Work to make Mangalore World Class Railway station gathers steam

The Southern Railway has initiated the process for developing Mangalore Central Railway Station into World Class Station (WCS), three years after it was announced in the railway budget by the then railway minister Mamata Banerjee. According to Southern Railway, a draft inception report is under process for dealing with the proposal for developing the station into WCS. The present status is that the Southern Railway has nominated Senior Administrative Grade-level multi-disciplinary project team, a monitoring committee of head of departments (HoDs), and another one of principal HoDs for dealing with the proposal. A proposal of Rs 16.50 crore for construction of additional island platforms to decongest the existing terminal has been included in the 2012-13 budget. There is also a proposal for developing the exit on Attavar side. This reply came about after an RTI application was filed by Anil Hegde from Attavar here. The WCS concept, introduced in 2009-10 budget, intends to offer better service to passengers, smooth and safe road traffic flow to and from the station, adequate parking facilities, security of high standards including CCTV surveillance, multi-functional complexes, food courts, shopping facilities, etc. Hegde said that even though additional island platforms are developed at Mangalore Central, Kerala-bound trains cannot reach there, as entering central station entails engine reversal. "There are solutions for this problem, which the railways is not interested in. I'm consulting experts to find out an acceptable solution,'' says Hegde.