Mangaluru loss could be Kasaragod’s gain with rail infra push, more MEMU services

Kasaragod: Despite Kerala's protest, the Railways is taking Mangaluru away from Palakkad Division, but the reorganisation may give Kasaragod's rail infrastructure a push, with Southern Railway (SR) studying the feasibility of setting up passenger train maintenance facilities in the district.

With less than a month to go before the Mangaluru region is severed from Southern Railway's Palakkad Division and transferred to Mysuru Division of South Western Railway (SWR), a team of senior Southern Railway officials has inspected Manjeshwar and Kumbla railway stations to examine the feasibility of setting up pit lines and stabling lines, called coaching facilities. The two stations will be at the northern tip of the truncated Palakkad Division once the new jurisdiction takes effect on October 1.

A pit line is a maintenance track built over a pit, allowing railway staff to inspect and service the underside of coaches, including wheels, axles, brakes and other equipment. A stabling line is a parking track where passenger train rakes can be kept between services, cleaned, watered and prepared for their next trip.

With the pit line and stabling line at Mangaluru gone, Southern Railway would have coaching facilities only at Shoranur and Kozhikode.

Rail users' groups, including the Kasaragod District Railway Passengers Association and the Manjeshwar Railway Passenger Association, said around 33 acres of railway land were available at Kumbla and more than 10 acres at Manjeshwar. They have also identified stations such as Bekal where land could be considered for such facilities.

The passenger groups said coaching facilities should ideally be located at the end of a railway division's territory, allowing trains to be stabled and maintained close to their terminal points, rather than at locations in the middle of the division such as Kozhikode or Shoranur.

At present, Palakkad Division's major coaching maintenance infrastructure is concentrated at Mangaluru Central and Shoranur. Southern Railway's own information on Shoranur records a pit line used for primary maintenance of passenger coaches, while railway documents have also recorded pit-line facilities at Mangaluru Central.

Railway sources said more senior officials are expected to visit railway stations in Kasaragod district as part of the exercise.

Railway passenger associations in Kasaragod have for years argued that Manjeshwar and Kumbla should be developed beyond their present role as ordinary wayside stations.

The additional lines in Manjeshwar have been used by Palakkad Division to stable train rakes when Mangaluru Central was congested.

The Railway Board announced the jurisdictional change on August 21, without prior consultation with the Kerala government or MPs, taking the state's political leadership by surprise while the move was celebrated in Mangaluru.

Under the new arrangement, the Southern Railway-South Western Railway boundary will shift to Ullal, south of Mangaluru, from October 1, despite protests by Kerala MPs and Chief Minister V D Satheesan's letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mangaluru users look south

While Kerala is fighting a losing battle to retain Mangaluru within Palakkad Division, rail users in Dakshina Kannada are looking towards Kerala while drawing up their own wishlist for the post-October railway system.

One of their major demands is local electric train (MEMU) service between Mangaluru and Kasaragod, with possible extensions towards Kannur.

The Kannur-Mangaluru stretch is among the busiest short-distance corridors in the region, but has no dedicated MEMU (Mainline Electric Multiple Unit) service comparable to the commuter services available on several other sections.

A regular service between Mangaluru and Kasaragod could therefore cater to students, workers and daily commuters travelling across the Kerala-Karnataka border.

Development of Thokkottu
Another demand gaining momentum in Dakshina Kannada is the reopening of Thokkottu railway station, which has remained closed for a decade.

Thokkottu is located near the NH66 junction, from where the road branches towards Deralakatte and Konaje, a major educational and healthcare corridor on the outskirts of Mangaluru.

The area is home to institutions including Yenepoya University, Nitte University institutions, Kanachur Institute of Medical Sciences and Father Muller's facilities, with further educational institutions towards Konaje, including Mangaluru University.

Students and patients travelling from Kasaragod and Kannur now get down at Manjeshwar or Ullal and then take road transport to Deralakatte.

Railway users therefore want Thokkottu reopened and passenger as well as MEMU trains given a stop there.

Passenger groups also want the station to be developed at a location closer to the Thokkottu junction on the National Highway, making it useful for people travelling towards Deralakatte.

A new railway wishlist
Dakshina Kannada rail users are now putting forward a broader plan for the region after the transfer to South Western Railway. Their demands include:

• Develop Ullal as a passenger terminal to originate and terminate trains towards Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• Introduce local MEMU services connecting Mangaluru/Ullal with Udupi and other destinations to the north and south, including Manjeshwar, Kumbla and Kasaragod.
• Establish a MEMU maintenance shed in the Mangaluru region to support the proposed commuter services.
• Reopen Thokkottu station and provide stops for passenger and MEMU trains serving the Deralakatte-Mudipu corridor.
• Consider a new railway station near Talapady, close to the Kerala-Karnataka border.

Some of these proposals would directly benefit Kasaragod because the district's railway users are among the biggest users of the Mangaluru network.