BENGALURU: To ensure better rail connectivity from Karnataka to different parts of the country, South Western Railway Zone has sent a proposal to the Railway Board to run ten pairs of long-distance special trains from different districts in the State. The green signal for the proposal, sent a few weeks ago, is still pending with the Railway Ministry.
According to reliable railway sources, these are the destinations proposed by it to run trains both in the onward and return directions from different stations in Bengaluru Division: Bengaluru Cantonment and Guwahati, Yesvantpur and Howrah, KSR (Bengaluru City) and Solapur, KSR and Mangaluru and Yesvantpur and Karwar.
From other stations across Karnataka, these routes have been proposed for running of trains both ways: Hubballi and Mysuru, Hubballi and Secunderabad, Hubballi and Varanasi, Hubballi and LTT Mumbai as well as Vasco da Gama and Howrah, they said.
However, it does not appear as if the routes would get the required green signal in the near future. “We sent the proposals four weeks ago and are still awaiting a response,” a top official said. “It is not only us, different zones in the country have been told to send across destinations they would like to start trains on a priority basis. All our proposals are pending. We sent them to the Railway Board and it has to be cleared by the Railway Ministry,” he added.
Meanwhile, as on date, four pairs of intra-state trains within Karnataka and five pairs of inter-state trains are operated regularly. The intra-state trains run daily, and connect KSR with Mysuru, KSR with Hubballi (Jan Shatabdi), KSR with Belagavi and Yesvantpur with Shivamogga (Jan Shatabdi). The long distance trains presently being operated are the Rajdhani Special between KSR and New Delhi, Udyan Special between KSR and Mumbai, KSR and Danapur (Bihar) Special, Yesvantpur and Howrah Special as well as Yesvantpur and Hazrat Nizamuddin Special.