BENGALURU: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has asked the Karnataka Government to deposit its outstanding share of Rs 847.02 crore for projects implemented on a cost-sharing basis by both. The state government has also been asked to acquire land required for three ongoing projects.
In a letter to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Goyal said the execution of cost sharing projects for Karnataka was getting affected because the State was not depositing its share. An amount of Rs 847.02 crore was outstanding, it said.
The letter dated May 3 said, "It is informed that Railways had deposited Rs 80.63 crore acquisition of 608.21 hectares of land for 3 railway projects but land is yet to be handed over by the State government. Non acquisition of land is resulting in delay in execution of projects beside blockage of Railway’s capital with State government, which otherwise could have been utilized for execution of projects in the State”.
The letter listed a break-up of the various projects for which the State is yet to pay up its share: Bidar-Gulbarga New Line: Rs 63.71 cr; Rayadurga-Tumukuru via Kalyanadurga Line Rs 67.51 cr; Munirabad-Raichur New Line: Rs 107.89 cr; Kadur-Chikmagalur New Line Rs 82.03 cr; Hejjala to Chamrajanagar New Line: 0.38 cr; Shivamogga-Harihar New Line Rs 0.57 cr, Whitefield-Kolar New Line 0.18 cr; Gadag-Wadi New Line: 38.28 cr; Kothur-Harihar New Line Rs 67.64 cr; Hassan-Bengaluru via Shravanabelegola New Line: Rs 225.38 cr and Ramanagaram-Mysuru Doubling Rs 193.45 crore.
A total of 606.21 hectares of land needs to be acquired by the South Western Railway for three projects for which the State had deposited Rs 80.63 cr. These were the projects – Hopet-Hubballi-Londa-Tinaighat-Vasco-da Gama Doubling project (0.45 acres needed); Rayanadurga-Tumukuru New Line via Kalyanadurga (306.48 hectares) and Ginigeri-Raichur new Line (Rs 448.28 cr).