The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Railways unable to cope with increasing number of passengers

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Sunday, Aug 17, 2008
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Kerala - Kochi

Railways unable to cope with increasing number of passengers

Staff Reporter

Most trains have insufficient number of coaches

KOCHI: The steep hike in bus fares in the State, traffic snarls even on highways and budget airlines jacking up their fares have led to people preferring trains over other modes of transport.

But the Railways has not taken steps to increase the number of coaches in trains. Neither has it been able to introduce sufficient number of trains from Kerala to cities like Bangalore. Protesting against the delay in introducing more coaches and completing civil works like platform over-bridges and lane-doubling, passengers will hold a mass dharna before the Ernakulam Junction railway station on Monday, under the banner of Kollam-Ernakulam Railway Users’ Association.

“The Railways has not completed doubling of the Ernakulam-Mulanthuruthy line seven years after work began,” says Paul Manvettom, president of the association. He demanded that the number of coaches in passenger trains be increased to at least 15. As of now many trains in the Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad divisions run with eight to 10 coaches.

Travelling in the Ernakulam-Alappuzha passenger train which starts at 6 p.m. is a nightmare for passengers. Very often, people hang on to the footboards because the train, which has only 14 coaches, is unable to accommodate the passengers. A Railway official said the train needs 20 coaches to carry the passengers. Trains from Ernakulam to Shornur have just 10 coaches. “The coach factories at Perambur and Kapurtala have not been manufacturing adequate number of coaches for the Railways. Even existing coaches sent to Chennai for overhaul do not join the fleet on time,” he said.

Even existing amenities at the Ernakulam Junction and Town stations are underutilised because of bureaucratic hurdles and inadequate coordination between different wings of the Railways. An example is the inordinate delay in operationalising the sixth platform at the Junction station because of the delay in connecting the rails with the other lines. This has resulted in trains finding it difficult to call at the station between 8.30 a.m. and 10.15 a.m. and from 4.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.

A Railway official said the reason for the delay remains a mystery.

“The General Manager can sanction up to Rs 50 crore for urgent works. Very often, funds are not channelised to ensure passenger amenities. The commissioning of the platform, the work on which got over around four years ago, would have considerably reduced the running time of trains which are at present held up in the station’s outskirts for want of berthing space.”

He suggested that such works be handed over to agencies like the Rail Vikas Nigam.

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