Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa on Saturday said that survey work for six high-speed rail corridors, including the Bangalore-Chennai and Bangalore-Pune routes, was in progress.
Speaking at a meet-the-press programme organised here by the Bangalore Reporters Guild, Mr. Muniyappa said the other corridors were Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Pune, Delhi-Agra, and Delhi-Jaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur.
The Japanese government was ready to fund these railway projects, he said.
Track-doubling
Mr. Muniyappa said many projects in the State had to be completed before December. Work on various bridges was progressing well and electrification and track-doubling work on the Mysore-Bangalore route was 90 per cent complete.
However, problems with land acquisition were causing delays. A high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary S.V. Ranganath was holding monthly review meetings and once the State government confirmed the extent of land acquisition by March 31, the deadline for completing the projects would be set, the Minister said.
On the Mahbubnagar-Munirabad line, he said work had been completed up to the Karnataka border, as the Andhra Pradesh government had given land, but it could not be continued in the State for want of land.
The Hassan-Shravanabelagola track-doubling work would be taken up this year on priority, he said.
New projects
Mr. Muniyappa said the proposal for the new Hubli-Gadag-Wadi line had been sent to the Planning Commission for appraisal. When it was sanctioned, people from north Karnataka wanting to go to New Delhi could go to the capital directly, without coming to Bangalore.
The foundation stone of the Rs. 99-crore Marikuppam-Kuppam line would be laid in three months.
The other new line projects sent to the Planning Commission were: Dharwad-Belgaum, Gadag-Haveri, Gadag-Wadi, Chickballapur-Puttaparthi, Srinivasapura-Madanapalli and K.R. Nagar-Kushalnagar.
According to him, 14 projects were being taken up with the State government, for which Rs. 608.78 crore had been allocated this year.
Eight projects for a distance of 2,683 km and at a cost of Rs. 9,110 crore had been sent to the Planning Commission.
Bangalore-Chamarajanagar-Satyamangalam and Kadur-Chikmagalur-Sakleshpur projects had been approved for de-freezing in this year's budget. The work up to Chikmaglur would be complete in three months and connectivity provided in six months, he said.
