'Non-availability of land in Goa delaying double tracking'

'Non-availability of land in Goa delaying double tracking'

Suresh Angadi. (File Photo: IANS)

Panaji, Sep 5 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi on Wednesday warned that Goa may lose the railway track doubling project from Vasco da Gama in Goa to Castle Rock in Karnataka if the state government does not make land available to the Indian Railways.

"Double tracking has been delayed because of non-availability of land in Goa. I am requesting the Chief Minister of Goa to give us the land. Or we will have to take the project to another place," Angadi said at a Railways event in Margao town, 35 kms south of Panaji.

The Vasco da Gama to Castle Rock section spread over 100 kms connects Goa to Karnataka, and has been operating on a single track for nearly 100 years.

The opposition to the double tracking of the South Central Railway section in Goa comes from the BJP, especially the party's MLA from Cortalim Alina Saldanha, who claimed that double-tracking would destroy traditional homes and displace the local population.

--IANS

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