Kerala - Kochi   

Janshatabdi through Kottayam sought

KOCHI: The Railway Ministry must come up with an action plan and time frame to complete the much delayed rail-doubling and electrification works in the Mangalore-Thiruvananthapuram sector and the introduction of new trains in high-passenger-density corridors, the State Committee of the Railway Passengers’ Association has demanded.

Passengers have for long been demanding that a pairing train to the Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode Janshatabdi Express ply in the morning from Kozhikode to the State capital, through Kottayam. This would benefit passengers who now pack themselves into crowded trains that ply to and from Thiruvananthapuram.

The Railways must also introduce a modern signalling system in Kerala, to speed up trains and prevent delays, said U. V. Dinesh Mani, general secretary. Expressing concern at railway development in the State stagnating for many years, he said that Kerala urgently needs more passenger and suburban trains, since roads are getting choked like never before. The State Government must hand over land so that doubling works can be speeded up.

Yet another demand is to augment amenities at railway stations. A case in point is that the eastern entries to the Ernakulam Junction and Town railway stations do not even have platform-indication boards and enquiry counters, something which can be done at the regional level. Thus, passengers have to climb the foot-overbridge twice, since they walk all the way to platform one to see the board and then return to their platform. The Railways have also been unable to extend platform six at the Junction railway station and throw it open for trains, around a decade since work began.

A regional meeting of consumer/rail-passenger organizations and residents’ associations, held here recently had demanded that next week’s Railway budget be presented with a broad, national outlook. They alleged that successive Railway Ministers at the Centre were focused on beginning new trains and augmenting rail infrastructure in their States alone, ignoring the ground reality in other areas. Kerala has all along been denied her due in the budget and had to settle for piecemeal funds and schemes, they said and sought the introduction of more unreserved coaches in express trains. They condemned the move to deny travel facilities in express trains to short-distance passengers.

Meanwhile, K N R Nair, a senior citizen in the city who has been taking up with the Union Railway Ministry the cause of railway passengers in the State, demanded a performance audit of the Trivandrum Division of Southern Railway. “No worthwhile development work is taking place in the Division. Land acquisition for line-doubling works must be hastened under the fast-track scheme. Contractors are hesitant to take up many civil works of the Railways since the agency has a fixed rate across the country. The wages and cost of raw materials are higher in Kerala than in most other States and hence must be reworked, so that line-doubling and overbridge projects are not indefinitely held up,” he said.

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