Even after a communication from the Railway Ministry to John Brittas, MP, made clear that the Railway Board has no plan to go ahead with the proposed ₹117-crore Nemom coaching terminal aimed at decongesting the Thiruvananthapuram Central station and bringing more trains to the capital, senior railway officials are not ready to buy the argument of the Railway Board.
First of all, no such decision was communicated to the Thiruvananthapuram division or the headquarters of Southern Railway in this regard by the board as Nemom satellite terminal is essential for the rail development of southern Kerala, they said.
A senior railway official said the officials have checked the status of the project which was still under the consideration of the Railway Board. “In case of any confusion over the viability of the project, the board should have taken it up with us first. Further, since there was no formal communication issued by the Railways to this effect, the State government should not waste its time. The project will not be dropped if political pressure is exerted on the Centre as it is 100% viable,” said the official.
In a communication to Mr. Brittas, the board said that after examining the proposal, it was considered that to meet the traffic demands in the Thiruvananthapuram area, a second coaching terminal at Nemom had not been found justified. The second coaching terminal at Kochuveli can take care of the traffic on completion of the terminal work. Accordingly, the Nemom terminal was not sanctioned, the communication said.
According to railway officials, the Thiruvananthapuram Central station has been handling around 50-70 trains per day, and the bulk of the traffic is between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., and 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Any delay in arriving or departing trains during the peak hours will have a cascading effect on other services. A lot of proposals to extend trains from Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram were pending with the authorities due to space constraints.
“Though the work on the Kochuveli terminal has been progressing, we need more space, and Nemom is ideal for the development of the Thiruvananthapuram division,” they said.
In a letter to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mr. Brittas urged him to review the decision to abandon the project that was modelled on the lines of the Basin Bridge coaching depot in Chennai – with 10 pits lines for maintenance for 30 trains, 12 stabling lines, sick lines and staff quarters at Nemon.
