Railways unable to keep pace with demand for services

Despite increase in trains over the years, long distance connectivity and trip frequency remain major issues for travellers in the Union Territory

September 30, 2019 01:09 am | Updated 02:05 pm IST - PUDUCHERRY

Residents have been demanding better rail connectivity between Puducherry and rest of the country, especially to southern States.

Residents have been demanding better rail connectivity between Puducherry and rest of the country, especially to southern States.

While train services through the city have undeniably increased over the years, passengers are faced with severely restricted choices when it comes to planning travel to destinations across the country, far or near.

The 30-odd trains in operation serve only a fraction of the needs of passengers or tourists visiting this popular get-away destination. An estimated 109 train trips originate and terminate at Puducherry railway station.

Though weekly trains have been introduced to long-haul destinations such as New Delhi and Bhubaneswar, train services remain grossly inadequate for destinations such as Chennai and Bengaluru, routes largely served by private bus services, or to major cities in Tamil Nadu, while connectivity is bi-weekly to Kerala and Mangaluru.

Residents have been clamouring for more services, increasing frequency of existing services and boosting connectivity by extending trains that terminate at nearby stations to Puducherry. Among the popular demands are extension of Puducherry-Mangalore train to run thrice a week, hourly train services between Puducherry-Villupuram, daily services to Bengaluru and fast-tracking the Tindivanam-Puducherry-Cuddalore project that would open up access to southern cities of Tamil Nadu and beyond.

Trips to Chennai

Rail passengers have demanded raising frequency of trains between Puducherry and Chennai for every half an hour as there is a double broad guage line already available from Tindivanam to Chennai. The introduction of a Shatabdi train for quicker travel to Chennai (it now takes around four hours by train and three and a half hours by bus) was another popular demand.

One of the most important demands before augmenting services from the station was the establishment of pit line meant for servicing and maintenance of coaches. Now, all the long distance trains after reaching the Puducherry rail terminus return to the Villupuram station to carry out maintenance and repairs.

“It is an extra financial burden and causes inconvenience to road users as the level crossings had to be closed frequently,” a railway official at the Puducherry Station said.

There was enough land available in the station for the construction of a pit line, the official said and added that the matter had been raised with higher officials several times.

According to R. Venketesh, a resident of Thattanchavady, the railways had failed to tap into the huge potential in operating a Puducherry-Chennai service. Hundreds of people commute daily between Chennai and Puducherry.

High-speed chair cars

“Passengers will prefer to travel on high-speed limited chair car services. It can fetch good revenue during weekends,” he said.

The railways should also consider increasing rail connectivity between Puducherry and neighbouring States. “Every month hundreds of people visit Sabarimala. But there is no connectivity to the Kottayam region, which is closest to the mountain shrine. Now, the rail connectivity to that State is only to the Malabar region, which cannot be depended upon by the devotees,” said Alex, a resident of Lawspet. Mr. Venketesh also said more connectivity to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh would help increase traffic footfall.

Between 2014-15 and 2017-18, the development in services was the extension of T.No.76852/76851 Tiruchirapalli-Nagore-Tiruchirapalli DEMU passenger to Karaikal. In addition, three express trains were speeded up.

According to Railway sources, the bottlenecks to increasing line capacity include the lack of a pit line facility at Puducherry and spare capacity available at Villupuram.

Rajya Sabha MP N. Gokulakrishnan who had raised the demands for higher connectivity via Villupuram at a recent Railway meet in Tiruchi, was informed that at present, five pairs of passenger trains are serving the Villupuram-Puducherry section and that the number of services would be increased with the conversion of the Valavanur station into a block station.

Primary impediment

One of the primary impediments to increasing frequency is the single line stretch on the route which restricts operational flexibility. Services have to be planned by blocking an estimated 50 km for express/passenger trains to pass through. One of the measures pursued by the Railways has been to have intermediate blocks at stations like Villianur and Valavanur en route to Villupuram to hold trains there while allowing other services to pass through as a means of circumventing the constraints of a single line.

“There are virtually no crossing stations between Chinna Babu Samudram and Puducherry, so we end up with a line block for a fair distance when a train service in either direction is on the tracks,” a Railway official pointed out. Plans are afoot to develop the stations at Villianur and Valavanur so that the line capacity could be raised, he said.

According to Mr. Gokulakrishnan, in the absence of direct rail connectivity, passengers have to go to the Villupuram junction to reach destinations in southern Tamil Nadu, which is a circuitous route. A reconnaissance engineering cum traffic survey for new a broad gauge line in the Tindivanam-Puducherry-Cuddalore (73.66 km) section was conducted and the report has been sent to the Railway Board. Though the Railway Board had shelved the project at present, Southern Railways has stated it would press for reconsideration.

Anticipating an increase in rail traffic at the Puducherry station, two pit lines for maintenance facilities have been proposed in the East Coast Railway project.

The feasibility of building a new station at Velrampet is under consideration.

Completed projects

Traction work that have been completed include overhead line modification while extension of platform 3 and the electrification of Tiruchirapalli-Karaikal line are under process.

On the security front, the Railways constructed a wall along the front periphery of the station and doors at the main entrance.

Escalators for three platforms and a proposal under the Nirbhaya Fund for installation of CCTV cameras were being processed, officials said.

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