I had heard that initially there was some plan like that ( following Tata VSKP route via Chaibasa). But couple of reasons given were (1) Train is part of CKP Division and CKP as a station might lose a connectvity to South. It was more of a pressure from Divisional HQ. (2) Moreover from CTC onwards it will follow the regular HwH-TVC route where already so many trains are running towards AP/TN/KL. ECOR was more inclined to run it via existing route (ROU-SBP-TIG-VSKP) & It was felt that there was enough scope to run one more train via Western Orissa

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From CTC many to Kerala? How did vivek got daily dude
From sbp it should have gone via angul then via CTC vskp side
Western odhisa here need more interior tn connetion now

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Ideally Chaibsa would have been new and good. But as per info from a source working in rlwys, what they said was Tata falls under CKP division & there was pressure to continue in same route. East coast railway wanted additional connecton from Western Orissa as lots of migrant labourers from Bolabgir, Bargarh,TIG etc in CBE, TUP, KL side. So it was like a win win situation for both.As far as your point is concerned, agree that even after so many years we still dont have daily connectivity from HWH-CTC-BBS towards Kerala. Its a long standing demand .

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Yes CKP can't loose this popular train to south, with huge demand, many railway employees and other south indians resides here and many students and patients alao use this train for south apart from tourists.

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Yes. Assuiming the TT remains as what was posted in the TT committee meeting ( Dep from Tata at 5am), people will lose overnite connectivity to places like VZM, Duvvada& other places in AP. Train will also not go to VSKP. But then at least a daily dedicated train is given which is more important

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