Mangalore: Those on coastal areas, intending a pilgrimage to Tirupathi Temple in Andhra state, have reasons to cheer up, because the India Railways are opening upto Mangalore as a terminal Railway station on world class and a direct train has begun to ply between our Mangalore and Tirupathi road stations, just once a week, on experimental basis.

There are trains to Srvana Belagola, Subrahmanya Road and Puttaparthi (Andhra), and now, Tirupathi  is not far off. So take a chance.

Every Saturday (March 3 also), the railway train beings its journey at 10-30 in the night and move out through Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode (Kerala) shoran Junction, proceed to Coimbatore, Erode and Katpady Junction (Tamilnadu) and move on to Chittor (AP) to reach Tirupathi at 2-35 in the afternoon on Sundays (March 4 also).

The train proceeds to Satragath Junction in Madhya Pradesh (Central India) crossing Odisha (Orissa) state on way.

On return journey from M.P. the train starts at 4-05 PM on Thursday, reach Tirupathi at 5-10PM on Fridays, and reach Mangalore Central (Under Expansion) at 9-45 AM on all Saturdays.

People from Uttar Kannada (UK) and Udupi district have to reach Mangalore to catch this rare train service, said Railway Yatri Sangh chief R.L. Dias on Thursday here.