Rail users seek halt at Papanasam

Trichy: Rail users have appealed to the railway authorities to allow stoppage for Mysore-Mayiladuthurai-Mysore special express train at Papanasam though the station has annual revenue of Rs 1.25 crore. They have appealed to allow halt for the train at the station as the temple town is located at centre of various pilgrimage sites.

Southern Railway had included Papanasam among the other stations in the list of stoppages when it announced the Mysuru-Mayiladuthurai-Mysuru superfast daily festival special train (Number 06231/06232) on October 20.

But, when the train commenced its service on October 26, it skipped the station to the shock of rail users in Papanasam, T Saravanan, secretary, Rail Users Association and member of DRUCC of Trichy railway division, said. “This has made hundreds of passengers from Papanasam to travel 25km to reach Thanjavur to board the superfast. Being a pilgrimage centre in the district, a large number of devotees arrive at Papanasam,” he said.

Hundreds of passengers from Papanasam and surrounding areas rely on the train to reach Hosur, Bengaluru, Mysuru as most of them are working in IT field, he alleged.

The station is handling around 2,700 passengers on a daily-basis earning around Rs 40,000 a day.