TIRUCHY: The Tiruchy Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Manish Agarwal, along with officials inspected the Tiruvarur - Karaikkudi route on Friday. Though the railway appointed gatekeepers on this section recently, it is yet to operate more services and is currently operating only one train on the route. In this background, the inspection of the top brass of the division has given new hope to passengers. According to sources, most passenger associations have requested the team to operate more trains on the route.
On February 22, the railway operated a freight train from Tiruvarur to Virudhanagar via Karaikkudi. This received much attention as the railway was running a freight train on Tiruvarur -Kararikkudi route after 12 years.
"Our major issue was the absence of gatekeepers on the route. Last month, the Tiruchy division addressed this and started running the train, covering 157 km in three and half hours against the earlier five hours. The freight service conducted on Tuesday received good response and transported 21 wagons of paddy. We are sure the railway would get more requests for freight services and officials are aware of the potential of this route. With gatekeepers now appointed, we hope our request for more services is considered," OP Kumaran, a resident of Karaikkudi, said.
Agarwal and other officials also visited Aranthangi, Pattukottai, Tilaivilagam and Tiruthuraipudi railway stations. Sources said that though there was a plan to skip the visit to Aranthangi, the team went ahead after receiving information that passengers were waiting for them at the station.
"We have requested for daily night and day express service between Karaikkudi and Chennai. Right now, the Tiruvarur-Karaikkudi train reaches Karaikkudi at 11.45 am. The return service from Karaikkudi starts at 4 pm. So, the train halts at Karaikkudi for about four hours. We have requested the officials to consider extending this service to Madurai," V Viveganatham, the secretary of Pattukottai Taluk Railway Passenger Association said.