Title - Augment facilities at railway stations, says association

The Kanyakumari District Railway User's Association here has urged the Southern Railway to provide infrastructure in all railway stations in the district and to construct a new railway station at Parvathipuram.The secretary , P. Edward Jeni, told The Hindu that Kanyakumari was a renowned tourist and pilgrim centre. But it lacked proper rail connectivity with other cities and towns.The reasons were insufficient platforms and terminal facilities at Kanyakumari and Nagercoil stations.Though these stations earned good revenue, they had been neglected for long, he said. Presently, trains operated from Kanyakumari station were brought to Nagercoil, located at a distance of 16 km for maintenance as there were no adequate facilities to maintain or park trains at Kanyakumari. Nagercoil terminal has become congested considering the fact that it has limited infrastructure. Therefore additional trains or extension of services, expected in the near future would be possible only if the basic infrastructure facilities were provided.Moreover, there was an urgent need to construct a new railway terminal with at least three pitlines and adequate stabling lines at Kanyakumari. This would pave way to operate more trains from Kanyakumari and to avoid empty shunting of trains to Nagercoil. He also stressed the need for the construction of two additional platforms (24 coaches), pitlines and stabling lines for parking and undertaking maintenance of trains in Nagercoil junction, to ease congestion.

Regarding the need to construct a railway station at Parvathipuram, he said that Kanyakumari has become a hub of educational institutions and business centres for Keralites and hence, quite a large number of students as well teaching staff commute by train.

For their benefit, the Southern Railway should construct a railway station at Parvathipuram, in Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil section. This station would be easily accessible to people than the existing station at Nagercoil junction.

The Southern Railway should also convert Kuzhithurai, Eraniel, Valliyur and Nanguneri stations as three line crossing stations. This would increase the line capacity between Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli and Nagercoil.