Representatives of railway passengers’ welfare committees from across the State took part in a meeting to share their views and strategies to pressure the State and Union governments to speed up work on railway projects.
The meeting was organised by the South Western Railway Passengers Welfare Committee at the Rotary Bal Bhavan here on Sunday.
South Western Railway Passengers Welfare Committee secretary Rohit Jain said the Railways should speed up land acquisition for the Tumkur-Chitradurga-Davangere new railway line as the project was sanctioned in the 2010 Railway Budget. The project will ease the traffic on Birur route and can help railways in adding Sira and Hiriyur to the rail network, alongside reducing travelling distance by 68 km.
He also questioned the selection process of Railway Consultative Committees adopted by the Mysuru Division. The division should ask for the contributions of the members before selecting them again to a committee, he said.
Divisional office
He said the committee had written to the Railway Board and the Railway Ministry to free Davangere from the Mysuru Division, under which the Davangere station hasn’t achieved its full potential growth. He said they have requested the Railway Board to consider setting up a railway divisional manager’s office in Davangere which is also in the centre of the State, with Davangere, Shivamogga, Chitradurga, Chikkamagaluru and Koppal under its jurisdiction. He said they will soon start an agitation for this demand.
Other suggestions
Sanjeev Dyamnnavar suggested that the South Western Railway should run a direct train from Bengaluru to Mumbai via Hubballi and Miraj as there are no such trains on the route.
Krishan Prasad said the Railways should take steps to start a night train from Bengaluru to Mangaluru via Arsikere, which was announced in the previous year’s rail timetable. He said people were facing a lot of hardship to reach Bengaluru from Mangaluru after the closure of Shiradi Ghat for road repairs. He also suggested that the Railways should solve the gradient issue between Kottur and Hosapete so that people of Davangere and Harihar could get direct access to trains reaching Andhra Pradesh and Telangana once trains start movement on the Harihar-Hosapete line.
