Golden Rock Workshop – Modernisation

The Railway Workshop – an iconic entity in ponmalai – is getting modernised.

I don’t remember this happening for a long time. But whenever I go between Chennai and Trichy by train,  Golden Rock workshop is the reminder for me to pick up my bags and get ready to depart in TPJ. But also, sometimes, the trains will stop in Golden Rock due to non-availability of signal to get into TPJ and it will just frustrate me like crazy. So I have no choice but to stare at the Golden Rock workshops till the train starts.

Coming back to modernisation, I always thought that the railway infrastructure that we have in India is among the best. Considering after seeing how railways are poorly utilised in US and Gulf countries, ( Europe is awesome) , I wish we can supply and service many countries with our expertise in Railways.

As part of GoldenRock modernisation plan ,

• bulk of the funds amounting to Rs. 68.78 crore would be spent for acquiring modern mechanical equipment and replacement of the old machines, while Rs. 15.14 crore would be utilised for augmenting infrastructure facilities and repairs of structures under ‘civil’ works.

• As part of the technological upgrade plan, a modern laboratory will be established at a cost of Rs. 2.5 crore inside the workshop for material testing which is at present being done in Chennai.

• A special purpose multi-station machine –‘PAMA’ – costing Rs. 40 crore for carrying out repairs of engine blocks; a robotic welding system with automation and portable plasma profile cutting machine are some of the major advanced equipment to be procured under the modernisation.

• The three Traversors, which are the lifeline of the workshop, would be replaced and the Basic Training Centre upgraded.
• Work on the huge shed inside the workshop to accommodate high horsepower General Motors locomotives would be completed before July.

 

Air India Express – Trichy – AbuDhabi

Air India Express launched its twice a week ( Thursday and Saturday) flight connecting Trichy and AbuDhabi .

The flight will depart Chennai at 12.50 p.m. and arrive here at 1.40 p.m. It would leave for Abu Dhabi at 2.30 p.m.

In the return direction, the flight will arrive at Tiruchi from Abu Dhabi at 11.55 p.m. and depart for Chennai at 12.50 a.m. It will reach Chennai at 1.40 a.m.

The airline offers attractive one way fare starting from Rs.6,439 from Tiruchi to Abu Dhabi.

 

Internship Opportunities for Final Year Students

Any final year students, who are in final year B.Sc, MCA,BCA,BE, BTech, CS & IT students looking for Internship programmes in IT software and services programme can go to the following link and get more details.  One of the location for Internship is Trichy.

http://www.indianinternship.com/2009/02/internship-programme-for-final-year.html

 

Highway NH 45 improves

The road travel between Trichy and Chennai became little bit more convenient with the opening of the 4 lane highway between padalur and Valikandapuram as part of NH 45. It should reduce accidents and travel time. The 31 km stretch has 2 lanes on either side with a median in between. The road also include two pedestrian underpasses in padalur and Valikandapuram.

This should improve the traffic especially commercial ones and also reduce the fear of the passengers whenever the buses and trucks do their magic weaving in the road to avoid each other.

 

New Terminal ready to Open in Trichy

After so many false starts, it looks like the new terminal in Trichy Airport will finally open for public. The date is set at Feb 21st. This is a 11,700 Sq.Ft facility ( 7000sq.ft ground floor and 4700 Sq.ft first floor) with 3 moving platforms / Escalators and  5 Lifts for passenger comforts. It will have 13 Inspection and 16 immigration portals with 300 car parking lot outside. The terminal is 99% ready. So the plan is to open the terminal now ( there is an election coming, you see) and complete the other remaining work later.

Hopefully, this time it will happen. But Let’s wait and see.

Source: Dinamani

 

Road improvement (?) in Trichy

It is that time of the year again. Rainy season is winding down. So it is time to dig up the roads again. About 95 kms of Trichy roads are going to be relaid ( for umpteenth time) under a project funded by a German Dev Bank. Many major roads are going to be part of this project and they will have drains in the side of the roads.

I am not sure whether there is any clause in the contract / tender etc. which stipulates that the roads should have atleast some lifetime which is longer than a year.  Until, then Govt construction will always have a boom in TN.

Arghh!!

 

Daily Service to Dubai From Trichy

AI is planning to increase its already existing thrice  a week service from Trichy – Chennai – Dubai to seven days a week from Mid February. This is in response to the overwhelming response to this service.

AI is also planning to make Trichy a hub for its Trichy – Chennai – Dubai and Trichy- Chennai – Kualalumpur Service ( Coming soon). The Trichy Malaysia service will be thrice a week to start with, but looking at the overwhelming response to Air Asia service from Trichy, this will also become a seven day service very soon.

 

Tourism Package to SriLanka from Trichy

SriLankan Holidays, a travel wing of Srilankan Airlines, is offering ‘Second-Passenger-Travels-at-One-Rupee-Only’  holiday package for Indian Tourists to visit Srilanka’s South west Coast and Colombo. The packages start from Rs.13599 (round trip) and include visa on arrival , accommodation on Bed & Breakfast and airport Transfers. They are available till April 30th , 2009. Jetwing Travels and  Walkers Tours are the exclusive partners in this travel package.

I am not sure how economical this is.  May be some of our visitors from Srilanka can sound off about the value.

Source: TravelBizMonitor

 

Trichy Madurai Express Train

Trichy is getting a new train to connect itself to Madurai daily. In this year’s railway budget, out of 43 new train services , 5 new services are in TN.   The train schedule is not announced yet but can be expected that it runs according to the office schedule in both directions.

Similarly, they need to increase the speed of the trains that run to chennai from trichy. It feels like it takes awful lot of time in both direction. We will see.

 

Srirangam Station gets a new Subway

The ordeal of passengers who has to move from Platform 2 and Platform 3 towards Platform 1 will be eased by the proposed subway which will connect these platforms in the station. The work for implementing this started this week with all the three platforms suspending traffic on them. The traffic should have resumed by Thursday. The flooring, fixing tiles on the side walls, roofing, lighting, construction of stair cases leading to the platforms will be undertaken after this.

The estimate is Rs. 40 Lakhs and should take about 45 days for completion.

This should help the normal public to some extent in Srirangam.