RailEnquiry

Railway Budget presented by the Union Railway Minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal, on Tuesday has evoked mixed response from the passengers of southern districts.Passengers of southern districts have been offered five new express trains, two new passenger trains, extension of five trains and increase in frequency of three trains. Among them, the long-pending demand for a second train connecting southern districts with Bangalore has been met with the announcement of Nagercoil-Bangalore daily express train.But it would be run on a circuitous route covering Madurai and Tiruchi as against the expected Madurai-Dindigul-Karur route. However, the train would make up for the loss of train as it would run on the Karur-Namakkal-Salem route, the Additional Divisional Railway Manager, V. Ajith Kumar said.On the same route of Karur-Namakkal-Salem, another express train between Chennai and Palani has been announced. The Coimbatore-Rameswaram (weekly) and Chennai-Karaikudi (weekly) are the two other trains. The two pilgrimage towns of Palani and Tiruchendur would be connected by a daily passenger.A second train connecting Tuticorin directly with Chennai would be made possible by extending the Chennai-Madurai portion of the Chennai-Guruvayur Express trains.“Instead of de-linking eight coaches at Madurai, we can run them up to Tuticorin,” the ADRM said.Karaikudi would get another direct train service to Chennai with the extension of Chennai-Tiruchi Express.Similarly, the overnight Madurai-Kollam Passenger would be extended to Punalur.Mr. Ajith Kumar was confident of introducing all the three trains announced in the last Railway Budget by the end of March.Among them are extension of Chennai-Kacheguda up to Madurai, Tirunelveli-Dadar Express via Konkan railway and Madurai-Dehradun/ Chandigarh Express.The Madurai-Dehradun/ Chandigarh Express, which was announced as a weekly train in the last budget, has been made a bi-weekly express now.However, passengers of the Madurai-Shencottah sector have a major disappointment.Ever since the broad gauge section between Virudhunagar and Rajapalayam was introduced in 2003, the sector has so far got only three pairs of passenger trains and only one express train connecting Chennai in the last 10 years.“We have been demanding a second express train to Chennai to meet the growing demand. It is a disappointment this time also. Besides, students and business people need a direct train connecting Erode and Coimbatore. But, that too has not been met,” former president of Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers’ Association, A.P. Selvarajan, said.The 164-long section has been under-utilised by the railways, the passengers feel. The Rajapalayam Chamber of Commerce had demanded a link express connecting the Vaigai Express.However, the Virudhunagar MP, B. Manicka Tagore, hoped that the opening of Manamadurai-Virudhunagar broad gauge section should open link for the Virudhunagar-Shencottah section with Rameswaram. “We can seek extension of the Chennai-Karaikudi train service up to Shencottah,” he said.The Sattur Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the railway budget for not increasing the rail fare. Its general secretary, P.T.K.A. Balasubramanian, deplored the increase in reservation fare for super fast express trains.