Title - Core group to strengthen Rail Struggle Committee's efforts

Delegation to meet GM S. Rly, State Chief Secretaryand Highways Secretary on June 8. The Coimbatore Railway Struggle Committee, at its executive committee meeting held on Monday, has resolved to form a 40-member core committee to strengthen its efforts to ensure the due railway rights for Coimbatore. It was also decided to raise the strength of the Struggle Committee to 5,000 members.The meeting was presided over by Coimbatore MP P.R. Natarajan and was attended by convenor G.K. Nagarajan, Vanitha Mohan – Managing Trustee of Siruthuli, M. Kandasamy – president of CODISSIA, K. Ramakrishnan of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam besides representatives of nearly 72 organisations. The meeting pointed out that of the 13 pairs of trains that were sought to be routed via Coimbatore, the Struggle Committee had so far succeeded in getting a stoppage for Yeswantpur – Kannur – Yeswantpur Express at Podanur. Hitherto, the train was not stopping at Podanur.In addition, the Tirunelveli – Bilaspur – Tirunelveli Express has been routed via Coimbatore. Southern Railway has already announced the routing of two more trains, the Alleppey – Chennai – Alleppey Daily Express and Thiruvananthapuram – Mumbai CSTM Weekly Express via Coimbatore from September.There are nine more pairs of trains skipping Coimbatore. The Struggle Committee pointed out that Southern Railway was keen to operate these trains on the Podanur – Irugur single line section while the Coimbatore – Irugur double line remains underutilised. The meeting also pointed out that all along, trains were skipping Coimbatore citing the single line bottleneck and the discrimination continued even after the doubling of this line. While there was a move to double the Podanur – Irugur single line, such a measure would result in Coimbatore continuing to be neglected.Coimbatore Region Malayalis Association chairman C.V. Sunny, represented by M.R. Das, thanked the Southern Railway for routing four trains and urged the Southern Railway to route even the remaining trains to cater to the growing travel needs to Kerala. It would benefit a large number of Keralites living in this region, he added.Citing the overwhelming response to the Coimbatore – Rameswaram – Coimbatore Weekly Express, it urged the Southern Railway to make it a permanent service and enhance its frequency into a tri-weekly service as it provided connectivity to seven southern districts. The committee also sought overnight direct train service to Puducherry, Mayiladuthurai, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and Shencottah besides an additional overnight train service to Chennai to cater to the growing demand.The meeting also urged the Southern Railway to make the Coimbatore Junction into a friendly station for the physically challenged by creating ramp facility and introduction of more wheel-chairs and stretchers for ailing passengers.The committee also pressed for speedy implementation of the Adarsh Railway Station Project for Coimbatore and speedy implementation of the Coimbatore – Mettupalayam line electrification for introduction of Main Line Electrical Multiple Units (MEMU) and also called for reviving the stations such as Thudialur, Urumandampalayam and Veerapandi.The committee also called for removal of the pantry car in the overnight Cheran Express as it could augment the train with one more sleeper class coach.The meeting also expressed displeasure at the inordinate delay in the land acquisition process that has slowed down the pace of the Podanur – Pollachi gauge conversion and two road overbridges at railway level crossings.In this connection, the delegation also met the District Revenue Officer Karpagam and sought speedy processing of the land acquisition work. The delegation will also meet the Highways Secretary and Chief Secretary in this regard at Chennai on June 8.