New Delhi:  The Union Government will not take up the controversial Railway Line between Mysuru and Madikeri via Kushalnagar as the line will not fetch any revenues to the Railways. This was disclosed in the Parliament yesterday by Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain.

Apart from being unremunerative, the project has no operational and financial justification for the Railways to take up the project, the Minister stated.  

The Minister provided a written reply to an unstarred question raised by Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha and Udupi-Chikkmagalur MP Shobha Karandlaje who had sought a reply from the Railway Minister about the present status on the proposed Railway Line connecting Mysuru to Kushalnagar.

Tabling his reply before the House, Minister Rajen Gohain said, “the survey for Mysuru (Belagola)-Kushalnagar-Madikeri (119.10 km) new line was completed during 2018-19. The total cost of the proposed new line was assessed at Rs. 2,607.53 crore with rate of return of (minus) 5.65 percent. The survey report has been examined and this proposal could not be taken forward due to unremunerative nature and no operational and financial justification of the proposed new line.”

The Mysuru-Madikeri Railway line was listed in the Railway Budget 2016-17 under “new line” category.

An estimated cost of Rs. 667 crore and the techno-economic survey was completed. But the project — originally mooted over 100 years ago — did not gain further traction. Now with the Minister stating that the Railway line is unviable, the project seems to be scrapped.

Sources said that the Railways had conducted a detailed survey for the Mysuru-Kushalnagar line but the survey for the Kushalnagar-Madikeri section could not be conducted as the Forest Department did not give permission for the same.

Even Union Statistics and Planning Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda had written to the State seeking permission for the project inside the forest. However, the project did not move further following severe opposition from the Green groups.

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