Saying that the high-speed rail corridor proposed in the State will not be viable if it is stretched up to Kasaragod, former Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Chairman E. Sreedharan sought the support of Karnataka to stretch it up to Mangaluru to make the high-cost project feasible.
Online petition
In an e-mail sent in response to an online petition by a Facebook group, Kasaragodinoridam, Mr. Sreedharan made it clear that stretching the Rs.120-lakh crore project to Kasaragod would require an additional Rs.14,400 crore.
The demand to stretch the rail corridor up to Kasaragod would be economically unviable unless the required infrastructure was put in place by Karnataka to extend it to Mangaluru, which had a host of high quality educational and medical institutions besides a well-equipped harbour, airport and key industrial units, Mr. Sreedharan said. Mr. Sreedharan said: “the studies carried out by the DMRC have revealed that there will be no significant increase in the ridership if the line is extended from Kannur to Kasaragod, a distance of 80 km. The cost involved would be disproportionate to the benefits. However, the Karnataka government had not shown any interest in extending this line up to Mangaluru.”
E. Sreedharan
