Part of B'lore-M'lore train may go to Karwar

South Western Railway submits proposal to Railway Board

Highly placed sources told Deccan Herald that as per the proposal, a portion of Train Number 6517 (Yesvantpur-Mangalore-Kannur Express) rack will be bifurcated on its arrival at Mangalore Central station and will be sent to Karwar as a separate train.

The remaining portion of rack will be sent to Kannur. On the return direction, the bifurcated rack will be amalgamated in Mangalore Central station and will run as a single train in between Mangalore and Bangalore.  According to documents available with Deccan Herald, the Railways have also worked out a tentative time table and has been sent to the Board for approval. As per the time table, the proposed train to Karwar will leave Mangalore at 9 am and reach Karwar at 12.30 pm. In its return direction, it will start from Karwar at 2 pm and will reach Mangalore at 19.15 hours. “With this time table, the existing timings of Train number 6517/18 will remain unaltered. The proposed Karwar train will have 10 coaches and Kannur train will have 7 coaches composition,” sources said and added that after extending the train to Kannur, it failed to get patronage from Kerala as passengers travelling from Kannur are on decline. “It is observed that not even 100 passengers are directly travelling from Bangalore to Kannur. The demand dipped further after increasing the frequency of 6527/28 Yesvanthoura-Salem-Kannur Express from tri-weekly to daily, which takes less time to reach Kannur when compared to Train Number 6517/18.”

Not feasible
Though there was a proposal for a new train between Bangalore and Karwar, the sources said railway officials also informed that it is not feasible to introduce new train in between Bangalore and Karwar due to operational constraints in the Ghat section. Recently, the three MP’s of  the region had urged the Railway ministry to introduce train between Bangalore and Karwar. In the meantime, the railway passengers association had already filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking its direction to extend 6517/18 to Karwar as per the resolution adopted in the IRTTC meeting held in Bangalore in 2009. If the train is extended to Karwar, then it will provide a railway connectivity to the Coastal belt to the state capital, the source added.

Earlier, Railway Ministry was contemplating to extend day train service up to Vasco. However, it was later envisioned that this is not commercially viable proposition as the arrival and departure timings at both Vasco and Bangalore is inconvenient to public which may lead to drop down of occupancy and the service may become unproductive.  In fact, the railways had prepared a timetable for the train between Bangalore and Vasco. Accordingly, the train will depart Yesvantpur at 06.30 hrs and arrive Mangalore at 15.45 and leave at 16.15 hrs, reach Karwar—21.30 hrs and Vasco— 23.00 hrs. On return direction, train number 6516 will leave Vasco at 04.00 hrs and arrive Mangalore at 11.45 hrs and departure 12.15 hrs to reach Yesvantpur at 23.00 hrs. The main reason for dropping the proposal was due to non availability of platforms  at Mangalore Central station in between 15.45 to 16.40 hrs as several trains operate between Mangalore to South Kerala during the period.
DH News Service