Divya Cutinho

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Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Jun 5: The commuters especially the students and employees hailing from Kerala have demanded for the re-opening of Thokkottu railway station which was abruptly cancelled by the railway department a few weeks ago.

The cancellation of this station has forced students, employees and patients who visit Mangaluru, particularly Deralakatte which is known for several hospitals and colleges, daily to rush to a farther station from their respective institutions to catch a train, and thus they are undergoing a lot of trouble unlike in the past.

The sudden cancellation of the station has inconvenienced hundreds of passengers. Annoyed commuters now have approached the Railway division officer of Palakkad. In a memorandum, they attracted the attention of the railway officials to the fact that the railway station was being used by hundreds of students and employees on a daily basis.

Thokkottu railway station is situated in Mangaluru which is under Palakkad division of Southern railway. The station was used by hundreds of students and employees from both Kerala and Karnataka.Those studying and working in nearby colleges such as Yenepoya college, K S Hegde Medical college, Father Mullers Medical college, Kanachur college and hospital, KSHEMA, P A College of Engineering to name a few are facing trouble following sudden cancellation of the station. The station was used by students and workers from Kerala and Karnataka for more than a decade. Since the area has lot of hospitals, the station was also used by a number of patients,” they claimed.

One of the students who used to travel to Mangaluru through Thokkottu station, speaking to daijiworld, said that he could not figure out the exact rationale for the sudden cancellation of the station which is used by many people daily. "We are all using season ticket privileges,” he added.

Dr Kishore Kumar of Yenepoya Medical College who travels to the city from Uppala too said that the station which he has been using for the last six years was very convenient and the decision to cancel the station has inconvenienced them.

Professor Nishanth Narayanan from P A College of Engineering, a native of Nileshwar, said, “I am a professor at P A College of Engineering and the removal of the station has caused me immense trouble as since the past several days I have not been able to reach the college on time.”

Nadeera and Moideen Shibil, BPT students at Yenepoya medical college, who have been using the station for the last four years also expressed anguish over what they term as deliberate inconvenience caused to them by the railway department.

The passengers used to travel by Cheruvathur-Mangaluru passenger (56661) which reaches the station at 8.10 am and Kannur-Mangaluru passenger (56655) which stops at 16.45.

The students and employees have urged the railway division to understand the gravity of the situation and consider their petition which has been signed by over a hundred students affected by the sudden cancellation of the station. The alternative route they have is Ullal railway station. But for using that station, they have to board a bus to Thokkottu which takes another 20 minutes to reach Ullal amid dense traffic.

They have also sent the petition to the union railway minister, Piyush Goyal, seeking resumption of the services at Thokkottu railway station.

Meanwhile some reports said that the station was closed down due to the influence of vehicle mafia which charges huge amount from the people who get down at Ullal and travel to hospitals in the city.

Meanwhile, Gopinath, PRO at the Mangaluru Central Station, speaking to daijiworld said, “Thokkottu railway station service has been withdrawn. It was a halt station run by halt agents. Usually the railway department calls for halt agents and this time nobody has come forward to run the station even after our repeated enquiries. We had also issued press release in the same. So we have closed the station since the service was terminated.”

Asked about the alleged vehicle mafia, he said that he is not aware about it. He also said that if the locals are interested the station will be continued. “They must assure the agent of profit by re-opening the station. The present agent could not run the business and was under loss following which the service was cancelled. The number of commuters using the station is very less and only two trains used to stop at the station.”

The students have further said that even after submitting memorandum to the concerned officials and the government, no action has been taken so far to resume train services to this station.