Memu chugs on, finally

KOLLAM: Bringing smiles to passengers, the Kollam- Nagercoil Memu started its service on Saturday. Union minister of state for Human Resources Development Shashi Tharoor officially flagged off the service at Kollam railway station.
This is the third Memu service to start in the state after the Kollam-Ernakulam services via Alappuzha and Kottayam. The train will service all days except on Fridays as the rake will be taken to routine maintenance to Palakkad.The train will leave Kollam at 11.00am and reach Thiruvananthapuram at 1.15pm. The return trip will reach Kollam at 9.40pm.
Tharoor said that complaints about the time schedule of the service would be rectified during the next time schedule revision. As of now, the heavy traffic in the stretch had made it impossible to reduce the time taken by the train to reach Nagercoil. He also added that the Memu maintenance shed here would only be operational by the beginning of the next fiscal. He also denied the rumors regarding bifurcation of Thiruvuanathapuram division in order to merge it with Thirunelveli division. Union minister of state for labour Kodikkunnil Suresh, MPs P Peethamabara Kurup, KN Balagopal, A Sampath, MLA P K Gurudasan, mayor Prasanna Earnest, district collector P G Thomas and DRM Rajesh Agarwal were also present. Tharoor continued the journey up to Parassala listening to the woes of passengers. The Southern region passengers association celebrated the launch of the new train by distributing sweets.