KOZHIKODE: At a time when Indian Railway boasts of development and care, passengers of Malabar are still lamenting about the shortage of facilities and comforts which continued to show a step-motherly attitude, according to passengers’ forums. The Malabar Rail Users Forum chairman CE Chakkunny told DC that the passengers from the region are struggling to get trains to Chennai and Bangalore.
When there are 42 weekly services to Bangalore from South Kerala there are only two from here, where the average number of passengers is high, he said. Though there were attempts to extend the trains from Bangalore to Mangalore to Kozhikode, the move was curtailed due to protest from some vested interest groups in Karnataka. “We have only the Kannur-Yashwanthpura Train that caters to the Bangalore-bound passengers,” he said.
On the facilities on the train, he said, all other trains have sufficient air-conditioned compartments, but this train has only one A/C compartment. “There are about 11,000 passengers towards Bangalore from Malabar on a weekly basis of which majority are IT professionals who are ready to pay more for a higher class journey,” he said.
The rail users’ forums also alleged that while many trains from Chennai lay idle for hours in Coimbatore, passengers in Malabar are struggling to get trains to Chennai. Some of them had to wait even up to 14 hours. Though the track electrification is over between Tanur and Elathur, the passengers are not at all getting the benefits, as the work of the substation is yet to be completed.
