5 months ago
85
There is no end in sight to the travel woes of passengers from Malabar, especially Kozhikode, to Bengaluru, as there is only one daily train connecting the entire north Kerala with the Karnataka capital.
A bulk of the Malayali population in Bengaluru, including IT professionals, travel regularly between their home towns and their workplaces. The Kannur-Yeswantpur Express run by the South Western Railway is the only dependable daily train on the route. It is difficult to get tickets on this train, and the passengers will have to book them months in advance. Those who do not get tickets are forced to opt for bus services, which are comparatively expensive.
Though M.K. Raghavan, Kozhikode MP, has been demanding the Yeswantpur-Mangaluru-Kannur Express train be extended to Kozhikode, the Railway Board is yet to take a final decision on the proposal. The MP has also demanded that the train start its return journey to Yeswantpur from Kozhikode to ease the rush of passengers. Mr. Raghavan recently said in the Lok Sabha that the possibility of starting a new express train service or Vande Bharat service between Kozhikode and Bengaluru could be explored as well.
However, Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and railway passengers organisations in Mangaluru such as the Pashchima Karavali Railway Yatri Abhivriddhi Samiti and those in Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Davangere, and Mysuru have opposed the proposal. According to reports, they have claimed that the extension of the service would affect the interests of passengers in Karnataka. They are wondering how it will benefit people from Kerala as the train will have to take a circuitous route from Kozhikode via Kannur and Mangaluru to reach Bengaluru. It may take around 15 hours to reach the destination.
They also point out that the earlier extension of the service to Kannur itself was a blunder. It is learnt that Mr. Kateel has also got an assurance from Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw against extending the train to Kozhikode.
