Request on restoring southern rail routes sent to Railways Minister

Rail enthusiasts from Coimbatore met S. Venkatesan, Member of Parliament, Madurai Constituency and DRM, Madurai in Madurai on Wednesday.

During the meet, a request for the restoration of train services from Coimbatore to Madurai through the shortest route via Palani which was running successfully during the Meter guage era, was placed.

Coimbatore is among the fastest growing cities in Tamil Nadu and the third highest revenue generating station in Southern Railways.

Coimbatore constitutes of people from the Southern districts,who are into service sector, trading, construction, press, MSME and many more areas. Hence the train route via Palani was requested to be restored.

The proposed request highlighted the following:

  1. The Tiruchendur train via Madurai must be rerouted from Pollachi to Mettupalayam via Kinathukaduvu and Coimbatore.
  2. Immediate restoration of Madurai to Coimbatore Intercity Express via Palani. Origination of this service from Thoothukudi, early in the morning as a Superfast Express train.
  3. Restoration of the historic express from Rameswaram to Coimbatore via Madurai and Palani as an overnight train to be carried at the earliest possible time.
  4. Restoration of the early morning passenger train service departing from Dindigul to Coimbatore via Palani.
  5. Regularizing the frequency of the weekly train from Tirunelveli to Mettupalayam via Tenkasi and Coimbatore.

A support letter from 200 Associations of Coimbatore district, 20 Grama Panchayat resolutions, and over 2000 signatures in an online petition was presented to the Railways Minister. Meanwhile, both MP and DRM Madurai assured to take up this subject matter to the higher authorities to restore the train facilities.