Much as I was looking forward to my trip along the Karnataka coast, I was eagerly anticipating the return journey as well. That’s because for the first time I would be travelling via the Konkan Railway.
The Konkan coast is well-known for its scenic beauty- as it is sandwiched between the Western Ghats on one side and the Arabian Sea on the other. The Konkan Railway runs along this entire stretch, crossing three states; Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka, and covering 741 kilometers.
I was to board at Mangalore (shown on the map) and get off at Pune (not shown on the map but somewhere between Chiplun and Khed!), a journey of a little less than 24 hours. The added bonus was that it was mostly during the day, so I would have ample opportunities to take in the picturesque route and spectacular scenery. Moreover, it was just after the monsoon when the Western Ghats are at their best.
Suffice it to say- the journey did not disappoint. They say that the best camera is the mind’s eye but I so longed for some device that would freeze certain images in my mind- complete with every detail. Also, the tinted windows of the AC coach I was in; added an unwanted filter to the videos that I kept taking. So, the colours that one sees in my pictures are not the actual green. Luckily for me, we had done a part of this route by road just a few days earlier when we drove from Goa to our destination in Karnataka. And what a pleasure it was to re-trace the same journey, but by train.
The Konkan Railway crosses around 2000 bridges and goes through some 92 tunnels. The longest among these is the Karbude tunnel which is 6.5 kms long. Unluckily for me, we crossed it when I was fast asleep at night. Not that I would have known the difference when we did cross it- since the light at the end of the tunnel would have been the darkness of night!
The internet has a wealth of details as to how long the construction of this route took (7 years), the cost (innumerable crores), the problems faced (land acquisition, climate, topography) and the challenges that had to be overcome (hostile wildlife, long periods of time on site and away from family; to name a few). Many lives were lost in the process as well.
Reading about all this has only made me appreciate it all the more. If only all the trains that ply on this route had this information in their coaches- like airplanes display the route and flight details; us passengers would value the beauty and the service that it provides.
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