Bengaluru: It's still red light for suburban rail

Bengaluru: Bengaluru may have to wait a little longer for a suburban rail as although Union Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu had promised to lay the foundation stone for it by the end of May, there is no sign of this happening any time soon.
 And  DULT, which was given the responsibility of  forming a Special Purpose Vehicle for the project by  a state government notification, has not done much about it either.

Railway activists believe a dispute over cost-sharing of the project between the state and railways is holding it up. " The  state government has refused to split the cost in a 80:20 ratio as it will have to shell out a lot more money this way. It instead wants a 50:50 cost sharing but is avoiding discussing this with the railways," claims rail activist, Sanjeev Dyamnavar, regretting that  Chief Minister Siddarmaiah has still not held a review meeting with MPs and MLAs to discuss his misgivings about the cost sharing formula of the Centre. 

 Member of Parliament, PC Mohan, who wrote to Mr Siddaramiah on May 30 protesting the state’s lack of interest in the project, claims the government is being lethargic in its approach to it.  “With the pan India Suburban Rail policy being released in April, they need to form an SPV soon for getting a bank loan for the project, " he notes.

In his view the state’s concerns are not entirely wrong as Mr Suresh Prabhu has gone back on his promise to allocate 20 per cent of the funds required for the suburban rail in the budget. 

“ Mr. Prabhu merely signed the MoU but did not give any clearance or instructions to the railway officials on how to go about implementing the project," he observes, pointing out that the railways too have not given their consent as yet to the state for procurement of  rakes.