Take necessary action to materialize long standing rightious demand of train services

Admin

Kulithurai Railway Commuters’ Association, Marthandam, Kanyakumari District, Keral’s Secretary A. Charles requested to all concerned railway authorities to take necessary action to materialize long standing rightious demands of following train services.

With reference to the above subject, Association would like to put forward the following proposal for kind attention and consideration. Kulitturai (Marthadam) is the second biggest station in Kanyakumari district. For Train transportation the Kulitturai is the main hub for Kalkulam, Thiruvattar and Vilavancode talukas. The Kalkulam, Thiruvattar and Vilavancode talukas have the population around twelve lakhs.

The Kulitturai station is found to be centered between Trivandrum and Kanyakumari railway route. This railway station’s annual revenue in terms of Rupees is nearly eight crore and a daily passenger footfall is more than 5000. Therefore, railway authorities take necessary action to operate the following services.

• Provide stoppage for express trains which pass through Kulitturai railway station

Association would like to bring to the fact that, train nos. Tirunelveli – Jamnagar express (19577/78) and Nagercoil – Gandhidham express (16335/36) which are currently passing through Konkan railway route, offer effective connectivity between southern districts of Tamilnadu, especially Kanyakumari & Tirunelveli districts with suburban regions of Mumbai & important cities of Gujarat by the shortest route. In fact people not only from these regions but also other near by districts are also greatly benefited.

In this context, both these trains do not stop at Kulitturai station. People will be grateful if railway authorities look into this and take into consideration for ensuring stoppage for train no.19577/78 Tirunelveli-Jamnagar express and 16335/36 Nagercoil-Gandhidham express at Kulitturai railway station.

• Extension of any one Mangalore – Trivandrum  express to Tirunelveli

Three daily overnight express trains are operated between Mangalore and Trivandrum (Train Nos. 16347/16348, 16603/16604 & 16629/16630). Amongst these overnight express trains, the train plying between Mangalore & Trivandrum (16347/16348) Express can be extended up to Tirunelveli. This is long-felt genuine demand which is not yet fulfilled.

• Change the name of Kulitturai as Marthandam railway station

The Kulitturai railway station is situated at Marthandam which is the second largest town of the Kanyakumari district. Even though the name Kulitturai is not as popular as Marthandam, many people don’t know that Marthandam has a railway station in the name of Kulitturai. There is a long standing demand to change the name of Kulitturai railway station as Marthandam railway station. If the name of Kulitturai is changed as Marthandam railway station, it will become more popular among public of the different places of the country and it may attract more passengers and it will pave way to increase the revenue too of the particular railway station.

• Adequate Super-fast train services to Chennai

For a long time there was only one train service (Anathapuri express) to Chennai operated via Kulitturai. As it is operated from Kerala, as most of Kerala people occupy this service, it runs with always waiting list. Thus west Kanyakumari district (Kulitturai to Nagercoil section) people feel hardship to get tickets in this train. In the meantime This train is extended upto Kollam which again increased the hardship to get tickets. Therefore, it is needed to extend Tambaram – Nagercoil 22657/22658 & 12667/12668 weekly four days’ train should be extended to Kochuveli or Kollam via Nagercoil Town for the benefit of South Kerala and western Kanniyakumari district people.

• Extension of 16729/30 Madurai – Punalur Express train to Velankannai

Recently the railway department converted Madurai – Punalur passenger train to express service. Association request to extend 16729/30 Madurai-Punalur Express to Velankanni with revised new timings. This train should be via Nagercoil Town, Tiruchirapalli and Thanjavur. This train should reach Tiruchchirapalli around 6.00

• Extension of 16862/61 Kanniyakumari – Puducherry weekly express to Quilon

Railway is operating a weekly train 16861/16862 between the union territory of Puducherry and Kanniyakumari. The train is very useful for all passengers on this route. However, the present timing of the train is inconvenient to the passengers in both directions, because of which patronage is not up to the mark.  It is kindly requested that suitable arrangements may be made to extend this weekly train to Quilon. Also it is requested to convert the present weekly service to daily with revised timings.

• Clubbing of Tirunelveli-Nagercoil and Nagercoil-Trivandrum passenger train

Association request to club 56718 Tirunelveli-Nagercoil Passenger and Nagercoil-Kochuveli 56318 passenger clubbing as Tirunelveli-Kochuveli direct passengers (150 Km).  Also Return direction club anyone Trivandrum – Nagercoil passenger and Nagercoil – Tirunelveli 56717 passengers operate as Trivandrum-Tirunelveli direct passenger.

To cater to the passengers of Trivandrum and western Kanyakumari districts, the existing Trivandrum- Nagercoil 56311/56316 passenger be extended to Tirunelveli and convert to MEMU train. This will help these passengers in the form of a morning/evening connection to Tirunelveli, which they lack at the moment. It will also be of use to Nagercoil passengers to travel to Tirunelveli.

• Extension of 16345/16346 Lokmanya Tilak-Thiruvananthapuram Netravati Express to Kanyakumari

Recently the railway department has issued the order to short terminate the Mumbai – Kanyakumari 16381/16382 express at Pune. Since there would be no direct connectivity from Kulitturai to Mumbai. Therefore, it is kindly requested that extend 16345/16346 Lokmanya Tilak – Thiruvananthapuram Netravati Express to Kanniyakumari. Association also request Pune-Kanyakumari 16381/16382 train should be short terminated at Kochuveli itself.

Thus Association urge railway authorities that kindly to take necessary action to materialize long standing demands of Kulitturai passengers.