Respected Sir/Madam,

 Sub: Restore Kanyakumari - Nagercoil – Trivandrum (excl), and Nagercoil - Tirunelveli (excl) sections back to Madurai division.

           We wish to bring to your notice the hardships faced by people of Kanniyakumari under the Thiruvananthapuram division of Southern Railway.

 The present Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu was formerly the southern part of the erstwhile state of Travancore – Cochin.  At that time, the said region having an area of 1684 Square Kilometers, was thickly populated with Tamil speaking people.  Therefore, the Princely state of Travancore – Cochin had declined to do any developmental work in this region.  This was the main reason for the agitation for the merger of this region with Tamilnadu State.  This cause was championed by Father of Kanyakumari District Marshal A. Nesamony and it was achieved  on 01.11.1956.

Sir, the separation of railway lines in Kanyakumari district from the Trivandrum Division to Madurai Division is very much essential and is a very long demand of our people as we always face a “step mother treatment from the Trivandrum Division and from its offices”. We do not get any priority over development of railway related infrastructure or operating trains to our district. We always get a “least bothered” treatment from the officers of Trivandrum Division dominated by Kerala officers.

These railway sections form 25% of Thiruvananthapuram railway division's total line Kilometers. Kanniyakumari and Nagercoil stations generate about 64 crores in yearly earnings for the division. Moreover, Nagercoil depot which has been maintaining Kerala's trains, would be hard to lose. It's all for these reasons that the division and people of Kerala are opposing the transfer of Kanniyakumari railway sections to Madurai division.

We are coming across through newspapers recently in  Tamil and English that Railway Board acknowledged our demand and learning that there seems to be proposal for transferring railway corridor  of Kanyakumari and Trinelveli districts of Tamilnadu from Trivandrum Division of Southern Railway to Madurai Division. We thus urge your good office to fulfil the wishes of Kanniyakumari district people, by transfer the Thiruvananthapuram (excl) -Nagercoil-Kanniyakumari and Nagercoil-Tirunelveli  lines are carved out from the Trivandrum Division and attached with Madurai Division, in lieu of that, the Senkottai-Punalur-Kollam line may be transferred to Trivandrum Division.

We do understandthat in 2017 Southern Railway and Railway Board mooted the proposal to revert TVC(excl)-CAPE & NCJ-TEN sections to MDU division in exchange of QLN- SCT section to tvc division. But to our dismay some vested interests in Kerala managed to block this process from getting implemented. It is unfortunate that the acceptance of the need and demand of people of Kanyakumari District is dictated by people from neighboring state.

We need to be under an administration which understands our needs, and helps in the overall development of our region. There has been seldom any development under the Trivandrum division. With majority of the traffic originating from Kanyakumari district is towards the Madurai end rather than the Trivandrum end, it will only be appropriate to be with Madurai division.

            I request and pray that this demand is considered and a favorable decision is taken.

Thanking you