‘Report on Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train to be ready by next yr’

The Minister said that all trains announced in the Railway budget would be launched by end of November this year. He landed unannounced at the Sabarmati station and spoke to officials and staff present expressing his dissatisfaction over the maintenance of the premises. He said he had issued instructions to all divisional managers to visit one station a day to ensure cleanliness. He would not comment on shifting of the Western Railway zonal headquarters to Ahmedabad from Mumbai or implementing the plan of upgrading Ahmedabad station as a model station but said it would be upgraded and renovated as planned by the previous government.

He would not speak about the entire West Zone because of the model code of conduct for election was in force in Maharashtra which was part of West Zone. About Gujarat areas, he said Rs 912 crore was allocated for ongoing projects, Rs 105 crore for laying new lines, Rs 572 crore on doubling of tracks and Rs 139 crore for gauge conversion.

Gowda also called on Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and later held a meeting with senior Railway officials — West Zone general manager Hemant Kumar, Ahmedabad DRM A K Tiwari and others.

Earlier in the day, his convoy had met with an accident near the Chimanbhai Patel Bridge in Sabarmati. However, he emerged safe. The police said a private car suddenly applied brake at the bridge leading to cars in the minister’s convoy to pile-up. The cars suffered damage, however, none were injured.