CHENNAI: The Southern Railway has floated a nearly Rs 98-crore tender for final location survey (FLS), detailed field survey and design-related works for the proposed third railway line between Thiruvananthapuram and Nagercoil (TVC-NCJ).
The tender covers the 71 km TVC-NCJ section and includes soil investigation, LiDAR and drone surveys, traffic studies, land acquisition proposals, bridge and tunnel design work, and preparation of EPC-related documents.
The work on the third line is going on with the doubling work on the existing single-line corridor still underway. The SR has already earmarked around Rs 1,000 crore earlier for the Thiruvananthapuram–Kanniyakumari doubling project.
The TVC-NCJ route is heavily used by daily commuters travelling between Tamil Nadu and Kerala for work, education and business. The current doubling work and the future third-line expansion will improve line capacity, reduce congestion and help operate more passenger and express services on the corridor.
The tender document also includes provisions linked to future corridor expansion in certain stretches, including references to possible multi-line tunnel planning beyond the proposed third line.