Southern Railway has sanctioned two additional railway stations on Virudhunagar-Tenkasi section for increasing operational efficiency on this single line section.
New stations would come up at Cholapuram and Karivalamvanthanallur, thus breaking the longest block section of Southern Railway between Rajapalayam and Sankarankoil railway stations.
“With no provisions for crossings for 32-long km due to absence of mid-way stations on this single line section, one of the trains running on opposite directions has to suffer detention for longer duration,” a railway official said. This handicap is affecting operational efficiency of Madurai railway division.
Earlier, during metre gauge operation, the two stations at Karivalamvandanallur and Cholapuram were functioning and those stations allowed smoother crossing of trains, a locopilot said.
However, those railway stations were removed during gauge conversion of Virudhunagar-Sengottai section two decades back.
A few years back Madurai-Sengottai passenger train used to get detained for at least 30 minutes to 40 minutes at Rajapalayam to give way for Chennai-bound Pothigai Superfast express as the long-distance train gets get priority in movement. This created a huge hue and cry among passengers who return home tired after day-long work.
“However, after Southern Railway tweaked the time table, the Mayiladuthurai-Sengottai express (former Madurai-Sengottai passenger) is not moved to Sankarankoil before arrival of Pothigai express.
“The officials have only split the detention time by detaining the train at Sankarankoil and Pambukoil Shandy railway stations for 10 minutes to 15 minutes each,” said a Station Master working in this section.
However, in case of Mayiladuthurai-Sengottai Express getting delayed by 10 to 15 minutes is still facing longer detention at Rajapalayam railway station, he added.
Rajapalayam Rail Users’ Association led by its president, N.S. Ramakrishnan, recently made an appeal to Southern Railway General Manager for re-introduction of Cholapuram railway station.
Since four down trains (from Madurai) are operated towards Tenkasi one after the other in the early hours, the demand for an early morning train between Sengottai and Madurai has become operationally impossible, said a rail user, M.S. Harishankar.
Southern Railway has to construct new station buildings at Karivalavanthanallur and Cholapuram stations. Besides, provisions of looplines and additional platform will solve this long-felt operational handicap.
When additional railway stations are put in place, trains from both sides could move in opposite directions as close as 10 kms (from the present 32 km), thus detention time for any train for the purpose of crossing will become barest minimum.
“We have been demanding to break this longest block section as it is pouring cold water on all future development and additional train facilities in this section,” Mr. Harishankar said.
Published - July 19, 2026 08:57 pm IST