The double line electrified railway track between Mysuru and Bengaluru was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.
Mr. Modi also flagged off the inaugural run of the new Palace Queen Humsafar Express train linking Mysuru with Udaipur, which was hauled by a WAP 7 class electric locomotive. The luxury weekly service will provide a link to two major tourist destinations and is expected to boost tourism.
With this, the entire 139-km stretch between the two cities has been electrified and has paved the way for the introduction of electric train service not only between Mysuru and Bengaluru, but provides a thorough electric train service up to Chennai.
ADVERTISEMENT
Giving major impetus to the railway infrastructure in the region, the electrification was taken up concurrently with the broad gauge doubling project, which was completed a few years ago in a phase-wise manner.
The doubling project was approved in 2007-08 between Ramanagaram and Mysuru and the electrification was also approved for the entire stretch. It was originally estimated to cost nearly ₹878 crore, but the revised estimation has pegged the cost of the entire project (doubling and electrification) at ₹990 crore of which the cost of electrification is around ₹220 crore.
While the State government chipped in with 2/3rd of the track doubling cost, the cost sharing for electrification was 50:50, according to a senior official, who pointed out that the Karnataka government had contributed almost ₹581 crore to the entire project.
ADVERTISEMENT
Executed by CORE, Allahabad, the project was completed two months ago and the Commissioner of Rail Safety finished the mandatory inspection in December.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Ministers D.V Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar, Ministers R.V. Deshpande and H.C. Mahadevappa were present.