K C Venugopal
Venugopal said closing the maintenance depot and demolishing the pit line in the name of doubling the Ambalapuzha-Alappuzha section was unacceptable. With coach maintenance centres in Kerala already facing severe space constraints, demolishing functioning infrastructure was not reasonable, he said. Kottayam: AICC general secretary and Alappuzha MP K C Venugopal has urged Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to drop the proposal to demolish the coaching maintenance depot and pit line (maintenance track) at Alappuzha and to withdraw the plan to extend the Dhanbad-Alappuzha Express to Thiruvananthapuram . In a letter to the minister, Venugopal expressed strong protest against the moves, saying that the decisions would hurt railway development in Alappuzha, and sought the minister’s urgent intervention. He pointed out that the Dhanbad-Alappuzha Express is the only daily train to North India that originates and terminates at Alappuzha and demanded that the station be retained as its starting and ending point. He voiced concern that the proposal to extend the Dhanbad Express to Thiruvananthapuram was meant to pave the way for this. Taking into account the recommendations of the mechanical department, he urged that the engineering layout of Southern Railway be modified and a new pit line with modern facilities be built within the Alappuzha yard itself.