The South Western Railway (SWR) will miss the March 2016 deadline given by the then Minister for Railways D.V. Sadananda Gowda to complete the Bengaluru-Hassan new railway line. The construction wing of South Western Railway has now stumbled upon a bottleneck, which can be termed the final one, in the form of non-availability of 14 acres of land to lay 4 km line between Solur and Tippasandra in Ramanagaram district.
Several hurdles in the past, including the Kunigal Stud Farm issue and construction of bridges on National Highways, had delayed the project. Otherwise, the new line is almost ready, highly placed sources in the South Western Railway told The Hindu .
Instead of the district administration, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) is proceeding with the acquisition of 14 acres of land and South Western Railway is hopeful of a resolution in a month. On getting land, the line should physically be ready by June, the sources said.
However, South Western Railway would take more time to make the track operational as additional infrastructure has to be created.
Works on signalling, telecommunication, station facilities, could take about another five months and the line is likely to be commissioned by December this year, the sources said.
Parts of the new line have been commissioned and regular train service is run between Bengaluru and Nelamangala. The Hassan line branches out of the Bengaluru-Tumakuru line at Chikkabanavara towards Nelamangala. Similarly, a passenger train runs on the section between Hassan and Shravanabelagola, which was commissioned in 2006 during the Mahamastakabhisheka of Bahubali.
T.P. Lokesh, a Bengaluru resident, cast doubts on South Western Railway’s claims. He told The Hindu that tenders for signalling were called for recently and it would take time to finalise them.
South Western Railway hopeful of commissioning the new line by December