Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Demand for Salem rail division ignored again

By S. Vydhianathan

CHENNAI July 9. Amid the controversy over creation of new zones and divisions, the Southern Railway's long-pending demand for a new division in Tamil Nadu, with headquarters either in Salem or Coimbatore, has again been ignored by the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar.

If new divisions are formed for operational efficiency, Salem or Coimbatore should have been on the list. As political consideration seemed to have decided the issue and in the absence of political pressure, Tamil Nadu was denied a new division, according to Southern Railway sources.

At present, there are 7 divisions in Southern Railway - Chennai, the Tiruchi, Madurai, Trivandrum, Palghat, Bangalore and Mysore. Tiruchi, Madurai, Palghat and Mysore divisions have jurisdiction for over 1000 km with Madurai having control over about 1450 km.

A reforms committee, formed by the Railway Board long ago, recommended creation of a new division in west Tamil Nadu by carving out parts of the Tiruchi, Madurai and Palghat divisions for operational efficiency. The late Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, who was then Salem MP, and the Congress leader, Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthi, took all-out efforts to get a new division for Salem and the Government almost decided on its formation in late 1980s. However, it did not materialise because of a resource crunch.

With Coimbatore and Salem under the control of the Palghat division, traders and passengers are now finding it difficult, having to go to Palghat every time to make a representation. Chambers of Commerce in these two cities made a number of representations to the Ministry in vain. As demands pertaining to train halts, addition of coaches and introduction of new services are decided on the recommendations of the division, passengers in these two cities felt that their interests were not taken care of. For example, there was a heavy demand for additional commuter trains on the Coimbatore-Tirupur-Erode-Salem section which, passenger associations felt, had not been properly represented to the Southern Railway by the divisional headquarters. A few months ago, commuters at Tirupur resorted to a rail rako protesting a reduction in the number of coaches.

The general secretary of the Salem City Chamber of Commerce, A.Jayaseelan, said the demand for creation of the Salem division had been pending for the past 25 years. In its absence, traders and passengers in the region did not get a fair deal in the allotment of wagons for freight movement, and extra coaches in major trains. He said the Railways had enough land and other infrastructure in Salem for setting up the division. But it was up to the State Government to press for the new division.

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