Bengaluru Central MP and Bharatiya Janata Party leader PC Mohan on Monday, November 4, said the union cabinet has given clearance to Bengaluru's suburban rail project.
The announcement was made after the Extended Railway Board meeting with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi. Mohan thanked the union cabinet for approving the project. He had met both the ministers on October 31 to accelerate the formation of the long-pending special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the suburban rail project worth Rs 17,000 crore.
Karnataka government had proposed to implement the project through Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Ltd (K-RIDE) for which an SPV should be formed.
The state government headed by the BJP had submitted a revised detailed project report (DPR) over the suburban rail covering a distance of about 150 km that proposes around 55-odd suburban railway stations. The revised DPR was prepared by Rail India Technical and Economic Service Ltd (RITES) following direction from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
In an earlier meeting, PC Mohan told reporters that the suburban rail project has been pending from the past two years and the DPR sent by the previous JD(S)-Congress coalition government was flawed. He had sought early approval of the suburban rail project for Bengaluru.
The BJP MP had also alleged that the previous coalition government had proposed not to link suburban railway stations with metro stations in its DPR. The previous government claimed that it would affect the revenue of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL).
