JOIN USParticipating in the discussion on the Railway Budget, Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Ind) said in Rajya Sabha that the White Paper promised by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee should be presented in the shortest possible time. “The (minister’s) suggestion that the much vaunted Financial performance of the Railways was less than authentic comes as a shock,” he said while referring to the talk of cumulative earnings of Rs 90,000 crore in 5 years by the Indian Railways.
He said the minister should focus on the following aspects of in her promised Vision 2020: Rail track capacity expansion, Utilization and Efficiency improvements, project Management, customer experience enhancement, Premium Trains, Freight tariff regulator, Public Private Partnerships and Railways Financial investments in states including Karnataka.
Mandya MP Cheluvarayaswamy, while welcoming the move not to hike fares, decried the “step-motherly” attitude of the Railways towards Karnataka for the last 10 years. The works cleared during 1996 to 1998 have been suffering for lack of sufficient allocation, he said as he pointed out that the Bangalore-Sathyamangalam railway line via Kanakapura-Kollagal, cleared in 1996, has been provided only Rs 10 lakh. The JD(S) MP said same was the fate of new lines of Gulbarga-Bidar, Hubli-Ankola, Hassan-Bangalore and Munirabad-Mahboobnagar. He demanded more allocation for Bangalore-Mysore doubling and Shravanabelagola-Nelamangala new line.
BJP MP D V Sadananda Gowda alleged that the Railway Ministry has betrayed people of coastal Karnataka by diverting Bangalore- Mangalore Express to Kannur instead of Karwar. Gowda said that when people of coastal Karnataka asking for the extension of the Mangalore-Bangalore train to Karwar, the Ministry helped Kerala by diverting it to Kannur. Demanding a day train between Bangalore and Mangalore immediately, he said proposed express train between Mumbai-Karwar should be extended to Mangalore.
The Chikmagalur MP urged the Centre to take immediate steps to sanction Asian Development Bank aided anti-sea erosion project to Karnataka.
Bagalkot MP P C Gaddigoudar urged the Railway Minister to expedite construction of Bagalkot-Kudachi new line and upgradation of goods handling facility at Bagalkot. He also urged to introduction of new line between Bijapur-Bangalore and Hubli-Sholapur.
DH News Service