Tiruchirappalli railway division

Tiruchirappalli railway division

Office of the Divisional Headquarters
Reporting mark	TPJ
Locale	Tamil Nadu and Puducherry
Dates of operation	16 May 1956–present
Predecessor	South Indian Railway
Track gauge	1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)
Previous gauge	1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ^3⁄8 in)
Electrification	25 kV AC, 50 Hz
Length	1,026.55 km (637.87 mi)
Headquarters	Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
Website	www.sr.indianrailways.gov.in

Tiruchirappalli railway division is one of the seven railway divisions of Southern Railway Zone (SR) of India. It has its administrative headquarters located at Tiruchirappalli. It serves most of the districts of delta region and Central Tamil Nadu.^[1][2]

History and background

The history of division dates long back to 1853, when the Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters at England and first line was constructed between Negapatnam and Trichinopoly in 1859.^[3] Tiruchirappalli railway division was formed while consolidating all other railways of pre-independence era on 16 May 1956. It is the second largest division of the zone having a route length of about 1,026.55 km (637.87 mi),^[4] spread over 13 districts of Tamil Nadu.^[5] Also this could be the only division in the world that is serving the railway lines of erstwhile South Indian Railway Company and Pondicherry Railway Company developed by the British empire and French empire respectively.^[6][7][8]

Administration

The division comes under Southern Railway zone, which is headed by General Manager, Shri Vashishta Johri.^[9] The division is headed by Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Atul Kumar Agarwal.^[10] It was also once headed by Manjula Rangarajan, an 1983 batch Indian Railway Accounts Service officer, who became the first woman to head the division in its 150–year history.^{[11][lower-alpha 1]} The divisional railway office (DRO) is located close to Tiruchirappalli Junction,^[12] which is one of the busiest railway junctions in India and second biggest railway station in Tamil Nadu only next to Chennai Central.^[13]

Jurisdiction

Diesel Loco Shed, Golden Rock

The division spans to Tiruchirappalli, Thanjavur, Nagappattinam, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Ariyalur, Viluppuram, Tiruvarur, Perambalur and Ariyalur districts of Tamil Nadu state and Union Territory of Pondicherry including Karaikal. The total area covered by the division is about 1,026.55 km (637.87 mi), of which BG accounts to 843.26 km (523.98 mi) (including electrified lines) and MG is 183.29 km (113.89 mi), which are all under Gauge conversion.^[1]

Except the 2.8 km (1.7 mi) stretch between Ponmalai (Golden Rock) and Tiruchirappalli Junction, which has double line for extensive shunting and maintenance purpose due to the proximity of Central Workshop, Diesel loco shed^[14] and a newly established electric locomotive trip shed,^[15] the entire division has single lines only.^[10]

Routes

From	To	Line	Gauge (BG/MG)	Track	Traction	Distance (in km) [lower-alpha 2]
Tiruchirappalli Jn	Viluppuram Jn	Chord line	BG	Single/Double[lower-alpha 3]	Diesel/Electric[16]	178
Viluppuram Jn	Vellore Town	Branch line	BG	Single	Diesel	152
Viluppuram Jn	Puducherry	Branch line	BG	Single	Diesel/Electric[17]	37
Tiruchirappalli Jn	Viluppuram Jn	Main line	BG	Single	Diesel	240
Vridhachalam Jn	Cuddalore Port Jn	Branch line	BG	Single	Diesel	57
Thanjavur Jn	Karaikal	Branch line	BG	Single	Diesel	96
Nagapattinam Jn	Velankanni	Spur line	BG	Single	Diesel	10
Tiruvarur Jn	Mayiladuthurai Jn	Branch line	BG	Single	Diesel	38
Nidamangalam Jn	Mannargudi	Spur line	BG	Single	Diesel	14

List of railway stations and towns

The list includes the stations under the Trichy railway division and their station category.^[18][19]

Category of station	No. of stations	Names of stations
A-1 Category	0
A Category	4	Tiruchirappalli Junction, Kumbakonam, Villupuram Junction, Thanjavur Junction, Mayiladuthurai Junction
B Category	-	-
C Category (Suburban station)	-	-
D Category	-	-
E Category	-	-
F Category Halt Station	-	-
Total	-	-

Stations closed for Passengers -

Operations

Passenger services

The division involves in operating about 150 trains per day,^[20] of which the 178 km (111 mi) stretch chord line experiences heaviest traffic^[21] handling about 30 passenger and 56 express trains passing through everyday in addition to goods train, particularly during night.^[22][23]

The division operates about 30 Passenger Reservation System (PRS) centers^[24] which includes six post offices at Villianur, Tiruvettipuram, Peravurani, Muthupet, Srirangam, and Ponmalai under the 1,000 PRS scheme, as a part of improving passenger amenities. At the headquarters station, plasma screen electronic display boards, electronic train arrival/departure boards were installed along with a renovated linen room and Integrated Security System to enhance security.^[25]

The division became the first in the Southern Railway zone to install multi-coloured LED coach indication boards at Kumbakonam railway station during November 2013 and at Tiruchirappalli junction during January 2014, for Platform.no.1 alone which is supposed to be extended till Platform no.5 and also at about 17 other stations including Viluppuram, Puducherry, Thanjavur, Mayiladuthurai and Mannargudi within the division.^[26]

