Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (RD/MB)

Mangalore Oct 19: A ‘Rail Roko’ will be staged at the suburban Suratkal railway station, on Monday October 22 and a memorandum will be submitted to the railway authorities, informed Mahabala Poojary Kadambody, Kannada Karavali Railway Horata Samiti, to mediapersons at the press conference held in the press club here on Friday, October 19.
 
Explaining the reasons for the blockade, he added that Suratkal is a rapidly growing suburban town in all respects, located very close to the hub of petrochemical refinery and major industries.  However, its significant railway station on Konkan Railway route has not been upgraded, to enable it to accommodate the trains arriving at the station, especially during the peak hours.  This has caused a great deal of inconvenience to students, office-goers and public at large.   
 
While emphasizing the staging the ‘rail roko’, he said that the recent development in extending ‘Matsyagandha’ train service to Tiruvanthapuram which was earlier terminating its journey at Mangalore railway station arriving from Mumbai, has posed genuine difficulties in terms of communications, since the railway employees have no knowledge of local language or Kannada.
 
The Samiti demands that ‘Matsyagandha’ train services should not be extended to Tiruvanathapuram, instead additional compartments ought to be added to accommodate more native passengers. The authorities should appoint railway employees who have fluency in Kannada, ‘Jan Shatabdi’ train services including ‘Rajdhani’ express should be allowed to halt at Suratkal, and an additional platform should be built at the railway station, he urged.

An overbridge should be built at the railway station, in order to help people, especially women and children to cross the railway station, and Suratkal should be announced as one of the major railway stop in the map of Indian Railways. Train services of Mangalore-Bangalore should be resumed at the earliest. Besides, the same service should be extended till Udupi and on-line booking facility must be provided, he demanded.
 
Divakar Samani, Mahesh Shetty Suratkal, Sharat Guddekopla, Lakshmidhar Giri and others were present at the press conference.