Bengaluru’s suburban rail gets just Rs 1 crore token amount in SW Railway budget

Officials say the budget allocated for the suburban railway project was only a token amount as the detailed project report (DPR) has not been cleared yet.
Bengaluru’s suburban rail gets just Rs 1 crore token amount in SW Railway budget
Bengaluru’s suburban rail gets just Rs 1 crore token amount in SW Railway budget
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For the long-awaited suburban rail project in Bengaluru, the South Western Railways has allocated Rs 1 crore for the financial year 2020-21. The South Western Railways has released the Pink Book, a document that outlines the budgetary allocations for the upcoming year and stated that the money, according to the document furnished by the railways, will be used for “construction of elevated/at-grade corridors for augmentation of the line capacities.” 

No other work such as laying lines or construction of the 56 stations across the city will be carried out yet, according to the Pink Book. This comes after Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa announced that the suburban rail project would be completed in three years time. However, it is yet to be seen how that will be possible without the necessary budgetary allocations.

In the union budget for the financial year 2018-19, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced Rs 17,000 crore for the project. In the recently presented Union Budget 2020-21 too, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the suburban rail project will cost of Rs 18,600 crore. 

South Western Railways PRO E Vijaya told TOI that the budget allocated for the suburban railways was only a token amount as the detailed project report (DPR) has not been cleared yet.

The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs is yet to give their nod to the project, even as the railways’ board cleared the project three months ago in November, the Deccan Herald reported. This delay in approving the project is despite having the same ruling party, BJP, heading the Centre, state and the BBMP.

However, Vijaya also noted that this railways budget could increase ‘in various stages of the budgetary review.’

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