Southern Railway has decided to carry out a feasibility study to provide rail links to nine cities - Valparai, Gobichettipalayam, Krishnagiri, Edappadi, Devakottai, Kambam, Dharapuram, Pernampattu and Kallakuruchi - in Tamil Nadu.

The remaining cities serve as taluk headquarters, with Krishnagiri and Kallakuruchi serving as district headquarters. To access train services to Chennai and other major cities, residents of these areas must travel 25 to 35 kilometers to major stations.

The study will also cover the town of Yanam in the Puducherry Union Territory of Andhra Pradesh. To so connects 80 cities with population over 50,000 in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and some other states and union territories with the train service, the railway board decided to carry out the investigation.

The railway board stated in its directive sent to railway zones, including Southern Railway, that PM GatiShakti NMP Portal (BISAG - Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo- computer science) has identified cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants that do not have train facilities within a radius of 5 km.

A preliminary investigation and traffic engineering study will soon be carried out in preparation for the construction of a new one lines. Since before independence, technical studies have been carried out for the installation of new lines. According to the instructions of the board, we will determine whether new lines are needed or not additional stations could be added to existing lines, an official said.

The main reason major cities are not connected by rail is because of their topography and geographical challenges. The potential for freight and passenger transport, the classification of the real estate and project returns will all be covered by the traffic study, according to sources.