CHENNAI: Train services in and around Chennai are likely to get disrupted between April 5 and April 15, an 11-day period when Southern Railway will conduct the final commissioning of the Arakkonam-Takkolam detour line enabling connection with the main Arakkonam-Jolarpet line.The move comes after Southern Railway got a go-ahead regarding the work from the railway board.The pre non-interlocking work planned during the period will lead to cancellation of 108 mail, express and passenger trains as well as short termination of 104 trains, railway documents showed.There will be partial cancellation of 37 trains while 36 will be diverted and 16 rescheduled.Already passengers have started getting messages about cancellations though there is no official announcement in this regard from the Southern Railway.For instance, Chennai-Bengaluru Lalbagh express has been cancelled from Chennai Central to Sholinghur from April 5 to April 14. Passengers who have booked their tickets three to four months in advance will be affected by this work.The SR has laid a detour line between Takkolam and Arakkonam on the Chengalpet-Arakkonam route and commissioned it in January. It was inspected by the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) then.However, the final work of linking this new line with the existing line on the Arakkonam-Katpadi section was pending. The SR needed to take a power block (turn off electricity and hence all railway services) to do this work. It had planned to execute the work before March to start the services before general manager RK Kulshrestha retires in March, to showcase it as one of the achievements during his tenure, railway sources said.However, the railway board issued an instruction stating that the final commissioning work should be taken up only in first half of April. The board was apprehensive that the power block would impact movements of freight trains and thereby earnings, sources said.The Southern Railway headquarters which has permitted the Chennai division to finish the work said freight trains should be suitably regulated and the work executed in a smooth manner.The last time such a major work was taken up was in May 2018 for remodelling of the Arakkonam yard. It had been poorly planned and executed leading to untold miseries for thousands of passengers.Railway statistics shows more than 300 mail and express trains were either cancelled or not punctual during the fortnight-long work.A senior official was also transferred after he was blamed for this, sources said.

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