Fast-track suburban rail project

A long-pending dream of Bengaluru may finally come true with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to lay the foundation stone for the Rs 15,767 crore suburban rail project on June 20. Being implemented by K-Ride, a joint venture between the central and state governments, the project will comprise four corridors covering nearly 150 km around Bengaluru. The project aims to integrate various modes of transport, including bus, metro and intercity rail to offer seamless mobility in a city that suffers from disparate and disconnected transport systems. Though former CM B S Yediyurappa had announced in February 2020 that the project would be completed in three years, the government has now set a new deadline of six years, perhaps taking into account the long history of delays. The project was first conceived in 1983 but was stuck on the drawing board for decades with the routes being reworked several times. Since then, there have been four railway ministers hailing from Karnataka — George Fernandes, Jaffer Sharief, Mallikarjun Kharge and D V Sadananda Gowda — but not much progress was made. The project looked set to take some shape for the first time in 2016 when former CM Siddaramaiah allotted Rs 100 crore in his budget and announced the setting up of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for it. But the Centre accorded its formal approval for the project only in 2021. The 2022-23 Union budget allotted Rs 850 crore for the project.

Though Bengaluru is touted as one of the fast-growing cities in the world, infrastructure has woefully fallen short of requirements mainly due to lack of foresight and implementation delays. A mass rapid transit system was proposed in 1977, but after much delay, a 6-km stretch of Namma Metro was inaugurated only in 2011. Now, a decade later, it connects many parts of the city but is still a work in progress. The Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor, which was planned in 1995, has not taken off, except for the Ring Road portion connecting Electronics City to Tumkur Road. The Peripheral Ring Road, which was conceived over 15 years ago at about Rs 3,000 crore, continues to hang fire and is now estimated to cost over Rs 21,000 crore. The new and ‘ultramodern’ M Visvesvaraya railway terminal at Baiyappanahalli, which was inaugurated this week, took a long time to be completed. Even now, it has poor connectivity.

The undue delay in the implementation of infrastructure projects has cost Bengaluru dearly. Governments and other agencies should make it a point to complete projects in time to avoid cost escalation and to benefit most from them.