Southern Railway General Manager B.G. Mallya has assured Kozhikode MP M.K. Raghavan that the development of railways in Malabar will be looked into in a time-bound manner.
After a meeting with Mr. Mallya at the Southern Railway headquarters in Chennai, Mr. Raghavan said that discussions were held on the introduction of new service from Kozhikode to Bengaluru, extension of the Bengaluru-Hassan-Kannur Express to Kozhikode, delay in the development of the Kozhikode railway station, restoration of the pit line, resumption of passenger train services and commencement of the Mangalore-Madurai-Rameshwaram service.
Mr. Raghavan said that the introduction of a new express train between Bengaluru and Mangaluru via Palakkad would be a boon to thousands of commuters in north Kerala. As of now, 11 trains are running from Thiruvananthapuram division to Bengaluru in a week. However, only a daily train is running via Mangaluru and that did not link Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Palakkad districts, Mr. Raghavan said.
He said that a daily train service was already operating between Bengaluru and Kannur stations via Mangaluru. However, the train remains idle for six hours after its halt in Kannur, a distance of 70 km from Kozhikode. Its extension to Kozhikode should be considered as the station could accommodate a train in any of its platforms, Mr. Raghavan said.
