Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday urged the Centre to bear the entire cost of railway projects to be implemented in Karnataka in the future and expedite the pending projects.
At the first meeting of the governing council of NITI Aayog in New Delhi, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said that currently the State and the Centre were sharing the cost of the projects equally. “The State has agreed to contribute almost Rs. 10,000 crore in addition to providing the required land,” he said.
The rail network in the State was poor compared to many others and the railway coverage in Karnataka was only 16.9 km per 1,000 sq km, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
“I have requested the Centre to share our burden on the ongoing projects and increase its share to at least two-thirds of the project cost, including the land cost. As regards new projects, the Ministry of Railways should take them up from their own resources. The Centre must step in to play a much larger role in development of railway connectivity by investing more resources,” the Chief Minister said.
Suburban railway
Mr. Siddaramaiah said the State had requested the Centre to give concurrence for implementing the Bengaluru suburban rail project to provide sustainable railway connectivity between Bengaluru and other cities/towns in the hinterland. But the request was pending with it. However, the Union government had invested on suburban rail projects in Mumbai and Hyderabad, he added.
Mr Siddaramaiah said the preparation of the 2014–15 State Budget had received a serious setback owing to the Centre’s delay to take a decision on the 14th Finance Commission report, which was submitted in October 2014.
