The Railway Ministry has given in-principle approval to introducing the much sought-after express trains from Mangaluru to Ahmedabad and Rameswaram. The only remaining thing to be done is the Ministry issuing notifications for the introduction of these services.
Since Ahmedabad Junction is already saturated, the Ministry is learnt to have decided to run the Mangaluru Central-Ahmedabad Service (about 1,340 km) till Bhavnagar (about 1,640 km) in Gujarat.
People in the region have long been demanding the introduction of these services connecting Mangaluru with Gujarat and the pilgrimage centre of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.
Pashchima Karavali Rail Yatri Abhivriddhi Samithi president G. Hanumanth Kamath said that the demands were at least five years old. Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel recently wrote to the Railway Minister demanding introduction of these trains, he noted.
When asked, Divisional Railway Manager of Southern Railway’s Palakkad Division Trilok Kothari told The Hindu that the railway zones concerned approved the introduction of these trains as weekly services at the recent Indian Railway Time Table Committee (IRTTC) meeting.
However, lots of preliminary work, including arranging rakes, locomotives, deciding timings, etc., has to be carried out. Finding available paths too is crucial, he said.
Mr. Kamath said that the coast districts have strong business ties with Gujarat and hundreds of people travel regularly between the regions for business purposes, including trading in arecanut and building material. Similarly, over 1,500 Gujarati families have settled down in Mangaluru and they too needed direct connectivity.
On the other hand, there is no direct train connectivity between Mangaluru and the pilgrimage centre of Rameswaram. Thousands of pilgrims from the region have to interchange trains to reach Rameswaram either at Madurai (Dadar-Tirunelveli Weekly Express), Coimbatore (Mangaluru Central-Coimbatore Intercity Express) or at Tiruchirapalli (Mangaluru Central-Puduchery Weekly Express and Mangaluru Central-Chennai Egmore Daily Express), he noted.
The distance between Mangaluru and Rameswaram is about 810 km on the shortest route by road and about 900 km by rail on the shortest route.
As Mr. Kateel had taken the initiative of demanding introduction of these services, the samithi is confident that the MP will take the issue to the logical end by urging the Railway Minister to introduce the services at the earliest, Mr. Kamath said.
The samithi will soon meet the MP with a request in this regard, he added.
