Hubballi-Ankola railway line on agenda at biodiversity board meet today

The state government has set its eyes on the controversial Hubballi-Ankola Railway project that may leave a Rs 4,000-crore additional burden on the state’s and country’s exchequer besides causing irreparable damage to the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats.

Despite the project being rejected repeatedly by various statutory bodies citing serious ecological damage, the government has proposed to the take up the matter for discussion at the 13th State Wildlife Board meeting on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.

Ever since the project was first conceived by the Railways in 1998, mainly for transporting iron and manganese ore from Ballari-Hosapete region to Karwar and Tadadi ports, the project has been rejected by the forest department, MoEF Regional office, Forest Advisory Committee, MoEF: New Delhi and Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the Supreme Court.

A senior forest official said, “As the discussion on the project was deferred indefinitely in the previous meeting, the same has been listed now for decision.”

Even though the project was originally planned to transport the minerals, the same has witnessed slump following the ban by the SC in 2011 and hence, the proposed line intends to serve no purpose, according to conservationists. Sources in the mining industry told DH that Vasco port (Goa) is also a major port with better train and road connectivity and is only 30 km more than the distance to Karwar.

The project, while necessitating 595 hectares of forest land, would result in axing of a whopping more than 1.5 lakh trees, besides causing severe environmental losses worth Rs 614.796 crore (loss of timber and loss of environment).

“There is already a parallel broad guage line from Hosapete to Madagaon for the transport of iron ore, which can carry up to 6 million tonnes annually. Currently, to increase the capacity of the traffic, doubling work on the Hosapete-Vasco line is under progress at a sanctioned cost of Rs 2,127 crore. When so much is being spent on alternatives, it is worthless that the government is raking up the already rejected project,” said Mahesh, a conservationist working in the Western Ghats Region.