Mangaluru will get Vande Bharat sleeper train: Minister Somanna

Mangaluru: Union Minister of State for Railways, Jal Shakti V Somanna, said on Saturday that Mangaluru will also get a Vande Bharat sleeper train.

"In the next one and a half or two months, we will get Vande Bharat sleeper coaches. Mangaluru will also get it," he said after flagging off the extended services of the Mangaluru Central–Kabaka Puttur passenger train to Subrahmanya Road at Mangaluru Central Railway Station on Saturday.

Mangaluru Junction and Mangaluru Central railway stations will be upgraded. A master plan has already been prepared, and a tender will be floated after a meeting with officials in Delhi shortly. Rs 19 crore has been given to Mangaluru Junction for development works, he said.

About 85 per cent of the work has been completed, and the works will be completed by August. The development works at Mangaluru Central Railway Station will be completed in two years after the tender is floated. The Subrahmanya station is being developed under the Amrit Bharat scheme, and the works will be completed by September, said the minister.

The Subrahmanya station will have an escalator for the benefit of the physically challenged and aged devotees visiting the station. The MEMU train will be given to the Subrahmanya station once all the related works are completed.

The minister said that 41 railway stations were developed at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore. As a safety measure, Indian Railways has taken up 10,000 km of Kavach, an automatic train protection system, to prevent accidents due to human error resulting in signal passing in danger and over-speeding. Of which, 1,800 km are in Karnataka, he said. The Minister promised sanctioning of the required RoBs and RuBs in Dakshina Kannada after receiving the project report on the same.

Dakshina Kannada MP Capt Brijesh Chowta said, "Minister Somanna responded positively to extending the train service to Subrahmanya Road. The extended train, after electrification work is completed, should be upgraded as a Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) train." He urged Union Ministers of Road Transport and Highways and Railways to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for the development of the national highway and railway line on the Mangaluru–Bengaluru route via Shiradi Ghat. The Assembly Speaker should put pressure on the CM in this regard.

He also appealed to the minister to streamline the coordination meetings that are convened once in three months with three DRMs by handing over the responsibility to an officer to convene the meeting to solve the local issues related to the railways.

Assembly Speaker U T Khader said that communication and transportation help in the development of a region. This extension of the train will help in the development of the region and will benefit devotees visiting Kukke Subrahmanya from all over the country.

"We need to work unitedly for the development of the region. There are many railway crossings that people still use in the region which should not be closed all of a sudden citing safety reasons. Make alternative arrangements for locals before closing railway crossings," he added.