With Gowda at helm, state leaders seek new railway lines in Karnataka

BANGALORE: Within days of his taking over as Union railway minister, DV Sadananda Gowda has been flooded with requests for important railway projects from top BJP leaders in Karnataka. This is the third time since Independence that an MP from Karnataka has got the railway portfolio.

In the PV Narasimha Rao ministry, CK Jaffer Sharief had held the portfolio, and in the UPA regime just voted out, Mallikarjuna Kharge had run the ministry for less than a year.

State BJP leaders have decided to make most of the opportunity. As a result, no sooner did Gowda assume office as Union railway minister this week, former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa has asked for new train services between Shimoga and Bangalore. The former CM not only hails from Shimoga district, but also represents it in Lok Sabha.

Yeddyurappa always travels between Shimoga and Bangalore by train. BJP state president and Dharwad MP Prahalad Joshi has demanded that his party colleague revive the pending Hubli-Ankola-Honnavar project.

Former deputy chief minister and BJP MLA from Padmanabhanagar R Ashok has asked for a circular railway project for Bangalore, a demand former law minister S Suresh Kumar is also pursuing.

The railway minister, who was in Bangalore on Friday to receive felicitations from the party along with other newly elected BJP MPs, mentioned about the flood of demands he was getting from state leaders at the party event.

Suresh Kumar told ET that he will also request the new railway minister to increase local trains from Bangalore to Tumkur, Ramnagar and Mandya which will ease pressure on the city by minimising migration. He would also request the minister to speed up doubling of track between Bangalore and Mysore, kick-start the pending Chikmagalur-Belur, and extend the Kadur-Chikmagalur line up to Hassan town.