Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar has urged the Union government to take up all pending projects on priority in the Railway Budget.
In a letter addressed to Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Saturday, he said the Karnataka government has a cost-sharing agreement with the Ministry of Railways. Accordingly, the State government has already conveyed its willingness to provide land free of cost and share the project cost on a 50:50 basis.
The Gadag-Wadi railway line was announced in the 2012-13 railway Budget. In addition to that the Gadag- Haveri, Srinivasapura- Madanapalli, K R Nagar- Kushalnagar, Kadri- Puttaparthy, Chikabbalpur- Puttaparthy, Dharwad- Belgaum lines are also pending for clearance by the Planning commission.
In respect of the frozen section of Chikmagalur- Sakleshpur railway line, the state government has requested the Railway Board for early confirmation.
The Bijapur- Shahbad, Talguppa- Honnavar and Hubli- Ankola projects have been proposed for sanction on PPP model.
The CM requested him to sanction new railway line projects and transfer the Mangalore zone from Southern Railway to South Western Railway and Gulbarga zone from South Central Railway to South Western Railway.