BENGALURU: Many are crying foul over the decision of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu not to announce any new projects for the state in his recent Railway budget. But here are the actual facts. A recent CAG report titled, ‘Status of Ongoing Projects in Indian Railways,’ contains a few interesting observations. According to the report, a few railway projects launched by the Railways in the state were not completed even after 202 months (nearly 16 years).
According to the report, the Bengaluru-Hassan via Shravanabelagola new line was sanctioned in 1996-97. There was a delay in the acquisition of land by 202 months. Hubli-Ankola, the new line project, was sanctioned in 1997-98.
For this project the land acquisition was delayed by 200 months. Interestingly this project has been stalled following the environmental concerns expressed by the experts. In respect to Kadur-Chikkamagaluru-Sakaleshpur project, land acquisition was delayed by 210 months. According to the report, two projects i.e.
Bengaluru-Sathyamangala and Hubli-Ankola projects were cancelled due to these abnormal delays. According to the CAG findings, because of these delays, South Western Railway was forced to spend Rs 242.92 crores extra on land acquisition.
According to the report, Bengaluru-Hassan Via Shravanabelagola project was approved based on socio-economic considerations. The original cost of the project was Rs. 295.75 crores. The first stretch of 44 kilometers between Hassan and Shravanabelagola was completed in 2006, keeping in mind tourism potential due to the Mahamastakabhisheka. But now the revised estimate of the project has zoomed to Rs 1289.92 crore.
Similar over-run in the cost is reported in the implementation of all the major new line/ doubling projects related to Karnataka. Speaking to this newspaper, an officer from the Railways informed that even after 20 years there, SWR was not able to complete the Bengaluru-Hassan direct line. "In such a scenario there is no meaning in announcing new projects. First the state government and railways must work hard to complete the existing projects as delays lead to over-nuns in the cost," he said.
