FKCCI wants rly projects finished early in state

The Federation of Karna-taka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) has sought an early completion of various railway projects pending for many years in Karnataka. The chamber has also urged the Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee to adopt a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative to complete the projects in the interest of industrial development of the state.

In a pre-budget memorandum submitted, the FKCCI has urged the railway minister to accord top priority to speed up pending projects and frame a clear PPP policy. Revenue sharing could be adopted based on the extent of use of facility put up by PPP developers and based on its tariff, J Crasta, president, FKCCI said.

Pointing out that distribution of rail length per 1,000 sq km in Karnataka is only 16 compared to 27.2 in Gujarat, 27 in Kerala, 31.8 in Tamil Nadu and 17.8 in Andhra Pradesh, the chamber has urged the Centre to complete some of the pending projects at the earliest.

The FKCCI has sought immediate completion of track doubling of Ramanagaram-Mysore. The state government has volunteered to share the cost of the project, earlier considered to be non-cost sharing, Crasta said.

The chamber has also urged giving priority to complete ongoing projects like the Hassan-Bangalore line, which will reduce the travel time between two stations, Kadur-Chikmagalur-Sakleshpur, Arsikere-Birur track doubling work, Kolar-Chikkaballapur gauge conversion projects.

It has also sought an early forest clearance for 167-km Hubli-Ankola project and take up new lines between Talaguppa-Honnavar, Kudichi-Bagalkot, Bijapur-Shahabad, Dharwad-Belgaum and Gulbarga-Bidar.

Mega logistics hubs should be set up at Bangalore, Hubli, Bellary in the first phase and build dedicated freight corridors on Bangalore-Chennai, Bangalore-Hubli-Belgaum-Mumbai, Bangalore-Hassan-Mangalore and Hubli-Hassan-Mangalore lines.

FKCCI has also demanded the upgradation of existing stations at Belgaum, Gulbarga, Bellary, Mangalore and Raichur into ‘Adarsha stations’ and conversion of ‘Multi facility centre’ to ‘world class stations’ at Hubli and Mysore.

“Railway network is the major engine of growth of our economy and hence, we lay great emphasis on the ministry for the inclusion of these project proposals and to provide adequate funds for the ongoing projects in Karnataka for early completion, in the railway budget 2010-11,” Crasta said.