The Sanvordem-Curchorem Rail Consumers Association has asked Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Arlekar to intervene with railway authorities to restore the suspended Vasco da Gama–MGR Chennai weekly express, which has not resumed its Goa service since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a letter to Arlekar, association president Devanand Bhandari said the train had operated between Goa and Chennai for several years before the pandemic. It was suspended when the pandemic spread, with rail users told that the service would restart after conditions improved, according to the association.
“However, till today the same has not been restarted even after our continuous reminders and follow-up with the authorities concerned,” the letter states.
The association said the service currently operates only between Hubballi and MGR Chennai. Its demand is for the Goa-originating portion of the route to be restored so that passengers from Vasco da Gama and other parts of Goa can again access a direct weekly connection to Chennai.
The group described the Vasco da Gama–MGR Chennai service as a budgetary train approved by the Centre in the Union budget. It said the train’s continued operation only from Hubballi has left the Goa section without the service that existed before the pandemic.
The appeal follows what the association said were unsuccessful memoranda and follow-ups with South Western Railway. It has asked the governor to place the demand before railway authorities in South Western Railway and its Hubballi division, and to help ensure that the service is restarted.
The letter was signed by Bhandari, who is also a member of the Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee of South Western Railway, Hubballi, and Ashish Karmali, an advisory member of the association.
The association’s appeal places the issue within the wider challenge of restoring transport links that were suspended during the pandemic but did not return in their earlier form. In this case, the reported change is not the complete disappearance of the train but the continuation of the Hubballi–Chennai section without the Vasco da Gama connection.
The association has sought intervention from the governor because its representations to railway authorities have not produced a restart, according to the letter. The next step requested by the group is for the demand to be taken up with South Western Railway and the Hubballi authorities for consideration of the Goa service’s restoration.
