Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Aug 29: Minister of state(MOS) in the department of railways, K H Muniyappa, who chose not to deviate from what E Ahmed, the other MOS in the department had said, asserted that there is no question of withdrawing from the earlier decision to extend the night train from Bangalore to th city, up to Kannur.
Addressing a press conference here on the night of Friday August 28, after arriving in the city to inaugurate the day-train service to Bangalore from the city scheduled to begin on Saturday, Muniyappa contended that the train services can not be restrained by affiliations like language, city or state. There is no other go but to extend the train to Kannur, he stated.
At the same time, he said, discussions are under way as to how the facilities the people of the district enjoyed earlier, can be protected from getting eroded even after the above extension. He assured that the ministry would soon arrive at a decision in this regard. He also said, the railways will consider the demand for extending the proposed super fast train from Mumbai to Karwar, up to the city, after carefully going through the density of traffic on the track, in course of time.
The tri-weekly day-train proposed to be started between the city and Bangalore, will be converted into daily service. For this to happen, additional platforms to park the trains moving in the stations located on the stretch between Sakleshpur and the city to accommodate the trains moving from the opposite directions, have to be erected. The department hopes to complete this task in six months time, and thereafter, there will not be any problem in converting the train into a daily service, he explained. He also said that the doubling of the railway line between the city and Shoranur in Kerala is expected to be completed by March, 2010.
Railway officers Naresh Goel, Bhanu Tayar, V P Singh, district deputy commissioner V Ponnuraj, Congress leaders Moidin Bawa, Bondala Jagannath Shetty, Arun Coelho and others were present.