The derailment of the BJP government in the State following the electoral debacle in the Assembly elections has put a question mark on a slew of pending railway projects, which were to be taken up on a cost-sharing basis between the Centre and the State.
And at a time when the Congress has to mop up additional revenue to meet its guarantee scheme, which has been pegged at ₹65,000 crore annually, it is unlikely that the government would be interested in funding projects of long-gestation period whose return on investments is also questionable. As on date, there are more than 20 sanctioned projects on paper or work is in various stages of progress and some of them have a 50% cost-sharing rider built into it.
In case of the Shivamoggga-Shikaripur-Ranebennur line which is one such cost-sharing project, the railways awarded engineering procurement and construction tender in February this year for the first phase of the works to lay 46-km new line at a cost of nearly ₹455 crore based on the State guarantee.
