Title - Halt for Vanchinad Express at Tripunithura

The fiveyear long wait coupled with the incessant efforts of the Tripunithura Rajanagari Union Residents Association (TRURA) has finally borne fruit with the Southern Railway deciding to allay the traffic woes by allotting a halt for Vanchinad Express (Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram) at Tripunithura from October 2. “Though we demanded stoppage for Parasuram and Island Express, we are content that Vanchinad has been allowed a halt here, says commuters.TRURA chairman K P Prasad said they had to stage protests, including dharnas, towards this. “We started our fight for a halt for more trains in Tripunithura since 2008. Initially, our residents association was not strong. However, we submitted memorandums to various people’s representatives including MPs and ministers and Railway authorities,” he said. Prasad added that the protest was against the apathetic attitude of the authorities towards the genuine demand of the people. “In 2011, we staged several dharnas at Statue Junction. In 2010 and 2012, we arranged family meets and ensured the participation of the politicians including the MP, Union Minster, ministers and municipal authorities. We made it clear that we would stage more protests in this regard. It was the sincere efforts of P Rajeeve MP that realised our demand,” he said. Rajeev MP said he had to convince the Railway authorities that the station had proper ticket sale.

 “With the help of the residents association, we proved that the Tripunithura Railway Station could collect `44 lakh from ticket sales in October 2011.

 Compared to Karunagapally, where 13 express trains stopped, only two trains had stops here - Venad and Chennai Mail.

 This was brought to the attention of Railway authorities,” he said.

 He added that it was likely that Parasuram too get a stop at Tripunithura on the basis of the ticket sale of Vanchinad Express It was earlier announced that the train will have an additional stop at Tripunithura from September 26 onwards.

 The time of the train will be 5.

14 a.

m and 9.

44 p.

m.