Title - Tharoor’s slew of proposals

Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor has urged Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Vinay Mittal, Chairman, Railway Board, to make adequate provisions and incorporate necessary measures in the forthcoming Railway Budget for 2013-14, to facilitate early completion of all ongoing projects for infrastructure development and passenger amenities with regard to Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.Capping his personal efforts with the highest levels of the Railway administration during the past three years, Tharoor has invited particular attention to the budgetary and administrative support for timely completion of works for development of infrastructure, facilities and passenger amenities at Thiruvananthapuram Central Station for raising it to international standards.Development of Kochuveli and Nemom stations as functional extensions of Thiruvananthapuram Central Station and renaming them as Thiruvananthapuram North and Thiruvananthapuram South respectively has been sought once again. More funds should be allotted for developing passenger amenities and facilities at Kochuveli station and development of Nemom as a Coach Maintenance Hub of the Division, he urged.Seeking concrete steps for the setting up of  the announced Railway Medical College in the capital city, the Minister also demanded that sufficient funds should be allotted for the track doubling works in the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari sector.

Development of Kazhakkoottam station, in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, befitting its status as the service station for the internationally-acclaimed IT destination Technopark campus, has been highlighted in the proposals. Kazhakkoottam can be upgraded to ‘Adarsh’ station status as a prelude to this, Tharoor suggested.

Provision of much-need new coaches for rakes of all trains originating from Thiruvananthapuram Division is needed. This includes running of the Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai Duronto Express with LHB Rajdhani type coaches instead of ordinary coaches. Introduction of onboard house-keeping services in the Kerala and Mumbai Express trains and Mechanised Laundry Service at Thiruvananthapuram Central Station are other suggestions which have a found place in the Minister’s wish list.

Tharoor has also demanded extension of  the Kollam-Madurai Passenger to Nagapattinam or a new connecting passenger service from Madurai to Nagapattinam for the Kollam-Madurai passenger. Extension of Pune-Ernakulam Express, Coimbatore-Nagercoil Express and Kakinada-Kollam Express to Thiruvananthapuram has been demanded.

Additional stop at Kazhakkoottam station has been sought for all long-distance trains originating and terminating at Kochuveli station.