BENGALURU: Three decades after the project was originally proposed, the Union Cabinet has on Wednesday given the green signal for the Rs 15,767 crore dedicated Suburban Rail Project for the city, said South Western Railway sources.
However, no formal announcement has been made in this connection either in the Cabinet briefing in New Delhi by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal or by railway officials in Karnataka bearing in mind the model code of conduct in place here for the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar Assembly bypolls.
The project has been okayed by the Cabinet but no official announcement can be made in line with the Election Commission directive, stated multiple railway sources.
An ambitious deadline of six years has been proposed for completion of the project with the KSR Bengaluru City to KIA airport to be taken up on priority basis as it would provide airport connectivity, a source said.
Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Development Enterprises (K-RIDE), a joint venture between the Ministry of Railways and the State government will be implementing the project.
The cost of the 148.17-km long project was reduced by nearly Rs 3,000 crore in February 2020 from its originally proposed cost of Rs 18,621 crore with Rs 2,854 crore earmarked for coaches set to be implemented through the PPP model, said a senior railway source. A total of 306 AC coaches will be built in this model with the coaches leased to the private partner for a 30-year period, the profit margin would be impacted marginally.
A State government official said, “The Rs 15,767 crore proposed is inclusive of taxes and duties, land cost, interest during construction and cost escalation.”
The Government of Karnataka, Ministry of Railways, Niti Aayog, and the Ministry of Finance had okayed it earlier with approval from the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs headed by the Prime Minister pending for the last three months.
The project was mooted 36 years ago but the implementation of it was taken up seriously only the last decade with pressure from citizen activists playing a crucial role in putting pressure on the both the Centre and the State.
A serious difference between the State and the Railways over numerous routes, the funding pattern, compensation involved in the acquistion of railway land, the need to avoid crisscrossing with future phases of Namma Metro and the project repeatedly returned to K-RIDE with conditions by the Centre were among the reasons that delayed the project.
The cost of a ticket on a suburban train would range from a minimum of Rs 13 to a maximum of Rs 100 depending on the distance travelled.
Railway officials familiar with such mega projects said that by an optimistic account it would take at least a decade to complete it fully though individual corridors can be readied earlier.
K-RIDE has made a small beginning though. In February this year called for tenders in connection with two separate works totalling to nearly Rs 1.73 crore in anticipation that the project would be cleared. One is to carry out a survey in and around Bengaluru for the over 600 acres of land estimated for putting in place the project. The other is to survey and identify the utilities that lie along the route of the proposed project.