Residents of Belapu and surrounding villages on Friday, March 24, urged Konkan Railway Corporation to upgrade the Padubidri Railway Station to accommodate Express trains and rename it as “Paniyur Station”, in a memorandum submitted to the Station Master at the Station in Belapu Village, Udupi district.
Leading the residents, Belapu Gram Panchayat former president and SCDCC Bank Director Deviprasad Shetty said that Padubidri Station serves almost all areas of Kaup taluk and should be developed to handle Express trains. The taluk is witnessing development in multiple sectors, including education, industry and tourism and train connectivity is a must.
Only the Mangaluru Central-Madgaon Passenger that now runs as an Express , halts at the Padubidri Station. Halts for Thiruvananthapuram-Veraval Express and Madgaon-Mangaluru Central MEMU that were withdrawn during COVID-19 have not been restored, said Mr. Shetty. Besides restoring halts for these trains at Padubidri, the Railways should ensure halts for the Mangaluru Central-Mumbai CSMT Matsyagandha Express, Mangaluru Junction-Mumbai CSMT Superfast Express and Bengaluru-Karwar day as well as night Express, he demanded.
Since the station is located closer to Paniyur village, it should be named Paniyur Station, the residents said demanding proper connectivity to the main road to the residents residing on the western side of the Station. Roads from Paniyur and Belapu leading to the Station and the Road Over Bridge that were in bad shape should be restored.
Submitting the memorandum to Station Master Ganapathi Naik, the residents urged KRCL to fulfill their demands within one month, failing which they would stage massive protest and ‘Rail Roko’.
Presidents of Belapu and Bada Gram Panchayats Shobha Bhat and Jyothi Ganesh, Taluk Panchayat members U. Shekabba and Michael D’Souza and others were present in the delegation.
