Coastal districts unhappy with railway budget

Coastal districts unhappy with railway budget

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, March 15, 2012 : A DH report says that the people of the twin districts are not happy about the maiden railway budget, which Dinesh Trivedi recently presented, as it has nothing for the people of Udupi, Karwar, and Mangalore.

Latha Kini, the KCCI president, told DH that Trivedi has focused on sanitation, safety, and modernization of the railways, which is very important and the slight increase in fare will not harm the interests of the passengers. However, it cannot be overlooked that the coastal districts have been neglected while Kerala has received a considerable portion of the budget for the development of its railway-related industry, she said.

She said that KCCI is planning to urge the railway minister to present a status report on the railway proposals made last year and to find out how much of the budget allocated has actually been implemented.

Hanumantha Kamath, the president of the Pashchima Karavali Railway Yathri Abhivriddhi Sangha, said that Mangalore does not figure in the railway budget at all in spite of the fact that the people had demanded that the Bangalore to Mangalore train must be run daily.

Further, he said that the South Western Railways had proposed that the Bangalore to Kannur train must be partly extended to Karwar by bifurcating 10 of its compartments to Karwar and 7 to Kannur nearly 2 years back, but this proposal did not get the railway ministry’s approval because of poor political will and apathetic nature of the bureaucracy.

He also said that the Sangha had pressed for the introduction of the Mangalore to Shravanabelagola train, a proposal that was ignored, and added that even the proposal to upgrade the Mangalore Railway Station to international status does not feature in the budget.

While admitting that the budget is people friendly, P. V. Mohan, the president of the Railway Horata Kriya Samithi, said that the railway minister has not responded to the pleas of the people of Udupi, Karwar, and Mangalore. The budget does not mention a separate railway division for Mangalore, something that the people have been requesting from the past six years, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Anil Hegde, the technical advisor for the Railway Yathri Sangha, said that the budget does not mention any new trains or upgrading of railway stations.