DPR to be prepared for Jolarpet-Krishnagiri-Hosur rail line

The Railway Board has sanctioned Rs 2.45 crore for the preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) for the Jolarpet Krishnagiri-Hosur railway line. The report will be completed in three to four months, according to Krishnagiri MP A. Chellakumar. Dr Chellakumar said this was the first time in the last 70 years that the Railway Board had approved the project that was dismissed as unviable. With this, the Jolarpet-Krishnagiri-Hosur railway line project has been rendered a “live project”, Dr Chellakumar said. Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has also promised budgetary allocation for the project in the current fiscal itself, Dr Chellakumar said. Detailing the process leading up to the approval by the Railway Board, Dr Chellakumar said the railway line that existed until the 1940s was dismantled. For the last 70 years, multiple surveys were carried out with every survey declaring the project’s Rate of Return (ROR) as negative and hence unviable.