The Coimbatore Railway Struggle Committee delegation left for Chennai on Thursday night and is scheduled to meet the Assistant General Manager of Southern Railway on Friday to press for various demands relating to railway infrastructure of Coimbatore.
The committee would also meet the Chief Secretary and Highways Secretary seeking measures to expedite the pending land acquisition works for construction of road overbridges.
A decision to this effect was taken at the executive committee meeting held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Coimbatore MP P.R. Natarajan and convenor of the committee G.K. Nagaraj.
The delegation will ensure that the land acquisition process was expedited for gauge conversion of the Podanur – Pollachi section for nearly 7 k.m.
Frequent changes in Land Plan Schedule (LPS) by the highways in respect of lands to be acquired were delaying the land acquisition, the committee observed.
The committee would seek routing of the Yeswantpur – Kannur – Yeswantpur Express via Coimbatore.
Considering the superfast status of many other trains, the committee wanted four more pairs trains routed via Coimbatore immediately.
The trains sought to be routed via Coimbatore would include 12697/ 98 Chennai – Thiruvananthapuram Weekly Express, 12777/ 78 Kochuveli – Hubli Weekly Express (this would benefit Coimbatoreans to places such as Davangere, Ranibennur and Hubli for trading in silk and mulberry farming), 16855/ 56 Puducherry – Mangalore Central Express (providing connectivity for Coimbatore with Puducherry and additional connectivity with Mangalore), 12653/ 54 Tiruchirapalli – Mangalore Weekly Express.
The delegation would also press for turning the Coimbatore – Rameswaram Weekly Express into a permanent train service with increased frequency.
The other demands of the delegation for new overnight trains would include: Coimbatore – Mayiladuthurai, Coimbatore – Bangalore, Coimbatore – Thiruvananthapuram and an additional overnight train from Coimbatore to Chennai to ease the pressure on Cheran and Blue Mountain Express.
The delegation would also seek improvement of passenger amenities at Coimbatore true to the standards of an Adarsh station as announced in the budget.
The committee will seek improvement of amenities at stations such as Podanur, Coimbatore North, Peelamedu and Singanallur besides re-opening of en-route stations such as Veerapandi, Urumandampalayam and Thudialur on the Coimbatore – Mettuppalayam section.
