Konkan rail’s memorial to Ramakrishna Hegde

Konkan rail’s memorial to Ramakrishna Hegde

Mangalore Today News Network

Nov 16, 2015: A release from KRCL - Konkan Railway Corpn Ltd,  is all set to immortalise the former Karnataka Chief Minister, Ramakrishna Hegde; Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu will lay the foundation stone for an institute of skill development named after the former CM, in Udupi on Nov 16.

The Ramakrishna Hegde Institute of Skill Development, to come up near Udupi Railway Station on the Konkan Railway network, would enhance the skills of thousands of railway employees across the country through different courses and methods.

The late CM Hegde, along with George Fernandes and Madhu Dandavate, played a key role in establishing rail connectivity to the Konkan region encompassing coasts of Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra, by establishing Konkan Railway.

Hegde, as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, gave impetus to the formation of KRCL as a special-purpose vehicle.

History :  A railway line was constructed between Diva in Mumbai and Apta in Raigad district in 1966.

During the tenure of the late Dandavate as the Minister for Railways, the line was extended up to Roha in 1986, mainly to serve the industries located in the area. However, there remained a missing link between Roha and Mangaluru.

In October 1984, the Ministry of Railways decided to take a final location engineering-cum-traffic survey for the west coastal portion from Mangaluru to Madgaon — a total distance of 325 km.  The railways decided to extend the scope of the survey in March 1985 to include the omitted length of the west coast line extending from Madgaon to Roha.  The Southern Railway was entrusted with this final location survey.

It submitted the project report for this route to the Railway Ministry in 1988 and named it as Konkan Railway after the coastline along which it runs.  Following the late Hegde’s boost, a separate corporation to execute the project was conceived and thus born KRCL on July 19, 1990 with E. Sreedharan as the first Chairman and Managing Director.  He extended all support to KRCL from the Planning Commission. The mandate was to build the network on build, operate and transfer model wherein KRCL had to raise own funds.

Hegde’s role  : Taking into account the fact that Hegde was a great son of the Konkan soil, and that it was under his dynamic leadership and guidance that the Konkan Railway route was built in a short span of time, the Konkan Railway, as a goodwill gesture, has proposed to establish the skilld evelopment institute in his name.

Recently, Rail Minister  Prabhu had laid the foundation stone for George Fernandes Institute of Tunnel Technology in Panaji, Goa.