Jam-packed Venad express: Two women passengers collapse due to suffocation

KOTTAYAM: Two women passengers collapsed on the overcrowded Venad Express on Monday. When the train reached Piravom station at around 9:15 am on Monday, there was barely any space to stretch legs inside the compartment. The two women passengers fainted, evoking concern in others. The other passengers on the train provided them with immediate first aid. It was just days back that another woman passenger, Rajini Sunil, got injured in the stampede while trying to board the train.

It is routine for Venad Express to become jam-packed once the train leaves Chengannur station. Venad comes almost one and a half hours after Palaruvi Express, and most commuters depend on this train to reach their workplace. The time interval between these two trains is blamed for this congestion.

Venad Express is the first train to start service every day from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam. More than 3,000 people, mostly from southern districts, rely on Memu, Palaruvi and Venad Express to reach Tripunithura and Infopark in Kochi.

Although the increase in coaches at Palaruvi brought some relief, the problems on the route have not been completely resolved. Even after receiving the signal, the guards in Venad face a struggle to give the green signal since the station would be chock full of people waiting to board the train and the guards can’t risk their job to invite something tragic.