RAILWAY GAUGE CONVERSION IN TAMILNADU

GAUGE CONVERSION PROJECTS OF TAMIL NADU

The following is the list of gauge conversion projects pending in TamilNadu:

Let us travel from North to South:

1) Tambaram – Villupuram (150 kms)

This stretch is now being converted in patches – Melmaruvathur to Mundiampakkam, Pakkam to Tindivanam, etc. This Gauge Conversion will help to double the stretch between Chennai Egmore and Villupuram.

This will help to speed up most of the day trains like Vaigai, Pallavan, Cholan, Guruvayoor, Kanyakumari-Howrah , Sethu, Nagercoil-Mumbai and Chendur Expresses.

2) Thiruvarur – Karaikudi (150 kms)

This stretch will cover Thiruthuraipoondi, Pattukkottai, Muthupettai, Adhirampattinam, Arantangi and Karaikudi spanning Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagappattinam,Pudukottai and Sivagangai districts.

Mr.Karunanidhi – UPA influencer and former CM hails from Thiruvarur and Mr.P.Chidambaram – UPA Home Minister hails from Karaikudi. Its an irony that this line has been taken up as a last project by Railways.

Completion may drag on due to loose soil condition, insufficient fund allocation and passive politicians.

3) Thiruthuraipoondi – Agasthiampalli - Kodiakkarai (50 kms)

Now a train bus is operated in this route. Southern railways tried to pull down this route to facilitate private bus operators, but Indian Army stepped in to save this important link to aid logistics.

4)Thiruchi – Thanjavur (50 kms)

The erstwhile metre gauge line is lying idle. If converted to BG, this route will have a double track and passenger trains can be operated frequently between the two towns. But will the private bus lobby allow this to happen?

5)Manamadurai – Virudhunagar (80 kms):

This project is dragging for more than 3 years. Aruppukkottai town is out of railway map for many years. If converted, this will serve as an alternate route to the heavily congested Tiruchi-Madurai – Virudhunagar route.

Goods and few express trains can be diverted via Tiruchy-Karaikudi-Manamadurai – Virudhunagar.

6)Madurai – Bodi (90 kms)

This picturesque line was having only a pair of passenger trains – that too on weekdays. Non-availability of rolling stock of metre gauge parts forced railways to close this line. While dismantling of lines is done at break-neck speed, the actual conversion – that is laying of new lines will take many years.

7) Madurai – Coimbatore: (200 kms)

This crucial link between two major towns is lying idle for the past 5 years. Gauge conversion between Madurai and Dindugal will result in doubling of the congested line, and help in faster transhipment. The new line between Dindugal – Palani-Pollachi-Coimbatore will help in introduction of new express trains between these emerging cities of south and west TamilNadu.

Kara Kara Vandi Kamatchi vandi........Kilakke poegudhu Pollachi Vandi – danced Radhika in Kilakke poegum rail movie in 1978. Goddess Kamatchi alone can say when this train will be re-introduced.

8) Palakkad – Pollachi: (50 kms)

This line is left unattended because, the line originates in Kerala, but travels mainly inside Tamil Nadu. The Ottapallam – Palakkad – Trichur line inside Kerala is a double line and is well connected to rest of India. Only the TamilNadu portion is left unattended for the past 5 years (and maybe another 5 years).

9)Thirunelveli – Thenkasi (60 kms):

This line passing through Ambasamudram, is lying idle for around 5 years and no progress is made in conversion. If converted express trains can be operated between Tiruchendur-Tirunelveli-Kollam (Kerala).

10) Sengottai – Punalur (100 kms):

Now its time to salute the great Britsh Raj. This critical line which travels through huge gorges and hills of Western ghats travels through deep pits, tunnels and high rise bridges in the Ariyankavu Pass. Indian railways is struggling to complete this line citing rough terrain.....they even proposed to bypass the hills and circumvent it and travel 60 kms extra.

Now, we understand the skills and sincerity of the British Raj. Pamban Bridge, Kollidam Bridge, Nilgiris Mountain Railway, Ariyankavu Pass Railways are all due to hard work of the Britsh Raj. While the Kollam-Punalur line was completed in a year as it runs on a plain terrain , the difficult and tiresome Punalur-Sengottai stretch is awaiting further technical clearance. Let us wait and watch. Does anyone remember Bhagavathipuram Railway Gate movie of 1980s? This station is located on this beautiful yet neglected stretch.

11) Mettupalayam – Udhagamandalam (70 kms):

HA...HA..HA. At last, we got "Heritage Status" for this narrow gauge line. Otherwise, we CANNOT convert it into broad gauge. This is a rack & pinion arrangement track and a unique way of pushing the engine rather than pulling it.

This engineering marvel can never be equalled by our mediocre railways' team. So let's try to use steam engines imported from Europe, try to maintain them and continue to run the toy trains. The Indian Railways have done a marvellous add-on to this engineering wonder -THEY HAVE WRITTEN THE TRAIN NAME "NILAGIRI PASSENGER" IN HINDI. What a wonderful technological addition by the Indian Railways!!!!

Of the 2800 kms railway lines in TN, 980 kms that is 1/3 rd of the lines are metre gauge or pending gauge conversion. Other southern states like Karanatka, AP and Kerala have converted to Broad Gauge very long ago – thanks to initiatives by influential politicians like M/s.Narasimha Rao, Deva Gowde, Jaffer Sherif , K.R.Narayan and E.Ahmed.

