Karnataka - Bijapur   

Bijapur-Bagalkot line likely to be delayed

By Suresh Bhat

BIJAPUR, FEB. 20. The Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, had announced in the last Railway Budget that a 100-km broadgauge line between Bijapur and Bagalkot will be ready before March 31. But a look at the progress of work shows that it may take longer.

Leave alone completing the line till Bagalkot, the line will not be through even up to Telagi by that deadline.

Although gauge conversion work such as laying of sleepers and rails are almost over till Telagi, 50 km. from here, the line cannot be commissioned as the construction of a new bridge across the Don river is incomplete.

According to sources in the South-Western Railway, it will take at least three months to complete. With only a few days left for the Railway Budget, the Bijapur Broadgauge Horata Samiti has become active again. It has decided to pressure Mr. Prasad to allocate more funds for the project. A delegation from the samiti is likely to meet the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, in this regard in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Agreement

According to sources in the South-Western Railway, much cannot be expected from the Indian Railways, which has a cost-sharing agreement with the State Government.

The Railways has spent its share on the work. The State Government has to release Rs. 61 crores. Till this is done, the samiti cannot bring pressure on Railways.

Mr. Dharam Singh agreed to release Rs. 30 crores "immediately" during his meeting with the legislators from the Belgaum Division in Bangalore in the first week of this month.

If the State Government releases Rs. 30 crores immediately as assured, the gauge conversion line can be through till Bagalkot latest by October as all the civil works such as cross drain structures, and widening of earthen embankment are over.

Originally it was a metregauge line between Hutagi (Solapur) and Gadag. The conversion work, which began in 1993, was over till Bijapur in 1998. However, the work on the 194-km Bijapur-Gadag section was not taken up. The project was speeded up when the Bijapur MP, Basanagouda R. Patil Yatnal, was made the Union Minister of State for Railways in September 2003.

It is a Rs. 300-crore project, and the Railways has spent Rs. 200 crores. However, sources say, conversion work can be completed up to Gadag with Rs. 80 crores.

The work on the bridge across the Malaprabha near Holealur in Gadag district is in full swing and it will be ready in one year. If the State releases its due in time, the Hutagi (Solapur)-Gadag line will be ready by then, the sources said.

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Bijapur-Bagalkot line likely to be delayed

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