Suburban trains can double only if Centre, state governments agree

BENGALURU: Suburban train services in Bengaluru can be doubled from the current 105 to 225 with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore and in a matter of three years, says a recent feasibility report. However, although it is more than a year since the Ministry of Railways and the state government agreed to implement the project, not a brick has moved. Reason: no consensus over sharing finances.

Before forming a special purpose vehicle (SPV), a prerequisite for the project, the state government wrote to the railway ministry on three subjects: shareholding pattern, budgetary allocation (equity) as well as borrowings and clarity on the already-sanctioned railway projects.

The railway ministry replied to the state urban development department saying that the Centre agreed to form an SPV by modifying the existing shareholding pattern of the Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation.


There is, however, no consensus over two other issues pertaining to finances. Karnataka proposed that the state and the railways share 40% equity (20% each) in the form of budgetary allocation and raise the remaining 60% through borrowings. “We are waiting for a response from the Railway Board,” Darpan Jain, commissioner at the directorate of urban land transport (DULT), told ET. The other point of contention is about funding the projects that are already announced in the Union Budget 2018-19. “The Centre had sanctioned two doubling work in the last budget: Baiyappanahalli-Hosur and Yeshwantpur-Channasandra. We have requested them to fund the project but the Railway Board wants the state government to share 50% of the cost,” Jain said.

PC Mohan, who represents Bengaluru Central in Parliament, said he would ensure the issue is sorted out shortly. “I will meet the railway minister and fast-track the process of setting up the SPV,” he said. Sanjeev Dyamannavar, a commuter rail activist, said decisionmakers should come out of their outdated style of working and move things faster. “If the preliminary process itself takes more than a year, when will the city get a full-fledged suburban rail network,” he asked.