NEW DELHI: Southern states got a raw deal in the interim railway budget presented in Parliament by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday.
In the poll year, Lalu Prasad has offered his home state Bihar a bulky package, which includes a new railway division in Bhagalpur and a study to run bullet train in the Patna- Delhi sector.
Keeping the interests of the UPA partners, DMK and Congress, in mind, Lalu gave some solace to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
All the southern states would get only 10 new trains out of the 43 to be introduced, whereas 16 new trains have been proposed to pass through Bihar and Jharkhand.
Survey has been proposed to be taken up for a new railway line between Piduguralla and Narasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh.
Surveys have also been proposed to be taken up for doubling of railway lines between Hospet-Swamihalli and Toranagallu-Ranjitpura.
The Minister also proposed to take action on examining feasibility of running two bullet trains between Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Chennai and Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore- Ernakulam.
The new trains to be introduced from southern states: 1) Bilaspur- Tirunelveli via Thiruvananthapuram (weekly); 2) Mumbai- Tirunelveli via Thiruvananthapuram; 3) Sengottai-Erode passenger (daily); 4) Tiruchi-Madurai express (daily); 5) Coimbatore-Tuticorin Link service; 6) Secunderabad- Manuguru surperfast (daily); 7) Nizamuddin-Bangalore via Kacheguda Rajdhani express (triweekly); 8) Mysore-Yesvantpur express (daily); 9) Machilipatnam- Mumbai superfast (bi-weekly); 10) Mumbai-Karwar surperfast (triweekly).