The railway line from Mysuru to Madikeri in Kodagu, which has been mired in a maze of litigation and opposition over environmental issues, is set to make a notional progress as the authorities plan to complete the final location survey (FLS) by March 2021.
Clearance for survey
The project was originally proposed nearly 140 years ago (around 1880-81 as per the Mysore Gazetteer) but remained a non-starter until it received clearance for a survey in the 2016-17 Railway Budget.
But since then, there has been opposition against the project in Kodagu, which has seen landslips owing to excessive rains all of which have been attributed to linear projects and reduction in green cover.
At an e-press meet by the railway authorities on Wednesday, senior officials, including Divisional Railway Manager of Mysuru Railway Division Aparna Garg, said that the tender for FLS was being finalised and they hoped to complete the same by March 2021.
Originally, the proposal was to link Mysuru with Madikeri and put the district on the railway map of India.
But sources said consequent to opposition and environmental issues, the railway line may terminate at Kushalnagar and not go beyond it.
As per the plans, the first phase is the Mysuru-Kushalnagar stretch of 87.2 km and the cost was pegged at ₹1,854.62 crore in February 2019. The cost per km is expected to be ₹21.27 crore and will entail acquisition of 247.65 hectares of dry land and 275.15 hectares of wetland.
Col. C.P. Muthanna of Coorg Wildlife Society, who had approached the High Court opposing the project, said there was no objection to the survey but the court has stated that the concerns expressed by environmentalists have to be taken into consideration before the railways approve the detailed project report.
Activists, opposed to the project, say the alignment of the Mysuru-Kushalnagar section may not cut through forests but the railway line will disturb the elephant movement, escalate human-elephant conflict in the area which was already high.
