BENGALURU: Industries Minister R V Deshpande on Tuesday urged Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to file a joint appeal before the Supreme Court after the apex court appointed-Central Empowered Committee (CEC) put brakes on the proposed Hubbali-Ankola railway line. Expressing regret, he said the appeal should highlight the project’s contribution to the economy.
In a letter written to Prabhu, a copy of which was released to media here on Tuesday, Deshapande said that the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone for the project after taking note of its economic importance.
“Work on a 40-km stretch from Hubballi to Kalghatgi has been completed by spending over Rs 117 crore,” he stated in the letter. The CEC had earlier said no to the project saying that it could cause damage to the ecology of the Western Ghats.
“The main grouse of the committee was that the project would cause ecological damage to the forests in the region ... this can be mitigated by adopting state-of-the-art technology in executing the project ... the forest land required for the project has been reduced from 965 hectares to 667 hectares...,” he added. Refusing to react over the World Bank’s assessment on ease of doing business that had ranked the state ninth, he said, “I will comment only after studying the report ...”