THE REFUSAL of the Union railway ministry and the Goa administration to participate in the Kamla Chowdhury committee, set up by the Union ministry of environment and forests to review the Konkan railway project, has rendered the work of the committee both difficult and meaningless.

The railway ministry, in fact, expects the broad gauge line linking Bombay with Goa, Mangalore and Cochin to be completed as scheduled by October 1994. The 760-km-long project will cost Rs 1,800 crore.