State to acquire land, share cost for Hejjala - Chamarajnagar line: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday informed Parliament that the railways had submitted a proposal to the state government to acquire 1,753 acres of land to build a 135-km railway line between Hejjala and Chamarajnagar.

Though initially the railways planned to build a line from Bengaluru to Satyamangala, it did not get approval from the central empowered committee on environment and forests, since the route passes through forests.

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The state government has promised to give free land and share 50 per cent of the cost of the project, the minister said, replying to a question by Mandya MP Sumalatha.

Replying to a question by Gulbarga MP Umesh Jadhav, he said the government had received proposals for starting new trains to Bengaluru and other places from Kalaburagi.

However, there is no immediate plan for operating a regular service between KSR Bengaluru and Kalaburagi.