KOZHIKODE: For the first time in its history, the Indian Railways is laying a seven kilometre underground cable for electrification works.
Sources in the electrification division of the railways confirmed that though there were a few underground cables which were a few meters long, this was the first time such a lengthy underground cable work was being proposed. The underground cable will be laid on the Shornur-Kannur stretch.
The 110 KV cable will start from the KSEB substation concerned and will end at the Railway substation and will supply five megawatts of power.
In Tirur and Kannur South, a one kilometre cable each will be put underground while in Elathur, it will be five kilometres.
Sources reasoned that as these places were thickly populated, erecting of towers and providing compensation to the private parties concerned would be laborious, and hence they had opted for the underground cable.
The apprehension that someone would approach the court resulting in the stalling of the entire process also forced the railways to choose an underground cable system.
The total expenditure is estimated at Rs 30 crore with Rs 20 crore at Elathur and five crore each at Tirur and Kannur South. The cable will be laid at one metre depth alongside the nearest road, not passing through private properties.
The cable will contain three components including optical cable, which has the monitoring system to check power, temperature and linkage.
This was the first time the railways had asked KSEB to implement the work, but as the latter had asked for one year's time to implement the work, the railway was now scouting for consultancies to execute the work as a joint venture.
Sources said that the state government was yet to handover the possession certificate of the acquired land to construct the substation in Tirur.
