It was in 1960s and 70s, in the thick hitherto untraversed jungles of Western Ghats, marvellous engineering structures were coming up to provide communication between the Mysore hinterland and the Arabian sea coast. The 117-mile-long Hassan-Mangalore railway line, which was expected to be ready by 1972, to synchronise with the commissioning of the Mangalore Harbour, was rightly hailed as one that would serve as a monument to the great engineering skill of our Indian engineers.

Working under the most arduous circumstances, the engineers were endeavouring to see that this major railway project was completed according to schedule. The difficult terrain, especially the 31-mile-long ghat section with intricate problems of alignment amid formidable mountainous region, was indeed a great challenge to engineering skill and it was heartening that dedicated engineers rose to the occasion.

This writer had an opportunity to take a close look at the problems involved in the implementation of the project and the ingenuity and diligence with which the engineers and workmen were tackling them. The survey on such a terrain with wild animals freely roaming about was by no means easy.

A surveyor, when once found that he was “shaky” in fixing an object with binoculars,  saw to his horror that he was standing on a big python. There were instances of some workers having been trampled upon by elephants near the Subrahmanya Road Station, one of the railway camps located.

Under such circumstances, the officers had to deal with tact and deep understanding of the labour psychology. For purposes of efficiency and economy, work on the line was divided into three convenient and viable units. The 28-mile-long Hassan-Sakaleshpur line was in the plateau section, while the Sakaleshpur-Subrahmanya (31 miles) came in the formidable ghat section and the 58-mile-long Puttur-Mangalore line was in the plain section. Work was going on briskly and simultaneously. About 30,000 skilled labourers, mostly drawn from Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, were working on the line. Enquiries had revealed that response from Karnataka skilled labourers was not enthusiastic. It was revealed that although it was a metre gauge line, engineers had planned for easy conversion of the track into broad gauge. The execution of the project was linked with the development of Mangalore as an all-weather port. Accordingly, work on the construction of a broad gauge line between Mangalore and Panambur port was almost completed by 1970.

The first train in the plateau section between Hassan and Sakaleshpur was planned to chug off  on Oct 2 and initially it was for departmental use only. The first railway station at Alur was completed. Except for a deep 86 foot rock cut at Balupet on the plateau, the construction programme had been comparatively easy.

The 520-foot-long bridge across the Hemavathi River, the second biggest bridge among the 105 bridges on the Hassan-Mangalore line on the outskirts of Sakaleshpur, was ready.

After a flying start in the above section, the engineers were coming to face the challenging  problems in the ghat section where the terrain drops down from 3,000 feet above sea level (Sakaleshpur) to 370 feet (Subrahmanya Road), registering a fall of 100 feet per mile.

This unbroken 2,600 feet descent was being negotiated through a track embedded with as many as 40 rock cut tunnels, all within a distance of 5.8 miles, tall viaducts, high embankments and deep cuttings in the rocky strata.
The construction of these tunnels posed some of the toughest problems, demanding high civil engineering skill. The first step was to fix the alignment to a great degree of accuracy as even a minor mistake in the orientation would have cost lakhs of rupees in view of the high cost of tunnellery operation.

A set of delicate instruments was employed for this and refinement was achieved through a series of constructions in successive stages. Most of the tunnels are located on curves, which complicated the problem in setting them out accurately.

Most of the staff members, both of the railways and contractors who were charged with this risky job, had been specially trained to carry out this work.

The tunnels were taking final shape and explosives worth Rs 1.5 crore were used for blasting operations. It was a tribute to the accuracy of work. The longest tunnel in the section (1,850 feet) had been completed at a cost of Rs 21 lakh.

The services of specialists were sought to meet intricate geological problems. Field laboratories had been set up for investigating the soil. The heavy rainfall (250 inches annually) imposed a limitation on the working season from December to May.

About 1 lakh tonnes of cement, 7,000 tonnes of steel girders, 7,000 tonnes of steel rods and 11,000 tonnes of rails were made use of for these works.

After work in the ghat section, work on Puttur-Mangalore track in the plain section was very easy. Work on the longest bridge (1,314 feet) on the Hassan-Mangalore line across the Netravathi river in Bantwal was ready by December 1970.

When work on the project began in 1965, the event was received with immense joy in Mysore State for it represented fulfilment of a century-old dream (preliminary surveys on the line were conducted as early as in 1892).

The journey on the 117-mile-long track located in the picturesque thick jungle ranges promises to be quite delightful for any nature lover.

However, what was conceived as an all-weather rail project proved to be a seasonal service three years after the first bi-weekly Mangalore passenger steamed off from Bangalore on its inaugural journey on December 25, 1975. The services continued after July 1980 and were suspended till April 10, 1981.

While passenger traffic was suspended, goods train began operating from Sankranthi day on January 14, 1982. In March, it met with an accident when two persons were killed.

With the terrain unfit for operation of both goods and passenger traffic for most of the year, the line completed at a cost of Rs 44 crore was not serving effectively the objectives for which it was laid. The landslides and slips in the ghat section during the rainy season had rendered the traffic unsafe, compelling the railway administration to suspend the services for most part of the year.

Besides, it was expected that the Kottur-Harihar line would be made operational to facilitate export of rich iron ore through Mangalore port. However, it has still remained a dream.