But unfortunetely politicians from Tamil Nadu don't care much about our projects. Once they turn a minister they say "India is my priority" and lose sight of Tamil Nadu and even their own constituency. Look at the way Mr.T.R.Balu and Mr.S.S.Palanimanickam fight over projects for Thanjavur district – no, they fight among themselves and not for the district.

Such is the sad state of affairs. Our politicians have asked us to 'DREAM' but not to 'PERFORM'. That is the reason TN is lagging behind in rail connectivity and new projects.

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TN POWER CRISIS - A SOLUTION

 TN POWER CRISIS – A SOLUTION

"Sattam Oru Tamilnadu" states a Facebook comment – which in the current (no pun intented) context means "Sattam Oru Iruttarai – a dark room". I also come across cartoons and hot discussions on leading weekly magazines,  on the sorry state of the 'current affairs' in Tamil Nadu.

Is the government alone responsible for this shortage of 4000 MW? What is the responsibility of the people? This leading magazine which criticizes the government – also runs 5 or 6 Tamil TV Channels which consume enormous power during peak hours.

Why can't the private channels transmit only from 12 noon to 6 pm and keep away from the peak demand period of 6 ~ 10 pm. Presently, 1 crore television sets and another 1 crore free television sets are available in Tamil Nadu. These 2 crore television sets consune about 2000 MW of power during peak hour.

With free Televison available, now most of the households have 2 televisions – one at the drawing room in which tear-jerkers and illicit-affair serials rule roost, and another TV set where the kids watch a poorly dubbed cartoon show or an 'all-day' cricket match. While this '2 TV startegy' is sucking out power from the grid, it also splits the family from being together.

Also, the Indian government runs 70 television stations in Tamil Nadu , nearly 15 of them being High Power transmitters (HPTs) which consume around 300 MW of power. In order to aid private channels, the government channels – DD National & DD News mercilessly transmit Hindi programmes all day through. Only in this country will you find this irony – In Chennai city, 2 nos. of 300KW transmitters transmit DD National & DD News (Hindi programmes on Channel 4 & Channel 6 respectively) , and 1 no. of a 50KW transmitter transmits DD Podhigai (Tamil programmes on Channel 8).

Tamil programmes are transmitted at low power so that it does not reach beyond Tambaram. Content-wise, DD Podhigai has removed all entertainment programmes – you get only Carnatic music, Devotional music, Light songs and Sports quiz which does not excit the common man.. But still the state televison does not want to take a chance of some villagers in a remote place watching its programmes - and hence keeps its transmission range absymally low.

Public-private partnership (!!!) has ruined Indian Television - and despite consuming 300KW of power , less than 5% of TN people watch DD Podhigai. All the Hindi transmissions from morning 5 am to 3 pm  go with zero viewership on DD National, and the entire 18 hours of Hindi / English news transmission of DD News (most of them repeat telecasts) is also at zero viewership. What a waste of public money and energy!

The TN government must swing into action -

1)      Ban private television channels' transmission from 6 ~ 10 pm. Only DD Podhigai can operate terrestrially during this time. Let us go back to Kanmanipoonga, Vayalum Vaazhvum and Oliyum Oliyum. This will also result in revenues for the cash-strapped Doordarshan.

2)      Make the 2^nd TV set taxable. With set-top boxes, you can trace if the house has a 2^nd TV and let them pay 30% increased electrical tariff. Remove subsidized gas cylinders and ration items for families with 2 TV sets.

3)      Limit the number of TV channels to not more than 10 in any given language. The Indian governmrnt provides tax rebates to TV channels if they have more than 1 channel in the same name ( like Son TV, Son Music, etc). Oh! What a concern by the government on the poor TV channel owners.

            When China - with  a 130 crore population can thrive on 12 channels, why does the 7 crore      population in TN needs 50 channels. Here, a channel which starts single – like a Lion TV             and then goes in multiples like - Pig Music, Pig Movies, Pig News, Pig Comedy, Pig           Cartoons, etc ...........so many channels to get spoilt from.

These measures will definitely result in saving 1000MW power during peak hour – which can be used for the power-starved grid.

Recently, TN Chief Minister has launched many projects of automotive and electronics manufacturing hubs worth Rs.20,000 crore. More employment, more purchasing power, more gadgets and obviously more power consumption by the people. Not only by the people, who work and earn in these organizations but also by these industries who require un-restricted  power supply.

We need power to

-        light the streets to make them accident free

-        irrigate the paddy fields in villages

-        light the homes, so that kids can study well

-        run fans so that people can sleep peacefully

Till then, we may have to forego the luxury of a "100 channel Television" which is also an intrusion into our family activities. We grew up hearing Thenkinnam , Isai Malar & Vannachudar in Vividbharati or listening to Thenaruvi , Kudumba Viruppam & Iravin Madiyil in Ilangai Vaanoli – playing , eating and chatting together with family and friends. A radio consumes lesser power and does not require unhindered attention like television.

Let us go back 30 years – till the power scenario is set right. There is no use in blaming the government when everybody wants to lead a life of luxury and never willing to give up additional pleasures.

The next time when Sakatan comes up with a funny cartoon of the CM holding a candle – let them retrospect their TV channels which churns out entertainment one after another – earning Rs.50,000 per 10 second slot. Let us do our bit to save energy than pointing fingers at others.

When in dark, its better to light a candle than crying foul.