Thiruvananthapuram: Seeking to provide a hassle free transportation to commuters, a proposal for suburban trains in Kerala has been submitted to the government by the local railways division.
The Thiruvananthapuram Railway Division has submitted the proposal to the government for setting up a ‘suburban rail corridor’
The suburban train service, on the model of various metro cities, would be a solution to the mounting traffic congestion on national highways and other roads in the state, Divisional Railway Manager Rajesh Agarwal told a ‘meet-the-press’ here.
“Thiruvananthapuram is a larger agglomeration of various suburban stations like Pettah, Kochu Veli, Kazhakkoottam and so on. If we have suburban train service connecting them, it will provide people relentless mobility,” Agarwal said.
It would also be a solution to meet the increasing passenger inflow, he said noting that metro cities like Mumbai and Chennai have large number of suburban trains providing short distance services.
On the demands for increasing the number of trains from and to the Division, he said, 15 to 20 trains had been added in the last two years and they were planning to add 10 more trains in a year.
“Kerala will soon become the first state in the country to have the status of ‘zero unmanned rail crossings. It is also perhaps the only division in the country achieving 100 per cent computerisation in ticketing,” he said.
To make railway stations more people-friendly, the division is planning to set up escalators and elevators and they had been granted permission for 30 escalators and 15 lifts, the official added.