When the Patch Doubling & Electrification of Konkan Railway will start? As KRCL is already overloaded, all the corresponding state governments of Karnataka, Goa&Maharashtra should take initiative for the doubling & KRCL in co-ordination/co-operation with the Union Government, with the shares & active participation from Kerala & Gujarat state governments who are getting direct benefits from KRCL. As the Railway Minister hails from Maharashtra, the importance of doubling & electrification is known to him. All these 5 states should jointly pressurize the Central Government to get these two high priority plans done with 50:50 cost sharing on war-footing, as it is highly expensive construction on such an extremely anti-railway land-sliding terrain. If the works start now, it will take a minimum of 10 years to finish, as the terrain is so harsh and anti-railway, even on these planned 300km long patch doubling sections. By that time,...
more... the requirement may be to double the whole KRCL route. As the electrification will save approximately Rs. 100 crores for KRCL every year as compared with fuel cost, around Rs. 600 crores are expected to electrify the whole 741km long single line. KRCL had plans to implement the electrification on BOT basis, around 3-4 years back itself. A whopping Rs. 15000 crores are required for the patch-doubling works, for which KRCL has approached Japanese funding agency(JICA) and World Bank, in addition to the respective state governments. Mangalore/Thokur-Udupi(42km), Roha-Veer(47km), etc were listed as the patch doubling sections, out of planned patch doubling of 300km long plain lands on KRCL. As Konkan Railway is also planning for doubling and electrification, public bonds are likely to be issued for these two purposes. As doubling and electrification will end at Thokur, the whole Konkan Railway line from Thokur to Roha will be without these two features. As Panevel-Roha section and Shoranur-Mangalore-Thokur section is almost doubled&electrified, only Konkan line is not having doubled line. As the number of trains are increasing every year and the line is exceeding its capacity, doubling shall be initiated as soon as possible. During the construction of KR, it was designed to have double track, as the train services will be leas& t affecting the existing line and ease of construction of second line. As the Railway Budget is just one month ahead, the required steps shall be taken by the respective state governments and MPs for this highly important national line.
