In continued pursuit of railway related concerns, DK MP Captain Brijesh Chowta spoke about the inclusion of Mangalore Central & Mangalore Junction Railway stations under the South Western Railway during the question hour in parliament on Wednesday.
Captain Brijesh Chowta raised this as a supplementary question to the Railway related questions that had been submitted for which a written response was received from the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav.
Captain Brijesh Chowta had sought to know whether the Government has any plans to establish a dedicated high capacity rail line between Mangalore and Bangalore to improve passenger and freight connectivity and details of the proposed project including feasibility studies, timelines and budgetary allocations.
He has additionally asked if the Government has identified the challenges in the existing railway route between the two cities including the speed and capacity limitations and if so, the steps being taken to address them as well as the benefits of the said railway line for trade, tourism and regional development.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav in his detailed written response said that the Broad gauge single line section between Hassan – Mangaluru (183 Km) which is a part of Mangaluru to Bengaluru was commissioned in 2006 by converting earlier Meter Gauge into Broad Gauge section through a SPV with major share of Government of Karnataka.
Due to poor financial health of SPV, Ministry of Railways has proposed to takeover this line, which is ‘a vital link and connects Mangalore port to the hinterland of Karnataka’, so that capacity augmentation works such as doubling, electrification etc can be taken up.
Accordingly, a Final Location Survey (FLS) of doubling between Bengaluru and Mangaluru has been sanctioned in two parts
(i) Mangaluru –Hassan (247 Km
(ii) Hassan – Chickbanavara (Bengaluru) via Kunigal (166 Km).
Further, a survey for 3rd & 4th line between Bengaluru –Tumakuru (30 Km) has also been sanctioned.
Survey of total 56 projects (19 new line and 37 doubling) of total length 6159 Km falling fully/partly in the State of Karnataka have been
sanctioned during last three years (2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and current financial year 2024-25).
As on 01.04.2024, 31 projects (21 new lines, and 10 Doubling) of total length of 3,840 Km, costing ₹47,016 crore, falling fully/partly in the State
of Karnataka, are at various stages of planning and implementation, out of which 1,302 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 17,383 crore has been incurred upto March, 2024.
Highlighting the detailed response provided, Captain Brijesh Chowta during his brief supplementary question opportunity given the end of the question hour, asked for the ministry’s proposal to address the ghat stretch and the progress of the feasibility study being undertaken regarding the same.
In a brief response, since the question hour was over, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said the details would be provided to the MP later but since the Hassan M'lore Railway line is a joint venture project, “the contribution of the state government needs to come and then only the project can be taken forward”.
Captain Brijesh Chowta tweeted(https://x.com/CaptBrijesh/status/1866772201686421586?t=Iua3jyPEPoc_IqtFuAwQPQ&s=19)saying he would also pursue the matter with the Karnataka government to enable execution of this key project that can bring a world of change for the region & the entire stretch between Hassan and Mangaluru as well as the socio-economic development of the state.