PONDA: In view of the school exams scheduled in the months of February, March and April, the Collem Commuters Committee (CCC) in a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has called for the immediate resumption of the Collem-Vasco train service.
The committee has also submitted memorandum to the General Manager of South West Railways in Hubli, Rajy Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar, Lok Sabha MP Narendra Sawaikar, MLA Deepak Pauskar and Collem Panchayat. The CCC members, Agostinho Vaz, Govind Shigaonkar and Ankush Naik, raised their concerns over upcoming exams due to the sudden stoppage of the train service with effect from Monday.
In the memorandum, the CCC has stated that passengers, including students of Guardian Angel primary, high school and HSS, and Chandrabaga school and HSS, travel using train services along the route from Collem to Vasco and back.
According to commuters, train no 56963 starting at 12.15 pm from Collem to Vasco and train no 56964 starting at 1.10 pm from Vasco to Collem are being stopped with effect from February 4 to 31 March 2019, putting the students and commuters to great hardships especially during the exam period.
The memorandum states, “The students will soon be answering their exams in the months of February, March and April and it will be difficult to reach their schools and colleges and back home as this will put a lot of stress on mind of the students and their education.”
The commuters reminded the authorities to refer to the previous letter dated June 22, 2018 wherein the above trains were stopped during exam period, and thereafter they went on extending the date to restart these trains until July 2018, which forced the students and commuters to undergo great hardships.
The commuters brought it to the notice of the authorities that these passenger trains are the only ones which are stopped, whereas all other long distance trains and goods trains transporting coal and other material to various destinations will be running smoothly. Hence the commuters have requested the authorities to take a sympathetic view and restart trains immediately with special concern towards the students.
