Cochin Harbour Terminus

This article is about the railway terminal at the harbour. For the harbour, see Port of Cochin.

Cochin Harbour Terminus Indian Railway Station
Station statistics
Address	Willingdon Island, Kochi, Kerala, India
Other information
Owned by	Indian Railways
Fare zone	Southern Railway

Cochin Harbour Terminus (CHTS) is one of the railway stations in the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, India. It is located on the Willingdon Island. The Cochin Harbour Terminus is the principal station providing rail connectivity to the southern segment of the Port of Kochi located on the Willingdon Island. (Catering to the northern segment of the port located on Vallarpadam, is a separate rail-route and an exclusive container station). And hence it mainly handles goods transport in and out of the Kochi Port.

History

The station became operational in 1943 with the Cochin-Shornur passenger.This train had almost the same schedule till it skipped the station,with a service each in the morning and evening.A train to Chennai(Madras), leaving Cochin in the afternoon was introduced.Later the train to Ooty(Udyogamandal)Tea Garden express started.The train had link to Tiruchchirappalli.The number of trains starting from Cochin Harbour Terminus increased. Many trains were diverted from Cochin Harbour Terminus to other stations in the course of time.The important trains diverted are:

Old Train	Current Route
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Chennai Mail	Trivandrum-Chennai Mail
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Shornur Junction passenger	Ernakulam Junction-Shornur Junction passenger
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Trichy Tea Garden Express	Ernakulam-karaikal Express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Nizammudin Mangala Lakshadweep Express	Ernakulam-Nizammudin Mangala Lakshadweep Express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Hyderabad Sabari Express	Trivandrum-Hyderabad Sabari Express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Bombay Netravati Express	Trivandrum-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Netravati Express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Dadar Express	Discontinued
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Rajkot Express	Ernakulam-Hapa Express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Patna Express	Ernakulam-Patna Express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Gorakhpur Raptisagar Express	Trivandrum-Gorakhpur Raptisagar express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Indore express	Trivandrum-Indore express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Bilaspur express	Trivandrum-Bilaspur express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Howrah express	Trivandrum-shalimar(Howrah) express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Varanasi Express	Ernakulam-Rajendra Nagar express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Bangalore Island Express	Kanyakumari-Bangalore Island Express
Cochin Harbour Terminus-Mangalore Parasuram Express	Trivandrum-Mangalore Parasuram Express

Location

Cochin harbour terminus is located on the Bristow Road in the Willingdon Island, Kochi. The station is an easy way to access the Wellington island in Kochi,which is difficult to reach especially for those outside the city.

Importance

Third Railway Station in Kochi

Once the passenger services from Cochin Harbour Terminus is revived after the completion of the new Venduruthy bridge,it would serve as the third railway station in Kochi city.The already existing railway stations, Ernakulam Junction(south) and Ernakulam Town(North),face a severe lack of space and facilities.Two pairs of new Multiple Electric Mainline Unit(MEMU) services from Kochi were announced in Railway budget 2009-'10 and 2010-'11.Currently about 12 pairs of local passenger trains operate in and out of Kochi.The Indian Railways plan to replace them with Multiple Electric Mainline Unit(MEMU) services in future.But due to lack of a Multiple Electric Mainline Unit(MEMU) maintenance shed in Kochi it is been delayed.The amble space available at Cochin Harbour Terminus could be made use to build the Multiple Electric Mainline Unit(MEMU) maintenance shed in Kochi.The station could be upgraded to provide facilities to start long haul express trains from Kochi.The station building is a rare master piece of architecture and it really adds to the antique features of the city of Cochin.

Handling Bulk Cargo at Cochin Port

The bulk cargo handling facilities at Cochin port remain inadequate.Cochin port has port side rail sidings that is suitable to handle bulk cargo.But due to inadequate facilities there has been a decrease in the bulk cargo,especially coal, handled at the port.The main reason is the lack of electrification in the Ernakulam Junction-Cochin Harbour Terminus section due to height restrictions imposed by the navy.The line pass very near to the naval airport at Kochi.The navy has permitted a height of only 3.6m while at least 6.4m is needed for the structures related to electrification.Once the rail sidings are revived and the lines are electrified,then there would be considerable increase in the revenue from Cochin port.

