Southern Railway has been granted an amount of Rs.3340 crore as budgetary allocation for the year 2020-2021 with a grant of Rs.1238 crore for doubling, Rs.175 crores towards gauge conversion , Rs.37 crores for traffic facilities and Rs.198 crores for passenger amenities.·
New projects at a cost of Rs. 4131 has been sanctioned towards doubling of Katpadi-Villupuram line, Salem-Karur-Dindigul line, Erode-Karur line and Chennai Beach- Chennai Egmore (4th line). A sanction of Rs.280 crores for Chennai Beach – Chennai Egmore 4th line will help easing congestion in this section.· With focus on Safety, for elimination of level crossing gates an amount of Rs.880 crores have been sanctioned for new road over bridges and Road under bridges particularly on the Golden quadrilateral/diagonal routes (Chennai – Gudur/Chennai – Arakkonam – Renigunta).
This has the potential to increase the speed of trains. Replacement of Route relay interlocking (RRI) and A, B and C cabins at Jolarpettai has been allotted an outlay of Rs.6 crore. Provision of centralized traffic control in connection with modern train control system has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs.148 cr. This will help in enhancing the line capacity and safety.·
Harnessing the benefits of technology for Safe train operations, provision of indigenous train collision avoidance system on low density railway network has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs.468.9 cr.
Under Passenger amenities head, a new work for an amount of Rs.150 crores towards minimum essential amenities with more focus on facilities for divyangjan at stations across southern railway has been sanctioned. Rs.75 crores sanctioned towards soft upgrades at stations ( like improvement in station buildings, tall flags, steel benches, cover over platform, etc.)