Transportation in Mangalore
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Mangalore's location makes it accessible by all forms of transport: road, rail, air and sea. It is notable here that a native of Mangalore U. Srinivas Mallya (a Member of the Indian Parliament) was instrumental in getting the National Highway system, the Mangalore Airport and the New Mangalore Port to Mangalore. In his tribute there is a statue of him along NH 17 near the Kadri Park, and another at the entrance of the New Mangalore Harbour.
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[edit] Roads
Three National Highways pass through Mangalore connecting the city to the rest of the country. NH-17, which runs from Panvel (in Maharashtra) to Cranganur Junction (near Edapally in Kerala), passes through Mangalore in a north-south direction, while NH-48 runs eastward to the state capital Bangalore. NH-13 runs north-east from Mangalore to Sholapur, and a state highway connects it to the city of Mysore passing through the hill town of Madikeri.
Currently this cluster of highways is inadequate to handle the traffic that flows through the region, resulting in a NHAI has decided to upgrade the national highways connecting New Mangalore Port to Surathkal on NH-17 and B.C. Road junction on NH-48.[1] Under the port connectivity programme of the National Highway Development Project (NHDP), a 37.5km stretch or these highways will be upgraded from two-lane to four-lane roads.
[edit] Local public transport
Mangalore's city bus service is operated by private operators, with routes covering the full extent of the city and beyond. There are two distinct sets of routes for the buses, with the city routes being covered by city buses, and the intercity routes being covered by service and express buses. Service buses essentially touch all towns and villages on the intercity route, while express buses reach their destination with very limited or no stops in between.
Another mode for local transportation is the autorickshaw. The minimum cost charged by an autorickshaw up to 2 km is Rs 11. Meter is introduced in all autorickshaws plying inside the city and the suburbs and the customers are charged based on the exact cost displayed on the meter. However charges are 1.5 times the displayed reading between 9pm to 6am.
[edit] Long Distance Bus Routes
Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) runs the long distance bus services from Mangalore to other parts of the state. The Mangalore-Bangalore route is the most lucrative route and is equally served by public & private players.
The longest bus route served is the Mangalore - Ankola - Hubli - Belgaum - Pune - Mumbai bus route run by a number of private players and KSRTC. The journey is about 22 hours by normal buses & 16 hours by Volvo Buses.
[edit] Railways
The Mangalore Railway Station used to be the last station connecting Mangalore to the state of Kerala in the south and to the rest of the country. While the British had left behind an extensive railway network when they left India, the stretch between Mangalore - Mumbai, and Mangalore - Hassan had never been connected. There are many trains connecting Shoranur and Coimbatore.
A metre gauge railway track was built through the Western Ghats in the east, connecting Mangalore with Hassan. While this provided a very picturesque journey, it was not very successful, and the tracks were removed several years later to be replaced with a broad gauge line. However, the conversion project was halted for several years. It has since resumed and some sections of this track are now functional. The broad gauge track connecting Mangalore to Bangalore via Hassan is open for freight traffic since May 2006. [2] While the movement of passenger traffic was supposed to start after December 2006, the inaugural train was eventually flagged off from Mangalore Central railway station for Bangalore only on 8 December 2007 by Union Minister for Railways Laloo Prasad Yadav. [3] Mangalore is also connected to Chennai through the Southern Railway.
When India gained independence, Mangalore was not connected to Mumbai by rail. The railway network established before independence terminated at Mangalore. Since then there had been a strong need to connect Mangalore to Mumbai and hence the Konkan Railway came into being. The project was completed in 1998 and since then the travel time to the north of the country has come down considerably.
[edit] Sea
The Mangalore Harbour provides a connection by sea to the rest of the world. Currently dry, bulk and fluid cargos are handled by the New Mangalore Port, providing an important gateway to the state of Karnataka. It is also the station for the Coast Guard. This modern artificial harbour 10 km north of the town, is now India's ninth largest cargo handling port.[4]
[edit] Air
Mangalore Airport (IATA: IXE) is located near Bajpe, around 20 km north-east of the city centre.
