Mysore/Mysuru: The proposed 87.2-km Mysuru-Belagola-Kushalnagar railway line project has been shelved. This was confirmed to Star of Mysore by Mudit Mittal, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of South Western Railway (SWR), Mysuru Division. “The railway line has been shelved by the Ministry of Railways due to low traffic potential and poor financial returns,” he said.

The project was sanctioned by the Ministry of Railways on Feb. 27, 2019, at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,854.62 crore. In the Union Budget 2022-23, the Centre had allocated Rs. 1,000 crore for the project.

In October 2020, the Chief Administrative Officer (Construction), SWR, had called for a final location survey for the new broad-gauge line between Mysuru (Belagola) and Kushalnagar.

Subsequently, in August 2021, SWR awarded the tender for the final location survey to a Bengaluru-based firm at a cost of Rs. 1.26 crore. Following this, land acquisition and rail alignment mapping surveys, along with the final land-levelling survey, were completed.

The proposed railway line was to originate from Belagola in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district and terminate at Koppa near Kushalnagar in Kodagu district. The alignment was planned to pass through Yelwal, Bilikere, Uddur, Hunsur, Sathegala, Periyapatna and Doddahonnur before reaching Koppa.

The project was originally conceived more than a century ago to extend the line up to Madikeri, but was shelved after an earlier Railway survey found the route to be financially unviable.

Although the project was later revived, it faced stiff opposition from environmentalists, who argued that the rail line would obstruct the natural flow of the River Cauvery.