Railway land for Bengaluru suburban rail project will be made available in a few days: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

The Minister said there was a need to build the suburban rail project on the lines of Mumbai suburban rail which carries over 85 lakh passengers with a totally modern version

Railway land required for the Bengaluru suburban rail project would be soon handed over to KRIDE — Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited — the agency implementing the 148 km network, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said here on December 18, Sunday.

Replying to a question on the delay in transferring railway land for the project during an interaction organised by the BJP, the Minister said, “I personally reviewed the Bengaluru suburban rail project three times in the last one year. There are significant modifications in designs brought in to make the project successful. The land allocation for the first leg of the project is already in process. Within a few days, land allocations will happen. We have already asked KRIDE to go ahead with the project.”

The Minister said there was a need to build the suburban rail project on the lines of Mumbai suburban rail which carries over 85 lakh passengers with a totally modern version.

“The cost of the metro is huge which is about ₹250 crore to ₹300 crore per km. We have taken the challenge of building a network which is less than ₹100 crore per km. I am very excited to share that our engineers have come up with innovative designs. We are confident of delivering a world-class suburban rail system in Bengaluru.”

In the first phase of the project, the KRIDE has issued a work order for implementing Baiyappanahalli to Chikkabanvara, a 25 km line. Though preliminary work has begun, the project going at a fast pace allegedly due to South Western Railway buying time to transfer the land.

Replying to a question on running Vande Bharat train services between Chennai-Mysuru via Bengaluru at a speed similar to that of the Shatabdi Express, the Minister said, “Tracks were laid for design speed of 70 to 80 kmph. Over the last 8 years, a significant number of tracks were upgraded to run train over 100 to 110 kmph. Now, measures have been taken to increase the speed to 130 kmph. The next stage will be to increase the speed to 160 kmph. It is a very complex process as there is a need to remove curves, change the gradients, etc.”

When asked about the Centre’s stand on online ‘game of chance’ which is facing vehement opposition from various State governments cutting across party lines, the Minister said, “We had IT Ministers representing States across the country, every States shown serious concern about the fact that online gaming is having on the society, especially addictive part which is going against the social norms. We created a very serious consultation process, we should be able to come up with a proper policy very soon for regulation of these online games,” the Minister said.