industry

Centre committed to implement suburban rail for Bengaluru, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman


BENGALURU: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday clarified that the Rs 1 crore allocation made in the Union Budget for the 148-km suburban rail project for Bengaluru “was only a token provision” as part of “budgeting technicality,” and the government was fully committed to fund the project.

The Cabinet has cleared the proposal before it made its way into the budget text, the Minister told reporters in response to a volley of questions on the subject. Out of the Rs 18,600 crore project cost, the Centre and Karnataka will share 20% each, while 60% of the project financing will come from multilateral lending institutions, she said.

“The concurrence of the Finance Ministry is with the Railway Ministry,” she said. “It is a commitment made to the Lok Sabha. The earlier budgets did not make commitments,” she said in response to a question. It is only a matter of time before the project moves as there are no other formalities left, she said.

Senior Finance Ministry officials, present at the press conference, said Karnataka’s suburban railway project was also being implemented in the same way as the Centre implements any other joint venture railway project with any State. When the special purpose vehicle (SPV) implementing the suburban railway project borrows from overseas institutions like ADB or JICA, the Centre will provide sovereign guarantee for the loan. the special purpose vehicle (SPV) implementing the project has to repay the loan. The arrangement is same as with the Bengaluru metro project, the officials clarified.

It could be recalled that in the 2018-19 budget, the Centre had announced to take up the project at a cost of Rs 17,000 crore. In 2019 July, Sitharaman in her maiden budget opened a separate head, earmarking a token allocation of Rs 1 crore. The 148-km suburban rail project with at least 55 stations is expected to provide railway connection to areas like Outer Ring Road and Electronic City where large number of IT companies are located.





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