The railways is in a state of preparedness to execute work on the vital Bangalore-Hassan railway line which cuts across the historical Kunigal Stud Farm. But lack of communication from the state government is stalling the work.
A reply from South Western Railway to an RTI query filed by Dinesh Bhat from Puttur states "the matter regarding the alignment at business magnate Vijay Mallya's Kunigal Stud farm has been referred to the state government. The government is yet to communicate the decision".
The public information officer of SWR further states the railways has completed the planning and papers for taking up the work in the stretch is ready. However, work can commence only after the dispute is resolved.
At present, the status of civil works on this important line is as follows: The railways has completed 60% of earth work and bridges on Nelamangala-Solur; 40% in the three km stretch of Kunigal-Yediyuru and 60% of earth work and bridges on Hirisave and Shravanabelagola. The Kunigal Stud Farm falls in between Solur-Kunigal and progress is nil on this section.
Bhat, also the convener of Railway Yathrikara Sangha, Puttur, says that the broad gauge line between Nelamangala-Shravanabelagola will give a direct link to Mangalore-Bangalore reducing the distance by about 40 km, thereby cutting down travel time. Further reduction in travel time is achieved as there is no engine reversal process as is done in Mysore and Arsikere.
Ruing the lack of political will on this aspect, Bhat says this project will be highly beneficial even from the tourism aspect and links B G Nagar, where many institutes of higher learning are situated.
In 2007, the then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had sent a letter to railways minister Lalu Prasad asking him to change the route alignment. "As an alternative, a small deviation can be made in the alignment so as to protect this important heritage site by realigning the line along the periphery of the stud farm. This realignment would reportedly involve an increase in the length of the railway line by a mere 600 metres," the letter had stated. The SWR had marked the ground for laying the line which had cut across the farm.
Though there are rumours of a new alignment being worked out passing the periphery of the stud farm, SWR chief administrative officer Vijaykumar denied saying that the alignment has not been changed. "We are awaiting reply from the state government on this issue,".
Incidentally, this year's railway budget had announced the commencement of passenger services between Nelamangala and Bangalore.
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