BENGALURU: Indian Railways and Bengaluru Railway Division in particular, saw a boost under former Railway Minister C K Jaffer Sharief for his multiple and revolutionary contributions which transformed the face of Indian Railways during his tenure from 1991 to 1995.
Sharief was the brain behind pushing for the creation of a separate Bengaluru Railway Division when he was Minister of state for Railways from 1980 to 1984.
He was instrumental in setting up reputed and profitable iconic establishments in Bengaluru like the Rail Wheel Factory in Yelahanka in 1984, which manufactures wheels and axles for trains all over the country and internationally, and the Inland Container Depot at Whitefield — which is a hub for goods and for setting up the Railway Service Commission (later Railway Recruitment Board) in Bengaluru which ensured jobs for Kannadigas in Railways. Rejuvenation of Hubballi’s economy, the introduction of important trains from Karnataka, including the Rajdhani between Bengaluru and New Delhi and the Shatabdi between Chennai and Mysuru, is credited to him.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, a highly placed railway official, said, “The country owes it to him for having the vision to envisage a uni-guage system for the entire Indian Railways. He pushed for conversion of metre-gauge and narrow-gauge railway tracks into broad-gauge across the country. This ensured economic integration and good connectivity among all states.”
Metre-gauge tracks have a one-metre separation between the two rails that constitute a track while broad-gauge has a 1.6-metre separation. “This ensured broader trains which could carry more passengers as well as goods. This step literally revolutionised Indian Railways.”
For Karnataka, the conversion of the 784 km of Miraj-Hubballi-Bengaluru Line literally stitched the entire state together and boosted Hubballi’s economy. “The goods traffic from Hubballi railway division soared from an average of 0.5 to 1 million tonnes annually to 30 million tonnes after the gauge conversion.”
Sharief is also credited with pushing for the conversion of the 138-km long Bengaluru-Mysuru metre-gauge into broad-gauge. It was started in 1979, but was kept pending for 13 years.
The idea of a separate Bengaluru Railway Division was mooted by Sharief and inaugurated on July 27, 1981. “The division is a profitable one and makes an enormous contribution to the revenue of Indian Railways,” an official said.
South Western Railway Zone became operational in 2003 by incorporating it along with Hubballi Division from the South Central Railway Zone and Mysuru Division from the Southern Railway Zone.