more-inRaising the hopes of those campaigning for the 90-km Kanhangad-Kaniyooru rail link, which is expected to reduced travel time between north Kerala and Bengaluru, Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan has promised to draw the State government’s attention to the need to realise the project. Not on joint venture listThe State had already earmarked ₹20 crore in the 2016 budget for the project and engineering and passenger traffic survey for it had been completed. The rail link will connect north Kerala to Kaniyooru station situated on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru rail line that passes through Sakaleshpur and Shravanabelagola to reach Bengaluru in around eight hours. If link became a reality, trains from north Kerala could be operated through the route skipping the circuitous Mangaluru, a samiti office-bearer told The Hindu. The project assumes significance in the light of the proposed Thalassery-Mysuru rail line failing to get engineering feasibility due to the high construction cost and since the line passes through an ecologically fragile route.

Source: The Hindu May 07, 2018 18:01 UTC