Railway minister Piyush Goyal flags off 3 passenger services in Tamil Nadu

Union railway minister Piyush Goyal flagged off three passenger train services in Tamil Nadu through video conferencing from New Delhi on Tuesday on Coimbatore-Palani, Coimbatore-Pollachi and Karur - Salem stretches.

While the Coimbatore-Palani train would be a daily service, the other two would be operated six days a week.

The new services are intended to improve connectivity between smaller cities and shift short distance travelling from buses to trains. These were part of ten 'sewa' train services flagged off by the minister across the country.

Talking to TOI, Salem divisional railway manager U Subbarao said Salem-Karur-Salem DEMU operated on all days except Sundays will have stoppages at Vangal, Mohanur, Namakkal , Kalangani , Rasipuram and Mallur railway stations.

Functions were held at Coimbatore and Pollachi railway stations to flag off the other two services. Coimbatore MP P R Natarajan, Rajya Sabha members A K Selvaraj, S R Balasubramoniam and Pollachi MP K Shanmugasundaram participated in the events.

While both the Coimbatore-Pollachi and Palani-Coimbatore trains were already running, the railway minister declaring them as a "sewa" train and notifying it, gave the trains "permanent" and "regular" status. "This means it can't suddenly be stopped or put low on priority list. It does not need continuous extensions every few months," said Salem additional divisional railway manager A Annadurai.

Subba Rao, said they had submitted a written request for five new trains.