Belagavi: Members of Dandeli Samagra Abhivrudigagi Horata Samiti on Friday submitted a memorandum to Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi demanding rail connectivity between Dandeli and Hubballi.

In the memorandum submitted, they stated that Dandeli town has railway tracks since the pre-independence (British) era and the Dandeli-Alnavar passenger train used to run then. This was the first passenger train of Uttara Kannada district. But the passenger train services were stopped in 1994 when broad gauge conversion of Hubli Miraj was taken up. When the main line was converted to broad-gauge during 1995-96, the section from Alnavar to Dandeli was left out. Subsequently, due to lack of political will, the passenger train services were not relaunched.

The memorandum added that the efforts made by MP Pralhad Joshi around four years back provided a new lease of life to the rail connectivity demand. The then railway minister D V Sadananda Gowda even mentioned Dandeli connectivity as Ambewadi-Dharwad in the railway budget. But again due to lack of political, the passenger train services were not restored.

The organisation members demanded that along with commencing rail services, the railway station of Ambewadi should be renamed Dandeli as the small village was not much known and commuters coming from other States may not be aware of Ambewadi.

Samiti president Akram Khan, Ashok Patil, Sathgouda Patil, Mahesh Metri, R V Gadeppanavar, Abdul Razzak and others were present.