MADURAI: Scores of rail passengers bound for Coimbatore from the Port city of Thoothukudi have urged the need for resuming Thoothukudi-Coimbatore link express train at the earliest.
Both these cities are commercially viable and hence business stakeholders apart from common passengers were also looking forward to the rail service, A Sankar, honorary secretary, Empower India, a voluntary organization based in Thoothukudi said, on Sunday. There remains a long pending demand among passengers for re-introduction of the Thoothukudi-Coimbatore link express train, which was introduced way back in 2011. Earlier, the link express train with seven bogies departed from Thoothukudi at night daily and connected with the Nagercoil-Coimbatore Express at Vanchi Maniyachi. But, during the COVID lockdown, the service got suspended from 2020.
The train’s daily patronage was high when functional. It also catered to the needs of traders frequenting Tirupur. Now, things have become normal after COVID, the railway authorities could consider re-introducing the Thoothukudi-Coimbatore link express train, he said.
According to M Piramanayagam, secretary, Tuticorin District Passengers Welfare Association, this long pending demand was taken to the attention of railway authorities through MP Kanimozhi.