The environment and forests ministry has decided to review the revised proposal submitted by the Railways for the Hubli-Ankola broad gauge rail line project. The decision has given the jinxed project a fresh lease of life.
The revised proposal submitted by the railway ministry has reduced the forest land required by it for the project in the fragile ecosystem of Western Ghats.
The Rs 1,050-crore project is designed to connect North Karnataka hinterland with the coastal region for access to the Karwar port. Work on the project was stalled after it was denied environmental clearance in 2004.
Dharwad MP Prahlad Joshi who has taken up the issue with the Centre said the decision to take a relook at the proposal was a welcome step and hoped the inspection to yield favourable results for Karnataka. The revised proposal has cut the requirement of forest land from 965 hectares to 727 hectares. But it requires the felling of 265,120 trees in the fragile ecosystem of Western Ghats as the proposed railway alignment fragmented the traditional elephant migration corridor and catchments of the Kali, Bedthi and Gangavali rivers.
The Hubli-Ankola rail line project, considered crucial for economic development of the region, was taken up in 2003. It is a 50:50 joint venture between the railway ministry and Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Development Enterprise (KRIDE), a special-purpose vehicle created for expansion of the rail network in the state.
The South Western Railway had begun laying the track in the non-forest area — from Hubli to Kalghatgi — pending clearance from the environment department, which was denied in June 2004 following adverse remarks of the forest advisory committee.
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Even as the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court was still examining the matter in its totality, the state forest department developed cold feet. In March 2008, it recommended to the government that the Kalghatgi-Ankola portion of the line “be dropped once for all” as it will serve no purpose.
However, senior SWR officials maintain that the project was still viable. “The revised alignment takes care of the environmental concerns as we have introduced elevated rail tracks across the traditional elephant migration corridors and at spots near the watering holes of wild animals in the Western Ghats section of the line,” an official said.
The Central Empowered Committee had advised the railway ministry in September 2006 to stop work on the 40-km Hubli-Kalghatgi stretch even in the non-forest areas till the matter was examined in its entirety. Meanwhile, the railway ministry and the state government were asked to revise the project proposal.