Title - Madurai-Dehradun Express to run from May 15

MADURAI: Rail users here have something more to cheer as the Southern Railway (SR) has announced the extension of the Chennai Central - Dehradun/Chandigarh Weekly Express till Madurai from May 15 onwards. Though the announcement for the extension of the train to Madurai was made during the previous railway budget, it is taking effect only now. According to an official statement from SR, train number 12688/22688 Dehradun/Chandigarh - Chennai Central Weekly Express leaving Dehradun/Chandigarh on May 13 and arriving Chennai Central on May 15 will be extended to Madurai. The extended service of train number 12687/22687 Madurai - Dehradun/ Chandiragh Weekly Express will commence from Madurai the same day. In the extended portion, train number 12688/22688 will leave Chennai Central at 2.40am on Wednesdays and reach Madurai at 12.45pm the same day. In the return direction, train number 12687/22687 will leave Madurai at 11.35pm on Wednesdays to reach Chennai Central at 9.20am on Thursdays.

The trains will halt at Arakkonam, Katpadi, Ambur, Vaniyambadi, Jolarpettai, Salem, Erode, Karur and Dindigul in the extended portion. There will be no change in the existing timings and stoppages between Chennai Central and Dehradun/Chandigarh, the statement said. According to rail users here, they will be getting one more train to reach North India since the train goes through Delhi, though the extended portion to Madurai takes a circuitous route of going through Salem and Erode.

"We are glad about the connectivity and we understand the operational difficulty due to lack of doubling in the existing railway line to Madurai," said N Jegatheesan, former member of Zonal Rail Users Consultative Committee.

"We are optimistic that the railways will complete the ongoing doubling works on the section faster, to increase the frequency and operation of more trains in future," he added. Recently, the Tirunelveli - Dadar superfast express was inaugurated connecting the region with Mangalore and Goa. With the trains announced in the last two budgets becoming operational one by one, rail users of Kanyakumari district are urging the railways to start operating the Nagercoil - Bangalore daily at the earliest. Thousands of people from the southern districts have settled in Bangalore and Hosur and are employed in IT companies and automobile sectors. Besides, a sizeable student population is studying in various institutions in Bangalore.

The train service towards southern destinations from Bangalore is limited with only one daily train, Tuticorin Express running between Mysore - Tuticorin. In addition to that, there is a weekly train between Bangalore - Nagercoil. The rail users from the districts of Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli have been stressing for a daily train for the last 15 years and the announcement of the daily train in the recent railway budget cheered them tremendously.