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The rivalry between the Congress-ruled Karnataka government and the BJP-ruled Union government went up a notch on Sunday, August 10, when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took potshots at the Union government over the expenditure on the Bengaluru Metro in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Yellow Line, he said that the state government had borne 87.37% of the expenditure while the Union government had contributed only 12.63% of the funds. The 19 km stretch of the Yellow Line of Metro Phase 2 from RV Road (Ragigudda) to Bommansandra has 16 stations and has been built at a cost of Rs 7,160 crore.
Modi was in Bengaluru on Sunday to inaugurate the Yellow Line of Namma Metro and flag off the Bengaluru-Belagavi Vande Bharat at KSR Railway Station. He also laid the foundation for the Namma Metro Phase 3 at the IIITB Auditorium in Electronics City.
The PM not only flagged off the Yellow Line at RV Road Metro Station, he also paid for a ticket and rode the metro along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, and other ministers of the state and Union government.
Following the metro ride, during the event at the Electronics City, the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister addressed the gathering, which included the likes of Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murthy and her husband and Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy and Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.
Modi, who also laid the foundation stone for Bangalore Metro’s Phase 3 — the Orange Line—said that once operational, the Orange Line, in conjunction with the Yellow Line, will facilitate daily travel for 25 lakh passengers. This, he said, would empower Bengaluru’s transport system and elevate it to new heights. He also said that Bangalore Metro had introduced a new model for public infrastructure development in the country.
He also thanked companies such as Infosys Foundation, Biocon and Delta Electronics for partially funding the construction of some metro stations under CSR spending.
Three metro stations on the Yellow Line also include the names of these companies: Infosys Konappana Agrahara, Biocon Hebbagodi, and Delta Electronics Bommasandra.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, however, took the opportunity to highlight the unequal financial burdens borne by the state and the Union government on the construction cost of the metro.
“The metro project was started in 2005, during Manmohan Singh’s tenure (as PM). The agreement was that the state and Union governments would invest in a 50:50 ratio. However, funding other than the equity put in by the Union government has to be repaid as loans with interest by the state government and the Metro Corporation. Due to this, 87.37% of the financial burden is on the states, and I would like to bring this to the attention of the Prime Minister,” Siddaramaiah said.
He also said that the state government that Bengaluru Metro now had 96.10 km of track length and the state had spent its share of Rs 25,387 crore on phases 1, 2, 2A, 2B and 3. Along with this, it had contributed Rs 3,987 towards repayment of loans. and
“So far, Rs 59,1389 crore has been spent on the metro construction. 87.37% of this burden falls on the state government. The Union government has provided only Rs 7,468.86 or 12.63%,” Siddaramaiah said.
Siddaramaiah also said that the Yellow Line would help mitigate the city’s traffic congestion by connecting big companies, prominent hospitals, IT and tech hubs, students, biotech hubs, and industrial areas. He said that daily ridership on the Yellow Line was expected to reach 3.5 lakh, taking the total ridership on the metro to 12.5 lakh per day.
Speaking to the media later, DK Shivakumar said that though the Union government had not paid much attention to Karnataka, the state had decided to invite him to inaugurate the Yellow Line to respect him. He also said that the state government had spent substantially on land acquisition and infrastructure development.
The BJP and Congress have locked horns over the Metro in recent months. The BJP has been criticising the delay in the completion of the Yellow Line and the recent hike in metro fares. BJP leaders such as Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya have claimed that the Union government was to be credited for the metro project.
The Congress shot back, pointing out that time and again that it is the state government which has borne the bulk of the expenditure on the metro. When the metro fares were hiked, Congress leaders had also pointed out that it was the Union government which had control over the fares and not the state government.