Good news! Passenger train service between B’lore and M’lore to start shortly!
The passenger train service on the Mangalore-Hassan-Bangalore route has been pending for a long time, and looks like this service will become a reality soon!
A picturesque stretch of the Western Ghats is being opened up by the Railways for passenger travel after a long wait of 13 years. The Commissioner of Railway Safety (Southern Region) has certified the track between Sakleshpur in Hassan district and Subramanya Road in Dakshina Kannada district safe for passenger trains. The Hassan-Sakleshpur-Mangalore line will now add to the State’s passenger train network.
Commissioner of Railway Safety (South) Pranab Kumar Sen, along with top railway officials, inspected the track between Sakleshpur and Subramanya Road after gauge conversion.
Picture Source: http://www.daijiworld.com
Now, visiting coastal Karnataka will become easy and we can enjoy the view on the picturesque route of the Hassan-Mangalore section. I have gone to Mangalore from Hassan in a meter guage train long ago and the entire journey was at night. To think that we can now do this route in daylight is very exciting!
Allegations and rumors have been rife about the transport lobby delaying the train service between Bangalore and Mangalore. It is sad that the guage conversion took this long to complete.
Commissioner of Railway Safety is the final authority to give the nod for commencement of the train service on this line. Now, it is upto the South Western Railway authorities to begin the train service, once the authorization certificate is issued by Commissioner of Railway Safety.
Weekend getaway to coastal Karnataka anyone? :)
This is a great news Chitra :) I can happily take my parents now to Mangalore!
And we all can plan for a weekend gettogether sometime too ;)
Oh finally ,
till now i take a south indian trip (chennai – mangalore) , if i want to go to mangalore. It can save half of my travel time.
if you take the late night train from SBC, dont sleep late into the morning the next day.
yayyy!!
Careful with these announcements. There have been plenty before.
if u love fun, then may be stopping down at Edakumeri (trekker’s favourate), a railwaystation in the middle that rests in the middle of high hills, forrests would be a good idea.
Its a good sight seeing point and couple of furlongs down the station one meets the famous (sometimes deadly) ‘KempuHole’ stream running down the hill on rocks. Its a great place to spent even a whole day exploring, rock trekking and playing with water thats chilling and so pure!
Thats Great to Know, do any one know the date when it will finally start off i can’t wait anymore :)
SB, looks like I am still new to these announcements. When I mentioned this news to a Mangalorean friend, she was also very skeptical. I guess, I will slowly have to get used to the “news” here. My hope was that since it is now checked for safety, there really is nothing much left to do, except start the service!
Prathap, thanks for your suggestions. Everything sounds lovely.
Shekar, like I said, ‘It is upto the South Western Railway authorities to begin the train service, once the authorization certificate is issued by Commissioner of Railway Safety’. But, looks like people who are familiar with this situation are very cautious of announcements with regards to the actual starting of this service. Lets hope it’s soon.
today 1st may no news…………
from anyware poor railway politicians
get lost from india…….
dont play with indians……..