Punalur-Sengottai route welcomes electric trains after long wait: Palaruvi Express becomes first

Punalur (Kollam): After years of waiting, the Punalur-Sengottai route makes way for electric trains. On Sunday morning, the Palaruvi Express from Tirunelveli to Palakkad became the first electric passenger train on this route. With this, Travancore's first railway, the Kollam-Sengottai route, has been fully electrified, making the 761 km long Kollam-Chennai route fully electrified as well.

Out of the four services running on the Punalur-Sengottai section, the Chennai, Palaruvi, and Madurai-Guruvayur Express trains will now run with electric engines. However, the weekly express from Ernakulam to Velankanni will continue to use diesel engines, as the 149 km stretch from Karaikudi to Thiruvarur is not electrified.

Two weeks ago, with the commissioning of the 110 KV traction substation at Sengottai, Southern Railway took steps to run electric trains on the 49 km long Punalur-Sengottai section. The trains run on this section after electricity from Sengottai is brought to Punalur. The 45 km Kollam-Punalur section, which was electrified a year ago, runs on power from the Perinad substation.

Travancore's first railway line, the 94 km long Kollam-Sengottai line, began operating coal trains in 1904. The Kollam to Punalur section, originally meter gauge, was converted to broad gauge in 2010, and the Punalur to Sengottai section followed in 2018. In 2022, electric trains began running from Kollam to Punalur. The Punalur-Sengottai section, entirely in the Western Ghats region, was electrified last February.