TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Konkan Railway Corporation has announced three additional railway stations on the Goa sector and is exploring the possibility of obtaining loan from the World Bank or JICA to fund the double tracking and electrification of the Konkan Railway route.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has also allayed apprehensions on the safety of the Konkan railway track, saying the safety audit has given a clean chit for the tracks.
The new stations proposed on the Goa sector are at Nuvem, Sarzora and Mayem.
On the question of double tracking and electrification of the route, KRC Chairman cum Managing Director Dr B P Tayal said the KRC is also exploring the other possibility of approaching the Indian Railways to fund the two projects since the Indian Railways and LIC have signed a MoU on raising funds worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore. “The double tracking of the Konkan Railway will require funds to the tune of Rs 10,500 crore, while it is estimated that around Rs 720 crore will be required to take up the electrification work”, Tayal told the media in the presence of the Union Railway Minister at Margao.
Tayal further said that the KR will spend another Rs 200 crore to tackle all slopes along the KR route, adding that the speed of the trains will be increased to 130 kmph upon the completion of the work.
On the Sky Bus project, Tayal said the same was abandoned by the KR since a huge amount of Rs 100 crore was required to fine tune the technology and that the Indian Railways had decided to go for technologies such as mono rail or metro.
The Union Railway Minister said that the Indian Railways has set up a Task Force headed by Dr Saraswat to prepare a road map to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ concept in the Indian railways.
