Railway network in Mangaluru, which has been shared by two divisions and a railway corporation, is in need of a unified division, according to Nalin Kumar Kateel, Member of Parliament from Dakshina Kannada.

Addressing presspersons at the inauguration of escalators at Mangaluru Central railway station on Friday, he said the Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has been requested to create a separate division for Mangaluru.

At present, Mangaluru region is served by Southern Railway zone, South Western Railway zone and Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL).

Southern Railway has a railroad length of 13 km in Mangaluru region. Since it is not possible for Railways to bring Mangaluru under KRCL due to technical reasons, the Minister has been requested to create a new division for Mangaluru under South Western Railway zone, he said.

Mangaluru-Bengaluru line On improving the rail connectivity between Mangaluru and Bengaluru, Kateel said the work on the new Hassan-Bengaluru railway line, via Shravanabelagola, is in full swing. This line is expected to be completed by March. After the commissioning of this line, the travel time and distance between Mangaluru and Bengaluru will be reduced.

At present, the rail link between Mangaluru and Bengaluru is via Mysuru. This increases the journey time between two destinations.

Issues related to the acquisition of land at Solur in Ramanagara district had delayed the completion of the Hassan-Bengaluru railway line project. Stating that the issue has been sorted out now, Kateel said the work is in progress.

To a query on providing free Wi-Fi facility at Mangaluru Central railway station, Naresh Lalwani, Divisional Railway Manager, Palakkad division, said that no timeframe has been set for providing Wi-Fi at Mangaluru Central station.

He said that category ‘A’ railway stations will be provided with free Wi-Fi facility in the first phase. As a result of this, Kozhikode railway station in Palakkad division would get the Wi-Fi facility first.

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