Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge will lay the foundation stone for rail line doubling work between Hospet and Tinaighat, part of the Bellary-Hospet-Vasco-da-Gama line doubling project, at Londa in Belgaum district on Saturday.
A release from South Western Railway said that the Hospet-Hubli-Londa-Tinaighat (245 km) line was converted from metregauge to broadgauge in 1997 and the section has got saturated with traffic. The line passes through Bellary, Koppal, Gadag, Dharwad, Belgaum and Uttara Kannada districts of Karnataka, and primarily caters to transportation of iron ore from Bellary region to Goa’s port town of Vasco-da-Gama where the Marmagao Port is situated.
Line doubling has also become necessary to transport imported coal from Marmagao Port to steel industries and the upcoming thermal power plant at Jewargi in Gulbarga district and for the thermal power plants in Bellary.
