Briefing newspersons at the office of the Divisional Railway Manager, Muniyappa, however, declined to specify a date for the commencement of the service.
“I cannot give you a date as technical aspects are involved in the operation. But I can tell you that the train will run this month-end,” the minister said.
Details about the train did not figure in Mamata Banerjee’s Railway Budget presented on Friday, disappointing many.
Responding to a query regarding Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s statement expressing dissatisfaction over the budgetary allocation for some railway projects in the State, the minister said: “That is a political statement. After 10 years, we have got so many new trains and projects and lines approved. The budget is a ‘poor-man friendly one’ that would take the railways further on the path of development.”
No favouritism
When asked whether “Kannadigas” were ignored in the recruitment to railway posts under the previous ministries, Muniyappa assured that there would be no favouritism under his administration.
“Not only people from Karnataka, people from no state would be discriminated in recruitment, and merit will be the only consideration,” he said.
Muniyappa also informed that he would be holding discussions with Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam S Ramesh soon to get approval for the long-pending projects in the Western Ghats.
“The Hubli-Ankola line, Talaguppa-Honavar line, Bangalore-Satyamangalam line and the Chamarajnagar-Mettupalayam line cannot be implemented due to non-clearance from the forest ministry,” informed S Vijaya Kumaran, Chief Administration Officer, South Western Railway.
Elaborating on other pending projects, Vijaya Kumaran said the laying of lines between Kottur and Harihar would be completed by March 2010.
The guage conversion between Shimoga and Talaguppe would be completed by June next year while the doubling work between Ramanagaram and Mysore would be completed by the end of this financial year.
Divisonal Railway Manager, Bangalore Division, Akhil Agrawal, said the South Western Railway earned a revenue of Rs 3,035 crore during 2008-2009 and incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,700 crore.
DH News Service