City suburban railway to get up to Rs1,350 cr

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Union budget has set aside ?450 crore for the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP). Moreover, the capital outlay of ?1,350 crore has been approved for the current financial year.

As much as ?900 crore has been approved, which would be raised through Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR). The ambitious estimated BSRP is estimated to cost ?15,767 crore and costs may even go higher. The equity of both governments is 40 per cent and the remainder is expected to be raised by way of external borrowing.

The budget has left the State government deflated because they had expected hufe allocations for a satellite town on the outskirts of Bengaluru modeled after the under-construction Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City near Gandhinagar. However, funding for the same was not forthcoming from the Central government.

Back in July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the sub-urban rail project and had assured the completion of the project in 40 months flat. This had triggered a sharp reaction from Opposition leaders, with JD(S) HD Kumaraswamy claiming that the Centre had delayed the project