Demand for train from Mumbai to Mangaluru stuck in time

The demand for introducing a train from Western Railway of Mumbai connecting Mangaluru and Kerala completes 25 years. Unfortunately, it is yet to see the light of day.

Since 1997, passengers have been demanding at least two daily express trains, originating from Bandra terminus via Vasai, Panvel towards Mangaluru.

All the existing eight trains, including Mangala Express, Netravathi Express, Matsyagandha Express and Garib Rath Express, depart from Central Mumbai, says Oliver D’souza executive secretary of the Mumbai-based Railway Yatri Sangha.

Highly populated areas in Western Mumbai, like Bandra, Santa Cruz, Andheri, Vasai Road and surrounding areas are home to lakhs of Kannadigas. “Mira Road is famously known as mini Mangaluru and yet there is no train originating from this side towards Konkan Railway,” D’Souza rues.

The then Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who had met the Sangha members in 2008, had agreed to get a U-turn track constructed from Naigoan to Juichandra to help the initiative.

But soon he lost his ministership and the proposal got stalled,” he recollected.

The Sangha, along with Udupi and Mangaluru Railway Yatri Sanghas, had met all the railway ministers from Mamata Banerjee to Piyush Goel.

A new train, Mangaluru Express, was introduced from Central Mumbai. Oliver, who resides in Vasai Road, says if he has to travel to Mangaluru, he has to take an autorickshaw to Vasai railway station.

From Vasai to Bandra and Bandra to Wadala and from Wadala to Tilak Nagar, he has to travel in three local trains.

From Tilak Nagar, he has to take an autorickshaw to LTT station and from there board an express train to Mangaluru.

“It is just not me. A survey done in 2007–08 had revealed that 34.72 lakh Kannadigas are forced to travel in a similar manner to reach their native places in Karnataka or Kerala,” Oliver said. The chief traffic controller of Central and Western Railways, whom the Sangha members had met recently, cited exorbitant costs to introduce trains from the western side of Mumbai.