The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Train stoppage

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 19, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Train stoppage

The extension of Bangalore-Coimbatore Intercity Express to Ernakulam has evoked mixed reactions. The extension should have been done without affecting the interests of the existing users from Coimbatore and Bangalore.

Coimbatore always gets affected by such moves. Earlier this year, Egmore-Coimbatore Express was extended to Mangalore and in the process Tiruchirappalli-Mangalore Express was cancelled. The timing of the train from Egmore was badly affected.

Many trains from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram/Mangalore skip Coimbatore with or without halting at Podanur. The Southern Railway should halt these ‘non stop’ trains either at Podanur or Coimbatore.

Ravi. S,

Coimbatore.

Double the fare

In the Intercity Express train only two second class sitting coaches and eight sleeper coaches are provided. Previously, the number of second class sitting coaches was eight (S-1 to S-18) providing reserved seats of about 800. Now it has been reduced to 200. In the eight sleeper coaches, nearly 600 berths have been provided. This has resulted in travelling by sleeper coaches by paying nearly double the fare even for short distance like Bangalore to Dharmapuri. The trains run in day time only in both the directions and the necessity for berths is very rare. As such the newly introduced eight sleeper coaches may be converted as second class sitting coaches as provided in the Parasuram Express and Venad Express. The Ernakulam-Bangalore train at present is a bi-weekly. This can be converted to daily to give facility to the passengers beyond Coimbatore to travel in sleeper coaches.

K. Venkatachalam,

Bangalore.

Elect-trick-city

It is a fact that the State is short of power supply. Fix some hours of holiday for its supply so that the customers can schedule their routine accordingly. The whole life is based on power and telephone. Nearly Rs. 30,000 crore of electricity is stolen every year. What is its quantum and where does it go? Who are the culprits? The squad once in a way makes its presence by flashing some news. K.K. Lakshmanan,

Coimbatore.

Pilgrims’ plight

With the introduction of online booking for pilgrims to Tirupati at many places, the ‘sudarshan’ ticket counter (Rs. 50 a ticket) opens at 2 a.m. and closes when all the tickets are sold out. Many pilgrims and elderly people have to wait till the next day. Same is the case of the ‘Arijtha seva’ counter (Rs. 200 a ticket). The number of tickets issued varies each day and there is no prior information about it on the counter.

Once I entered the sanctum santorum, I noticed that pilgrims were allowed to enter in groups of 50 to100, and in the struggle to be in front, many of the children and aged people were pushed aside. Police were not deployed in adequate numbers to control the crowd. Will the Devaswom look into the hardships the pilgrims?

M. Rajendran,

Coimbatore.

Use of helmet

I was a medical officer at the casualty accident and emergency ward at the Medical College Hospital for about 20 years. I have worked in Forensic Medical college Hospital for about 20 years and in the Forensic Medicine Department too. In the course of my career, I have conducted about 500 post-mortem examinations. In cases of head injury, a majority of the patients who did not wear helmets died of brain injury or else survived with some deformities. Yet, in the case of people who have used helmet, a majority of them survived from brain injury and later became normal or near normal after necessary treatment. I leave it to the readers to come to their own conclusion regarding the usage of helmets.

B.R. Ramasubramanian,

Komarapalayam

(Readers can send their mails to cbereaders@thehindu.co.in with address and phone number)

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu