Mangaluru, Mar 28: Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda has blamed the apathy of officials concerned for non-introduction of Bengaluru-Mangaluru Kudla Express announced by him when he was Railway Minister three years ago.
Soon after taking over as the Railway Minister in 2014, Mr. Gowda sanctioned sufficient funds to speed up the new line construction, that had been pending for two decades, after being sanctioned by then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. Sadananda Gowda had set March 2016 as a deadline for the project’s completion.
At the same time, Mr. Sadananda Gowda had also announced a Bengaluru-Mangaluru express train via Mysuru in the Railway Budget. The South Western Railway, which had recently proposed to operate the train via the newly constructed route, did not introduce the same citing non-availability of coaches.
Mr. Gowda said that he had written to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu urging him to introduce the train on the new route. “Mr. Prabhu had responded positively,” he said. Mr. Gowda alleged that the train could not be introduced owing to the apathy of officials concerned. “There is no reason for non-introduction of Kudla Express as 17 out of 18 new trains announced by me are already operational,” he added.
“I had announced the train for the benefit of residents of the coastal region I hail from. It would particularly have helped women passengers undertake long journeys,” Mr. Gowda said.
“I did not have any answer if questioned [for non-introduction] and hence skipped the event,” he said.
Protocol-wise too, Mr. Gowda had to attend the inaugural programme as Yeshwantpur falls under Bengaluru North Lok Sabha constituency represented by him.
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