Mystery lingers over M'lore, B'lore train

Mystery lingers over M'lore, B'lore train
Thursday November 29 2007 06:59 IST

Nandini Chandrashekar
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BANGALORE: Nine days to go for the grand inauguration of the Mangalore-Bangalore train by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

That is the only assured fact about this train. All other details like availability of tickets, fares, composition of the coaches and even whether the train from Bangalore to Mangalore is starting on Dec 8 are still under wraps.

Bookings for the train were expected to be open from Dec 1, but Railway officials claim that no official notification has been received yet on any of the details and hence they have not entered the information into their systems.

So, nine days to inauguration and no date has been set for reservations. Though the designated stops and timings enroute have been finalised, official refuse to confirm it for the same reason.

Bangalore Divisional Railway Manager Mahesh Mangal says they expect the notification to come through in the next three days. Incidentally, he points out that though the inauguration of the train from Mangalore on Dec 8 is confirmed, the starting date for the running of the train from Bangalore to Mangalore has not been confirmed yet.

Fares also have not been disclosed though Railways follow a formula based on the distance between two stations. Mangal however claims that a week’s advance notice is enough to set the ball rolling.

While Railway officials are unconcerned about the hue and cry stating that things will sort themselves out in the coming few days, criticism has come in from some quarters about the travel time. Twelve hours of travel to cover 453 kms is something the industry representatives are unhappy about.

They now intend to request Laloo to introduce another express train on the track which will complete the journey in a shorter time.