Mangaluru: Long standing demand for a railway station close to Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) is nearing completion at Kenjar. The new railway station, 2kms away from MIA, on its commissioning, will provide nearest access to the passengers wanting to use the airport. Plans are afoot to halt passenger trains at this station built at a cost of Rs 50 crore.

Sources in Palakkad division of Southern Railway, under whose jurisdiction this new station falls, told  that the work on the platform, shelter, railway station building, signal is more or less completed. A decision on giving stops to select passenger trains to start with will be taken up in the interim, the sources said, adding that Southern Railway may not provide a halt to long distance express and super-fast trains.

Tentative halts scheduled are for Mangaluru-Goa Express (22636), Mangaluru-Karwar passenger (56641) and Mangaluru-Goa passenger (70106). “We have received a representation from the local MP to provide halts to these trains at this station,” a senior official of Palakkad division said. “Any move to provide halt for long distance express and superfast trains operating on the Konkan Railway route will be taken at the highest level,” the official said.

As things stand now, the nearest motorable road to MIA from this station is around 6-kms passing through Karambaru, Porkodi and Jokatte. But if a road were to be constructed abutting the railway track from Maravoor rail over bridge, the distance will come down to 2kms. The railway has already completed the land acquisition for the proposed road. Members of Malavoor gram panchayat have already represented this matter to MP Nalin Kumar Kateel.

The gram panchayat has also adopted a separate resolution seeking halts for all important trains at this station. “This is to ensure that people have a convenient access to MIA and that the investment on the station is realized,” noted Ganesh Arbi, president of the panchayat. The railway authorities have to address issues concerning problems that motorists face in using the rail under bridge at Kambatthi-Bandasale near Jokatte for the area has issues with water logging, he noted.