Moily promises glowing railway budget for state

Moily promises glowing railway budget for state

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, March 12, 2012 : M. Veerappa Moily, the union minister for corporate affairs, has expressed hopes that the proposed railway budget will take into consideration many projects in Karnataka. He was interacting with reporters on Sunday.

Stating that he cannot make any announcements at present because of the by polls, he said that the state will benefit the most from the railway budget as he has met Dinesh Trivedi, the union minister for railways, just a few days ago.

Rubbishing allegations that state MPs have not put in enough efforts to get budget allocations for the state’s railway projects, he said that the central government had made allocations during the previous two budgets for surveys, including the engineering and traffic surveys for the new 70-km Belur to Shringeri railway line, the 120-km Padubidri to Dharmasthala through Karkala, Belthangady, and Ujire railway line, the 2000-km Baindur to Nettane through Kollur, Halady, and Hebri railway line, and the 272-km Mangalore to Mysore through Madikeri railway line.

Moily accused the state government of expressing reluctance to complete projects initiated by the centre.

He also said that follow-up action has been taken with regard to problems raised at the Exporters’ Meet recently held in Mangalore. One of the issues that the central government is now focusing on is the reduction of the Mangalore Port’s high freight rate in order to the equalize the port with harbours such as Kochi.

He also remarked that declaring Mangalore Airport as an international airport is only a technical issue as a number of international flights are operating from the airport.