Piyush Goyal meets Kumaraswamy, green lights Bengaluru suburban rail project

Bengaluru: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday met Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy to resolve the issues holding-up the Bengaluru suburban rail project and announced a slew of measures for putting the project back on track.

In a quick-planned meeting, the two leaders held discussions on various issues concerning the project and reached an agreement for resuming construction.

Speaking to media after the meeting, Goyal said, “Bengaluru suburban railway project had come to a stalemate since long. It was under discussion for about 20 years. I ordered a feasibility study and got its report in 30 days. We included this project in the budget of 2018-19, subject to the approval of the state government. The project will be costing nearly 20,000 crores.”

“Within a span of 16-17 months we converted a dream into a reality and for that, we even changed the suburban policy which had envisaged 80 per cent state government and 20 per cent central government share. We will change that to 50-50,” he added.

Elaborating further about the suburban rail project, Goyal also announced that thousand crores worth of land will be given to the city for a token amount.

“Railways have also agreed that Rs 6000 Crore worth of land will be given at only Re 1 token lease rent to Bengaluru for this project. We believe that Bangalore citizens have waited long enough and they should get this facility. We have resolved all the issues,” he added.

Kumaraswamy also expressed delight over the fast-tracking of the project and said, “All the things we settled down today. I am very grateful to him for taking speedy decision to put the foundation stone for the suburban railway.”

Kumaraswamy also extended an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundation of the suburban railway.