Land transfer by Karnataka for Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project very slow: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

The Indian Railways has allocated land to K-RIDE Limited for the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project, but the transfer of land from the state government is ”very slow,” Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said in the Lok Sabha.

In a written reply on Wednesday, Vaishnaw said that at present, a part-time Managing Director appointed by Karnataka is looking after the project but there is a need for a full-time MD who is ”conversant with railway technology.”

The minister was responding to BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who wanted to know if the Union government had proposed to execute and operate the suburban railway network in Bengaluru considering its slow progress. Vaishnaw said that K-RIDE, or Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (KRIDE), a company controlled by Karnataka (51 per cent equity), is executing the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP).

The 148.17-km project has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 15,767 crore with 20 per cent funding each by the Centre and the state, with the remaining sum to be raised through debt. BSRP has four corridors: KSR Bengaluru City–Devanahalli (41.4 km), Baiyyapanahalli–Chikkabanawara (25.01 km), Kengeri–Whitefield (35.52 km), and Heelalige – Rajankunte (46.25 km). ”Work is in progress on Corridor-2 & 4. Preliminary work for Corridor 1 & 3 has been taken up by K-RIDE.

Indian Railway has transferred the railway land to K-RIDE for the project however progress of transferring of State Government land is very slow,” Vaishnaw said. The minister said so far there are nine state joint venture companies with Centre-state partnership.

"There are many PPP models including Non-Governmental Railways (NGR), Joint Venture (JV), Customer-Funded (CF), Build-Own Transfer (BOT) and Annuity. Till date in these models, 19 projects have been completed, and 12 are ongoing. ”Of these Joint Venture/SPV railway projects, 6 SPV projects are profitable as on March 31, 2024 and remaining projects are in various phases of construction/operation,” he said.