Expedite suburban rail project: minister to officials

Union Minister of State for Railways Suresh C Angadi on Friday instructed the railway officials to expedite the proposed Bengaluru suburban railway project.

Angadi, who held a meeting with Railway Board officials on pending projects in Karnataka here, directed them to take up the matter with the state government and get early clearances of pending issues.

Despite Railway Minister Piyush Goyal agreeing to execute the project at the earliest during his visit to Bengaluru early this year, it got delayed following the Prime Minister Office asking the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-RIDE) to revise the detailed project report (DPR).

The Centre had asked the K-RIDE to revise the DPR considering factors like reducing the number of stations in the core city area to ensure suburban rail network does not overlap with the Namma Metro network.

In the meeting, which Bengaluru Central MP P C Mohan also attended, the minister said he would also take up the matter with the state government on expediting the DPR.

The minister directed the officials to complete the ongoing doubling works of the Pune- Miraj- Londa and Hubli -Davangere-Tumkur railway line by 2020.

On long pending Hubbali- Ankola railway line, the minister asked the officials to take up the matter with Karnataka for getting early forest and other clearances.