SWR hopeful of more funds for rail projects in state

South Western Railway General Manager Sanjeev Kishore said they were hopeful of getting sufficient funds out of Rs 2.4 lakh crore allocated for the Indian Railways by the union finance minister to complete major infrastructure projects, including remodelling of railway yards at Bengaluru Cantonment, Bengaluru City railway station and Mysuru.

Speaking to media persons at Rail Soudha here on Wednesday, he said SWR will be in a better position to inform the public regarding the new railway projects in a day or two after receiving the ‘pink book’, which will have the fine prints of the total allocation of funds for the SWR.

Also Read: SWR drops proposal for 400-acre shunting facility

“We are hopeful of receiving sufficient funds for renovating Mysuru, Vasco, Hubballi railway stations along with taking up of renovation of other stations,” he said. He added that Mysuru railway station will get additional three to four platforms. Bengaluru cantonment and City will also get a similar number of platforms to decongest the train movements, he said.

SWR is hopeful of getting sufficient funds to commence work on the Davangere-Tumakuru line and the Dharwad-Belagavi line via Kittur. “We have already got land for 20 km stretch for the Davangere-Tumakuru line and preliminary work has started. For the Kittur line, we will be ready with funds,” he said.

SWR will also work on completing a 20-km new railway line between Rayadurga (Andhra Pradesh) and Tumakuru stretch, a 23-km stretch of Sanganal-Linganabandi (Part Talkalwadi new line) and a 20-km stretch on Ginigera-Raichur (Karatagi-sindhanur) line.

He said this year the SWR has already crossed the magical figure of 500 km in doubling of lines and by March it is expected to cross another 250 km. Doubling of the Bengaluru- Miraj line will be completed by the March end and electrification of Bengaluru and Hubballi will also be completed by this time. “We will be able to run a complete electric train on this stretch by March end,” he said and added that the travel train will come down by at least 30 to 50 minutes.