RailEnquiry

BANGALORE: Expressing displeasure on railway budget, chief minister Jagadish Shettar stated that increase in freight charges will lead to price rise burdening the common man."As far is Karnataka is concerned, the railway budget is totally disappointing as most of the projects proposed by the state have not been considered by the Union railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal," he told in a release on Tuesday.According to CM the average national railway density is 24% where as the average railway density of Karnataka is given only 16.9%. Tamil Nadu has a railway density of 31%. "The budget has failed to sanction new rail routes and trains to the state. Karnataka is the only state which is providing land and 50% of the cost of new railway projects. In spite of this, it is regrettable that the demands of the state have been sidelined," Shettar said.Out of the seven new railway projects demanded by the state, only Gadag-Wadi, Srinivaspur-Madanpalli and Chikkaballapur-Puttaparti lines have been approved. "The remaining proposals, Gadag-Haveri, Kadri-Puttaparti, Dharwad-Belgaum and KR Nagar-Kushalanagar have not been considered. Our request to undertake Bijapur-Shahabad, Talaguppa-Honnavar, Hubli-Ankola projects on PPP basis has also been not considered," the CM said.

Terming the railway budget as lacking in vision, regressive to the growth of both the railways and the country, BJP national general secretary HN Ananth Kumar said the sub-urban rail service for Bangalore for which Karnataka has committed 50% of the project cost has been totally ignored in the budget. "Even Bangalore-Mysore & Bangalore-Tumkur rail corridors with doubling, electrification & automatic signalling have also been ignored," he said.

Describing railway budget as manipulatively adding to the burden of the common man, Kumar maintained that long pending demands for improved connectivity to north India from Bangalore and direct connectivity from any destination in Karnataka to destinations such as Amritsar, Jammu, Tawi, Dehradun & Varanasi have also been ignored. "Karnataka and the south-western railway zone have given the maximum returns against investment ratio for the railways for many years now. Karnataka is the eighth largest state in area but has the fourth lowest rail density excluding the North-east & Jammu & Kashmir," he said.

Welcoming railway budget, KPCC president G Parameshwara said upgrading Bangalore railway station to international standard is a welcome step. "Keeping in mind the common man, the fares are untouched. All neglected projects have been speeded up. The budget is good as skill development centre, Bangalore-Mysore express, Miraj-Mumbai express, Kachiguda express through Mangalore have been given," he said