The Hindu : Karnataka News : Disappointment over `raw deal' for Bangalore Division

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 16, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Disappointment over `raw deal' for Bangalore Division

By Govind D. Belgaumkar

BANGALORE, JULY 15. There is disappointment here as the Bangalore Division has got "literally nothing" in the recent Railway Budget.

The division recorded an 11.6 per cent growth in passenger traffic during 2003-04 compared to the national average of three per cent.

Very few railway divisions in the country boast of a double-digit rise, according to official sources.

The emergence of Bangalore as the information technology capital and the increasing number of call centres and business process outsourcing firms are bringing more passengers to the city.

The division received at least half a dozen new long-distance trains every year in the past five years.

Last year, it got 13 new trains.

It got no long distance trains this year.

All that the division received is the increased frequency of the Sampark Kranti Express train to Delhi and the Bangalore-Jaipur Express train, and the proposed short-distance Bangalore-Bangarpet Express train.

Sources said the Bangalore-Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express train was running with total occupancy four days a week.

It was expected to be made a daily service or at least six days a week service. It could easily have been done as infrastructure was in place, sources said.

Prakash Mandoth, president of the Rajasthan Samaj Railway Sangharsha Samiti, had expected that Bangalore would be connected to Jammu, Varanasi, Dehradun, Amritsar, and Ayodhya.

His association submitted memoranda to the Railway executives and the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, prior to the presentation of the budget. "People of Karnataka are disappointed and feel let down," Mr. Mandoth said in a letter to Mr. Prasad after the budget presentation.

He said Bangalore had emerged as the "Gateway" of South India with many tourist and pilgrim centres close to it. Hence, it should have got a better deal, he said.

Meanwhile, passenger traffic may rise further in the division. "Once the frequency of the Sampark Kranti Express is increased, we hope to register an annual passenger traffic growth of 15 per cent," the sources said.

Providing more long distance trains would have meant more profit for the Railways and more facilities for commuters, Mr. Mandoth said, and hoped that Mr. Prasad would consider the demands of the division in the Supplementary Estimates.

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