Final report to be submitted to South Western Railway by November end

Kushalnagar: The survey work for the 87.2-km Mysuru-Belagola-Kushalnagar Railway line began a month ago and as per the field officers, half the survey has been completed. Survey teams have reached Kampalapura near Periyapatna and there is still halfway to go for the task to be accomplished.

In October 2020, the Chief Administrative Officer, Construction, South Western Railway (SWR), called for conducting a final location survey for the new broad-gauge line between Mysuru (Belagola) and Kushalnagar. The railway line was sanctioned on 27.2.2019 by the Ministry of Railways, for Rs. 1,854.62 crore. In the Union Budget 2022-2023, the Centre granted Rs. 1,000 crore for the project.

In August 2021, the SWR awarded the tender for the final location survey to RSPS Sipra Systems Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based company, at a cost of Rs. 1.26 crore.

The Railway line will begin from Belagola in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district and end at Koppa near Kushalnagar in Kodagu. It will pass through Yelwal, Bilikere, Uddur, Hunsur, Sathegala, Periyapatna and Doddahonnur to reach Koppa village.

Final location survey

Speaking to Star of Mysore during the survey, Ramaiah Easwaran from Sipra said that the land acquisition survey and rail track mapping survey have been completed for the entire route and at present, teams are undertaking the final land levelling survey. All these surveys are an integral part of the final location survey, which is the first important step that is carried out before any railway project is initiated.

“We conduct multidisciplinary investigations like topographical, gradient, geotechnical and hydrological. The consolidated data is used to finalise the route alignment and deviations. The exact land usage is identified that takes into account the complete land patterns including height, depth, undulation, levelling patterns, rivers, vegetation and streams, etc,” he said. “We use ultra-modern instruments such as Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), Total Station etc. and LiDAR (laser imaging, detection, and ranging) technique to conduct the survey,” he added.

Once the survey is completed, the properties of the ground are used to design major and minor bridges, stations, culverts, slope stability of cuts, the stability of tracks and ground improvements.

Hitches for a smooth survey

The survey from Belagola to Kampalapura (about 45 km) was a smooth affair for the survey team as the land is plain without much vegetation or undulation. As the team neared Periyapatna, they have encountered vegetation and estates. “We are encountering heavy rains, vegetation, slushy land and such difficulties and as such, the survey work is moving at a snail’s pace. We will take one more month and submit a report to the SWR by the end of November,” Ramaiah Easwaran noted.

While one of the survey teams is doing the task near Kampalapura, the other is surveying the Periyapatna areas. The survey is being undertaken after measuring the Mean Sea Level and one reading is taken at an interval of 20 metres.

The project was originally mooted till Madikeri over 100 years ago and was shelved after a survey commissioned by the Railways deemed the route to be unprofitable. The project, however, was rejuvenated much to the chagrin of environmentalists who have opposed the project saying that the line will obstruct the natural flow of River Cauvery.

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha relentlessly followed up with the Ministry of Railways to get the project approved and moving and got it listed in the Pink Book 2018-2019. Pink Book is a document that catalogues all the transactions made and contains relevant information on the distribution of funds for future initiatives. The approval for the project was accorded when Piyush Goyal was the Railway Minister.