Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
Credit: PTI Photo
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that the Indian Railways has undertaken several works to increase rail connectivity in Karnataka but slow land acquisition has been delaying many projects.
Replying to Congress Rajya Sabha member Ajay Maken, the minister said that to enhance railway connectivity, Railways so far sanctioned total 25 projects (15 new lines, 10 doubling) of 3,264 km length, costing Rs 42,517 crore falling fully/partly in Karnataka. “Out of which 1,394 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs 21,310 crore has been incurred up to March 2025,” the minister said.
He also said against budget allocation for railway projects in Karnataka was 835 crore in during 2009-14 while nine times the said sum totalling to Rs 7,564 crore had been allocated during 2025-26 alone, the minister said in his written reply.
Shivamogga - Ranebennur new line (96 km), Belagavi-Dharwad new line (73 Km), Shivamogga-Harihar new line (79 Km), Whitefield-Kolar new line (53 km), Hassan-Belur new line(27 km) are delayed due to non-availability of land, the minister said.
Total land required for projects in Karnataka is 8,969 hectares of which 5,657 ha (63%) has been acquired and balance of 3,312 ha are yet to be acquired. Hejjala-Chamrajnagar new line project has been sanctioned on cost-sharing basis. However, works on this project could not be taken up as the state government has not agreed for this project.
Yeshwanthpur-Channasandra and the Baiyappanahalli-Hosur doubling projects are being executed by Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-RIDE) which is a Karnataka government controlled company. The progress and completion of projects depend upon land acquisition, utility shifting, forest clearances, permission for cutting of trees for the project, the minister said.
For improving the connectivity to Mangaluru and Karwar, 04 surveys -Shivamogga-Sringeri-Mangaluru new line project (332 Km), Hassan - Mangaluru doubling project (247 Km), Shoranur-Mangaluru 3rd & 4th Line project (307Km) and Hubballi- Ankola new double line (163 Km) have been sanctioned, the minister said.