The South Western Railway (SWR) is confident of completing the railway electrification work on the Hassan-Mangaluru section, including the 55-km Sakleshpur-Subrahmanya Road Ghat section, by next June .
Additional Divisional Railway Manager of South Western Railway’s Mysuru Division E. Vijaya informed a review meeting here on Saturday that the survey for the railway electrification through the Ghat stretch was recently completed and the work was likely to start by January.
Nalin Kumar Kateel, Dakshina Kannada MP, who chaired the meeting to review Railway works, said his proposal for the Vande Bharat Express between the State capital and Mangaluru could be realised once the electrification was completed.
Responding to a public demand for extending the Mangaluru Central-Kabaka Puttur evening passenger train till Subrahmanya Road (SBHR) and starting it early the next morning towards Mangaluru, Ms. Vijaya said the electrification between Kabaka Puttur and SBHR will get completed in a month. Thereafter, the Southern Railway may provide and maintain a mainline electrical multiple unit (MEMU) rake to be operated as a commuter train on Mangaluru-SBHR sector, she said.
Regarding the demand to make SBHR a terminal station to terminate and originate some long-distance trains that now operate out of Mangaluru Central, Ms. Vijaya said lines at SBHR were not enough to handle existing trains. Once the SWR creates new lines, making it a terminal station would be considered.
Development works under the Amrit Bharat Station scheme at SBHR at an estimated cost of ₹23 crore were on, she added.
Activist G.K. Bhat and Lakshminarayana demanded reopening of the Farangipet railway station and make it a crossing station as the SWR possesses about 30 acres land there. Areas between Bantwal and Mangaluru were fast developing and Farangipet station could complement the developments, they said.
Ms. Vijaya said Vijayapura-Mangaluru Junction Express Special arrival time at Mangaluru Junction could be advanced from 12.35 p.m. to 11.45 a.m., as against public demand for 10.30 a.m.. SWR headquarters has to decide on her proposal in this regard.
Activists also urged the SWR construction of a catch-siding at Kadagarvalli on SBHR-Sakleshpur Ghat section to facilitate train crossing so that more trains could be operated on Hassan-Mangaluru section.
Southern Railway’s Palakkad Divisional Railway Manager Arun Kumar Chaturvedi, MLAs D. Vedavyasa Kamath and Y. Bharath Shetty and others were present.