2010-12-22 13:20:50

Vailankhanni, Biggest Marian shrine in India gets rail link


(December 22, 2010) A new railway link to India’s biggest Marian shrine, which opened December 20, fulfilled decades-old demand, official said. “We are happy to have the rail link to the shrine. At last, our wishes have come true,” Father Arockiasamy Michael, rector of the shrine at Vailankanni, Tamil Nadu state, told UCA News. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi opened the rail link via a video conference from Chennai. He also flagged off the first train services from Nagapattinam, a nearby town, to Vailankanni. Thanjavur diocese manages Vailankanni shrine, called the Lourdes of East, is India’s biggest Marian shrine situated some 310 kilometres south of Chennai. The Blessed Mother is said to have appeared at this place in the 16th century to a disabled Hindu boy and healed him. Shrine officials estimate that around five million people visit the shrine throughout the year and more than 50 percent of them are from other religions. Hundreds of thousands visit the shrine during the annual festival in September. Most pilgrims depend on bus services and private bus operators reportedly charge exorbitant fares. The rector said the rail link would ease the pressure and help especially those coming from far. “Train journey is also safer and cheaper too,” he added. The project was sanctioned in 1999, by the federal coalition government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party for the 10-km broad gauge line. The shrine had contributed 10 million rupees and in 2002 built the railway station in the replica of the shrine before the rail tracks were laid.







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