Mangalore-Bangalore train huffs & puffs for over century

Mangalore-Bangalore train huffs & puffs for over century
Stanley G Pinto | TNN

Mangalore: When railway minister Lalu Prasad inaugurates the broad gauge line between Bangalore and Mangalore on Saturday, he will write a new chapter in the Railways.
The railway line has a history dating back to 130 years, starting from 1876, the year in which the inhabitants of South Kanara made representations to Duke of Buckingham. The Mysore government joined the Madras government to push the project ahead and by mutual arrangement the line was surveyed in 1901-02 by H Groves, joint secretary to the Mysore Government for Railways.
The total cost of the meter gauge was Rs 178 lakh. The Mysore government, on its part, lost no time in constructing the line from Arsikere to Hassan in 1913, which was 28 miles in length and urgedthe government to press British section of the line from the frontier to Mangalore.
The District Board of South Kanara to proceed with the arrangements for the construction of the line, levied a special cess of three pies in a rupee towards the cost of the line, but wanted the Mysore government to undertake construction of the British section also on certain terms of revenue sharing, which the Mysore durbar didn’t accept.
The proposal was again revived after Independence. Union minister for heavy industries T A Pai inaugurated the railway link from Mangalore to Subrahmanya in 1977. On May 20, 1979 it opened to passenger traffic.
The Railway Board sanctioned the 236-km Arsikere-Hassan-Mangalore gaugeconversion project in 1994-95. To tide ove financial crunch, the government formed the Karnataka Railway Infrastructure Development Enterprise. The Hassan Mangalore Rail Development Company was set up in July 2003. After several twists and turns, the railway line is at last on the track.