COIMBATORE: With the Coimbatore Railway station ranking 30th in passenger movement and 38th in revenue among the 7,500 railway stations across the country for the year 2024, representatives of Kongu Global Forum and Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry have pointed out that the station still lacks additional platforms to handle the increasing passenger and train movements.
They also urged the railways to strengthen the infrastructure and operate additional trains for the benefit of passengers.
While one crore passengers used the Coimbatore railway station and a revenue of Rs 325 crore was generated, Mettupalayam station alone got a revenue of Rs 17 crore, with 16 lakh passengers using the station in 2024. The railway is yet to release data for 2025.
The members questioned what steps have been taken by the railway officials to increase the number of platforms, as despite having only six platforms, the Coimbatore railway station performed well in the passenger and revenue levels. Sources said that 115 trains halt and 34 trains originate from the station, including 67 superfast and 50 express trains along with Vande Bharat Express, two Rajdhani Expresses, and one each of Shatabdi, Uday, and Jan Shatabdi Express.
J Sathish, director of Kongu Global Forum said, "This is a big achievement by the Coimbatore railway station at a time when the railway has made only little progress in terms of development for passenger amenities as well as the introduction of new trains in 20 years.
Southern railway officials have not prepared the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for developing the station under the Amrit Bharat scheme or any other schemes. The action taken to implement such schemes should be conveyed to the public.
Moreover, despite filing appeals and sending petitions to MPs, MLAs and railway officials, no action has been taken to restore trains to Rameswaram, Sengottai, and Madurai that were being operated when the Coimbatore to Pollachi railway route was in metre gauge status," he said.
He added that despite the railway section having been converted into broad gauge from metre gauge with works completed over ten years ago, there have been no trains connecting the southern states.
S Natarajan, Vice President of Indian Chamber of Commerce said the railway should implement the overnight train to Bengaluru from Coimbatore railway station apart from increasing the amenities such as escalator and lift facilities in platform numbers 3 to 6 along with providing more space for parking both two-wheelers and four-wheelers and ensuring more vegetarian and non-vegetarian hotels function on the station premises.