The Coach Factory Protection Committee will organise protest march to Palakkad and Shoranur railway stations on Wednesday, demanding that the Railways start work on the coach factory at Kanjikode.
In a statement here on Tuesday, Council Chairman K.E. Ismail, M.P. and Convenor M.B. Rajesh, M.P., said that people of Palakkad had been waiting for the coach factory since the 1980s. The Central government had promised to set up a coach factory at Kanjikode then, but it was decided later to allot the project to Kapurthala in Punjab. The decision had resulted in mass protests and agitations. But after a long gap when the Palakkad Railway Division was bifurcated and Salem Division created, Palakkad was promised the coach factory.
But again, no step was taken to start the work. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and all MPs from Kerala, irrespective of political differences, had urged that Central government to sanction the factory last year. It was announced in the last Railway budget, but work was yet to begin. Works on coach factories announced after Kanjikode — at Kancharappara in West Bengal and Rai Bareily in Uttar Pradesh — had already begun, the statement said.
They said that the coach factory would help the development of Palakkad district and the State as a whole. It would bring many ancillary industries and provide employment to thousands of people. So the Centre and Railways should see to it that the work on the factory was not delayed.
