Rail coach restaurant to add a new attraction near Mattancherry Halt station

With passenger train services to the Cochin Harbour Terminus station having stopped many years ago, the Railways are readying an air-conditioned ‘rail coach restaurant’ (RCR) near Mattancherry Halt station en route by refurbishing a train coach.

The facility is part of efforts to enhance passenger amenities and make use of railway assets. The Mattancherry Halt station, which holds heritage value, was chosen considering its proximity to Mattancherry and Fort Kochi, which attract tens of thousands of foreign and domestic tourists each year. The refurbishing work on the AC rail coach restaurant is expected to be completed this month, after which the coach and the renovated space in front of it will be thrown open to guests. The area surrounding the RCR will also be developed and landscaped to provide guests with a lawn-dining space, railway sources said.

The RCR is being readied near the bus stop in front of the railway station, where trains used to halt until the Ernakulam Junction and Town railway stations were built in the 1960s. The station has five tracks, while the Cochin Harbour Terminus station — yet another heritage station located a little before the other end of Willingdon Island — has two tracks and platforms.

Heritage station

“Apart from Mattancherry Halt, an RCR is being readied at Nagercoil, the sole other station under the Railways’ Thiruvananthapuram Division. The location of the RCR at Mattancherry Halt, which has heritage value, is unique since most of the RCRs across India are located at stations in cities and towns. They are being readied under a renovate, operate, maintain and transfer (ROMT) model. The amenity will be returned to the Railways once the contract period ends. Prior to its launch, the Railways would approve the menu. These restaurants are being readied next in line after retirement rooms at stations were relaunched as budget hotels, so that even non-passengers can use them,” official sources said.

Although regular passenger train services to Mattancherry Halt and Cochin Harbour Terminus have stopped, goods trains and a rare tourist train used to call at Mattancherry Halt, leaving plenty of space on the unused tracks.

Vathuruthy bridge

A proposal to extend a few passenger trains that now terminate at Ernakulam Junction to Cochin Harbour Terminus has not materialised as yet owing to issues related to finalising the alignment/design for an overbridge en route at the Vathuruthy level crossing. This followed concerns about the bridge affecting the safe movement of aircraft from the adjacent naval airport, as well as land-acquisition hurdles.

Railway sources said an alternative proposal to build an underpass at Vathuruthy did not find many takers owing to concerns about waterlogging.