Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has expressed confidence of the ambitious suburban railway project for Bengaluru being included in the forthcoming Railway Budget.
Speaking to media persons at Suttur, about 20 km from the city, on Friday, Mr. Siddaramaiah said Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu had informed him that the suburban railway for Bengaluru was under the “active consideration” of the Centre.
Incidentally, Mr. Prabhu had spoken of the suburban railway at Invest-Karnataka 2016 on Thursday and announced that the Indian Railways proposed to enter into an agreement with the State for implementing the project as a joint venture. The Chief Minister had written to the Railway Minister in January seeking approval for the project to link Bengaluru with other towns in a radius of 50 km to 70 km.
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The letter had stated that Bengaluru was an economic hub accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the country’s software exports and had gained prominence for biotechnology and start-ups. Drawing attention to the traffic congestion in Bengaluru, Mr. Siddaramaiah had clearly stated that the problem could not be resolved unless there was an integrated multi-modal solution with the Bengaluru suburban rail project being one of the modes.
The Chief Minister said the government had taken initiatives for resolving traffic congestion in the city and this included construction of elevated corridors at an estimated cost of Rs. 20,000 crore. Satellite townships, ring road, and peripheral ring roads are being taken up and Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari had assured Rs. 100,000 crore for infrastructure development of Bengaluru, the Chief Minister said.
Expressing satisfaction over the just concluded Invest Karnataka meet, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the event had exceeded expectations and Rs. 3.08 lakh crore was expected by way of investment to the State. “Everybody had appreciated Karnataka’s potential and the State has been on the forefront of industrial growth and development since the days of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV. We have created a conducive atmosphere to foster the growth,” he added.
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In all, about 123 MoUs had been signed and the government would appoint a senior officer to follow up the proposals and MoUs to ensure project proposals are readied within three months, Mr. Siddaramaiah said. He was in Suttur to participate in the Suttur Jatra Mahotsava organised by the Suttur Mutt.
Siddaramaiah had written to the
Railway Minister in January seeking approval for the project to link
Bengaluru with other towns in
a radius of 50 km to 70 km