Sources in the Railway Vikas Nigam said that the Talguppa-Honnavar link has been abandoned and that the line which would have connected Talguppa and Honnavar, eastern interior Karnataka with the western coast, will never be laid.
Banning the export of iron ore has far-reaching consequences. Sources in the Railway Vikas Nigam said that the Talguppa-Honnavar link has been abandoned and that the line which would have connected Talguppa and Honnavar, eastern interior Karnataka with the western coast, will never be laid.
The Shimoga-Honnavar line will go no further than Talguppa, sources said. This was a project for which Union railway minister Mamata Bannerjee had made provisions in the railway budget of 2010-2011.
The decision to shelve this important link was taken in the wake of the ban on export of iron ore. The Nigam explained to the Railway Board that without iron ore export this line may not be financially viable.
Sources have confirmed that the Nigam has intimated the government about the ‘impossibility’ of the line. It has stated that the line can only be laid if the state government provides 50% of the income earned by the government through this railway line.
The 82 km line between Talguppa and Honnavar is not expected to have much passenger traffic. If the line is laid without ore traffic, and also without other significant goods traffic, it could be a financial disaster, sources said.
The state government has not cleared the ban on ore export despite the Supreme Court clearing it in March. Estimates prepared by the Nigam showed that laying the line would cost approximately `1,920 crore. The railway line would also pass through the thick Sharavati Ghat forests. To prevent massive destruction of forest land, a 20 km-long tunnel would need to be laid, which could push costs further up. The plan was to take up the project on the public-private partnership model.
The Talguppa-Shimoga line was laid after the Union environment and ecology ministry declined permission to lay the Hubli-Ankola line. The Shimoga-Talguppa metre gauge has been converted into broad gauge. If the Talguppa-Honnavar line is laid, eastern Karnataka could be connected through the Konkan Railway at Honnavar to cities like Mumbai, Panaji and destinations in coastal Karnataka and Kerala.
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