City trains eyes on long routes

CHANDIGARH: The expectations of city's residents from Union Railway Budget-2011 to be presented on Friday are great. They want trains to Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Karnataka right from the Chandigarh.
The perennial demand of devotees of Vaishno Devi seeking a direct train from Chandigarh to Jammu is also among the popular requests from the city.
Those wanting to travel to the south and the west of the country from here have to board trains from New Delhi and want direct links for less hassle.
Alok Barfiwala, a native of Gandhinagar in Gujarat, who works with a BPO unit in Mohali, said, ''For the last six years, we have been watching the budget speech hoping for a direct link from Chandigarh to a station in Gujarat,'' but nothing has come out of that.''
A native of TN, M Venkatraghavan, who has been in Chandigarh for the last 15 years, said, ''Though pressure groups and communities take up our cause for a direct train from Chandigarh or Ambala to TN, nothing has been done to provide us with that.''
Sushil Mishra, a resident of Phase-VI in Mohali, said, ''A direct train to Jammu would be beneficial for Vaishno Devi devotees.'' People also want the local railway station spruced up.
Manoj Rajput, a resident of Sector-12A in Panchkula, said, ''There should be a mention of more facilities being provided at Chandigarh railway station as right now there is hardly any place for passengers and their relatives to wait for trains. The snack shops at the railway station are extremely unhygienic and there is no closed circuit television at the station to monitor the security.''