Mangalore Central railway station

Mangalore Central railway station (officially Mangaluru Central railway station)(station code: MAQ^[4]) is an NSG–2 category Indian railway station in Palakkad railway division of Southern Railway zone.^[5] It is the main railway terminus in the city of Mangalore, Karnataka and provides connectivity for Konkan Railway and South Western Railway. It is one of the five central railway stations of India.

Mangalore Central Mangaluru Central
Indian Railways station
Manglore Central Railway station
General information
Other names	Kudla Central & Mangalapuram Central
Location	Old Kent Road, Hampankatta, Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka India
Coordinates	12.8634°N 74.8433°E / 12.8634; 74.8433
Elevation	300 Meters
Owned by	Indian Railways
Operated by	Southern Railway zone
Line(s)	Shoranur - Manglore -Mumbai CST /LTT
Platforms	6 (5 Full Length PFs + 1 Bayline PF)
Tracks	15
Connections	Bus stand, Taxicab stand, Auto rickshaw stand
Construction
Structure type	Standard (on-ground station)
Parking	Yes
Accessible
Other information
Status	Functioning
Station code	MAQ
Zone(s)	SRTooltip Southern Railway zone
Division(s)	Palakkad
History
Opened	1907; 118 years ago (1907)
Closed	-
Rebuilt	-
Electrified	Yes
Previous names	Kankanady Central
Passengers
4500	5,000  100%
Services Preceding station Indian Railways Following station Mangalore Junction towards ? Southern Railway zone Shoranur–Mangalore section Terminus Terminus Nethravathi towards ?
Route map Legend km to Konkan Railway to Mangalore–Hassan–Mysore line 4 Padil Bypass Cabin 2 Mangalore Junction 0 Mangalore Central 2 Bunder Goods Shed 3 Nethravathi Netravati River 5 Tokkottu Ullal overpass 7 Ullal Talapady Rivulet Karnataka Kerala Border 17 Manjeshwar Manjeswaram River 24 Uppala Shiriya River Kumbla River 34 Kumbla Mogral River Nellikunnu overpass Thayalangadi overpass 46 Kasaragod Chandragiri River 49 Kalanad Chembirika Tunnel Kalanad River SH 57 55 Kotikulam Bekal River Pallikere overpass SH 57 60 Bekal Fort Chithari River 69 Kanhangad NH 66 Kariangode River Nileshwaram overpass 78 Nileshwar NH 66 Karyangod River 83 Cheruvathur Cheruvathur overpass Padne Road 88 Chandera 92 Thrikaripur Kavvayi River Payyanur overpass 98 Payyanur Perumba River 101 Ezhimala 110 Pazhayangadi Payangadi underpass Kuppam River Thavam overpass 117 Kannapuram Irinave River 123 Pappinisseri Pappinisseri overpass Valapattanam River Valapattanam underpass 125 Valapattanam Alavil-Valapattanam Road 127 Chirakkal Manjapalam underpass 132 Kannur Thavakkara underpass 135 Kannur South Kanaam River 144 Etakkot NH 66 Anjarakandi River 148 Dharmadam Dharmadam overpass Ummanchira River Kuyyali River 152 Thalassery SH 30 Kodiyeri Road 155 Jaganath Temple Gate Kerala Puducherry Mahé River 162 Mahe Puducherry Kerala Chombala overpass 165 Mukkali 169 Nadapuram Road Kainatty overpass NH 66 Thazhe Angadi Road 174 Vatakara Kuttiady River 178 Iringal 184 Payyoli 187 Tikkotti NH 66 191 Vellarakkad 197 Quilandi SH 34 NH 66 202 Chemancheri Vengalam overpass Akalapuzha River 209 Elattur Vengali overpass 216 West Hill 219 Vellayil Vellayil overpass CH overpass Old Railway overpass 221 Kozhikode to Shoranur Junction Sources[1][2][3] This diagram: view talk edit
Location Mangalore Central Location within India Show map of India Mangalore Central Mangalore Central (Karnataka) Show map of Karnataka Interactive map

History

Mangalore Railway Station presently known as Mangalore Central, had celebrated a quiet centenary in 2007. Though there are no exact records to prove that the railway station was opened in 1907 and the first train services commenced the same year, if one goes by the foundation stone on a quaint little guard house at the northern-end of the railway bridge across the Netravathi which says "The last rivet was put in position and the bridge formally declared completed by H.E. Sir Arthur Lawley. KCMG, GCIE, Governor of Madras on the 4th November 1907," one can conclude that the train services commenced somewhere around this time.

