The process to address the long-pending demand of coastal people for augmenting train handling capacity at Mangaluru Central Railway Station has commenced with the Southern Railway floating tender for the construction of a new 24-coach pitline to replace the existing 18-coach pitline.
Southern Railway’s Palakkad Division hopes to complete the new pitline work, estimated to cost about ₹ 7 crore, by March next, paving the way for demolition of the existing pitline. This, in turn, would facilitate the construction of two new platforms — platforms 4 and 5 — at Central Railway Station thereby enhancing train handling capacity.
Divisional Railway Manager Pratap Singh Shami told The Hindu that tenders for pitline construction (₹ 7.37 crore) as well as modification of overhead electric lines (₹ 31.68 lakh) were called for two weeks ago. The Railway Board had earlier assigned pitline and platform works to the Construction Organisation of the Southern Railway. The division sought the nod of headquarters to execute these works through its own Open Line wing as there was delay in the execution of the work while capacity augmentation had to be done expeditiously, he said.
While work on the new pitline construction would go on, preparations to launch the construction of new platforms would also be taken up simultaneously, including preparing the final plan and finalising the tender. By the time the new pitline is ready, hopefully by March next, work on the new platforms should also start. If everything goes as planned, new platforms too should be ready by 2021-end, Mr. Shami said.
A senior official said that the existing pitline was a non-standard one with a small curve that was not advisable. The new one, he said, would be a standard one and offer unhindered cleaning and maintenance of coaches.
Welcoming the developments, West Coast Rail Yatri Sangha advisor Anil Hegde told The Hindu that the long-standing demand of the coastal people for capacity augmentation at Central Railway Station was being fulfilled now. This would facilitate the introduction of new trains, particularly to destinations within the State as well as to North India, he said.
