Union Minister for Railways Dinesh Trivedi will visit the State on September 19 and hold consultations with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and MPs from the State on the State's railway requirements, Kodikunnil Suresh, MP, has said.
Mr. Trivedi had agreed to come down after MPs from the State met him to discuss the need for more railway facilities and services in the State, Mr. Suresh told a press conference here on Friday. He said the State should be prepared to present its demands in a prioritised way.
The Railway Coach Factory in Palakkad; the wagon factory at Cherthala; pending doubling works on the Kayamkulam- Kottayam- Ernakulam, Kayamkulam- Alappuzha- Ernakulam, and Shoranur- Mangalore stretches; the Angamali- Sabari rail route; new trains to New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Gujarat, and North Eastern States; the delayed MEMU service; and the launch of new trains that were sanctioned in the recent railway budget should be given priority, the MP said.
Stating that Kerala's long-standing demand for a separate railway zone — Kerala now is part of the Southern Railway headquartered in Chennai — should be raised again, Mr. Suresh said the yet-to-take-off projects, including the railway medical college in Thiruvananthapuram and the Rail Neer project, for which land had been identified near Cheriyanad in Alappuzha district, too should be discussed with Mr. Trivedi.
