“Don’t Halt Shivamogga-Harihar Rail Line”
Shivamogga
The ambitious project to connect Malnad and Central Karnataka, the 78 km long railway line between Shivamogga-Harihar, is likely to be stopped due to lack of coordination between the Central and State governments.
Recently, during the Parliament session, responding to a question from Davanagere MP Dr Prabha Mallikarjun, Union Railway Minister Ashwin Vaishnav said that the state government has not given land acquisition for the project till now. It is right to inform that the said project has been stopped due to this reason.
However, if the said railway project was implemented, it would have witnessed many changes in the economic, industrial and communication system of Central Karnataka, and would have been very beneficial for the citizens. Moreover, it would have been helpful for the commercial hubs such as Honnali, Malebennur, Kalyan Karnataka, which were deprived of railway connectivity.
Mainly, it has been a decade and a half since the project was approved, but it has not been implemented till now. Due to the blatant negligence of the Central and State governments, an important project has fallen into disrepair.
When Yediyurappa was the Chief Minister in 2009-10, he had requested the Central Government to implement the Shivamogga-Harihar project. Mamata Banerjee, who was the Union Railway Minister at that time, had approved the project.
The Central and State Governments had decided to implement the project in a 50:50 ratio. A survey of the route construction was conducted in 2009-10. It was decided to build the line parallel to the existing Shivamogga-Harihar road.
The Central Railway Department had given permission for this. It had also announced initial funding for the construction of the line.
On the other hand, MP BY Raghavendra shifted his focus to the Shivamogga-Shikaripur-Ranebennur railway line. This completely ruined the Shivamogga-Harihar line.