Mangaluru: South Western Railway (SWR) has urged people in Kerala to view the Mangaluru jurisdictional rationalisation as a narrowly focused, efficiency-driven measure intended to improve operational efficiency.At present, the Mangaluru area is served by multiple operational jurisdictions — Southern Railway, SWR and the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL). The Railways is rationalising this arrangement by bringing Mangaluru area under SWR and transfer it to the Mysuru division.According to SWR, the arrangement would eliminate multiple interchange points and operational boundaries in a compact and traffic-intensive stretch. Padil, near Mangaluru, currently functions as an interchange point involving the operational boundaries of Southern Railway, SWR and KRCL.A train arriving at Mangaluru from the Goa or Hassan side has to pass through multiple operational jurisdictions before reaching the station, leading to avoidable delays and difficulties in train control and traffic management.Mangaluru is located more than 350km from the Palakkad division headquarters, while its principal onward links — the Mangaluru-Hassan-Mysuru line and connectivity towards Bengaluru — fall under SWR’s operating area. Bringing Mangaluru under the same zone would enable unified planning and control of train operations, timetabling, passenger services and freight movement.The move is also expected to benefit freight operations at New Mangaluru Port, which caters to power and steel plants located in the SWR and KRCL regions. SWR said the suburban areas around Mangaluru were already largely within the same zone, enabling the preparation of a comprehensive operating plan for the region. A unified jurisdiction would help reduce interchange-related issues and improve passenger services, it said.The railway clarified that the proposed change was an administrative realignment confined to Karnataka. Kerala would not lose any station, as Mangaluru city is located in Karnataka. The Palakkad division would continue to retain its entire territory in Kerala, including Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad and Thrissur districts.SWR also said railway investments were based on network requirements and not on the earnings of a particular division or zone.It cited a substantial increase in railway investment in Kerala, stating that the annual average outlay for infrastructure works had risen from Rs 372 crore during the UPA period to Rs 3,795 crore in 2026-27.Over the past 12 years, six doubling or gauge-conversion projects, 131 flyovers and underpasses, 100% electrification of the railway network and the redevelopment of 16 stations under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme had been completed in Kerala. Six Vande Bharat and six Amrit Bharat train services had also been introduced in the state.Projects worth more than Rs 20,000 crore are currently under execution in Kerala, including nine multitracking or new-line projects, 145 flyovers and underpasses, and the redevelopment of 19 stations. Surveys are also under way to prepare detailed project reports for more than 800km of third- and fourth-line augmentation across six sections: Shoranur-Coimbatore (99km), Mangaluru-Shoranur (307km), Shoranur-Ernakulam (106km), Ernakulam-Kayamkulam (115km), Kayamkulam-Thiruvananthapuram (105km) and Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil (71km), a release stated.