Freight services

The division has provided team tracks for a number of Industrial establishments^[6] adjoining the railway lines utilising the nearby railway stations for their logistics and transports such as Central Workshop (Golden Rock), Cement and gypsum factories (Trichy, Perambalur and Ariyalur),^[27][28][29] Lignite industries (Neyveli),^[30] Sugar factories (Viluppuram and Vridhachalam),^[31] FCI and Civil supplies (Cauvery delta districts)^[32][33] also BHEL (Tiruverumbur),^[34] and ports (Cuddalore and Karaikal).^{[28][35][36][37]}

Performance

Revenue

The division posted a decent earning of ₹733.10 crore (US$110 million) during the financial year during 2012-2013 . It carried 42.5 million passenger and earned ₹233.15 crore (US$35 million) from regular and festival special trains and ₹449.92 crore (US$67 million), by transporting 9,000,000 metric tons (8,900,000 long tons; 9,900,000 short tons) of freight,^[25] of which karaikal port alone contributes about 40% of the revenue.^[28]

Awards

The division won the overall efficiency medical shield, cleanliness shield and electrical conservation shield for 2012-2013 at the zonal level, in addition to the overall safety shield at the Annual Safety Week Celebrations held at Zonal Railway Training Institute.^[25]

Towns and places of interest

On the chord line were Srirangam,^[38] Ariyalur, Vridhachalam Jn and Viluppuram Junction. On the main line and branch lines that traverses through delta districts has a lot of greenery in the form of agriculture and towns of religious importance like Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Mayiladuthurai, Sirkazhi, Chidambaram, Cuddalore,^[39] Nagore, Velankanni, Tirunallar.^[6][40]

Current projects

S.No	Section			Nature of work	Status
	From	Via	To
1	Tiruvarur Jn	Tiruturaipoondi Jn	Karaikkudi Jn	Gauge Conversion	In progress[41]
2	Tiruturaipoondi Jn	Melamarudur → Vedaranyam	Agastiyampalli	Gauge Conversion	In progress[5]
3	Nagapattinam Jn	Tirukuvalai	Tiruturaipoondi Jn	New line[lower-alpha 4]	In progress[42][43][44]
4	Mannargudi	TBA	Pattukottai	New line	In progress[45][46]
5	Villupuram Jn	Vridhachalam Jn	Tiruchirappalli Jn	Doubling	In progress[47]
6	Tiruchirappalli Jn	Thanjavur Jn	Karaikal	Electrification	Survey completed[16]
7	Thanjavur Jn	N/A	Ponmalai (Golden Rock)	Doubling[lower-alpha 5][48]	Survey completed[47]
8	Thanjavur Jn		Ariyalur	New line	Survey completed[45]
9	Mayiladuthurai Jn	Tarangambadi → Tirunallar	Karaikal	New line	Survey completed[45]
10	Salem Jn	Namakkal → Perambalur → Ariyalur → Jayankondam → Gangaikondacholapuram → Mayiladuturai → Tirunallar	Karaikal	New line	Survey completed[45]
11	Peralam Jn	Tirunallar	Karaikal	Restoration	In progress[49][50]

Employees

The division has a total workforce of about 11,430 in various ranks.^[51]

Welfare

Healthcare

The division manages one Divisional Railway Hospital, one Sub-divisional Railway Hospital and seven Health Units/Polyclinics.^[52][53] The Divisional Railway Hospital is at Golden Rock, which was established by the then South Indian Railway Company in 1927, caters exclusively to railway staff of the entire division, has about 297 beds^[54][55] including 100 beds in the newly opened surgical ward.^[25] Apart from DRH, Golden Rock, the division has 25-bed Sub-divisional Hospital at Villupuram and eight Railway Health Units at Tiruchirappalli Junction, Tiruchirappalli Fort, Srirangam, Vriddhachalam, Tiruvannamalai, Thanjavur, Mayiladuthurai and Tiruvarur.^[56][57]

Education

The division oversees the management of railway schools within its jurisdictional limit at Tiruchirappalli (SRWWO Matriculation School at Kallukuzhi and RMHSS/GOC) and Villupuram (RMHSS/VM).^[58][59]

Security

Railway Protection Force (RPF)

About 275 security personnels including 30 commandos,^[60] headed by Divisional Security Commissioner, oversee the security arrangements on day-to-day basis round the clock for the entire division which includes protecting railway infrastructure, escorting passengers in trains and operations in all railway stations.^[61] Before being put into active service, all security personnel undergo training at Zonal RPF Training Center at Khajamalai, Tiruchirapalli.^[62][63]

Government Railway Police (GRP)

Apart from RPF, the Government Railway Police (GRP), a unit of Tamil Nadu Police also assists in civil and criminal issues at railway stations along with passenger safety. This unit was first established in 1932 with Trichy as its headquarters. Later in 1981, the unit was bifurcated and the headquarters was moved to Chennai.^[64] This unit has about 1400 personnel, headed by a Superintendent of Police. The jurisdictional limit starts from Viluppuram in the north to Kuzhithurai railway station in the south and Karaikal in the east to Palani in the west.^[65] It has about 16 police stations and 14 out-posts along with mobile units in Nellai express and Rameswaram expresses.^[66]

See also

• Southern Railway zone
• Indian Railways
• Railway Protection Force
• Tamil Nadu Police

Notes

1. The administrators may change from time to time for administrative reasons.
2. The remaining stretch are in MG and undergoing gauge conversion to BG.
3. Doubling under progress.
4. For all new lines, the route and its length are determined only after the completion of the work, since the planned routes may undergo unexpected changes due to various social and economic conditions.
5. Also includes a 1.13 km (0.70 mi) bypass line connecting main line and the chord line, without touching Ponmalai (Golden Rock) railway station.

References

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External links

• Southern Railways - Official Website
• DRM/TPJ on Twitter