Southwestern Railways to submit detailed project report, hopes green signal for new Hubballi-Ankola line

Hubballi: The Southwestern Railway (SWR) is expected to submit a detailed project report on the contentious Hubballi-Ankola railway line to the Railway Board on February 15.

The 164-km long line has become a bone of contention between the railways and activists as it passes through the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats and requires felling of trees. 

To minimise the impact on the Western Ghats, sources in the SWR informed DH, the new alignment of the broad-gauge railway line is expected to be close to National Highway 63. This is the third time the SWR is changing the alignment for the line that was first proposed in 1996-97. 

As per the previous alignment, the SWR was to acquire around 595 ha of forest land and parts of the railway line were to pass through the Kali Tiger Reserve and an elephant corridor. The first alignment would have required acquiring more than 1000 ha of forest land.

Based on the suggestion from the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), which had visited the spot in September 2022 as per the direction of Karnataka High Court to study the feasibility of the project, the SWR revised the alignment. It is, however, still not clear as to how much of forest land will be lost in the revised plan.

SWR Chief Public Relation Officer Manjunath Kanamadi said the technical team of SWR will submit the DPR to the Railway Board on February 15. “The new DPR has incorporated the suggestions made by the standing committee of NBWL and realigned the route which will be next to the present national Highway. This will result in lesser felling of trees and disturbance to wildlife,” he said.

The Railway Board will then present the DPR to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), following which scientists from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, will provide mitigation measures. 

The DPR was to be submitted in December 2024.

According to an RTI reply received by environment activist Giridhar Kulkarni from the WII, they could not prepare a cumulative impact assessment report and mitigation plans for the project as they haven’t received the DPR.

The WII, however, acknowledges receiving the survey report and finalised alignment from the SWR for taking up impact assessment and mitigation plans.

The SWR, in its submission to the WII, claims that the finalised alignment has the most technical and economical path, which is parallel to the existing NH-63 and also outside the protected forest area. In October 2024, NH officials dropped the plans of widening the commercially important highway that connects the coastal area of the state with the plains to accommodate the proposed new railway line.

Of the total length of 164 km, the SWR has already laid 34 km of railway track between Hubballi and Kalagatagi at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore. However, it is the 54-km stretch between Yellapur and Sunksal that has activists up in arms.