The Indian Railways has ordered a probe into the alignment of the railway line between Panna and Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh state, calling it “dangerous, as it has six sharp turns,” officials familiar with the matter said on Thursday, adding that the new route was being planned.
According to officials, the investigation will identify individuals responsible for a “significant” environmental loss – 54,578 trees were cut down to begin construction of the proposed railway – and planning errors that occurred before the project received forest approval.
The railway line between Khajuraho and Panna costs approx $2,100 crore was sanctioned in 2021, and in 2025, the Railways said construction would start soon. In the first phase, a 16 km long road was to be built from Khajuraho to Surajpura. An official statement issued in 2025 said that 47 bridges and six stations are scheduled to be built on the 72-kilometre line.
According to a senior railway official aware of the developments, the alignment was canceled in 2025, just before construction of the railway line began, following a complaint. The official said the complaint is about dangerous alignment that violates railway rules.
Following the ministry’s directives on Thursday, the Western Central Railway (WCR) has constituted a three-member technical committee to figure out how to approve the “hazardous” alignment in 2021.
“Safety concerns over six sharp curves exceeding 40 mm on the Lalitpur-Singrauli line are the reason for the change,” a senior railway official said. For the railway line speed to be less than 80 km/h, the curve must not exceed 40 mm.
The ministry obtained a forest permit in 2019 to convert 314 hectares of forest for the project, and trees have been cut along the line until 2025, officials said.
WCR public relations officer Harshit Shrivastava said a three-member technical committee has been formed to investigate who designed the original track, why the defects remained unnoticed in 2021, and why the alignment was changed after crores of rupees had already been spent and thousands of trees felled.
The Attorney General said: “The line maps were evaluated after some officers raised questions about the line’s design. The ministry decided to change the route. But the technical committee will discover the real flaws.”
The new track, which is being finalized, is expected to be one kilometer away from the canceled alignment, officials said. For the new alignment, about 230 hectares of forest land will be needed, and preliminary estimates indicate that about 50,000 additional trees will have to be cut.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnau has ordered a re-evaluation of the railway line, the WRC said in a statement. “Experts will study all possible options to ensure minimum environmental impact and preserve the largest possible number of trees,” the statement said, quoting the Railways Minister.
The statement said that the minister ordered the planting of trees to double the number of affected people before the monsoon season.
Environmental activist Ajay Dubey said: “The railway line has already disturbed the flora and fauna in the buffer zone of the Panna Tiger Reserve. Now they want to change it again. Cutting down more than 100,000 trees for a railway project is a criminal offence. The officers who designed this road must be held accountable.”
