The Hindu : Hassan-Mangalore line SPV approved

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Hassan-Mangalore line SPV approved

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore April 11. A Cabinet note for the formation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the completion of Hassan-Mangalore gauge conversion project has been approved by the Union Ministry of Railways.

The Minister of State for Infrastructure Development, T.John, told presspersons here today that the note was likely to be approved by the Cabinet shortly.

The State Government released Rs. 6 crore in advance last month towards the expenses for the project this year. The line is expected to be operational by December 2004.

The Principal Secretary to the department, S.Krishna Kumar, said the real challenge would come after the completion of the project. The line could handle up to 10 million tonnes of traffic against the initial 1.50 million tonnes. This meant that iron ore exporters and others would have to be persuaded to utilise the capacity. Mr. John said the Government had released Rs. 10 crore as part of its 50 per cent share towards the cost of the Sholapur-Gadag conversion project. The Railways had been informed of the need to get work on two important bridges expedited so that the line could be thrown open for traffic by December 2005.

The minister said that for the first time, a new plan had been sanctioned under which 50 per cent of the cost of construction of road over-bridges and road under-bridges in 12 locations in the State would be funded by the department, with the work being executed by Railways on a turnkey basis.

The rest would be funded by the Railways from the safety fund.

The projects were located in Shimgoa, Davangere, Bhadravati, Birur, Chamarajanagar, Maddur, Harihar, Nanjangud, Belgaum, and Mysore. The total investment was Rs. 65 crore.

Based on the evaluation of this model under which the Railways would build bridges and the local bodies would lay the approach roads, more such projects would be sanctioned in future, he said.

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Hassan-Mangalore line SPV approved