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Title: Need for early implementation of extension of Bangalore-Hubli Inter-City train as announced in the last Railway Budget.
SHRI PRALHAD JOSHI (DHARWAD): Thank you, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to raise an important matter.
Hubli-Dharwad, is the second biggest city after Bangalore in Karnataka. A train runs between Hubli and Bangalore by name Intercity. Since Hubli and Dharwad are the twin cities having a distance of 20 kms. Dharwad people are continuously demanding that this Intercity train should run between Dharwad and Bangalore. This demand is quite long pending and a request was submitted before the South-western Railway General Manager in this regard.
He said that there is no parking facility and there is no platform to park the train in Dharwad and that we need land for that. We, from the State Government, arranged the land and the land was handed over to the South-Western Railway. The platform was constructed. Even after construction of the platform, the train was not introduced. Then a request was made to the Minister and it was announced in the Interim Railway Budget in July. Even after the lapse of four to five months, this 20 kilometre extension of the train has not been done. People of Dharwad are extremely unhappy and they are in agitating mood. I enquired the reason for that and I was informed a very simple reason for its delay that the hon. Railway Minister wants to flag off the extension of 20 kilometre train but she is not finding time. I would only urge that just because the Minister does not have time, people of one district headquarters should not suffer for such a long time. Therefore, I would urge the Government that if she finds time, let her come immediately and flag off the train, otherwise, let the Minister forget all those formalities and introduce the train immediately.
