Works on new Railway Lines yet to start for want of land in Karnataka

Bangalore (SBC) / Hubli (UBL): The South Western Railway is unable to commence work on two new railway lines that would have reduced railroad distance between important cities in the State, for want of land.

The State government has not handed over even one acre of land for the Tumkur-Rayadurg new line, via Kalyandurg (207 km), that was announced in the 2007-08 Railway budget, and the Tumkur-Davangere new line, via Sira (200 km), announced in the 2011-12 budget, according to sources in the South Western Railway.

The two new lines, if completed, would reduce the distance between Bangalore and Bellary by at least 30 km and between Bangalore and Hubli by 60 km, respectively. Now, trains from Bangalore run via Tumkur, Birur, Chitradurga, Rayadurg (464 km) or via Hindupur and Guntakal (358 km) to Bellary. The distance between Bangalore and Bellary via Tumkur and Rayadurg will be 321 km, the sources said.

Both the projects are taken up on cost sharing basis (50:50) between the Railways and the two State governments, while the State governments have to provide land free. Sources said that 17 km of new line has been laid from Rayadurg in Andhra Pradesh and 9 km would be added by this month-end. Also, work on a major bridge across the Vedavathi in Andhra Pradesh has commenced. However, there has been no physical progress in Karnataka, they added.

The line would also have provided rail connectivity to backward regions in Karnataka — Koratagere, Madhugiri and Pavagada. However, not a single acre of the 1,342 acres of land required for the project in the State has been given to the South Western Railway, the sources said.

Reduced distance

Similar is the case with the Tumkur-Davangere new line. The railroad distance between the two cities is 326 km on the circuitous route via Tumkur, Arsikere and Birur. The proposed line via Sira, Chitradurga and Bharamasagar (along National Highway 4) would just be 265 km.

The railroad distance between Bangalore and Chitradurga, now 312 km, via Birur and Chikjajur, would come down to 205 km. Under this project too, no land has been given to the South Western Railway, while the land required for the project is 2,961 acres. South Western Railway has written letters urging the government to expedite the process of land acquisition, the sources said. Besides these two new lines, work on Whitefield-Kolar (52.9 km); Marikuppam-Kuppam (23.7 km); Chikmagalur-Sakleshpur (47 km) and Hejjala-Chamarajanagar (140 km) new lines and Hosadurga-Chikjajur line doubling has not commenced yet for want of land, the sources added.

• Tumkur-Rayadurg line announced in 2007-08
• Tumkur-Davangere line sanctioned in 2011-12

HAL unit will come up in Gubbi taluk, says MP

A unit of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) will be established at Bidarehallakaval in Gubbi taluk of Tumkur district, according to MP G.S. Basavaraju.

He told presspersons here on Sunday that 772 acres and 7 guntas of government land was available at Bidarehallakaval. The unit would come up at an estimated cost of Rs. 4,000 crore and it was expected to create 3,000 jobs, he said.

The Deputy Commissioner, the Assistant Commissioner and the Gubbi tahsildar had reviewed records of the government land from 1951.

Mr. Basavaraju said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had discussed implementation of the project with Defence Minister A.K. Antony and the latter had responded positively. He demanded that the State government give approval for the project at the earliest. Mr. Basavaraju demanded that the State government include points related to providing jobs to local people and basic facilities at villages in the vicinity of the proposed unit in the memorandum of understanding to be prepared for the project.

He said HAL must adopt nearby villages and provide basic facilities as part of its corporate social responsibility.

Tumkur, Shimoga, Bijapur now city corporations

 The City Municipal Councils of Tumkur, Shimoga and Bijapur have all been upgraded as city corporations, with Governor H.R. Bhardwaj approving a notification late on Friday.

Earlier proposal

The incumbent government had been planning to upgrade the three city municipal councils into city corporations based on a proposal which was initially mooted by the previous government of Jagadish Shettar.

At a recent meeting of the State Cabinet, Minister for Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake had placed the proposal to upgrade the three towns as municipal corporations given the increase in population.

With the addition of the three new municipal corporations, the total number of the corporations in the State will increase to 11. The others are Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore, Davangere, Bellary, Gulbarga, Hubli-Dharwad and Belgaum.

Special funds

Sources in the State government told The Hindu that with the upgrading, Shimoga, Tumkur and Bijapur will stand to benefit in a big way given the fact that the Union government will allocate special funds for their all-round development. Plans are also afoot to develop Tumkur as a satellite town to decongest Bangalore, which is almost 850 sq. km and a population of around 1 crore.