No separate railway division for Mangaluru

Mangaluru: In a major setback to the long-pending demand for the creation of separate railway division here or to bring this region under the south-western railway, the railway minister Piyush Goyal, asserted that the region here would not be separated from Palakkad division falling under southern railway.

Responding to a question raised by former minister and Rajya Sabha member from Kerala Elamaram Kareem, whether there is a proposal to separate Mangaluru from Palakkad vision, Mr Goyal answered that the proposal was before the railway ministry and that there will be no separation.

Presently, 30 km stretch till Thokur falls under Palakkad division including the New Mangalore port route. The length of the track may be short but it brings handsome revenue to the railways. Therefore Palakkad division is not inclined for the proposal to separate Mangaluru from its jurisdiction, it is said.

Around 15 years ago, the railway board had passed an order to bring the portion of the railway from the central station at Mangaluru till Thokur under the southwestern railway by separating it from southern railway. However, the current railway minister’s response has made it clear that the government does not have any plans to uphold the order which had been passed when Nitish Kumar was the railway minister at the centre. No gazette notification had been issued then. Noting that the Mangaluru – Hassan stretch was undergoing gauge conversion to broad gauge, the board had ordered to notify the above change immediately after the gauge conversion was completed. In 2014, the senior southwestern railway officials wrote to the railway board reminding it about the said decision and the need to issue gazette notification, which would have completed the transfer, but it was not acted upon.

If Mangaluru is brought southwestern railway presently headquartered at Hubballi, the prior will become the starting point for the division, and many new trains could be introduced from here. However, the Southern railway headquarters is at Chennai which is far away and hence administrative problems do not typically get resolved soon.