TamilNadu

Kovai-Bengaluru night train from September: Minister

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu laid the foundation stone for various passenger amenities worth more than Rs 7 crore at stations in Coimbatore and Tirupur, on Sunday. Dedicated freight corridor for the South, night train service between Coimbatore and Bengaluru and ambitious speed train service between Chennai and Bengaluru are some of the projects on cards.
Union Minister Suresh Prabhu dedicating various projects at the Coimbatore Junction
Union Minister Suresh Prabhu dedicating various projects at the Coimbatore Junction
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Coimbatore

Stating that the Centre is determined to make Tamil Nadu a fully developed State, the minister  said collaborative efforts of the Government of Tamil Nadu have attracted capital investment of Rs 2,300 crore from 2014-15 till now. It is a 170 per cent increase from the Rs 878 crore investment from 2009-10 to 2013-14, he added. 
Prabhu said they are working on an East Coast Chennai to Kanniyakumari project. “Last week the finance minister had agreed to it,” he said and added that the State Government should join hands with the railways for the project. He stated that they are also working on upgrading stations. 
In order to increasing the speed to make it possible to operate more trains, he said, in the first phase they are working on increasing the speed of rakes between Delhi and Mumbai and between Delhi and Kolkata to 200 km / hr at an outlay of Rs 18,000 crore. 
Responding to requests from MPs here, he said that the Coimbatore to Pollachi passenger train service will be launched at the earliest. About the much awaited Coimbatore to Bengaluru night train service, he said that it will be operated as an Uday train from September. 
“There are design issues in manufacturing the coaches, hence the delay. ICF Chennai is working on it,” he said and added that they are trying to provide an alternative train service between the two cities till then. 
Talking about farmers, he said that inability to reach commodities in time is among the reasons badly affecting farmers. He said that the railways is discussing with the Container Corporation of India a (public sector undertaking under the ministry of railways) to help farmers by creating cold chains and ware housing facilities across the country.

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