Notwithstanding demands from railway patrons, including the Pashchima Karavali Railway Abhivriddhi Samithi to double the track between Mangaluru Central and Mangaluru Junction, Southern Railway’s Palakkad Division has claimed that the line is already doubled.
Responding to a query by a Sullia resident seeking details on proposals to double lines between Central and Junction and also between Junction and Padil (towards Hassan), Senior Divisional Engineer (Coordination), Palakkad, Nandalal Perumal said the Central-Junction stretch is already doubled. And there was no proposal to double the Mangaluru Junction-Padil stretch, he replied.
About 1 km stretch of the line, from Morgan’s Gate to Jeppu Kudpady, of the Mangaluru Central-Mangaluru Junction stretch is still a single line. At Jeppu Kudpady, the line joins the Shoranur-Mangaluru Junction double line while the total distance between Central and Junction is about 6 km.
Railway terminology
When pointed out at this anomaly, Mr. Perumal said his reply was as per the Railway terminology. The single line up to Jeppu Kudpady is a part of Mangaluru Central’s Yard and there was no practice of calling Yard lines as single or double. From Kudpady, the mainline till Junction is doubled, he said justifying the reply.
Doubling needed
The Abhivriddhi Samithi has been demanding doubling of the Central-Junction stretch for a very long time so as to operate more number of trains towards Bengaluru and Mumbai from Mangaluru Central.
The issue was raised by Samithi member G.K. Bhat during the recent Railway review meeting chaired by MP Nalin Kumar Kateel. Mr. Bhat said whenever patrons demand new services towards Mumbai and Bengaluru, Southern Railway provides the ready answers of path (track) and platform constraints to reject the demands. Doubling of the track therefore was the need of the hour, he said.
Mr. Perumal told the meeting that there was no need for doubling the stretch as of now because there was not much traffic. As and when traffic increases, doubling could be done, he said.
Patrons, however, say the Railways stand was a classic case of the chicken and the egg. Unless the line is doubled, Railways would not introduce additional trains, they said.
