Bodi railway line to be on track by next March

Talking to reporters here, AIADMK MP of Theni OP Raveendranath Kumar said the broad gauge railway project has been expedited and it would become operational by March 2021, offering a lot of benefits for the farmers involved in cardamom and tea plantations in Idukki district of Kerala, bordering Theni.

He said spices from Idukki like cardamom and tea based products were exported worldwide and were renowned for their quality.

The Bodi-Madurai rail link was started in 1928 during the British rule for the benefit of farmers of the area and to facilitate the transportation of the people and their produce around Theni and Bodinayakkanur.

The farmers have benefited immensely from the rail link to carry the produce to places from where they could move without any hassles to other markets. The Central Government had earlier announced that the track would be converted into a broad gauge line by 2013 with an outlay of Rs.150 crore. But the farmers and the people of the region were disappointed as the project was put on hold till 2015 without any fund allocation.

As the project cost escalated to Rs 300 crore due to the delay. The project committee has concluded that an additional fund allocation of Rs.75 crore was required needed over the current project estimate to ensure completion of the broad gauge line within the year.

Thanks to the efforts taken by Raveendranath Kumar, the Centre has now approved the broad gauge line project and the works were expedited.

Stating that he continue to draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal about the importance of this project and the benefit it offer to the farmers,Raveendranath Kumar said he was in constant touch with the Southern Railway higher officials by way of letters about the project. The work, which was earlier going on at a slow pace, has now picked momentum and the works were expedited on a fast track mode.

In the 2019-2020 budget, Rs.100 crore was announced for this project and the work on the same started using the Rs.50 crore allocated for the first phase. Another Rs.75 crore was allotted in the 2020-21 budget to expedite the work and on January 23 the test run on the 37 km stretch from Madurai to Usilampatti on the new broad gauge line has been successfully completed.

With the cooperation of the Central and State Governments, support of the Prime Minister, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam,the District Collectors of Madurai and Theni and the Railway authorities all the activities towards completion of the project were intensified.

The work was slightly delayed due to the corona pandemic and the return of the workers from other states to their home towns.