Praising the corporation for its efforts to streamline its services, he also called for better representation of local residents in KRC's employee list. Naik said that only three out of 31 food stalls, and six out of the 19 booths given on contract by KRC went to people who have lost their land during the implementation of the project.

Naik declared that another advertisement would be put out by KRC calling for applications to operate stalls, booths and trollies. The minister also inaugurated a new network system called KRNET linking all stations on the Konkan route. It works on a backbone of optical fibres laid along the 760 km track.

KRC Chairman B Rajaram said the corporation would strive for economic and eco-friendlydevelopment of the region. He said that the KRC was aiming to break even by the year 2001 and then start repaying the debts.