Moves are afoot to hand over the busy Nemom- Nagercoil- Kanyakumari and Nagercoil- Tirunelveli corridors under the Thiruvananthapuram railway division to the Madurai division.
Authorities are eliciting the views of key departments at the zonal headquarters in Chennai to expedite the transfer in exchange of the Shencottah-Kollam section from the Madurai division to the Thiruvananthapuram division, railway sources said.
Political backing
Although the move, initiated by the Railway Board with political backing, is to hand over the territory under the Assistant Divisional Engineer, Nagercoil, to the Madurai division, it will not materialise as its jurisdiction comes up to the Thiruvananthapuram Central yard.
Officials say the Thiruvananthapuram division will have to part with 160 km of rail line if the move goes through. Though Thiruvananthapuram division officials are in the dark about the move, it is based on a letter of Director, Efficiency and Research, Railway Board, Sudhir Chandra Kumar to the Southern Railway General Manager seeking his opinion.
Demand in TN
Under pressure from passenger associations seeking development of the stations under Nagercoil Junction and Kanyakumari, the board had written to the zonal headquarters on the transfer of the two lines earlier too.
The move has the backing of Union Minister of State for Ministry or Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan, the BJP MP from Nagercoil.
Political decision
“We have no information and there is no correspondence with the zonal headquarters. Such a transfer only needs a political decision,” Divisional Railway Manager Prakash Bhutani told The Hindu .
Formed in 1979
The division was formed on October 2, 1979 carving out the Shoranur-Kochi Harbour section from the erstwhile Olavakkode division and the Ernakulam-Thiruvananthapuram section from the Madurai division.
The move comes 10 years after the formation of a rail division based in Salem carving out some sections from the Palakkad division. Of the 1,169 km of rail line in the Palakkad division, 623 km had to be parted for the Salem division. The promised rail zone to Kerala in compensation is still on paper.
