General Manager of Southern Railway John Thomas has said that the Mangaluru Railway Area should be able to handle more number of passenger trains once various infrastructure augmentation works taken up, are completed in about a year.
Speaking from Chennai through a virtual press conference last week, Mr. Thomas dismissed suggestions that Southern Railway was not catering to passenger train facilities from Mangaluru to other parts of the State and Mumbai in Maharashtra.
“No new trains were introduced in the recent past towards the South (Kerala-Tamil Nadu) and the existing ones are old ones. Southern Railway was coordinating with South Western Railway on introduction/operation of intra-State passenger trains,” he said.
Southern Railway has taken up infrastructure augmentation works at Mangaluru Central, including yard remodelling, construction of a new pitline and two additional platforms and doubling of the 1.5-km line between Netravathi Cabin and Central. These works, along with ongoing tunnel work between Padil and Jokatte (Kulashekara tunnel), upon their completion, would offer additional space to operate more trains, Mr. Thomas said.
To a suggestion that residents of coastal Karnataka were not getting their due insofar as railway facilities are concerned due to lack of coordination between Southern Railway, South Western Railway and Konkan Railway, Principal Chief Operations Manager Neenu Itteyerah said: “We are in constant touch with officials of the other two zones and have been working towards ensuring smooth operation of trains to and from Mangaluru.”
