Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 3: On Friday, south-west railway department approached the state high court (HC) with a request to give it three months time to begin operation of Kudla Express train between the city and Mangaluru via Hassan, citing shortage of rakes. The train, announced during the period D V Sadananda Gowda was the railway minister, has been suffering from teething problems since then.

After president of Udupi Railway Yatri Sangh, R L Dias, filed petition in the high court asking it to direct the railways to run Kudla Express train that was announced 2014-15, the court had censured the department for its failure to meet its own promise. The railways had filed affidavit in the court, promising to start this train before March 31 this year. Now this deadline has passed, and the railway department has come up with another reason for not running this train.

Udupi Railway Yatri Sangh had the opportunity to file contempt of court petition against the railways for failing to run the train as per as per its own promise. However, president of the Sangh, Dias, said that the need for filing this petition is not being felt immediately, as the railway minister, Suresh Prabhu, had promised MP, Nalin Kumar Kateel, who met the former recently at New Delhi, to run the train before the end of April.

Dias said that the south-west railway has sought modifications to its earlier plan of running the train daily. It now plans to run the train only for three days in a week. He added that the Sangh has written to the railway board not to accept this recommendation, and insisting that trains should run daily from both sides.