Closeness to Mattancherry Wharf

Cochin Harbour Terminus is very closely located to Mattancherry Wharf(Q1- Q4)of the Cochin Port.Passenger and tourist ships moor at Mattancherry Wharf.It is due to this fact that Mangala Lakshadweep Express(12618/12617) used to start from Cochin Harbour Terminus to provide connection to passenger ships from Cochin port to Lakshadweep.Now with tourist ships frequently berthing at Cochin port,Cochin Harbour Terminus could be developed as a boarding point for tourist trains like Bharath Third.The numerous 5-star hotels near the station add to the advantages.

Rail Side Container Terminal Cochin Harbour Terminus(CHTS)

Rail Side Container Terminal,Cochin Harbour Terminus , of the Container Corporation of India was commissioned in December,1990.Spread over a total area of 4.20 acres, the terminal has modern facilities to offer a wide range of logistics service to the customers. The terminal is open for both EXIM and Domestic traffic, dealt through Rail and Road.The total paved area is 10,854 Sq. Mt.It has a rail siding that can handle up to 40 wagons.Modern equipments like reach stacker(70 tons) and sling crane are available here.

Container Rail Services from Rail Side Container Terminal Cochin Harbour Terminus(CHTS)
Source	Destination	Frequency
Cochin Harbour Terminus(CHTS)	ICD Whitefield,Bangalore(WFD)	Weekly
Cochin Harbour Terminus(CHTS)	Milavittan,Tuticurin(MVN)	Daily
Cochin Harbour Terminus(CHTS)	ICD Irugur,Coimbatore(IGU)	On Demand

• Modifying the railway line so as give direct access to the station from Alappuzha side bypassing Ernakulam junction station.This would facilitate the commencement of passenger trains towards Alappuzha,without having the trains to change direction at Ernakulam junction.Thus a considerable ease could be brought at Ernakulam junction by diverting a section of the passenger traffic to Cochin Harbour terminus.
• Construct two additional platforms
• Extend existing platforms
• Reinstate the public announcement system.
• Extending the trains like(0216)Madgaon expresss(Mon)(2522)Raptisagar Express(Fri),2977)Marusagar Express,(6338)Okha Express,(6303/6304)Vachinad express,(2617/2618)Mangala Lakshadweep Express,(2678/2677)Bangalore Express,(6866/6865)Nagore Express,(6305/6306)Ernakulam-Kannur Intercity Express,(342/341/345/346)Kottayam passenger,(352/355)Kollam passenger,(648/332/337/338)Alappuzha passenger,(647/648/649/650)Shornur passenger,(302/301/305)Guruvayur passenger,(343/344)Kayamkulam passenger(via Kottayam),(334/336/339)Kayamkulam passenger (via Alappuzha),(356/357)Ernakulam-Kollam MEMU (To be introduced soon)
• The budget gave green signal for the Ernakulam-Kollam MEMU services.The vast space and infrastructure at the station could be utilized to setup the MEMU shed in Kochi.
• The station has now two platforms. 270 m of the total length of more than 300 m has roofing. This would be sufficient to hold at least 12 coaches. Thus there is not much investment involved in renovating the station building.
• The station could be made the base for MEMU services in Kerala.
• The suburban railway system could be experimented in Kochi.

• Redirecting some long trains from Thiruvananthapuram Central to Cochin Harbour Terminus would help to reduce the congestion in the rail network.
• It could be a halt for the exhibition trains like Azadi express, Red Ribbon Express, Science express etc.
• The Southern railway can experiment the Ro-Ro model of transport as in Konkan railway from Cochin Harbour Terminus

References

• Indian railways
• Cochin Harbour Terminus by Jimmy Jose at IRFCA
• Container Corporation of India Ltd. (CONCOR) Official Website

External links

• Indian railways
• Cochin Harbour Terminus by Jimmy Jose at IRFCA
• CONCOR Rail Side Container Terminal Cochin Harbour Terminus(CHTS) Official Website