The Railway Budget for 2008-09, presented by Raliway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav did not bring much good news to Karnataka. There are few new trains added and extended but most of them going outside Karnataka.

 

Two tri weekly Garib raths, low fares AC trains were announced from Bangalore to Kochuvelli and yeshwanthpur to Puducherry. The Blore- Coimbatore Express have been extended to Eranakulam. Other extensions are Chennai-Blore Express to Prasanthi Nilayam, Solapur-Bagalkot Express to Gadag (to come into effect after guage conversion) , Dharwad-Gadag passenger extended to Bijapur.  Bagalkot- Yeshwanthpur now running tri weekly have been increased to daily services.

 

The Karnataka package also include induction of new trains between Bangalore- Machalipattanam that will operate tri weekly and another Yeshwanthpur- Jodhpur daily train.
--MP