K'taka ready to provide 100 acres to Railways

The Karnataka government has agreed to hand over 100 acres of land near Rayapur between Dharwad and Hubli to the Indian Railways for setting up the goods shed.

Chairing a meeting of senior officials at the Hubli-Dharwad Urban Development Authority here on Wednesday, minister for municipal administration S R Morey said, presently the land is under the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) and the government would pay the KIADB Rs 5 crore at the rate of Rs 5 lakh per acre. The matter would be placed before the cabinet at its next meeting for its approval.

Morey expressed confidence that the cabinet's approval would be obtained and the land would be handed over to the railways within a month.

The Railways plan to shift the Hubli good shed near Navalur railway station provided the state government gave the land. South western railway divisional engineer S Basha informed that the SWR had prepared a plan to upgrade Hubli railway station at a cost of Rs 15 crore. This would be implemented after shifting the good shed from Hubli to Navalur.

KIADB managing director G S Narayan Swamy, SW Railway assistant divisional manager S S Joshi, Dharwad deputy commissioner M S Srikar and HDMC commissioner P Manivannan were present at the meeting.

Narayan Swamy said the work on upgrading Hubli airport at a cost of Rs 2 crore would commence after the master plan was approved. He said the KIADB had already received the necessary funds for the work.

He said the work on providing Malaprabha water to Belur industrial area would be completed in December and water would be supplied to the area from January. "This will enable the Tatas to set up their proposed industry in the area besides attracting more units" he added.