TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The Union Rail budget presented by Union Rail Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in Parliament Tuesday, dashed the expectations of the tourism industry in Goa, as the additional trains for the State would not help the industry, stakeholders opined in a seeming consensus.
The tourism stakeholders in Goa were instead hoping for express trains from destinations such as Mumbai and Mangalore and more boogies to cater to the increasing demand of tourist arrivals, who would prefer travel to Goa by rail, in the wake of high air and bus fares, in addition to hiked diesel prices.
According to the Konkan Railway Corporation, new passenger trains would be introduced, but they will not have any positive impact on tourism for Goa.
What was announced Tuesday were new express trains from Margao to Mangalore (daily) and Mumbai to Kochi Veli via Konkan (weekly).
Similarly a daily passenger train from Margao to Ratnagiri and Margao to Karwar was announced and the frequency of the Chandigarh to Kochi Veli (the Kerala Sampark Kranti express) has been increased from once a week to bi-weekly.
The Senior Manager, Public Relations, for KRC-Goa Baban Ghatge confirmed that the budget has not added any new trains that would facilitate tourism.
Speaking on this issue to the Herald Tuesday, President of GCCI Manguirish Pai Raiker said, “We need to work aggressively on this sector.” He said that even though this budget has not got any good news for tourists, the Chamber will work with the Konkan Railway to promote rail travel vis-à-vis Goa tourism. He however said that with a large number of safety measures proposed to be implemented on rail routes, tourists will not shy from using the existing rail routes to the State of Goa.
The Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) has also pointed out that there is need for more express trains to Goa and appeared disappointed that Tuesday’s budget made no provision for the same.
“We need more flights and more express trains,” said TTAG chief Francis Braganza. Domestic tourists come for short stay to Goa and do not want to spend too much time travelling by train, he claimed.
Braganza said, “The Railway budget will not affect inflow of tourist in Goa. Unlike a daily commuter within a city, a tourist who travel to Goa from the metro cities, once or twice a year will definitely be able to take care of the marginal increases, proposed in the Budget.
In fact at present, the carrying capacity of the trains coming into Goa now is not sufficient to deal with the traffic into Goa. The need of the hour is to increase the number of trains. At present every train into Goa runs to its full capacity.
We need faster and better trains into Goa to boost Tourism in Goa. A tourist who visits Goa for three nights and four days would like to see Goa linked to the metros by much faster and better trains. The marginal increase in cost of travel as proposed in the budget will in no way affect the number of tourists coming to Goa.”
