COIMBATORE: Coimbatore MP P R Natarajan requested Southern Railway GM RN Singh to take steps to form Coimbatore Railway division, consisting of Kinathukkadavu and Pollachi stations, during a meeting at Salem Railway division office in Salem on Thursday.
The MP’s reiterated the request of several people, including MLAs and representatives of train passenger welfare associations. They have been requesting the railway to resume trains to southern districts including Rameshwaram and Tuticorin from Coimbatore railway station through Kinathukkadavu and Pollachi railway stations, as Coimbatore station is the third revenue generator in the state.
“Currently, Kinathukkadavu and Pollachi stations come under Palakkad railway division and these should be included while forming the Coimbatore Railway division for the betterment of the station and lakhs of passengers who depend on the train services. Currently, weekly trains are being operated to Rameswaram and we urge the railways to run the train daily apart from the intercity train to Madurai,” Natarajan said.
“I also questioned the officials about the delay to extend Mangalore to Coimbatore train up to Mettupalayam, which was announced by the then Railway Minister Piyush Goyal three years ago in the budget. I also request the southern railway officials to send a proposal to the railway board about doubling of track between Coimbatore to Mettupalayam,” Natarajan told TNIE.
The MP has also requested the GM to take steps to operate Coimbatore - Bangalore train and ensure the trains should stop at Singanallur and Irugur as they used to do before the pandemic. MPs AKP Chinraj (Namakkal), A Ganeshamurthi (Erode), SR Parthiban (Salem), DNV Senthil Kumar S. (Dharmapuri) and K Subbarayan (Tiruppur) also spoke in the meeting.