BENGALURU: Senior BJP leader and Member of Parliament from Udupi-Chikmagalur Shobha Karandlaje appealed to the Railway Minister and officers to run special train services from Bengaluru, to help people travelling from the city to their natives places in coastal Karnataka for the Ganesha festival.
“As Ganesh Chaturthi is being celebrated on September 2, thousands are travelling to coastal cities — Mangaluru, Udupi, Kundapura and Karwar. Over 10,000 passengers are in distress and are not able to go to their native places as private bus operators have increased bus fare from the base fare of Rs 800 to Rs 1800, and the fare per seat to Rs 4,000 in many routes,” the MP stated in a letter to Minister of Railways (MoS) Suresh Angadi.
According to Karandlaje, when a similar situation arose on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, railways had stated a special train between Yeshwantpur-Karwar, which was an instant success, as all tickets were sold within seven hours of opening the ticket window.