Demand for direct train to Vailankanni yet to materialise

MARGAO, MAY 28  
Attention, Goa government and the State’s three MPs. The annual ordeal facing thousands of Goan pilgrims heading to Vailankanni for the Novenas is far from over.
It may sound strange, but true. In the absence of a direct train to the pilgrimage city, pilgrims are forced to spend two nights and days with the hope of getting a train ticket for their journey scheduled three months from now in August.
In fact, the Margao Railway Station ticket booking centre has been witnessing a huge queue of pilgrims from the State as they hope to lay their hands on the train ticket to the South India state.
The sorry plight of the pilgrims has only renewed the demand for a direct train from Goa to Chennai during the festival season to ease the rush of passengers. Every year, demand for a direct train to Vailankanni is being made to the government and the MPs, but in vain, the passengers claimed.
‘Thousands of pilgrims visit Vailankanni during August for the Novenas, but no one has taken serious note of the demand for a direct train from Goa to the pilgrim centre”, remarked Chinchinim ZP member Sabria Dias.
She was amongst the hundreds of people who stood in a queue last night with the hope of getting a train ticket to Vailankanni. “We have to spend four nights at the station to get the tickets, two nights to get the ticket for the onward journey and two nights for the return journey”, she said.
Many others standing the huge queue echoed similar sentiments and demanded to know why the Goa government or the three MPs representing the state have not taken up with the Centre for pressing a direct train to Vailankanni during the novenas.
“It’s ten years now, pilgrims visiting Vailankanni have been facing the ordeal of getting the train tickets. Why has the government not intervened in the interests of its people by pressing a direct train”, asked a senior citizen, who had been visiting Vailankanni for a decade now. He said the pilgrims had in the past approached several people, but the demand for a direct train has not yet materialized till date.
Another passenger maintained that pilgrims, irrespective of their caste and creed, head to Vailankanni by trains and chartered vehicles and a direct train would have saved them from the ordeal. “Leave alone a direct train, the government has not even helped to get two extra bogeys to clear the rush of pilgrims”, he added.