Shimoga, August 3;Union Minister of Railways Mallikarjun Kharge has said that non-availability of land has turned out to be a major hurdle in executing several key railway projects in Karnataka.
“The work on Shimoga-Harihar and Talguppa-Honnavar routes cannot be taken up due no non-availability of land. The State government has agreed to share 50 per cent of the project cost and provide lands to Railways for the project, free of cost. But farmers are not keen on parting with their land,” Kharge said here on Saturday.
He was speaking after flagging off Talguppa-Shimoga and Mysore-Shimoga town passenger trains.
Kharge said Railways was incurring loss for the past several years due to its “people-friendly” policies. The Railways suffered a loss of Rs 25,000 crore last year. However, the loss has been made good by hiking service tax on transportation of goods, he said.
