Railway budget gets mixed reaction from Yediyurappa

Bangalore, Feb 24 (UNI) Welcoming Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's decision not to hike passenger and freight tariff in his railway budget presented today, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa opined that the new budget would not help in catalysing economic growth as improvisation of railway infrastructure had not been given due attention.

In a statment here, he welcomed the decision to take up survey for laying a new line between Thalaguppa-Honnavar and earmarking Rs 22 crore for speeding up gauge conversion between Shimoga and Thalaguppa in the Bangalore-Talaguppa route. Besides, announcement on gauge conversion works between Basavana Bagewadi-Bagalkot- Sollapur and Gadag, and Mysore-Chamarajanagar were encouraging, he added.

Lamenting that Karnataka had not benefitted in terms of allotment of new trains and new lines, Mr Yediyurappa acknowledged that the Railway Minister had allocated over Rs 360 crore for guage conversion, electrification and doubling of railway lines and other works in the State, slightly higher than the previous allocations.

He said Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and himself would call on Mr Prasad during their next trip to New Delhi and urge him to allocate more funds and schemes for Karnataka.

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