More than two decades after the Udayanpatti railway station near Tiruchi Junction was closed by the railway administration, the demand for its reopening from the general public has surfaced yet again.
Proliferation of residential localities, educational institutions and other establishments in and around the railway station’s vicinity has prompted general public to reinforce their long pending demand for its reopening.
Situated in close proximity to the busy Tiruchi railway junction along the Tiruchi – Pudukottai broad gauge section, Udayanpatti station was closed by the railway administration in the late nineties on the grounds of lack of patronage and low revenue, say locals residing in the station’s vicinity.
The railway platform was subsequently removed when the Tiruchi–Pudukottai rail route was converted from metre gauge to broad gauge. All that is left now is the old station building and another structure used by the railways once besides some unused quarters. Despite being at arms length to the Tiruchi Junction, the defunct Udayanpatti station comes under the jurisdiction of the Madurai railway division.
Udayanpatti and its surroundings has undergone a sea change in the last two decades with several residential localities coming up making it a one of the densely populated areas in the city today. The station falls within the Tiruchi Corporation limits, says N. Periyasamy, a resident of Aranya Nagar near Udayanpatti.
The population of residents settled in various localities that has come up in the station’s vicinity has exceeded a lakh, say locals. Densely populated areas nearby the station include Kavi Bharathi nagar, Thendral nagar, Olaiyur, K. Sathanur and Ayyappa nagar.
Amid rise in residential localities it is time that the railway administration seriously consider reopening the Udayanpatti station which would immensely benefit general public settled in its vicinity to use the station, says S.Sakthivel – one of the organisers of the Federation of Tiruchirappalli City Residents Welfare Associations.
Mr. Sakthivel says the Udayanpatti station was closed in 1996 citing lack of patronage and low revenue then and the platform removed thereafter. Once a small area over two decades ago, Udayanpatti and its surroundings sport a completely different look with numerous localities having come up. The reopening of the station would help students, work force and others of these localities going to Pudukottai and Karaikudi on a daily basis, says Mr. Sakthivel.
There is a feeling among railway officials in Madurai division that Udayanpatti is still a village which is no longer the case now, says Saravanan, a resident of Kavi Bharathi Nagar. No officer had inspected the station in the recent times to get a first hand account of the growth that had taken place over the years, he added.
The station could be reopened at a time when hectic efforts were on to make Tiruchi a smart city, say locals. Memorandums had been given in the past seeking the reopening of the Udayanpatti station and stoppage of passenger trains bound for Pudukottai, Karaikudi and Rameswaram from Tiruchi.
The Federation of Tiruchirappalli City Residents Welfare Associations in a recent memorandum to the Tiruchi Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Su. Thiruvanavukkarasar has appealed to the latter to take up the issue with the railway administration and ensure that the station was reopened.
“What we are asking from the railway administration is not something new but reopening of the station that was already in existence years ago”, says Mr. Saravanan suggesting that the station should be brought under Tiruchi railway division limits since it fell within the jurisdiction of the City Corporation.
The reopening of the station and the stoppage of passenger trains would surely yield revenue to the railway administration given the huge population in Udayanpatti and its vicinity using trains daily, says Mr. Periyasamy.