Stakeholders feel KRCL ignoring state’s interests

Mangaluru: A sense of disillusionment about Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL) fulfilling Karnataka’s needs is growing stronger with each passing day. A good 22 years after KRCL, a joint venture of Railways, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala governments was started, people of coastal Karnataka are wondering if the corporation has served the interests of the state, if an RTI reply by the corporation to its plans for Karnataka is anything to go by.
KRCL has not provided stabling or maintenance lines at any of the stations in the 270-km-odd network straddling Karnataka. This has negated chances of any train being started from the coast, other than Mangaluru Central, which is under Southern Railway. KRCL has admitted that it has no plans to construct maintenance lines in the state as per its reply to an RTI query, a copy of which is available with TOI.
Rajeev Gaonkar, vice-president of Karwar-based West Coast Rail Yatri Abhivruddhi Sangha, said out of the nearly 40 trains operating on the Konkan Railway (KR) network through Karnataka, only seven cater to the state, and the rest connect Kerala with north India. “It is unfortunate that Karnataka has to fight for every facility, as KR has been in denial mode,” he said, asserting that people in the state did not part with their land just for the exclusive operation of trains to other states.
While Railways has 52% stake in KRCL, Maharashtra holds 21%, Karnataka 15% and Goa and Kerala have 6% stake each. During the recent Konkan Railway Users Consultative Committee meeting, of which Gaonkar is a member, issues including non-availability of maintenance lines in Karnataka, were raised. Apart from being unable to operate special trains due to lack of infrastructure, KRCL is not accommodating any new train, he said.
When KRCL built maintenance facilities in Goa and Maharashtra, similar facilities were expected in Karnataka too, Gaonkar said, demanding that the corporation build maintenance facilities at Karwar and Ankola or Bhatkal.
Gautam Shetty, a Bengaluru-based train activist, said since KRCL expressed its inability to halt the Bengaluru-Karwar Deepavali special trains that South Western Railway (SWR) operated last year for a couple of days at Karwar, SWR had to run the empty rake back to Bengaluru, incurring huge losses.