Hubli-Ankola line project may be dropped

Chennai/Dharwad: The much-awaited Rs 1,050 crore Hubli-Ankola broad gauge railway line project may be derailed.

All hopes of an early clearance by the Department of Environment and Forest for the project have been dashed for now with the Forest Department throwing a spanner in the works.

Even as the Central Empowerment Committee is yet to submit its report to the Supreme Court, the Karnataka forest department has recommended to the infrastructure development department that the proposal for the Kalaghatagi-Ankola line be dropped once for all.

The South Western Railway had proposed the Hubli-Ankola project in November, 2003, and had sought environmental clearance from the Centre. The Centre, in 2004 had rejected the proposal in view of the adverse observations made by the Forest Advisory Committee.

Subsequently, the Forest Advisory Committee sought a revised proposal for constructing the railway line from Hubli to Kalaghatagi as a contingency plan to ease traffic and ore pollution in Hubli city which also required the diversion of about five hectares of degraded forest land, in November 2004.

Even as the Central Empowerment Committee is examining the matter in its totality, state forest department principal secretary Abhijit Dasgupta has shot off a letter to the principal secretary, department of infrastructure development V P Baligar recommending that the Kalghatagi-Ankola rail line project be dropped.

The Central Empowerment Committee had in September 2006 asked the Railways to stop work on the 40-km Hubli-Kalaghatgi stretch even in the non-forest areas till the matter was examined in totality. Meanwhile, the railway ministry and the state government were told to revise the project proposal.

The revised proposal cut the amount of forest land required, from 965 hectares to 727 hectares but it still required the felling of 265,120 trees in the fragile ecosystem of Western Ghats. The proposed railway alignment fragmented the traditional elephant migratory corridor and catchments of the Kali, Bedthi and Gangavali rivers.

Dasagupta while making the recommendation to drop the project has observed: “It serves no useful purpose except to benefit the iron and manganese ore miner/traders/exporters as no passenger traffic is envisaged. The issue of global warming also needs to be borne in mind as the area lies in the evergreen and semi-evergreen forests.”

Taking serious exception to the recommendation, Dharwad North MP Prahlad Joshi who has been fighting to get the project implemented said the recommendation was totally unacceptable till the Central Empowerment Committee submitted its final report to the Supreme Court.

The BJP leaders would shortly meet Governor Rameshwar Thakur and urge him not to forward any such recommendation to the Centre.

It may be recalled here that the state government had under the special purpose vehicle-Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Development Enterprise (KRIDE)-committed to share the financial burden for the projects equally with the Railways.

KRIDE was floated to develop railway infrastructure in the state by taking up new projects like Hubli-Ankola, Bangalore-Mangalore link projects and broad gauging of Gadag-Bagalkot-Bijapur-Hotagi and some other meter gauge lines.

Under the President’s Rule the state government seems to be shying away from its commitment. The state government has not been able to meet its financial commitment resulting in inordinate delay in the implementation of these projects.

By recommending to drop the Hubli-Ankola Railway line project “once and for all” in the absence of an elected government, the bureaucracy appears to be reneging on its financial commitment, Joshi said.