India: 'We help take India to space but enough trains don't halt for us', say Spaceport personnel

Personnel serving the Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO) at the country’s spaceport Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), are enabling launches of the most advanced transportation systems- Orbital Rockets.

They take India to space and ensure that the Indian tricolour flies high, even in the orbits around earth and other planets.

Ironically, they themselves are having to write to the Indian Government, to obtain basic train services from the Indian Railways.

In a letter to Dr. Jitendra Singh, ISRO’s Minister-in-Charge, the personnel at ISRO’s spaceport have requested for more to trains halt at the Sullurupeta station, which they depend on for their daily commute to their respective residential locations and native places.

WION has accessed a copy of this letter to the Minister.

SDSC is situated in a remote barrier island, that is approximately 100 kilometres north of the southern Indian metropolis of Chennai.

For the thousands of personnel working at the spaceport and the retired personnel staying in the vicinity, the trains that pass by the nearest railway station at Sullurupeta (approximately 25 kms from the spaceport) are the primary means of transport.

A vast barrier island, spanning more than 43,000 acres, Sriharikota rose to prominence only after ISRO established a spaceport there in the 1970s.

Development activities in the region began gradually, as ISRO’s spacefaring activities gained national prominence.

However, even today, the highest footfall and vehicular traffic to Sriharikota is seen only when public flock to the ISRO Launch Viewers Gallery.

On most other days, Sullurupeta is just another Indian town.

Highlighting the potential for the Indian Railways in the sector, the letter by SHAR (Sriharikota Range) Employees Trade Union mentions that the Sullurupeta station is a hub from where passengers can travel to the Spaceport, the industrial park cum Special economic zone Sri City, pilgrimage centres like Shri Chengalamma temple, Venadu mosque, and tourist spots like Pulicat lake and Nelapattu bird sanctuary.

Serving as the Indian Government’s Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr. Singh has visited the spaceport on various occasions and witnessed important rocket launch missions. Most recently, Dr. Singh had witnessed the launch of India’s maiden Sun-study mission Aditya-L1 on September 2nd.

Also watch | Aditya L1: First Indian space mission to study sun

“Sullurupeta Railway Station acts as a fulcrum for commuting and travelling requirements of SDSC-SHAR’s working cadre and retired employees, employees of Sri city, who belong to different parts of the country. All citizens are facing similar problems while commuting to their native place, due to lack of sufficient trains that are halting in Sullurupeta Railway Station” read the letter by a representative body of the Spaceport employees.

The personnel have requested Dr. Jitendra Singh’s office to take their request to the concerned Ministry, thereby ensuring that more train services are extended up to Sullurupeta and that more long-distance trains halt at this station etc.

Nine trains including the Sanghamitra SuperFast Express, Grand Trunk, Howrah Mail/Chennai Mail, Tatanagar express, among others feature in the list shared by the personnel.

“Most of the trains that were passing by Sullurupeta were not halting here. Only around once in an hour, does a train stop here. The basic facilities at the Sullurupeta station including waiting rooms and washrooms are in a poor condition and did not even have drinking water” Sri Saidatta, a college student and space enthusiast told WION.

He had taken a train from his native in Warangal, Telengana to Sullurupeta, Andhra Pradesh, on September 2nd, to visit Sriharikota and witness his first-ever rocket launch- that of Aditya-L1/PSLV-C-57.

Even for those in the higher echelons in ISRO, travelling to the spaceport would mean taking a flight from their city to Chennai and then heading on a 3-hour drive to Srihaikota, on a highway that has been under-construction for several years.

While ISRO has made Rocketry and successful launching activity appear so easy (thanks to their meticulous efforts over several decades), everyone travelling by road and train to ISRO’s spaceport face the same logistical issues.

The only holy exceptions are for the President and Prime Minister of India, for whom it is possible to fly to the spaceport via helicopter.