Though some records say that the first train that chugged on the newly constructed Netravathi bridge on 4 November 1907 came from Kallikote in Kerala, records with the Southern Railways say that the first train to be introduced in the zone, train number-1, ran its maiden journey between erstwhile Madras and Mangalore port in 1914, reducing the voyage of 1024 nautical miles via Cape Comorin to 550 miles.

This broad gauge railway route was formed mainly for the transportation of world famous Mangalore tiles to Madras Harbour to be exported by ships. Thus the same train returned after one week as train No.2. containing 3 compartments with Mangalore tiles and the fourth one with passengers and postal mailbags. The same train is the present No.6001/6002 Chennai Central-Mangalore Mail. The Mangalore Railway Station used to be the last station connecting Mangalore to the state of Kerala in the south and to the rest of the country. No doubt, the first train services in the region opened a new chapter in the history of the area and paved way for much progress. Mangalore was then in the Madras province under the British rule. The construction of the Netravathi Bridge in Ullal using 16 spans of 150 feet length each was taken up around this time. A few years later, in 1929, the Grand Trunk Express was introduced that ran for 104 hours through the length of the west coast, from Mangalore to Peshawar in Pakistan. In those days, it was the longest rail route in the country. In 1930, Mangalore was made a permanent station from a trial station. A glance at the railway history of the nation will make anyone outrightly conclude that Mangalore railway station has been a much neglected station over the years. If train services in the nation commenced in 1853, in Mangalore it arrived 55 years later. Now though it is over hundred years since the railway station was established, we see not much progress except a few changes. The old building was renovated just over a decade ago. Except for some developmental work there has been not much of a progress to boast of.

It was during T.A. Pai’s tenure as Railway Minister in 1971 that the first direct link train No. 131/132 Jayanthi Janatha Express from Mangalore to Delhi commenced with the Mangalore Railway Station as the starting point. Apart from the Konkan Railway, even the Mangalore-Jammu Tavi Navyug Express is George Fernandes’s gift to his hometown Mangalore. A metre-gauge railway track, built through the Western Ghats, connected Mangalore with Hassan. The metre-gauge track was converted to a broad-gauge track connecting Mangalore to Bangalore via Hassan. The re-gauged track was opened to freight traffic in May 2006^[6] and passenger traffic in December 2007.^[7] The track network in the Mangalore area is based on a triangular pattern, with Mangalore Central, Mangalore Junction and the Netravati River railway bridge at the vertices of the triangle.

Historic plaque at Mangalore Railway Station, showing the distance to Madras, now Chennai.

A railway siding leads from Mangalore Central to the historic old Railway Goods-Shed in the old Port, Bunder area of Mangalore city.

Changes of name

The two railway stations in Mangaluru (then known as Mangalore) used to be called "Mangalore Railway Station" and "Kankanady Station". But this caused passengers problems if they did not know that Kankanady station was in Mangaluru. It made it difficult buying tickets, because staff in ticket offices did not offer tickets to Kankanady Station if passengers asked for a ticket to Mangalore. And passengers to Mangaluru often did not get off the train at Kankanady Station and carried on to the next stop by mistake. So in 2003, the state government asked for the two stations to be renamed.^[8] At the same time, the railway authorities denied that there was any proposal to move Mangalore Railway Station to Kankanady, though they had moved the fuelling point to Kankanady with a view to making it possible for 24-bogie trains to stop at Mangalore Railway Station.^[8] The change of name was approved in October 2007, and the two stations became Mangalore Central and Mangalore Junction respectively.^[9]

The Karnataka state government made a proposal on 27 October 2006 to change the English-language names of twelve towns and cities (including Mangalore) so that they were consistent with their pronunciation in the Kannada language. This was proposal was accepted in October 2014 after the Survey of India, Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts, Ministry of Science and Technology and Intelligence Bureau had all said that they had no objections.^[10] The town and city names changed on 1 November 2024.^[11] Instruction were issued for post offices and railway stations to be renamed accordingly.^[10]

Location

Mangalore Central railway station is located at Old Kent road, Hampankatta. The other major railway station in the city, Mangalore Junction located at Darbar Hill, Padil, Mangalore 575007.^[12]

Services

Mangalore Central has many trains originated and terminated. Popular trains includes Mangaluru-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express, West Coast Superfast Express, Matsyagandha Superfast Express, Mangaluru Central - M.G .R Chennai Central SF Express, Mangaluru Central–Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express (via Alappuzha), Vivek Express (Santragachi), Chennai Mail, Malabar Express, Maveli Express etc Southern Railway connects Kanyakumari, Chennai, Kacheguda, Bengaluru. South Western Railway connects Bengaluru, Vijayapura. Konkan Railway connects Mumbai^[13][14]

See also

• Surathkal railway station
• Thokur railway station
• Mangalore Mail