After double tracking work in Goa’s Chandor was stalled due to citizen protests, the South Western Railways (SWR) has said that civic society had “misconstrued” the tracks as being coal tracks.
The SWR is double tracking a 342-km “critical” railway link between Karnataka’s Hospet and Goa’s Vasco. While only the last 10-km stretch in Karnataka is left to be completed, and is expected to be completed by March 2021, Railways are finding it tough to work on the 90-km stretch in Goa.
Railways state they are “not acquiring any new land” and are only improving connectivity through the Western Ghats, saying that trains are using only “1/10th of the actual capacity” and are unable to develop “amenities including new stations and better passenger shelters”. ‘
