Railway divisional headquarters for Kalaburagi: Kharge upset over delay
The former Union Railway Minister and leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge has expressed displeasure over the delay in the work on the railway divisional headquarters here.
Presiding over a quarterly vigilance committee review meeting here on Tuesday, he said that it was unfortunate that even the Rs. 5 crore allocated for the construction of the office on the land allocated by the State government near the railway station had not been utilised by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL)....
more... Senior officials of the Central Railway, who were present at the meeting, said the Railway Board was yet to give clearance to the construction of buildings to house the headquarters.
A proposal had been submitted to the board for early clearance.
The railway officials told Mr. Kharge that the work on constructing the first pit-line at the Kalaburagi Railway Station was in the advanced stage of completion and the work on another pit-line attached to the Kalaburagi-Bidar line had been kept in abeyance due to the delay in completing the Kalaburagi-Hotgi doubling and electrification work. They said that the contract for the doubling and electrification work between Kalaburagi and Hotgi Railway Stations had been rescinded due to the delay in executing the Rs. 450-crore Asian Development Bank (ADB)-assisted project. RVNL, which was executing the project, would re-tender the work now with the approval of the ADB.
Talks
Mr. Kharge said he would write to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu about the delay in establishing the railway division and the delay in executing the doubling and electrification of the Kalaburagi-Hotgi section of Central Railway.
Later, he spoke to managing director of RVNL Satish Agnihotri and divisional railway manager of Central Railways John Thomas and asked them to expedite the ongoing the railway projects in Kalaburagi district.
Mr. Kharge said that the railways had also sanctioned rail over bridges near ACC factory at Wadi and near Balram Chowk both in Chitapur taluk, and near FCI godown on the outskirts of Kalaburagi City.
Railway officials said the work on the railway over bridge near Mother Theresa School in Kalaburagi city had been hampered due to the non-release of its share by the State government.
He asked Municipal Administration Minister Qamarul Islam and Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil and MLAs to take up the issue with the government.
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