The progress of the Mysuru-Kushalnagar railway line came up for discussion at the Gati Shakti meeting here on Wednesday and it transpired that the report on the Final Location Survey would be submitted to the Railway Board during this month.
The DPR pertaining to the FLS will also be submitted to the Railway Board and once approved the ball will be in the State government’s court.
Mysuru MP Pratap Simha said that on the approval of the FSL and the DPR, the State government has to ‘’cooperate’’ alluding its role. As per the agreement that was signed before the project was approved and received budgetary allocation, the State government should acquire land free of cost and hand it over to the railways.
In addition, it has to meet 50% of the project cost which is currently pegged at nearly ₹1,800 crore but is expected to increase significantly given the delay in the works taking off. The railways will require about 558.28 hectares of land and this is will increase the State government’s burden on a project whose return on investments is in the negative.
Mr. Simha said that in case the State government agrees to fund 50% of the project cost and acquire land for the railways, then the return on investment will be positive and pegged it at around 4.4%. ‘But even if the returns are negative there is social obligation to meet which the State government should make allocations’’, he added.
The branch line will take off from Belagola and will terminate at Kushalnagar in Kodagu in the first phase. But there is opposition to the railway line project in Kodagu on environmental grounds and a case against is also pending in the High Court of Karnataka.
