A day after the State Cabinet meeting cleared the first phase of the suburban rail, the centre, in the Union Budget 2018, has given its green signal for the 160-km urban transportation network.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that a suburban rail network will come up at an estimated cost of ₹17,000 crore “to cater to the growth of the Bengaluru metropolis.” A day prior, the State Cabinet had approved investing 20% of the total project cost — ₹1,745 crore — over the next two years.
Sanjeev V. Dyamannavar, from the advocacy group Praja RAAG that has been pushing for suburban rail network for Bengaluru, said the announcement was a positive step towards the realisation of a long-pending demand.
“So far, we had heard announcements from the Railway Minister (Piyush Goyal). But, with the Finance Ministry giving approval for the project, it has cleared a big step. Now, we can hope that the state and railways will meet to thrash out the land hurdles for the execution of the project,” he said.
Similarly, Krishnaprasad S. from Karnataka Railway Vedike said though previous Budgets had contained vague references to suburban rail here, this Budget ends up specifying a few details. “We are hopeful that this year being election year, things will progress far more rapidly. It is a good beginning,” he said.
The project, to be partially elevated within core areas of the city, is expected to be implemented in a 50:50 ratio between the centre and state. “The Railways Pink Book, which may come in two days or so, will give more details as to how the finances will be. The Railways had stated that they hoped to monetise some of their land to fund their share,” said Mr. Dyamannavar.
Soon after the Budget, Union Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar tweeted: “My fight for #SubUrbanRail for Bengaluru these 21 years is closer to reality now. Thanks @narendramodi ji (Narendra Modi) @arunjaitley ji (Arun Jaitley) for this support.”
