Karaikal railway station (station code: KIK) is a railway terminus, situated in the town of

Karaikal Karaikal ( /kʌdɛkʌl/, french: Karikal /kaʁikal/) is a town of the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. Karaikal was sold to the French by the Rajah of Thanjavur and became a French Colony in 1739. The French held control, with occasi ...

in the Union Territory of

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: * Puducherry (union territory), a union territory of India ** Pondicherry, capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district, a district of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry tal ...

, India. The station is east of

Tiruchirappalli Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

and from

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and connects Karaikal to various parts of the country.

Location and layout

The railway station is located on Railway station road off the

East Coast Road East Coast Road (ECR), combination of SH-49, NH-332A, NH-32, officially known as Mutthamizh Arignar Kalaignar Road, is a two-lane highway (now being partially upgraded to four-lane way from Chennai to Mamallapuram) in Tamil Nadu, India, built ...

(ECR) and the Karaikal Bypass Road. The Karaikal Bus Station is located away. The nearest airport is

Tiruchirappalli International Airport Tiruchirappalli International Airport (IATA: TRZ, ICAO: VOTR) is an international airport serving Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The airport spread over an area of is located on National Highway 336, about south of the ci ...

, situated at about away from the station. Karaikal Port is located from Karaikal railway station.

Peralam–Karaikal line

Currently the station is the terminal point on the Tiruchirapalli–Karaikal branch line and has three platforms. Until 1987 there was a 23 km

metre-gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

branch line westwards, connecting Karaikal with

Peralam Peralam is a panchayat town in Thiruvarur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Demographics India census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given populat ...

, which was later dismantled. Since then there have been persistent demands from various quarters for the revival of this line. In June 2019 tenders were floated for the restoration of this route, expecting to complete the project by March 2024.

Operations

Express trains

List of passenger trains

References

External links

* Trichy railway division Railway stations in Karaikal district Transport in Karaikal {{Puducherry-railstation-stub