State suffering gross injustice in railway quadrupling projects: Patil

Bengaluru: It is the height of injustice that not a single railway route in Karnataka has been included in the Central Government’s plan to quadruple seven high-density railway routes across the country to facilitate smoother passenger and freight movement, Infrastructure Development Minister MB Patil said on Friday. He said he w ould urge the Chief Minister to write to the Centre on the issue and seek a meeting with Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to personally take up the matter.

He was speaking to media representatives at his residence. Recently, Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that seven railway routes—Delhi–Howrah, Howrah–Chennai, Chennai–Mumbai, Mumbai–Delhi, Delhi–Chennai, Mumbai–Howrah and Delhi–Guwahati—would be upgraded to four-line corridors.

Karnataka has several high-density routes, including Bengaluru–Pune–Mumbai, Bengaluru–Mysuru, Bengaluru–Mangaluru, Bengaluru–Chennai, Bengaluru–Shivamogga, Bengaluru–Vijayapura and Bengaluru–Kalaburagi. The Central Government should comprehensively develop these routes as four-line corridors. This is its responsibility, he asserted.

He expressed displeasure that the Central Government was adopting a stepmotherly attitude by failing to develop railway routes in the State to complement its road network. This has placed excessive pressure on the State’s highways, he said.

Karnataka has a 330-km-long coastline. The coastal port towns need proper railway connectivity with the hinterland. However, the State has faced injustice in this regard as well. There is inadequate railway connectivity from places such as Mangaluru, Bhatkal, Honnavar, Kundapura and Karwar to major centres such as Bengaluru, Shivamogga and Hubballi, he pointed out.

In this year’s Budget, the Central Government announced high-speed rail projects connecting Bengaluru with Chennai and Hyderabad. However, these projects will primarily benefit Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh–Telangana, as the trains on neither route will run even 100 km within Karnataka. I immediately raised the issue and urged that a high-speed rail corridor be developed on the Bengaluru–Hubballi–Pune route. However, the Centre has so far not responded positively to the demand, Patil said.

State MPs should raise their voice against this discrimination by the Centre. In particular, it is not right for BJP MPs elected from Karnataka to remain silent, especially when several former Chief Ministers are also among them. MPs from our party should also press for the State’s interests. Development issues should not be politicised, he said.

“We are extending our cooperation on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis to ensure that railway projects are taken up quickly. This is not the case in other States. Yet, the Central Government is not giving Karnataka the same priority that it is giving Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh,” Patil alleged.

Bengaluru is the cradle of the country’s IT services, start-ups, science and technology, R&D, semiconductor, electronics and FDI sectors. Therefore, the Central Government should proactively announce projects such as railway quadrupling in Karnataka, he urged.