SHIVAMOGGA: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in reply to an unstarred question from Davanagere MP Dr Prabha Mallikarjun in Lok Sabha, said that the railway projects in the state are delayed due to the delay in land acquisition by the state government.
He stated that of the total of 8,969 hectares of land required for the projects, only 5,657 hectares (63%) have been acquired. A total of 3,312 hectares are yet to be acquired for these projects.
Dr Prabha asked the minister whether the government has any proposal to carry out a survey for the railway line between Harihara - Honnali - Shivamogga (79 km). The minister replied that the project has been pending due to the state government's "inability to share the cost and to provide land free of cost". The minister also listed out other pending projects delayed due to the delay in land acquisition.
He said that the Harihara - Honnali - Shivamogga project has been sanctioned on a 50:50 cost sharing basis, and land to be provided free of cost by the state government for Rs 832 crore.
The Railways had requested the state government to acquire the entire land of 488 hectares for the project. However, the state government has shown their "inability to share the cost and to provide land free of cost. The project has been held up on this account," the minister said.
Vaishnaw blamed the state government for the delay in the execution of these projects due to the slow pace of land acquisition.
"Despite the fact that the Centre has been progressively allocating record funds for railway projects, many projects in Karnataka are still delayed due to the slow pace of land acquisition," he said and listed out the delayed projects.
He said that while 226 hectares are acquired for the Shivamogga-Rannebennur new line (96 km), 333 hectares are pending. The minister said that not a single hectare of land has been acquired for the Belagavi - Dharwad new line (73 km), which requires 531 hectares, the Whitefield-Kolar new line (53 km), which requires 337 hectares and the Hassan-Belur new line (27 km), which requires 206 hectares.
The minister said that the completion of railway projects depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by state government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project sites, number of working months in a year for particular project site etc.
“All these factors affect the completion time and cost of the projects,” he said.