Ankola-Hubballi railway line approved

Bengaluru, 21 March 2020 [Fik/News Sources]: After being in limbo for decades the Ankola-Hubballi railway line has finally received clearance from the Karnataka State Wildlife Board on Friday, March 20.

In a meeting chaired by chief minister B S Yediyurappa and attended by industries minister Jagadish Shettar, labour minister Shivaram Hebbar and MLA R V Deshpande the board approved the project after insistence by the CM and the others on going ahead with the project at all costs.

However, a member of the board, Congress MLA Soumya Reddy, resigned in protest as the project will cause extensive ecological damage.

Ecological experts have been resisting the project as it will cause large tracts of the forest to be destroyed and the railway line will be passing through an elephant corridor and areas inhabited by near-extinct animals.