would be eased on the existing lines.
It is noteworthy that Rs 270 cr work has been delayed because of some issues in the land acquisition otherwise the works should have been completed in 2024 itself. The works began in August 2023 is known.
