Two tracks on Hubli-Vasco rail route
goanews desk, panaji | 24 February 2010 21:39 ISTHubli-Londa-Vasco da Gama railway route, one of the oldest railway route of the country built during the Portuguese regime, is going to be doubled.
The announcement was made by railway minister Mamata Banerjee while presenting her railway budget in the Parliament today.
Goa figures in her announcements as a corridor to major destinations, along the Konkan railway route.
One among them is the route of Bharat Teerth trains Mamata announced today. Two of them would pass through Goa.
One is the Pune-Ratnagiri-Goa-Bangalore- Mysore-Tirupati and back.
The second is Madurai-Mysore-Goa-Mumbai-Aurangabad-Hyderabad and back.
Goa is also part of the ‘Dedicated freight Corridor' along with other 3 states. A preliminary engineering-cum-traffic survey for the project dedicated freight corridor will be taken in this year, she told the House.
A major announcement of her maiden budget otherwise is the special trains, called Matrubhoomi Special, for women during the next financial year.
She also announced special train called Sanskriti Express across the country to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, in order to disseminate his legacy to the younger generation.
To overcome the shortage of passenger coaches, the Railways propose to set up new Coach Factories at Rae Bareilly, Kancharapara and Palakkad.
The other salient features of the railway budget are 54 new trains in 2011, no hike in passenger fares, 1002 km-long new line this year, unmanned crossings to be manned, special trains for commonwealth games, Rs. 1,302 crore for passenger amenities and new business model for Railways.
Few weeks before the Railway Minister's announcement, the Gramsabha of Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim had unanimously rejected the proposal of doubling the existing single line.
It may be noted that the existing line from Vasco to Londa is passing through villages of Isorsim-Pale-Velsao & Cansaulim-Arossim for about 7 & 5kms respectively.