Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution & New and Renewable Energy, with V. Somanna, Minister of State for Railways and Jal Shakti, Government of India, and Santosh Lad, Minister for Labour, Government of Karnataka, conducted a review meeting at South Western Railway Headquarters to assess the status of railway projects in the Hubballi-Dharwad region. Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, Member of Parliament, Uttara Kannada, and MLAs Mahesh Tenginkai, Arvind Bellad, and M. R. Patil were also present during the meeting.
The major projects reviewed during the meeting included the Dharwad–Belagavi New Line, Hubballi–Ankola New Line, Hubballi–Sirsi–Talguppa New Line, construction of Road Over Bridges (ROBs) and Road Under Bridges (RUBs), and the development of major stations under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS), including enhancements to passenger amenities. Pralhad Joshi demanded to increase the frequency of train services between Hubballi and Varanasi from weekly to bi-weekly, introduce new train services connecting Hubballi with Ajmer, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, and launch a local MEMU (Mainline Electric Multiple Unit) train connecting the Hubballi region with stations such as Annigeri, Kundagol, Saunshi, Gudigeri, and Dharwad, and Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, demanded to introduce train service between Dandeli and Dharwad.
All the projects were discussed in detail with their preset status regarding land acquisition, DPR, Tender progress etc and MoSR has advised all the Railway Officials to complete the projects on priority basis with in stipulated time. He also instructed the Railway Officials to clear the bottle-necks during the execution of projects.
General Manager, Arvind Srivastava, AGM K. S. Jain, DRM Hubballi Harsh Khare and Principal Head of Departments SWR, Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad Smt. Divya Prabhu, and KIADB officials and other senior railway officials were present during this occasion.
