Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP/RJP)

Mangaluru, Feb 5: The day train between Bengaluru and Mangaluru via Mysuru announced by the then Railway Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, named as Kudla Express, is now likely to be operated via Shravanabelagola by end of March.

At a time when hopes of reaching Bengaluru faster through Shravanabelagola are brightening, a new platform has been announced in the union budget for the central railway station here.

If both these things materialize, it would mean meeting of longstanding demands of coastal Karnataka people.

As per the timetable published in 2014, the yet-to-be introduced Train No. 16575 was to leave Bengaluru at 8.30 a.m. to reach Mangaluru Central at 9.15 p.m. and Train No. 16576 to leave Mangaluru Central at 6.30 a.m. to reach Bengaluru at 7.30 p.m. via Mysuru.

However, the re-routing of the train is subject to several conditions. The first being authorisation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety to operate passenger trains on the newly constructed Nelamangala-Shravanabelagola line. The second being availability of coaches to form the rake for the train and the third is concurrence by the Railway Board to change the route.

The central government has planned to build new platform and also to undertake tracks doubling work from Nethravati cabin to the central station simultaneously. At present, the central station has four platforms through which over 30 trains are being operated every day. So far, the department was pointing out at lack of platforms for initiating additional trains.

R L Dias, president of the Railway Yatri Sangha, Udupi, who has filed a public interest writ petition before the High Court of Karnataka, seeking a direction to South Western Railway to run the train as announced in the budget, said that the zone has told the court that it would start the new service by March 1. Since its route and timetable have been published, South Western Railway cannot change it on its own and would initially have to run the train via Mysuru itself. Thereafter, the board’s concurrence has to be taken to re-route it, he said.

Currently, there has been lacklustre response for trains which pass through the Kankanady (junction) station without touching the central station. Railway passengers forums have been demanding to extend all these trains to the central station that is located in the hub of the city in order to attract more passengers. They have been demanding to extend CST(Mumbai)-Mangalore Junction train to central station, and also extend the Kannur-Mangalore Junction-Byndoor passenger train that has been running under loss, till the central station and also to change the destination to Margao in order to enable more passengers to make use of the train.

South Western Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer E Vijaya told the media that the South Western Railway was planning to run the train via Shravanabelagola. Since the zone is facing shortage of coaches to form a rake, the process may take some time; but by March-end the train should run, she said.

In the meanwhile, the 42 km Nelamangala-Shravanabelagola track has been completed, and the Railway Safety Commissioner will inspect this track for safety of running passenger trains between February 6 to 10, it is gathered.

Vijaya also concurred and said that South Western Railway would have to solicit opinion from beneficiaries of the train. Since Mangaluru comes under Southern Railway and change in timings is involved, that zone’s concurrence too is required, she said.

The move would drastically reduce the distance and time taken for the journey, from 447 km to 340 km and from 13 hours to 8-9 hours.