BENGALURU
It is welcome that South Western Railway has run a special train from Bengaluru to Vijayapura via Hubballi and Gadag bypass to reduce passenger congestion during the Christmas and year-end holidays. Minister MB Patil has urged that this should be converted into a regular train service in the coming days.
Speaking about this on Thursday, he said that continuous efforts are being made to ensure that trains from Bengaluru to Vijayapura should run through both these bypasses. In this regard, several meetings have been held with the South Western Railway officials. He said that it is a matter of happiness that our efforts have got the first success in the form of a special train.
Since the trains were running through the bypass, there was no proposal to change the engines on both sides. My position is that if all the trains going towards Bagalkot and Vijayapura were made to run through the bypass in this manner, the travel time could be reduced. He said that meetings have been held with railway officials in this regard.
This special train had only nine stops. The train, which left Yeshwantpur on Wednesday night, reached at 11 am on Thursday morning instead of 9 am. Since it was a special train, it could not reach on time. People of Vijayapura district have expressed their appreciation for this special train service, they said.
Efforts are being made to reduce the train travel time between Bengaluru-Vijayapura from the current 14 hours to 10 hours. Therefore, it has been requested that the Golagumbaz Express train between Mysore-Phandarpur should be run permanently via Hubballi and Gadag bypass.
In this regard, a letter will be written to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav and Somanna, stating that it will be dealt with. He has claimed that it would be more convenient if the schedule of trains departing from Bangalore at night were changed so that they reach Vijayapura by 6-7 am.
He has demanded that a separate special train be run permanently to Vijayapura. He also said that usually special trains become permanent in the future.
