It isanother season of empty promises for Vasco’s Malayali community as the Railwayshave failed to live up to their promise of starting a direct train from Vascoto Thiruvanathapuram. The town’s 10,000 strong community, which is part of theState’s almost 1 lakh Malayali population, has been pitching for the train.
The thenRailway Minister Mamata Banerjee had approved a direct super-fast Vasco-Thiruvananthapuramtrain, three times a week, in the annual railway budget for the year 2009-10. Awritten assurance was also given by Minister for State Railway, E Ahmed in hisletter dated December 2009 but nothing has materialized so far.
“We have seen five railway ministers changeever since we demanded a direct train to Kerala”, said T Ravishankar, President,Kerala Cultural Association. Currently the State’s expat Keralite population isusing the Konkan Railway trains including the Rajdhani Express to travel to Thiruvananthapuram.The tri-weekly could give Goa residents a dedicated train with moreberths.
Besides thecall for a direct train to Thiruvananthapuram there is also a big demand for atrain to Tirupati.
“Whatever assurance the then MoS RailwayBharatsingh Solanki gave to people of Goa will be honoured,” said South WesternRailway PRO A K Sainath. Demands for all othertrains are genuine and feasible too, Sainath added.
For almosta decade the demand for train service from Vasco to Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati and Solapur have been aggressively pursued but nothinghas materialized yet.
ChandrakantGawas, Goa member on theDivisional Railway Users Consultative Committee (DRUCC) confirmed the demandfor trains from Vasco to Thiruvananthapuram andTirupati.
Meanwhile demands forshuttle trains to other parts of India are pending.
“It’s been over decade after conversion ofmeter-gage into broad gage a link express from Vasco to Hubli connectingSolapur, covering two important districts of Bagalkot and Bijapur in Karnataka,was stopped,” said Goa Kannada Sangh President Siddana Meti.
“Most of theKannadigas from Bagalkot and Bijapur are settled in Vasco and re-startingSolapur link express would certainly help,” said Meti.
