Title - Railway authorities refuse to reroute trains via Kovai junction

COIMBATORE: Pointing out that rerouting trains via Coimbatore junction involves additional running time, railway authorities have said it would not be possible to reroute 8 trains via the city junction in the near future. Southern railway general manager Rakesh Misra, in a written reply to the demands represented by Coimbatore MP P R Natarajan, has said that trains running via Coimbatore take an additional 28 minutes compared to Irugur-Podhanur-Irugur section. "Efforts are being taken to improve running speed by infrastructure improvements," he said, adding that rerouting more trains via Coimbatore will be possible only after this.Expressing displeasure over the manner in which the railway authorities find ways to postpone rerouting trains, P R Natarajan said that this was contrary to the assurances given by them earlier. "There is no valid reason for Kerala bound trains to skip Coimbatore junction as easy dispatch of trains from Podhanur to Coimbatore has now been enhanced," he said. According to him, with the Podhanur-Coimbatore double line and North Coimbatore-Irugur double line in operation and the revamping of Podhanur yard, the demands should have been met with immediately.

Coimbatore MP had represented the demands of this region to the southern railway general manager during a meeting held on September 20. Presently, 11 daily, 18 weekly, 3 biweekly and another 3 tri-weekly trains run via Coimbatore. Rakesh Misra replied in the negative to a demand for introduction of overnight trains between Coimbatore-Chennai in a communication, a copy of which is available with TOI. "Line capacity over Coimbatore-Katpadi section is highly saturated," he said, adding that line capacity utilisation is 111% between Katpadi-Jolarpettai, 120% between Jolarpettai-Erode and 117% between Erode-Coimbatore.

Demand for extending Palakakad-Trivandrum Amrita express to Coimbatore was also not well received as the official said that the section between Palakkad and Podanur is also highly saturated with the line capacity utilisation being 118%. "Consultative committees of Salem and Palakkad divisions need to examine and forward the proposal to the railway board," he added.