Bengaluru - Mumbai premium train service will start soon: Ashwini Vaishnaw
Bengaluru (PTI): Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said that a premium train service from Bengaluru to Mumbai will start soon.
He said Karnataka has received a record Rs 7,748 crore in this year's railway budget -- nine times the allocation during the Congress-led UPA government, and the total railway investment in the state is Rs 52,950 crore.
"Massive investment will cover track creation, station redevelopment, safety, announcements, Bengaluru suburban and many new projects in Karnataka," he told reporters here.
Addressing a press conference here, the minister said that, "very soon, we'll be starting a premium train service from Bengaluru to Mumbai. Tejasvi ji (Bengaluru South MP) had come for that, and many other requests had also come. Many sections are getting doubled, so very soon we'll have many more services."
On the Vande Bharat train from Bengaluru to Mangaluru, he said, "Now, the testing, certifications are going on for electrification. As soon as those processes are completed, we'll share with you the details very soon," he said.
On land acquisition, the minister said the Centre continues to seek the state's support as land is a state subject.
"We continuously pursue the state government for land acquisition in many projects. We believe in cooperative federalism. So we keep requesting the state for land acquisition. I don't want to specify any individual point or project. If needed, I can supply the details, but I don't want to get into the blame game. It's important that we all have the common objective of working for the people and our states," he said.
On the proposed bullet train corridors linking Bengaluru with Chennai and Hyderabad, announced in the Union Budget, Vaishnaw said the project would significantly benefit the region.
"As the finance minister said, it will connect the three large economies of South Indian states. They will become the high-speed diamonds of South India," Vaishnaw said.
A lot of work has already gone in, and a lot of progress has already happened in this regard, he added.
"But now we have to take it to the next level. And if we look at the capability that our industry has acquired, the capability that railway engineers have acquired, it will be a nice journey. Work will move forward very fast," he said.
He said work on the Bengaluru suburban rail has gained progress after a railway officer was appointed Managing Director of K-RIDE.
"Now we have the designs completed. We have the tender documents prepared.
We have got the approvals which are required for designing a complex system, like a suburban system, almost more than half is elevated, so it has to be designed in a proper way, and especially it is along the existing railway line," he said.
Vaishnaw said the design is done and that the progress is very fast now.
Calling the Yesvantpur-Kolar line important, he said the state government had withdrawn their support.
"So we will be requesting the state government to support it, because Bengaluru development is very important. We must double the capacity of Bengaluru. Then only can meet the demand. We must have more and more railway lines for the state."
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Court can reject anticipatory bail but cannot direct accused to surrender: SC
New Delhi (PTI): A court can reject anticipatory bail of an accused but it has no jurisdiction to direct him to surrender before the trial court, the Supreme Court has said.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while hearing a plea filed by a man accused of cheating and forgery.
"If the court wants to reject the anticipatory bail, it may do so, but the court has no jurisdiction to say that the petitioner should now surrender," the bench said.
The Jharkhand High Court had rejected anticipatory bail plea of the accused and asked him to surrender and seek regular bail.
In this case, a complaint had been filed before a magistrate alleging offences under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120B read with 34 of the IPC, in connection with a land dispute.
The high court had dismissed the second anticipatory bail application of the accused on the ground that no new circumstances were shown.
It had relied on its earlier order rejecting his first anticipatory bail plea, in which the court directed the petitioner to surrender before the trial court and seek regular bail in terms of the decision in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI.
The top court said such a direction was wholly without jurisdiction and said that if a court chooses to reject anticipatory bail, it may do so, but it cannot compel the accused to surrender.
