Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha Member Nalin Kumar Kateel has urged the Ministry of Railways to extend the Howrah-Vasco-da-Gama Amaravathi Express to Mangaluru Central and Mangaluru Central-Thiruvananthapuram Central Maveli Express to Kanniyakumari.
In letters to the general managers of South Eastern Railway (SER) headquartered at Kolkata and Southern Railway at Chennai, Mr. Kateel has pointed out that rakes of these two trains have a lie-over period (of more than 16 hours for Amaravathi Express and 12 hours for Maveli Express) that could be utilised to enhance connectivity to and from Mangaluru.
Mr. Kateel told SER that a large number of people from the North-Eastern regions have developed connections with coastal Karnataka for education, industry and trade.
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On the other hand, there is no direct train connectivity between the Karnataka coast and Kolkata.
The only weekly train between Mangaluru Central and Santragachi (Howrah) traverses a circuitous route and is of no use to people in coastal Karnataka.
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The Amaravathi Express, reaching Vasco-da-Gama at 3.05 p.m., remains idle till it leaves the next day morning. It may be run to Mangaluru, leaving at 9.45 p.m. As the primary maintenance of its rake is done at Howrah, its secondary maintenance can be done at Mangaluru before it leaves at 12.10 a.m. There would be no change in the schedule on the Howrah-Madgaon-Howrah stretch, the MP said. Besides offering direct connectivity to Howrah, the extension would provide connectivity between coastal Karnataka towns and Hubbali region, which are not directly connected by train now, he said.
In the letter to Southern Railway, Mr. Kateel said that the Maveli Express remains idle at Thiruvananthapuram Central between 7.05 a.m. and 7.30 p.m.
It may thus be extended to Kanniyakumari, a distance of 87 km that takes about two-and-a-half hour, thereby benefiting passengers, he said.
Existing long-distance trains to Nagercoil are running full and not beneficial to travellers from the Mangaluru region, he pointed out.
No difficulty
As the rake of this train is primarily maintained at Mangaluru Central, there would not be much difficulty in extending the train to Kanniyakumari.
Thus, the Railways could improve connectivity to and from the Karnataka coast without introducing new trains; but with judicious utilisation of the lie-over period of these trains, Mr. Kateel said.