Finance ministry clears suburban rail for traffic-choked Bengaluru, MP says land survey on

The 148.17-km project now awaits approval from Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. It is hoped the rail network will rid Bengaluru of its infamous traffic snarls.

File photo of a heavy traffic jam in Bengaluru | ANI

New Delhi: In what could be a big relief from the infamous traffic snarls plaguing Bengaluru, the Union finance ministry has finally cleared the city’s long pending suburban rail project, ThePrint has learnt.

Sources at the railway ministry said approval for the Rs 18,600-crore (approximately) project came Thursday and a report has been sent to the Railway Board.

The project will now need a nod from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which is headed by the Prime Minister, for its final clearance, an official said, requesting anonymity.

The state and central governments will share 40 per cent (20 per cent each) of the total cost of the 148.17-km project, while the rest of the funding will come through institutional loans, the official added.

Confirming the approval, BJP MP from Karnataka P.C. Mohan told ThePrint that hiring for the project has already begun and the state government is conducting land survey.

“The approval from the finance ministry came earlier this week, and now an approval is awaited from the CCEA,” he said. “The project will take approximately five years for completion, and I am confident that it will be completed on time.”

Four proposed corridors 

Bengaluru will become the latest city to have a suburban rail network after Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Secunderabad.

The project has been a long-standing demand from various citizens’ groups in the traffic-choked city. Residents have persistently asked the state government to start the rail project to ease traffic snarls in the country’s IT capital.

A recent survey found four Indian cities among the 10 in the world with most traffic congestion. According to the TomTom Traffic Index 2019, Bengaluru topped the global list.

The Railway Board’s approval for the project came last year following several citizen-led campaigns.

The Bengaluru suburban rail proposal, which was formally announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this year while presenting the Budget, includes four proposed corridors — KSR Bangalore city to Devanahalli, Chikkabanavara to Yeshwantpur to Byappanahalli, Heelalige to Yelahanka to Rajanukunte and Kengeri to KSR Bangalore to Whitefield. There are 53 proposed stations in the project.