Survey on new line will be completed soon: Velu

Chennai, Nov 10 (UNI) The ongoing survey for new railway line between Mettupalayam and Samraj Nagar via Sathyamangalam is expected to be completed with in a couple of months, Union Minister of State for Railways R Velu today said.

Addressing a press conference here, after chairing a high-level official meeting of Southern Railway, Mr Velu said the meeting proposed to construct 91 limited use subways at an estimated cost of Rs 77 crore during the next year in different regions of Southern Railway.

The meeting also proposed to establish a coach maintainance terminal at Tambaram at an estimated cost of Rs 47 crore during next year.

He said the Rail India Technical and Economic services (RITES) had submitted a detailed project report to the Tamil Nadu Government for linking the Chennai Egmore and Chennai Central railway stations.

The Southern Railway had earned a sum of Rs 848 crore till October through passenger traffic as against Rs 753 crore in the same period of last financial year.

He said due to various efforts, the operation ratio in Southern Railway had been brought down from 1:120 to 1:114, during the current year.

Responding to a question, he said after the recent bomb blasts in Mumbai Railway Stations, the Ministry had started to identify the stations, which were vulnerable to extremists' attacks.

Close circuit cameras, dog squad, bomb detection squad, scanning equipments were provided at 61 stations across the country and rest of the stations would be covered shortly, he added.

He said the Southern Railway had earned an additional revenue of Rs 17 crore by operating 730 special trains during the current year.

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