The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : People hope Lalu Prasad will meet their demands

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 24, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

People hope Lalu Prasad will meet their demands

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: People of Karnataka, who have been over the years demanding better rail connectivity over the years, hope that Friday's Railway budget will have something to cheer about.

Kannadigas have been demanding introduction of trains to cities outside the State such as Mumbai, Jammu, New Delhi, Chapra, Dehradun, Indore, Bhubaneswar and Ajmer, and connectivity between major towns within the State.

People have also demanded short distance (500 km to 1,250 km) non-stop services such as Bangalore-Mumbai (to reduce the journey time from 25 hours to about 18 hours), Bangalore-Hyderabad (to reduce the journey time from 12 hours to about 9 hours). They have urged the Railway Ministry to introduce the following inter-State trains: Mysore-Varanasi via Hubli or Gulbarga (alternatively extend Varanasi-Chennai Ganga Cauvery Express up to Yeshwantpur; Bangalore-Jammu service via Hubli or Gulbarga, Manmad, New Delhi or extension of Jammu-Chennai Andaman Express up to Bangalore; Yeshwantpur-Chapra via Gorakhpur, Lucknow; Yeshwantpur-Dehradun via Chandigarh or extension of Dehradun-Chennai Chandigarh Express up to Yeshwantpur; Yeshwantpur-Bhagalpur (in Bihar); Yeshwantpur-Amritsar or extension of Yeshwantpur-Nizamuddin Samparak Kranthi Express; Bangalore-Gaya via Hatia Parasnath or extension of Yeshwantpur-Hatia Hatia Express; Hubli-Mumbai via Miraj and Pune; and Bangalore-Indore via Pune, Kalyan, Vadodara and Ratlam or extension of Indore-Pune Pune Express up to Bangalore.

People have been demanding the following trains within the State: Hubli-Gulbarga or Sholapur-Hubli, Shimoga-Hospet-Shimoga fast passenger, Karwar-Bangalore via Mangalore-Hassan or extension of Yeshwnatpur-Mangalore Mangalore Express up to Karwar; Bijapur-Pandharpur-Bijapur; Shimoga-Bangalore-Shimoga fast passenger (twice a day) and Hubli-Bidar-Hubli via Bellary, Guntakal, Wadi.

In a letter to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, a city-based organisation pointed out that the Bangalore division of South Western Railway had recorded 3.7 crore passenger traffic and registered an increase in passenger earnings in 2003-04 whereas the national average was only three per cent.

On the other hand, it was pointed out that cities such as Pune, Madurai, Indore, Jodhpur, Jamnagar and Erode were connected to Jammu but not Bangalore, which had emerged as the IT capital of the country.

A large number of people from north India have settled in the city and there were many BPO companies also.

They were demanding better connectivity to cities in north India.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail