Southern Railway plans to increase the speed of express trains on the Tiruchi-Madurai broad gauge section via Dindigul and Kodaikanal Road from 110 kilometre per hour to 130 kilometre per hour.
Infrastructure work in this regard has been taken up on this busy route that connects key destinations in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu and some major cities in Kerala. Several express and superfast trains bound for Madurai, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Kanniyakumari, Thoothukudi, Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guruvayur from Chennai take this route.
Vande Bharat Express between Chennai and Tirunelveli and Nagercoil and some inter-State express trains run on this section in addition to freight trains.
The Madurai Railway Division is carrying out a host of work to increase the speed of trains. The total track length of the Tiruchi-Madurai section is over 309 km — both up and down lines. Railway sources said track renewal work on over 200 km had been completed. Complete Track Renewal (CTR) work had been sanctioned for a little over 56 km. Of this, work has been completed for 21.54 km with balance work under progress. Further, track renewal of 14.73 km was under sanction.
Besides this, sanction has been accorded for installing 75 sets of thick web switches to raise the sectional speed of long-distance express trains. Sources said installation of 34 sets of thick web switches have been completed with the rest in progress.
As part of the project, safety fencing along both sides of the track had been sanctioned along certain portions of the Tiruchi-Madurai section with the twin aim of raising the speed of trains and preventing cattle and human trespass in order to ensure safety in rail operations. The entire work connected with speed upgrade are planned for completion by March 2027. Increasing the speed of trains would cut down travel time, the sources said.
Similarly, the Railways has decided to increase the sectional speed of trains from 110 km per hour to 130 km per hour on Tiruchi-Villupuram electrified chord line via Srirangam, Ariyalur, and Vriddhachalam.
Published – December 21, 2025 07:30 pm IST
