Can Karnataka catch up in railway electrification?

A train rake ready to be hauled by an electric loco at Mangaluru Central Railway Station under the Palakkad division of Southern Railway, which is fully electrified.

The Railway Ministry faces a tough task if it is to fulfil Minister Piyush Goyal’s announcement on completely electrifying the 60,000-odd-km route of the rail network, at least in States such as Karnataka where the percentage of electrified routes is far below the national average.

While the national average was 45% as on March 31, the share in Karnataka was just 19.26% — that is, 632 km of the 3,281-km route was electrified. Only a few trunk lines, including Bengaluru-Dharmavaram, Bengaluru-Jolarpettai and the recently done Bengaluru-Mysuru line, are electrified, leaving behind another major trunk route — Bengaluru-Hubballi.

Karnataka, earlier part of Southern Railway, has historically lagged behind other States in terms of railway lines and electrification. Kerala and Tamil Nadu already have well-developed rail networks. In fact, Kerala tops in rail electrification with 83.54% coverage (873 km out of 1,045 km).

In Tamil Nadu, 45.96% of the 4,027-km route network is electrified, while in Andhra Pradesh it is 76.67% of the 3,703-km network. Telangana has 46.11% coverage (of 1,737 km) and Maharashtra has 49.05% coverage (of 5,000 km).

Five-year target

A.K. Gupta, General Manager of South Western Railway (SWR), said he was confident the Railways would complete all the sanctioned electrification projects within five years. SWR covers a major part of Karnataka.

Another 1,655 km should be the electrification map within the period at an estimated cost of ₹1,886.44 crore, he said. More or less all the main lines will then be covered, he said.

However, Lokesh, a railway enthusiast from Bengaluru, expressed doubt about the Railways’ commitment to complete the electrification process. For instance, though 456 km of the Chikkabanavara-Hubballi (part of Bengaluru-Hubballi) line electrification was included in the Railways’ Pink Book this fiscal, tenders have not been invited so far. The Pink Book is the yearly plan of the Railways tabled in Parliament.

Mr. Lokesh added that the Railways had anyway set apart just ₹2 lakh for the project this year. Similarly, just ₹2 lakh has been set apart for electrification of Chikkajajur-Ballari (184 km) and Gadag-Hotagi (284 km) as well, he said.

Ahead of Gujarat

The only solace is Karnataka is ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State Gujarat, where just 18.44% of the railway route is electrified.

Karnataka is ahead in terms of carrying capacity and convenience too. While all of the 3,281-km route in Karnataka is on broad gauge, of the 5,259 km of rail network in Gujarat, 1,193 km and 559 km are in meter and narrow gauge, respectively.