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Our Bureau

Coimbatore , Aug 1

A WEEKLY express train from Coimbatore to Jaipur via Chennai to meet the long-pending demand of the people from Rajasthan living in and around Coimbatore will be introduced, the Minister of State for Railways, Mr R. Velu, has said.

He, however, did not indicate any specific time frame for the introduction on the ground that the logistics would have to be worked out.

The railways will also explore the possibility of advancing the departure of Coimbatore-Kurla (Mumbai) express by a few hours so as to provide an overnight travel facility to Bangalore and also help the passengers reach Kurla early in the morning on the second day, he said.

Speaking to newspersons in Coimbatore after flagging off the extended Coimbatore-Erode-Chennai Egmore express, he said work on the two railway over bridges in Coimbatore - on the Ukkadam by-pass and on the Tiruchi road at Ondipudur would be completed by May next.

But the widening of the bridge on Avanashi road is awaiting the response of the State Government, which wanted it to be a six-lane bridge (the railway proposal was for a two-lane bridge), as to whether it will bear the additional cost though it was eight months since the railways wrote to the Government in this regard.

The Minister, responding to the plea for forming a railway division with headquarters at Salem or Coimbatore by bifurcating the Palakkad railway division, said the formation of a railway zone or a division was not `state centric'.

The decision was based on certain parameters such as how central is the location, its traffic potential and the geographical coverage. He admitted that a major area of the Palakkad division was in Tamil Nadu.

If Coimbatore or Salem division is formed, the Palakkad division would have to be closed for which there was a lot of resistance there.

There was a demand for formation of a railway zone in Kerala and it was not viable to form a zone that will have only one and one quarter of a division (the Thiruvananthapuram division and whatever was left of Palakkad division if there was any bifurcation). He said the railways were examining various alternatives and would attempt to arrive at `certain practical solutions'.

On the demand for either running slip coaches from here to Palakkad or extension of the Palakkad-Thiruvananthapuram Amrita express to Coimbatore to provide an overnight service between Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram in view of the huge passenger demand on this sector, Mr Velu said an exclusive coach from Coimbatore would be added to the Sabari Express to mitigate the problem, pending expansion of the Shoranur railway station platform.

However, when pointed out that this would not meet the demand of the Coimbatore people for an overnight link to Thiruvananthapuram since Sabari Express left here in the morning, he said the demand was `reasonable' and assured that the railways would examine the issue.

He said the issue of opening a railway reservation counter at Peelamedu in Coimbatore was being pursued and once suitable accommodation was finalised, the counter would be opened.

The railways would also examine the traffic pattern to decide on the question of providing a stop at the Peelamedu station for the incoming trains.

On the request for advancing the departure of Coimbatore-Kurla express by a few hours-from the existing 5 a.m. to around 11 p.m. to provide an overnight travel facility to Bangalore, Mr S. Anantharaman, Chief Passenger Transportation Manager, Southern Railway, Chennai, said the Bangalore railway terminal was one of the most highly utilised in the country and there was no possibility of receiving a new train there in the early morning.

But when pointed out that the Kurla express from here would not reach Bangalore before 5 a.m., the Minister said the demand could then be considered. It would also enable the passengers from here to reach Kurla in the morning of the second day, instead of noon at is happens now.

Earlier, speaking at the function, the Minister said he had asked the Southern railway authorities to consider again the question of acquiring the land of a closed NTC mill adjacent to the railway station to facilitate expansion of the Coimbatore station.

He assured that work on the doubling of the railway track between Irugur and Coimbatore would be completed by 2006-07.

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