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Goa BJP MLA seeks to scrap Hubballi-Vasco rail track doubling

Last Updated 08 October 2020, 16:04 IST

A ruling BJP MLA in Goa said the doubling of tracks along the Hubballi-Vasco sector of the South Western Railway was being carried out to facilitate coal transport and demanded that as the coal cargo was to be used for steel plants based in Karnataka, the rail project in Goa should be scrapped.

"The doubling of the Hubballi-Vasco railway track is to facilitate coal transportation for plants in Karnataka. Why should Goa suffer from coal, dust pollution and contamination of our natural resources on account of it?" former Environment Minister Alina Saldanha asked reporters on Thursday after meeting Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at the state Secretariat.

"Karnataka can sustain this scale of development. It is 52 times bigger than Goa. They can handle such transportation of coal, tiny Goa cannot," Alina said.

She said the chief minister had assured her that he would take a call on the finalisation of the rail track doubling issue in a week.

The rail tracks are expected to ferry consignments of coal imported through Goa's Mormugao Port Trust to steel mills in Karnataka's Bellary district.

Goa is home to two railway zones, operated by the Konkan Railway Corporation and the South Western Railway. The latter, which terminates at Vasco railway station, is used as a major transit route for transportation of coal and other cargo, which arrives by the sea at the Mormugao Port Trust, also located near the railway terminus.

The sector is also used to transport iron ore extracted in Goa to Karnataka steel units.

In Goa, the South Western Railway operates over a hilly track, which was laid nearly a century ago during the colonial Portuguese regime and was used for trade with neighbouring Karnataka region, which was under British control.

The doubling of the rail track has however witnessed opposition, even within the Goa BJP.

For months now, Alina has led protests against the doubling of railway tracks along the South Western railway route, which passes through her constituency of Cortalim in South Goa, claiming old heritage houses would be demolished if the double-tracking comes through and that it would also generate pollution.

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(Published 08 October 2020, 16:04 IST)

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