Title - ‘No new trains possible on Hubli-Bangalore line’

V. Sudhakar Naik, Divisional Commercial Manager, Mysore division, South Western Railway, has ruled out the possibility of running new trains between Bangalore and Hubli as he said the track capacity between the two places had reached saturation point.Mr. Naik said here on Wednesday that new trains could be run only after track doubling between the two places, and added that such work had been completed up to Tumkur from Bangalore.He was speaking after visiting the Davangere railway station and the new goods shed constructed near Bathi here.Mr. Naik told presspersons that he was aware that almost all trains plying between Hubli and Bangalore and Hubli and Mysore were packed to capacity every day and added that there had been demands from people from many places, including Davangere, to introduce more train services on the route.Mr. Naik also said there was no possibility of adding additional coaches to intercity and other trains running between Hubli and Bangalore as the trains were running with the full capacity of 29 bogies. He said all the railway stations between Hubli and Tumkur were constructed to accommodate 29 bogies.Referring to the proposed Kottur-Harihar railway service, he said that once the demand of a few farmers for more compensation was settled and the Commissioner of Railway Safety gave its nod to run the trains between the two places, the Railways would run the trains. He was hopeful of resolving the problems in the project in the next few months. Mr. Naik said the Railways had taken up a special drive called ‘fortress check’ to curb ticketless travel on trains. He said apart from routine ticket checking, senior officials would check the entire train and catch ticketless travellers.