Byappanahalli, WiFi at im-portant stations, and settingup of project managementgroup and project monitor-ing and coordination groupswere welcome steps.

Retired Central govern-ment officer K.N. Krishna-prasad said Mr. Gowdashould have announceddoubling of the Yelahanka-–Penukonda trunk line and

creation of Mangalore rail-way division.

The All-India Loco Run-ning Staff Association saidthe budget did not givemuch importance to infras-tructure augmentation.

Though Mr. Gowda said itwas not a populist budget,he has attempted to helpKarnataka improve its rail-way network.

Strict deadlines have been fixed for complet-ing Bangalore–Mysoretrack-doubling (March2015) and new line betweenBangalore and Hassan(March 2016), the Ministertold reporters.

The new line surveys or-dered by him would cater toa large section of society, hesaid.

MANGALORE: Railways Minis-ter D.V. Sadananda Gowdain his maiden budget pre-sented on Tuesday appearsto have done a balancing actwith regard to Karnataka.Though the budget is notcompletely disappointing,people feel that he couldhave done more with leastdifficulty.

Mr. Gowda, unlike hispredecessors, has taken abold step towards providingsuburban railway system forBangalore, though he hasnot called it by that name.While the feasibility reportwould be done within threemonths, Mr. Gowda hasmade the beginning by an-nouncing two diesel electricmultiple unit (DEMU)trains — one to Hosur andanother to Tumkur, and amainline electric multipleunit (MEMU) service withthree sets of trains toRamanagaram.

The Minister did not an-nounce creation of a railwaydivision for Mangalore orbringing Mangalore regionunder Konkan Railway,which has been a long-pend-ing demand.

Mr. Gowda, who was inthe forefront of the struggledemanding a railway divi-sion for Mangalore, an-nounced doubling the linebetween Ullal andSurathkal.

Mr. Gowda also an-nounced 12 new trains inaddition to 12 announced byhis predecessor, M. Malli-karjun Kharge, on February12.

Mixed reactionsTerming it a pragmatic

budget, Federation of Kar-nataka Chambers of Com-merce and Industrymember Prakash Mandothsaid coaching terminal at

Many say he could have done more for the State Anil Kumar Sastry

Sadananda does a balancing act