Mangaluru: World Class Railway Station, False Promise – MLC Ivan D’Souza

Mangaluru: MLC Ivan D’Souza held a press meet at his office at the MCC premises here, on January 9.

Speaking to the mediapersons, Ivan said, “Mangaluru is one among the 100 cities selected to be developed as a smart city. Recently I attended the South India Railway Zonal Committee Meeting in Chennai. As per the announcement by Mamata Banerjee in 2009, fifty stations were decided to be developed as world class stations with international level facilities. Mangalore was also listed among these.”

He further said, “When questions were raised regarding the implementation of world class railway stations, the General Manager of the southern railways replied that constraints in funds have slowed down the implementation of the world-class station project across all railway divisions.”

Ivan said, “Introduction of Mangalore-Bangalore railways via Hassan has been announced in the budget in 2004 but it is not yet been pursued. Projects are just being announced in our country but not been implemented.” It had been six years and the project had not been implemented yet. It was the responsibility of MPs to implement the project. “Our parliament member however does not seem to be interested,” he added.

“Introduction of Mangalouru – Madgaon intercity trains have led to inconvenient timings. When I asked the authorities to divert the track towards Dadar road, which would reduce inconvenience of the passengers, they said that the provision of stoppage and extension of railways comes under railway board and not the zonal committee,” Ivan said.

Ivan further said, “The authorities are just running away from their responsibilities and thus restricting the development of the country. There is no proper funding for the railways. According to me the central government is just making promises and is not showing any effort towards the development of the country.”