'Establish separate railway division at Mangalore'

Addressing a press meet, he said with the establishment of Konkan railways between Kanyakumari and Mumbai, the West Coast has become a trunk line. Mangalore is almost in the middle of it with one of the oldest railway stations. Mangalore links Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra together through this trunk line. Moreover, Mangalore is a transit place between Goa and Kerala. Hence from the point of view of promoting tourism Mangalore railway station and other stations nearby have to equip themselves better.

He said: “The division headquarters at Palakkad is far away. For any need people of in and around Mangalore have to contact Palakkad or Mysore which is not only cumbersome but also time consuming. Moreover, Mangalore is a education hub where thousands of students from outside the state pursue their studies. A new railway division will help in establishing rain connections towards other parts of Karnataka like Hubli, Bijapur, or Gulbarga and also to Hyderabad via Chitradurga.”

He also urged to construct a bridge at Alape to make a road to cross the railway track in the railway line located 180/to 10/9 tunnel bridge No 660. Railway authorities have shown step motherly attitude by allotting major share in the reservation quota for the people of Kerala leaving meagre 65 seats out of 425 seats for the people of Karnataka after extending Mangalore-Bangalore train to Cannore. This should be addressed at the earliest, he added.

Other demands include; Doubling of Mangalore-Mumbai railway line, execution of second rail track between Mangalore-Hassan; Completion of Shravanabelagola-Bangalore railway line and commencement of Mangalore-Shravanabelagola passenger train; Providing railway connectivity from Mangalore to Bajpe international airport through Thokkur railway station; Introducing train from Hubli via Londa-Kundapur-Mangalore Junction to Bangalore; Improvement of Mangalore Junction Station; New Mangalore Hyderabad Express train via Arisikere-Chitradurga.