Southern Railway completes full electrification of broad gauge network

Southern Railway has completed the electrification of its entire broad gauge network, covering 5,068 route kilometres across the zone. The milestone follows the completion of work on the final 71-km Pattukkottai-Karaikkudi section, whose statutory inspection was finished on September 9.

According to the zone's Chief Public Relations Officer, S.N. Narain, the completion is expected to improve both the efficiency and flexibility of train operations. With the whole broad gauge network under electric traction, services can run across Southern Railway without stopping for a change of traction at interchange points. This is expected to streamline operations and raise the utilisation of electric locomotives.

The zone also expects the fully electrified network to offer greater operational flexibility, support more dependable services and allow faster movement of trains. The shift away from diesel traction is expected to cut dependence on fossil fuels and contribute to more energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable operations.

For passengers, the wider use of electric traction is expected to support more efficient services across the zone and feed into Southern Railway's longer-term modernisation and sustainability plans.

The zone's move towards electric traction goes back nearly a century. Madras became the second metropolitan city in India, after Bombay, to introduce electric traction on May 11, 1931. A later landmark came in 1968, when 25 kV AC electrification was commissioned on the Madras Beach-Tambaram section.

Railway electrification in the country began in 1925, when the first electric train, running on a 1,500-volt DC system, operated between Bombay Victoria Terminus and Kurla Harbour in Maharashtra.

The Ministry of Railways has previously noted that the completion of electrification projects depends on a range of factors, including forest clearances, the shifting of infringing utilities, statutory approvals from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions, the law and order situation at project sites, and the number of working months available each year given local climatic conditions.