In what could be termed as a much awaited silver lining in cherishing the proposed Kanhangad-Kaniyooru rail link, that is envisaged to provide easiest rail access to Bengaluru from northern Kerala, the State has assured the Railways to shoulder the mandatory 50% cost of the project.
A decision to this effect was taken by the Chief Minister’s office after it sent a formal letter to the Railway Minister expressing the State’s inclination to provide the requisite cost for the approximate ₹1,200 crore, to be borne jointly by Kerala and Karnataka.
An intimation on the State’s willingness was conveyed by the office of the Chief Minister to P. Karunakaran, MP, the other day.
“I profusely thank Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for coming forward to cherish my dream and those of the north Kerala people besides those extending unflinching support in their bid to realise the pet project,” Mr. Karunakaran told The Hindu here on Wednesday.
The 90km odd rail link project, which had to be kept in cold storage for long even after carrying out both the feasibility and traffic surveys in the 44km long Kerala stretch from Kanhangad to border town of Panathur, had cast aspersion on the fate of the long-awaited project that passes through the socially and economically backward regions with many a people even expressing inclination to provide land for the project free of cost, he said.
Delegation to Karnataka
Mr. Karunakaran said that he would soon head a delegation to Karnataka to impress upon the need to complete the left over surveys along the Panathur and Kaniyooru route to take up the project works as early as possible.
The realisation of the project, in turn, would automatically provide much needed fillip for the all-round social and economic development of the relatively backward region.
The proposed line, if put into operational mode, in effect would reduce a net 50 km distance thus saving the passenger to skip the circuitous Mangaluru route.
While the rail distance from Kanhangad to Mangaluru is 70km it takes another 38km to reach Kaniyooru from Mangaluru and the proposed rail link project would also drastically reduce the running time helping the passengers reach Bengaluru in nine hours from Kanhangad in relation to the existing travel time of 13 hours by taking the Mangaluru-Shravanabelagola route.
In contrast, the present running time to Bengaluru via Mangaluru and Mysuru is 15 hours as the express trains are made to halt at Mangaluru station for around two hours to couple the rake coming from Karwar on the Konkan route.