BENGALURU: The Railway Board has turned down the state government’s request to lay a new railway line between Hiriyur and Challakere in Chitradurga district, owing to the upcoming Science City there. The project, which is 183 km long, has been dropped by the board as a feasibility study conducted by the South Western Railway Zone found it was not economically viable.
The issue was raised during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa at Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday in which top railway officials were present. The state reiterated the need to have a separate railway line to the upcoming Science City, nearly 300 km from Bengaluru, that will house branches of Indian Institute of Science, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation and Defence Research and Development Organisation.
The New Indian Express has a copy of the letter sent by Additional Chief Secretary, Infrastructure Development department, on May 13 this year to the SWR General Manager stressing on the need for such a line.
Chief Administrative Officer, Constructions, K C Swami said, “We have done a feasibility study of it (reconnaissance survey). The Rate of Return on the project, which will cost Rs 1,975.74 crore, was found to be in the negative. For every Rs 100 spent by the railways in running trains along the route, the operational loss would come to Rs 15.71. This will cause a huge loss for us and hence we will not go ahead with the project due to operational reasons.”
Though the state government usually provides land free of cost in case of infrastructure rail projects as well as supports the construction cost, the daily operational cost becomes the responsibility of the railways. “It is precisely for this reason that eailways is now focussing on doubling projects and is not keen on building new lines,” he said.