Manamadurai Junction railway station

This station was constructed as a part of the Madurai Rameswaram Branch Railway line which was constructed in Colonial India in 1902. This line was mainly constructed to connect the Indian province with Ceylon Province. Later, after the annexation of Sivagangai Estate, a 20km branch line was constructed in-between Manamadurai and Sivagangai which converted this station into a railway junction and become the first junction in the Ramnad region. Pamban became a junction by constructing a small branch line between Pamban and Dhanushkodi which spans 17km but after the 1964 rameswaram cyclone that branch line was closed. After India gained independence, a new railway line was constructed between Manamadurai and Virudhunagar under the rule of Kamaraj. This was the first railway line in Tamil Nadu to be built after Indian Independence.

This junction is located close to its district headquarters, Sivagangai, which is 20 km away from this junction and it is 50 km away from its railway divisional headquarters Madurai. This railway junction has 6 railway tracks and 5 platforms, usually crowded in the morning and night. It has the second-largest curve. Connects with Tirunelveli, Tiruchirapalli, Chennai, and Madurai. A clean waiting hall, food, large parking space, Railway Protection Force (RPF) police station, and Railway Hospital facilities are available within the station complex premise. The nearby bus stand is well connected with Cochin - Rameswaram Interstate Corridor National Highway (NH45) which is also an Asian Highway Network which is numbered AH43, which gives 24/7 bus connectivity to various places nearby. A retiring room, railway canteen, and adequate restrooms are available at this junction. This junction also has a goods terminal which generates huge revenue for the entire Madurai railway division. Mostly the goods handled here are loading and sending charcoal to various parts of India and the nearby SIDCO and SIPCOT (industrial complex area by the government of Tamil Nadu) also contribute a considerable amount of profit to this junction. Whereas the unloading of goods includes some civil supplies for the Sivagangai district where it is located, and various raw materials for those industries present nearby Sivagangai and Manamadurai regions.[2][3]

The Manamadurai Junction has four rail branches, each leading to Madurai, Virudhunagar, Karaikudi and Rameswaram. It is a main railway junction, so all trains have to make a technical halt at this junction.[4][5][6] Rameswaram Destination trains have to cross this junction as there are no other railway routes existing to connect Pamban Island with Main Land India. For the convenience of long-distance passengers such as tourist places from Varanasi, Ayodhya, Ajmer who are traveling to Madurai have to deboard at this station and vice versa. From here adequate bus facilities are available to and from Madurai 24/7.

It falls under the administrative control of the Madurai Division of the Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways. The tracks are completely electrified. It works under electric Broad Gauge. This junction comes under the control of sivaganga senior section engineer and karaikudi Assistant Divisional Engineer (ADEN).

It acts as the source station for Mannargudi - Tiruchirappalli - Manamadurai DEMU passengers.[7] Once upon a time, it acted as source station for Silambu Express.[8] During meter gauge era, it acted as a source station for Tirunelveli Manamadurai Express[9] which is currently running as Puducherry kanyakumari weekly express and Manamadurai Quilon Express[10] which is planned to run between Ernakulam to Velankanni weekly express.

Presently this junction handles various daily and weekly passenger and express trains along with some unscheduled freight trains.

Some of the notable trains include Sethu Superfast Express, Boatmail Express, Coimbatore Rameswaram Weekly Express, Kanyakumari Triweekly Superfast Express, Puducherry Kanyakumari Weekly Express, Tirupathi Triweekly Express, Banaras Rameswaram Express, Bhubaneshwaram Rameswaram Express, Okha Rameswaram Express, Shraddha Sethu Superfast Express, Ajmer Rameswaram Humsafar Express, Silambu Triweekly Superfast Express, Rameswaram Trichy Passenger, Trichy Virudhunagar Passenger, Madurai Rameswaram Passenger, and Trichy Manamadurai Passenger. Beyond all these, many special trains are operated at regular intervals all year to various destinations in India.