Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 9 (Representative) Joint Action Council for Chhattisgarh-Kerala Travel Facilities on Wednesday urged the Union Railway Ministry to extend the Bilaspur-Ernakulam-Bilaspur Weekly SF Express train from Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram via Kottayam. The decade-old demand by Malayalees in Chhattisgarh to extend the train (22815/16) remains unfulfilled after all these years, the Action council said in a press release here. The Weekly SF Express train was introduced in 2011 to cater for the increasing number of southbound passengers from the Bilaspur, Korba, Raipur and Durg districts in Chhattisgarh. A large number of Keralites work in the public sector undertaking units there like Bhilai Steel Plant-SAIL, NTPC, BALCO, etc. Mr PRN Pillai, Convenor of the Joint Action Council, said, “When the train was introduced in 2011, it was assured by the Railway authorities that this train will be extended from Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram as soon as the line doubling work between Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram via Kottayam is completed.”
“After the doubling work was completed, we made a formal request to the Union Railway Minister to extend this train since the majority of the passengers, including Sabarimala pilgrims and tourists, alight at Kottayam, Thiruvalla, Chengannur, Mavelikara and Kollam stations.” “We also petitioned the GM-Southern Railway (SR), Chennai and GM-South East Central Railway (SECR), Bilaspur but there has been no favourable response so far.” “It may be noted that passengers who, after travelling for almost 36 hours from Chhattisgarh, have to spend a whole night at Ernakulam Jn for their onward journey to reach their destinations. The BSP-ERS service terminates at ERS at 20:15 hrs on Tuesdays, with no connecting train available for their immediate onward journey towards Thiruvananthapuram via Kottayam.” “For the return journey also, the passengers have to reach ERS the previous night to catch the ERS-BSP train, as it departs at 08:30 hrs on Wednesdays.” Till the early 1980s, the southbound passengers from Chattisgarh had to change 3-4 trains to reach their home town in Kerala.
Following huge protests, a Slip Coach from Durg-Cochin to be attached to the Jayanti Janata Exp at Nagpur was introduced in 1982. Also, a full Sleeper Coach in Kerala Express was reserved for the passengers from Durg/Bhilai. Taking into account the increasing number of passengers from Chhattisgarh to Kerala, a bi-weekly train (Bilaspur-Cochin) was introduced in November 1987. Since the bulk of the passengers is from the Kottayam-Thiruvalla-Chengannur belt, the train was extended to Thiruvananthapuram (via Kottayam) in the mid-1990s. Thereafter, to cater for the needs of the passengers from Korba (the power hub of CG), the train extended to Korba as 22647/48 Korba-Thiruvananthapuram Exp. Post lockdown,this train is now Korba-Kochuveli. The demand for increasing the frequency of the train continued. Accordingly, another weekly train (22619/20 Bilaspur-Thirunelveli) was introduced via Alappuzha in 2010. To meet the further demand, one more weekly train (22815/16 Bilaspur-Ernakulam Jn) was introduced in 2011 following the same schedule as Bilaspur-Thirunelveli Exp.