Team Herald
VASCO: Around 34 structures will be affected once the railway authorities take up the long-pending work of doubling the railway line from Mormugao port to Hospet, Karnataka.
According to information, the Union Ministry of Shipping had directed all major ports, including Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to provide efficient rail evacuation systems, thereby enhancing their handling capacity and efficiency.
Accordingly, the MPT requested the Railway Ministry to double the railway lines from Vasco to Londa, Karnataka. As the rail route falls within the jurisdiction of South Western Railways (SWR), officials prepared plans to complete the doubling of railway line till MPT before 2018 to facilitate easy evacuation of cargo from MPT.
On Saturday, a joint inspection was held by SWR and State Government officials to identify the structures that would be affected by the doubling work and areas that need to be cleared of encroachments.
“Today, we went around the railway line route to survey all the structures that are lying close to the railway line in Mormugao. The exercise was done to check how much area the railway officials had to acquire to put a new line parallel to the existing one. Besides that, we also identified around 30 to 34 structures that would be partly affected as the same are located close to the railway line in Mormugao,” informed a senior official who was part of the survey team. He also disclosed that the structures are in Dabolim, New Vaddem and Shantinagar, Vasco.
