Will Mangalore merge with ’KonkanRail Corp Ltd’ instead of S.Rly?

Will Mangalore merge with ’KonkanRail Corp Ltd’ instead of S.Rly?

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, June 20, 2014: With  D V Sadananda Gowda now the Union Railway Minister, the expectations of  a separate railway division for Mangalore is sky high. Speculations in the area indicate, the move is towards merging the port city with Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL).

The financial angle and the concept of  restoring the original to KRCL, is the driving force behind the move. matters right now are confined to the top level, and others have no real idea about what is going on, except a feeling that Mangalore division may be in the sights.

Reliable sources confide that option of Mangalore becoming a part of KRCL has got an edge over it coming under the Hubli head quartered South Western Railways (SWR). The formation of Gulbarga division, announced by previous Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge in the last budget presented this year has precluded the SWR’s claim over Mangalore.

  Attaching two divisions to a particular zone in a row, is unknown according to Railway norms. Moreover, creation of a new division will cause an investment of somewhere near Rs 500 crore which Railway can hardly sustain in the current situation. This adds to the advantage of KRCL, a public limited company registered under the companies’ act, which came into existence in 1990. As KRCL is an autonomous company, Indian Railways has no claim or liabilities over it until the corporation is transferred to it according to the BOT (build-operate-transfer) system. So, merging of Mangalore to KRCL is not a liability to Indian Railways.

KRCL’s rooted to  Mangalore :  KRCL was formed way back in 1990, its border was seen from Roha in Maharastra upto Nethravati Cabin in Karnataka (Mangalore). The same was first proposed by the first Chairman and MD of KRCL, E Shreedaran. It was envisaged with the freight through Panambur in mind making-up the huge investment in the construction of an engineering marvel, called KRCL.

But it was alleged that Southern Railway lobbied hard to get the Panambur region and won in restricting the KRCL’s border at Thokur. The current railway bypass line from Nethravati cabin to Mangalore Junction was built by KRCL ‘in its own land’ but was forced to let to SR for the alleged snatching of Panambur region.

Division VS Region: The KRCL, headquartered in Navi Mumbai has no division system as such, but consists of two regions—Ratnagiri and Karwar. If Mangalore, the terminal station is attached to it as new region, then there is a possibility of Karwar losing its regional status. The 760 km route is a non-electrified single broad guage.

KRCL map projection:   The railway map of KRCL, indicates its boundary starts from Roha and ends up at Mangalore, with total of 760 kms. Meaning the boundary will be at Nethravathi cabin 760 km mark, which is currently under the jurisdiction of Southern Railways. If KRCL’s jurisdiction ends at Thokur, it is a distance of 738.44 km only from Roha. The official boundary of KRCL is 760 km so to what point is that really?

The states of Karnataka, Kerala, Maharastra and Goa are the major partners in the corporation besides Union ministry of railways. The Railway ministry has the major share of 51 per cent, followed by Maharastra-22 per cent, Karnataka-15 per cent and Kerala and Goa, six per cent each.  According to the 2012-13 annual report of KRCL, the corporation has debt liabilities of Rs 1,667 crore as on 2013 March 31. Besides, the redemption and interest liabilities sums up to more than Rs 500 crores. So what will be prudent?