Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram on the Konkan Railway, all of 3,149 km, is the longest trip by a
Rajdhani Express in India. Ramya Sriram hops on and doodles her memories of it :
By Ramya Sriram
The network of the Indian Railways is like the human body’s circulatory system, comprising trains that criss-cross the
peninsula...
more... like blood vessels, carrying and delivering passengers and goods in fascinating co-ordination. I’ve always been a
fan of rail journeys and believe that they take you to places otherwise inaccessible—places that are best appreciated from
the door or window of a train.
The Konkan Railway (Roha–Thokur) is a rail route in India that treats you to some of the most spectacular sights of the
mountains, valleys, rivers, forests and fields that grace Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. I was asked by various people to
travel on this route to “experience heaven”. The Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani is your best bet, they told me. It covers the
entire Konkan stretch during the day. So I thought why not? Though the train traverses the Konkan route only on the
second day of its 42-hour journey, I wanted to take the train from its station of origin to its final destination. I flew to Delhi,got myself to Hazrat Nizamuddin station, and clambered onto train number 12432. I had a side lower berth, with a large
window to keep me company. The coach was relatively empty except for an Udupi-bound couple -- I later discovered that
they were professors at Manipal University. Luckily, there was nobody travelling on the side upper berth so I had enough
and more space to myself!
The train started at 11 am sharp, quickly reaching an alarming speed, not unlike that of a plane that's about to take off from
the runway. After some time, breadsticks and red cups appeared, followed by warm tomato soup. I tucked into my ‘Meals
on Wheels’ lunch and read ‘Rail Bandhu’, the onboard travel magazine that was available in every compartment. For the
next few hours, we went non-stop through brown, barren land and dry river beds, the monotony of which was broken
sporadically by pretty mustard fields dotted with yellow. We sped past nearly fifty stations across Haryana, UP and
Rajasthan. Some of the intriguing ones that caught my eye were Bayana Junction, Mokholi and Sawai Madhopur. There
were, as one might expect, cows at the Mathura station and camels at signals in Rajasthan. The train reached Kota at about
3:30 pm, where I got off and cleaned my window vigorously with newspaper during the ten-minute stop. Fellow passengers
gave me curious looks and asked me why I was wiping the window. I, puffed with pride, announced that I was a writer and
I needed a good view. They immediately offered to help. As we moved on, I noticed empty platforms, looking forlorn and
hungry for visitors.
Madhya Pradesh approached, bringing with it the black soil of geography-textbook fame. We weren’t even twelve hours
into the journey and I was already spellbound by the scenic variety before me. The evening wore on, the light faded and I
fell asleep before we reached Vadodara.
I woke up at about 6 am the next day and found that we had crossed Panvel and were already in the Konkan. Fields rolled
past, featuring numerous quaint thatch huts. The soil had taken on a startling orange-red tinge. I excitedly went to the door
and opened it. Suddenly, a tunnel hit us! Even though I had expected it, I was surprised and thrilled when we were plunged
into blackness with a whoosh. When we got out, we were on a bridge over a river—but it wasn't long before we were inside a
tunnel again. I quickly got used to the coach being alternately submerged in darkness and flooded with sunshine. A pattern
emerged — a tunnel was followed by a river and then another tunnel. I started to count the number of tunnels to confirm
the presence of all 92 of them but gave up before I got to ten. The jagged rocks at the entrances of the tunnels were covered
by a mesh in almost all places. Inside some tunnels, the roof was cut at regular intervals to allow streams of sunlight to
enter. The biggest thrill was when the train took us through the 6.5 km long Karbude Tunnel between Ukshi and Bhoke,
inside which we spent a good ten minutes.
Ratnagiri was approaching, the speaker announced. After a quick stop, we traversed the Panval Nadi viaduct, which stands
at a height of 64 m over the Panval river, making it one of the tallest viaducts in Asia. The number of bridges on the route
add up to a staggering 2,000, with 179 of them across major rivers. If you want to marvel at the engineering challenges
overcome during the construction of this railway, you have to see it to believe it!
