Mangaluru: Mangaluru will not get its long pending demand for a seperate Railway Division. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu totally avoided any mention of formation of new divisions.

Barring allocation of Rs. 10 lakh for a second entrance to Mangalore Central station, the grand plan to provide world class facilities at Mangalore Junction station has no mention in the budget.

However he did say that the process for development of the already selected stations would continue, and hopefully it will. The then Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee who had announced that Mangalore Central would be made a world class station nearly six years ago on July 3, 2009. and authorities had subsequently confirmed it.  The project report was ready for implementation in regard to Mangalore Central, but nothing has been done in respect of Mangaluru Junction.

“A transformed station can change the skyline of small and medium cities and bring in revenues, and become an incubator of local economy… We propose to revamp the station redevelopment policy completely and simplify processes for faster redevelopment by inviting open bids from interested parties. The present stations will be available for development on ‘as is where is’ basis, to exploit the space and air rights on concession basis. Land will not be sold”, is what Prabhu said in his budget speech on the subject.

He also assured that “for quick decision making, the Zonal and Divisional offices will be empowered”.

Paschima Karavali Rail Yatri Abhivriddhi Samithi Convener Anil Hegde, though disappointed with no mention of Mangaluru division or introduction of new trains in the budget, said that the budget aimed at strengthening the existing infrastructure and was welcome and the results would be known in the long run.

Photo courtesy: The Hindu