Mangaluru: The Mangaluru railway region has come under Mysuru Division of South Western Railway from 12.01am, Thursday. The Railway Board notified the reorganisation on Aug 21, transferring the region from Palakkad division of southern railway to Mysuru division after decades under Palakkad.Mysuru Divisional Railway Manager Mudit Mittal said the primary change was the transfer of train control from Palakkad to Mysuru. Mittal said Mysuru has added a fourth control board to handle the Mangaluru region, while the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) prepared minute-to-minute transition plan. CRIS monitored the system for about two-and-a-half hours after the transfer, expecting the process to stabilise by 3am.Mittal said the railways do not anticipate major challenges during the transition, as CRIS had handled similar zonal changes and prepared a standard operating procedure. The new control board will cater to seven major stations and one halt and coordinate with Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd, Palakkad and Mysuru divisions.Mysuru’s PRO said the division had already taken over operational control and railway assets, including stations, bridges, land and sidings. The Mysuru team, headed by additional divisional railway manager Shammas Hameed, is in Mangaluru for the takeover.The PRO said administrative and financial bifurcation would take another 30 to 45 days, as contracts, tenders, bills, works and service contracts currently clubbed with Palakkad have to be separated. Mysuru is coordinating with the Palakkad finance team on the process.Officials said there would be no immediate change in train services due to the jurisdictional shift. Mysuru Division would first study platform lengths, existing train movements and capacity of Mangaluru Central and Mangaluru Junction before considering additional services. They added that the crew exchanges would be determined based on operational requirements, with running rooms available at Mangaluru Junction and Mangaluru Central.Passengers unhappy over extension of M’luru-Madgaon VBDakshina Kannada railway users have expressed concern over reports that the existing Mangaluru Central-Madgaon Vande Bharat may be extended to Yesvantpur via Hassan.In a letter to Dakshina Kannada MP, Capt Brijesh Chowta, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed that the existing Madgaon-Mangaluru VB Express has been extended to Bengaluru via Subrahmanya Road and Kabaka Puttur. Vaishnaw said the service would now operate as train No. 26655/26656 Yesvantpur-Mangaluru-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express with revised timings. The letter was in response to Chowta’s Aug 6 last year request for introduction of a new Vande Bharat between Mangaluru and Bengaluru.Meanwhile, railway users have sought clarity on whether the existing service will be extended or restructured and sought a dedicated Bengaluru-Mangaluru Central Vande Bharat. They have also questioned why their demand to extend the service towards Mumbai has not been considered. Rail users are unhappy over it being reportedly skipping Mangaluru central, the city’s main station.
