Coimbatore-Bengaluru train likely in July: CII

This information was shared by top officials of the industry body at the CII – Southern Region’s meet to discuss its new initiatives and highlight the work plan for the year 2017-18. P Ravichandran, Chairman, CII TN State Council, and President, Danfoss Industries, Chennai, says, “We have been making a lot of representations on Ease of Doing Business to the government. Infrastructure-wise, in TN, we have been engaging with the govt on specific areas. Having spoken to General Manager, Southern Railways, the first recommendation we had made was for a train service from Coimbatore to Bengaluru as a lot of IT professionals traverse this route. This has been sanctioned and the double decker coaches are being manufactured right now.  We have been assured this day train will be flagged off between July-August. We also requested for a night train from Coimbatore and the Railway Minister has assured he will look into it.” 

He adds, “With respect to Chennai, we spoke to the GM on how we can make multi-modal operations possible. Today there is a lack of connectivity between the centres (Chennai Central to the metro). There is a scope for bringing in common ticketing too. Currently there is an investigation going on with respect to multi modal transportation in the city. There is going to be an increased traffic between Salem and Mettupalayam. There is only one train service in the morning and evening. We are looking at increasing the frequency. We have also requested for increased frequency of trains to Madurai. We are currently engaged with the state government on the south corridor development – comprising Madurai, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi corridor. To give you an idea of the air traffic in Madurai, in the last eight months, it has jumped from 8,00,000 passengers per annum to 1.5 mn passengers per annum.” 

The CII has asked the govt to consider a Naphtha cracker – a game changer for the south. As it’s a food processing corridor, it also holds employment opportunities for many. Vikram Kirloskar, Chairman, CII Southern Region, and Vice Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd, tells us, “Infrastructure here is better off than in many states. We do need big infrastructure investments and it would be fantastic to have a high-speed corridor connecting Chennai and Bengaluru.” There is a proposal on that front, which is under feasibility study right now.