Bangalore, Mar 14 (PTI): Kolar gets a new coach manufacturing unit and Bangalore a specialisted training centre in the Railway budget presented in Parliament today.
The unit for coaches is proposed to be established in Kolar (incidentally the home district of Union Minister of State for Railways, K H Muniyappa) with active participation of the State Government.
The Government plans to set up three training centres named "Safety Villages", including in Bangalore.
"Railways must possess modern, well-trained and equipped disaster management machinery. The rescue and relief teams for the accident sites need specialised training centre where they can be engaged in hands on drills", Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi said in Lok Sabha in the context of these centres.
New trains announced in the budget that brought cheers to Karnataka passengers included Yeshvanthpur-Kochuveli AC Express (Weekly), Chennai-Bangalore AC double-decker Express (daily), Bidar-Secunderabad Intercity Express (six-days-a-week), Indore-Yeshvanthpur Express (weekly), Mysore-Sai Nagar Shirdi Express (weekly) and Solapur-Yeshvanthpur (tri-weekly) via Gulbarga.
New passenger trains announced in the budget include Mysore-Shravanabelagola, Mysore-Chamarajnagar and Mysore-Birur via Arsikere (all daily).
Among the new line projects (that's of particular interest to Karnataka) with cost-sharing by state government that have been sent to Planning Commission for appraisal and 'in-principle' approval include Gadag-Haveri, Gadag-Wadi, Chikballapur-Puttaparthy and Srinivasapura-Madanapalli.
List of new line surveys to be taken up during 2012-13 include Haveri-Sirsi, rail link to connect Dandeli to Hubli-Ankola line, Shimoga-Shikaripura-Ranebennur and Madhugiri-Gauribidanur.
Gauge conversion works of Kolar-Chintamani and Chikballapur-Siddlagatta as well as doubling of Ramanagar-Channapatna, Mysore-Naganhalli, Maddur-Hanakere, Ballakere-Birur and Birur-Ajjampur (part) would be completed in the current financial year.
Doubling of Channapatna-Settihalli, Hanakere-Mandya, Mandya-Yeliyur and Nagavangala-Ajjampur line is slated to be completed in 2012-13.