Udupi : Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Tuesday that the Railways Ministry wanted to improve the functioning of goods trains in the country. He was speaking at an interaction programme organised by the Udupi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) and the District Small Industries Association (DSIA), here.

Mr. Prabhu said that the speed at which goods trains were running was abysmally slow, at 20 km per hour on an average. It was necessary to increase the speed of these goods trains. It was also important to increase the speed of passenger trains as well.

His Ministry was trying to improve the situation, but it would take at least three years to show results, he said. The government was also implementing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor at a cost of Rs. 98,000 crore rupees. Japan had agreed to a loan at a very low 0.1 per cent interest over a period of 50 years for this 505-km long line.

The construction of a high-speed train would require a large number of small components. This would help in many small industries coming up. Mr. Prabhu said that the ease of doing business in the country had increased after the Narendra Modi-led government came to power.

Shobha Karandlaje, MP, Raghupati Bhat, former MLA, and Srikrishna Rao Kodancha, president of Udupi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, were present.