Coimbatore Broad Gauge Metro Railway Cum Coimbatore Suburban Railway or Kovai Metro Cum Suburban Railway is a Broad Gauge Metro Cum Suburban railway planned for Coimbatore city.[5] The circular railway line will help run through Coimbatore Junction, Podanur, Vellalore, Irugur, Singanallur, Pilamedu and Coimbatore North. This will certainly help decongest the city roads since this circular line passes through the main parts of Coimbatore city and ends within the coimbatore city limits, so this circular line is an urban line. Restoration of old Main Line (Which was Broad Gauge Vellore Station) Nanjundapuram Railway link line lengths 1 km will help plan circular urban electric train track. A senior official [5] with the Salem division says, "if the revival of an old line can bring about so many benefits, it can be considered".[6] However, Implementation of this project gets delayed due to the Proposed Coimbatore Metro.
Routes
These are the 5 routes.
Coimbatore Jn – Mettupalayam
Coimbatore Jn. – Pollachi Jn.
Coimbatore Jn – Tiruppur
Coimbatore Jn – Palakkad Jn
Coimbatore Jn – Irugur Jn – Podanur In – Coimbatore Jn (Proposed for Both Metro and Mainline Routes)(circular line as well as urban line).[7][8]
Local passenger trains from Coimbatore Junction is operating on all the above-mentioned sub urban routes except the Coimbatore Jn – Irugur Jn – Coimbatore Jn (circular line as well as urban line).[9]
Restoration of this Nanjundapuram Railway link line will help plan circular suburban electric train track connecting major train stations in the outskirts of Coimbatore like Mettupalayam, Irugur, Podanur, Pollachi etc. to ease growing peripheral traffic.
Reopening this defunct Nanjundapuram Railway line & Station can benefit residents from Nanjundapuram, Ramanathapuram, Redfields, Puliakulam, Sowripalayam, Udayampalayam, Singanallur, Varadarajapuram, Uppilipalayam and Ondipudur areas of Coimbatore for train connections to onward destinations. Irugur via Nanjundapuram: This bye-pass connection from Irugur – Podanur line to Coimbatore bypassing Podanur had been laid long back at a time when Coimbatore was connected only from Podanur as a branch from Irugur–Podanur–Shoranur line. It was done to facilitate trains from Erode side to directly go to Coimbatore. However, this connection became superfluous when Coimbatore was directly connected from Irugur side via Pilamedu and Coimbatore North in 1953, and accordingly, this link line was removed at that time. Since the doubling work between Irugur–Coimbatore section is in progress, these double lines will be utilised for suburban traffic if required.[13][citation needed]
