Title - Railway budget evokes mixed response in Mangalore

The Union railway budget 2013-14 has evoked mixed response, but it has received more brickbats for not addressing long pending decisions on main railway connectivity to the coast as well as the ports. One silver lining was that the two trains that has been either extended or introduced will connect two main tourist and youth interest places.The Mangalore Tiruchirapally express has been extended up to Puducherry, the former French territory on the Eastern coast, and Mangalore-Bhatkal-Margaon express has been introduced to connect the two coastal markets- Mangalore and Margaon.A new Mangalore-Bangalore weekly train has also been announced, but it would not help an average passenger as the train runs only once in a week.“An average traveller between the two cities will still have to be at the mercy of the bus lobby. Nobody plans a week in advance to travel to Bangalore and the present trains are always full and even in tatkal, hardly anybody gets a seat,” said Prabhakar Achar, a railway activist.Three most important railway links that were vital for the development of Karnataka were the Ankola-Hubli route, Shravanabelagola-Bangalore and Honnavar-Talaguppa link. All the three have not got a mention in the budget, which has peeved the railway activists.“The Ankola Hubli link would open a new route for commerce and passenger movement. It would have also given Hubli and Northern Karnataka districts a direct rail link to the coast and port connectivity,” said Panduranga Shenoy of Uttara Kannada Railway Yatri Sangha, who had been most vocal for the Ankola Hubli link.

“The railway minister has not even considered the continuance of the rail link between Shimoga and Honnavar, which is cut off at Talaguppa. This link would have established connectivity for the coastal districts by creating another route to Bangalore via Shimoga,” he added.

“Though the Supreme Court has cleared the re-survey of the land belonging to the Kunigal Stead farms for laying the Shravanabelagola-Bangalore line, the minister has not shown courage to include it in the budget. This would have cut down the travel time between Mangalore and Bangalore by four hours and 240 kilometers,” said Ravish Gowda, an activist of the Malnad Railway Prayanikara Hitarakshana Samithi in Hassan.

The Mangalore-Kerala based activists have, however, liked the extension of Mangalore Tiruchirapally express to Pondicherry (Puducherry).

“The Aurobindo ashram gets a number of devotees everyday from Mangalore, Kasargod, Kannur and Palghat. In the Palghat division, with the extension of this train, the devotees can alight a few hundred meters near the Ashram on the way and save time and money. Most of the devotees were in the range of 25-40 years and during the annual retreat at the Ashram, many of the IT professionals from Mangalore go in large groups to Puducherry,” said Govindan Nair, a railway activist of Kasargod.

The Malnad activists have welcomed the formation of the new route between Chikmagalur to Sakleshpur. But, they have also termed it, “lack of vision,” on the part ofthe railway minister not to include the hill tourist paradise of Madikeri, though the railway line passes a few tens of kilometers from Madikeri towards KR Nagar.

President of the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mohammad Ameen told DNA that, “Though the budget has given two new trains to Mangalore (Mangalore-Kuchiguda and Mangalore Bangalore weekly), the important port connectivity sought by KCCI by opening up the Shimoga Honnavar line had not happened. This line would have brought more commerce to New Mangalore Port, increasing both railway and roll-on-roll-off services of the Konkan Railway.”

He added that the ministry should include the Shravanabelagola-Bangalore link in the budget this year only as a supplement.