Waiting for land details for suburban rail: Centre

The Centre is studying the long-pending suburban railway project for Bengaluru and will approve it after receiving details of land from the state government, Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Responding during the Question Hour, Angadi said the Rs 17,000-crore project had dragged on because of “non-cooperation” from the previous Congress-JD(S) state government.

“Now, we are discussing the issue with the state government and officials... As soon as we get details about the land and funds from the state government, we will take it up,” he added. The B S Yediyurappa government has submitted a revised detailed project report (DPR) that proposes 57 suburban railway stations covering a distance of about 150 km.

The state government has proposed to execute the work through the Rail lnfrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Ltd and a special purpose vehicle had to be formed for implementing the project.

To another question on the development of the railways, the minister said the government had lined up an investment of over Rs 1.5 lakh crore for the next 10 years. Institutional finance has been arranged and the work is progressing well wherever the states have provided the required land for the railway projects.

On the payment of interest on borrowings, Angadi said the allocation for railways had been far higher than that during the previous government. The revenues will improve and there will not be any shortage of funds for the development of the railways, he added.