Bangalore will soon get the Duronto, a point-to-point ‘super fast’ train, said Minister for Railways Mamata Banerjee, on her maiden visit to Bangalore today after becoming the railway minister. The Duronto, India’s fastest class of trains, will run between Bangalore and Howrah in West Bengal, she said.
“I am giving this gift to the people of Karnataka,” she said at the flagging-off function for three new trains in the state.
Banerjee had announced the introduction of the class of trains for the first time in the Railway Budget 2009-10. She had flagged off the first train between Sealdah in West Bengal and New Delhi in September this year. She also announced that the southern freight corridor project would be taken up after completion of the ongoing eastern and western freight corridor projects.
On the long-standing demand of the people of Karnataka for extension of Bangalore-Hubli express upto Dharward, Mysore-Tirupati passenger upto Chamarajanagar and Puduchery, Bangalore-Mangalore express upto Kannur and Mumbai-Karwar express upto Mangalore, Banerjee said by end of the present financial year, the demands will be met. She directed the railway officials to implement the demands immediately.
The Railways will also take up modernisation of 21 stations in the South Western Railway division this year, which include eight stations in Karnataka. Very soon, modernisation of stations at Vasco da Gama, Ghatkopar, Hindupur, Arsikere, Ranebennur, Birur and Hassan will be taken up and multifunctional complexes set up, she said.
To clear the holiday rush during the forthcoming summer holiday season, Banerjee said 2,872 special trains have been arranged. These trains will have 4,326 additional coaches and 1,562 special happy plans have been planned to clear the holiday rush, she said.
Lauding Karnataka’s efforts in allocating maximum funds for the joint railway projects, she said the ministry was in favour of taking up infrastructure projects on a public-private partnership basis. She said Karnataka is the only state which has extended upto 75 per cent of the funds required in some cases. The Railways will take up infrastructure projects like setting up of automobile parks and logistics parks at vacant railway land across the country. The Railways have 113,000 acres of vacant land across the country and the land will be used for developing automobile and automobile ancillary parks, she said.
The ministry plans to develop 10 automobile parks, she said. Of this, one has already been developed at Shalimar in Howrah division. Of the remaining nine automobile hubs, she said two would come up in Bangalore and Mangalore.
Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa said the state government will increase the budgetary allocation from Rs 243 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 600 crore in 2010-11. The state government will submit a feasibility report on the public-private partnership projects to the railway ministry by January 2010, he said.
Later, Banerjee flagged off three trains in the state. They are the Bangalore-Shimoga intercity express, Yesvantpur-Mysore express, Yesvantpur-Solapur Gol Gumbaz Express (tri-weekly). She also inaugurated the renovated railway station buildings at Tumkur and Dharmapuri, and Solid State Interlocking System at Bangalore city railway station.
Interlocking is an arrangement of the signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings.
