Kollam MP N Peethambara Kurup, in a letter addressed to the Thiruvananthapuram divisional railway manager, has urged the officials to immediately make claim for the MEMU rake which has been lying abandoned at Palakkad since last week.
In his letter, he stated that a MEMU rake was brought for operating on the Kollam-Thirunelveli route last week, but the rake was lying neglected in the goods shed in Palakkad, as the Thiruvananthapuram division officials are yet to claim it.
Kurup alleged that the Thiruvananthapuram division officers were purposefully delaying the process to aid certain lobbies.
“Some of the officials are stalling the move so that the rake can be given away to some other division outside Kerala. As representatives of the people, we demand that the railway officials immediately make claim for the MEMU rake which will otherwise go Tamil Nadu or any other state,” he told Express.
The Kollam-Thirunelveli MEMU service was supposed to kick-start seven months ago. “Various strings had to be pulled to receive the MEMU. However, now that we have received the rake, it has been left neglected at Palakkad. At present, we have also placed a request so that the MEMU route can be extended from Thirunelveli to Nagercoil,” he said.
However, the Thiruvananthapuram division officials cite technical reasons for the delay in claiming the rake. “There are no sufficient loco pilots to run the rake and clearance for running the train has not been received. Also, there is no space to keep the rake anywhere in the Thiruvananthapuram division,” the official said.
But the MP has rubbished the claims, stating that there has been no problems so far in running the other trains through the route.