KOZHIKODE: Electric passenger trains will run on the Konkan rail route by the end of this month. This saves 15-20 minutes of travel time.

More than 740 km of the Konkan railway was fully electrified three months ago. Due to technical problems at the substations, only freight trains ran here so far. As the Konkan route was not fully electrified, the journey was rescheduled at Mangalore Central Station with a diesel engine. Now the trains can run from Thiruvananthapuram to New Delhi without changing the engine.

According to the Railways, Kerala has witnessed tremendous development in electrification for the last eight years. During this period 390 km of roads in Kerala were electrified.

The Shornur-Mangalore (314 km), Palakkad-Muthalamada (32 km) and Kollam-Punalur (44 km) lines have been electrified. Environmental pollution will go down as all trains are electric now.