Mangaluru: Execution of critical infrastructure needs of Dakshina Kannada district — road, rail and air — has received a major fillip in last five years with the Modi government allocating Rs 16,500 crore for the same, said Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel. The pace of execution of these projects has also picked up, letting the stakeholders know how the Modi government has worked so far, he said.Flagging off train 16585/86 tri-weekly express between Yeshwantpur-Mangaluru Central and laying the foundation for various development works here on Thursday, Nalin said the government has ensured there are no more unmanned level crossings in India. “Introduction of indigenous high-speed train Vande Bharat, cleanliness on trains and at stations, WiFi at key stations and Indian Railways responding to Twitter are some of the achievements on the railway front,” he said.The practice of holding quarterly inter-departmental meeting initiated by Modi has helped resolve various issues and hastened development projects, he said. “Active participation of NHAI, zonal railways and the civic body has helped resolve issues and ensured that bottlenecks affecting development works are resolved...” he claimed.Noting that Indian Railway allocated Rs 1,500 crore for development needs of the district in last five years, Nalin thanked railway ministers — D V Sadananda Gowda, Suresh P Prabhu and Piyush Goyal — for their proactiveness in meeting the same. The survey work on converting Mangaluru Junction railway station into a world-class facility is also nearing completion, and efforts are on to obtain about 25acre land from MCC for the project, he said.Goyal, in response to representation given on behalf of rail users, has promised to extend Tirupati-Hassan train and Mumbai-Goa Jan Shatabdi train to Mangaluru and also introduce a new Mangaluru-Bengaluru inter-city day express. Goyal has assured to revisit the timings of the tri-weekly train and also extend its periodicity (to make it a daily train) once the rakes are available after the ongoing Kumbh Mela season ends, the MP noted.Using the platform of the government function, Nalin also lashed out at his critics who have, time and again, questioned his contributions to the district. “I have official statistics to show that development works worth Rs 16,500 crore have either been executed or are in the pipeline in the past five years,” the MP said, adding that he will release the same at an appropriate time to silence his critics.Mangaluru City South MLA D Vedavyas Kamath and Dakshina Kannada ZIlla Panchayat president Meenakshi Shantigodu hailed the pace of development works executed by the Modi government. Mayor Bhaskar K acknowledged the role of the MP in resolving critical bottlenecks holding up MCC’s development works. He also sought Kateel’s intervention in resolving other issues and ensure that the city grows to its potential.MUTLI-CRORE WORKSAccording to Aparna Garg, divisional railway manager, South Western Railway (Mysuru), the MP laid foundation stone for the following works.· Extension and raising of platform 1 and 2 to accommodate 25 coaches at Kabaka Puttur. Cost: Rs 1.61 crore· Raising platform number 2 from rail level to higher level to a length of 565 metres and provision of foot over bridge. Cost: Rs 2.46 crore· Extension and raising of platform 1 at Bantwal for 15 metres with ramp, vacuum, dewatering concreting of platform 1 and extension and raising of platform 2 from rail level to high level for a length of 565 metres. Cost: Rs 4.33 crore

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